Design and My Daily Routine

by Jason Caldeira

My dad is the most ritualistic person I’ve ever known. Every day since I can remember he’s followed the same early morning routine: workout, shower, shave, pour self a giant glass of orange juice, read paper. Other than seemingly insignificant tweaks over the years, his routine has remained largely untouched. I’ve always envied this. Routine for some people can seem like a rut, but to me routine is just a way that people live their lives on their terms. This is what I do, this is when I do it. Why? ‘Cause I want to, that’s why.

This got me thinking about my routine. What do I tend to do/use on a daily basis that I’m not even really aware of? In my self-analysis I realized I depend on several icons of product/graphic design to get my day started.

In no particular order, my top 10 list of design icons that I use ritualistically everyday:

Tears For Fears: The Next Influential 80s Band

by Jason Caldeira

It seems every year or so there’s a new crop of young indie bands wearing their 80s influences proudly on their American Apparel sleeves. When I hear one of said bands, I often realize how amazing the band they “borrowed” from truly is. It’s really easy to forget how amazing the theme song to The Breakfast Club is, for example, since we’ve all heard it eighty-bajillion times. Songs like these just become white noise after a while - like audio banner ads. (Editor’s note: when was the last time anyone actually clicked on a banner ad on purpose? Seriously. Other than when you miss the little “close” X or when you’re trying shoot the duck?)

But anyway… where was I? Oh yes… so… 80s bands… blah blah blah… I’ll just cut to the chase ’cause it’s early and I’m tired. Tears for Fears are amazing and way under-appreciated. “Shout”, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”, “Head Over Heels” and “Sowing the Seeds of Love” are fine mainstream examples of their brilliance, but dig a little deeper, folks. Listen to Songs from the Big Chair and The Hurting cover to cover. Holy crap. This is what the 80s really sounded like for those of us who experienced it. It was new, innovative and honest.

It’s really too bad that the 80s are only remembered for all the crap that American Apparel now touts as ironic hipster*. The 80s should instead be remembered as the time when music mattered, and one of the few times in the past 50 years where there was true innovation in songwriting and production. And Tears for Fears played a big part. So expect them to be the next Joy Division/The Smiths/The Cure/New Order that young bands decide to start emulating. I might actually give that a listen.

* Special request to the current young generation: get your own style and leave ours alone, mmkay?

ToneMatrix = FUN

by Gregory McClendon

I came across an enjoyable little piece of Flash today. Andre Michelle’s ToneMatrix is a 16×16 grid that plays sinewave tones wherever you click the squares (in a repeated 4 measure pattern).

It simply looks cool and sounds awesome. Grab your headphones and go play (requires the latest flash player).

Below is my 1st little pattern. It’s even hotter if you turn my bottom right square on and off every other time. It would be really cool if somebody actually used one of these in a live performance (with a projector showing a huge version of the player of course).