some of my favorites

materials and design

side note: injection molding tips

Storyboarding via Layout

3D Basecamp 2008: with lots of sketchup up tips

sketchup in mastery

and application

3. Almost anything by RJD2
RJD2 is a beat-making master and when the time is right, his music is just the right stuff to listen to. The repetition of similar sounds makes RJD2 take up just enough of your brain to put you at ease but not intrude on your focus or academic drive. A lot of his stuff is just instrumentals and some have lyrics, but all of it is good, funky and simple enough to put on repeat in the background while you study. He likes to take one sound and add on in a crescendo-like fashion, but he never gets obnoxious or explosive to be harmful to your train of thought. After listening to RJD2 enough while you study, you’ll come to believe that you can’t study without him.

I am a big fan of the R2D2, this site also lists more of my favoritest like the Amelie soundtrack, and Ratatat. I can’t vouch for Patsy Cline yet though.

It turns out that most learnable skills can be turned into a game. However, there are constraints. A skill must meet the following criteria before it can be turned into a game:

1. Decomposable into simpler skills
2. Skills can be nested
3. Skills can be arranged in a smooth learning curve
4. Skills are measurable
5. Performance can be rewarded
6. Skills are locally useful.

Let’s look at these one by one.

well layers magazine has a quick tutorial here–>

author of ideasonideas blog bashes the just add lipstick perception of design.

to most “I like the way it’s designed” means that they like the way that something looks

LIKE: the word that should be avoided at all costs, must be substituted with rationalizations.  That means when experimenting with these different style options the designer’s got to do more than just step back and look at it hoping to get back some painterly feeling of completion.  She needs outside feedback as well.

it seems that style often leads efforts. We have to break this habit.

I’m a believer in  . . .“hardcore” design. This is design focused on results.At smashLAB, designers are free to deliver any creative solution, so long as it in-fact solves the problem. No treatment is unacceptable, so long as it can be backed-up with intelligent and plausible reasoning.

This may be difficult to transition to completely at first. If you’re used to design as art.  As often seen in design school, your first rationalizations of your small scale design actions will probably be bs’d. Afterward, take the time to validate the rationalizations you jumped to for your own edification. You’re learning to observe and predict more as you do.

This is a great opportunity for us as designers to make a leap. In doing so, we can earn a seat at the table and provide the unique kind of reasoning that our practice can afford.

And finally the one thing I recall from attending the edward tuft lecture.

my point is this: nothing should be “off limits” so long as it gets us where we need to go.

The Art of Not Finishing