Jun 2009

Design documentaries

Milton Glaser

Sometimes I forget how much I love film, a compelling narrative combined with well executed elements of composition, light and sound — though I also have a thing for hanging out in old cinemas late at night wired on caffeine. Anyway, I’ve had the fortune of having a week off between freelance contracts so taken […]

Jun 2009

Microsoft unveil Project Natal

Project Natal

I just finished reading the live blog on Kotaku and watching the delayed video stream on xbox.com of the Microsoft press conference at E3. It was so much better than last year’s, one of the best I’ve seen — I think it will be hard for Sony and Nintendo to better it and they keep […]

May 2009

E3 2009

E3 2009

The E3 begins tomorrow in LA, this year it seems like there should be a number of interesting announcements along with all the trailers (the PSP Go has already been leaked). I’m looking forward to not only viewing the new art styles, 3d graphics and UI elements of upcoming games but also finding out release […]

May 2009

OFFF Oeiras’09

Sagmesiter in a dress at OFFF

I spent the last few days in Lisbon at the OFFF design festival. It was inspiring to listen to people talk about work that I have a lot of respect for, though I didn’t get as much out of it as previous design conferences I’ve been to. I think this was just because these events […]

Apr 2009

Games as interactive art

The Independent Games Festival took place at the end of last month in San Francisco, along side GDC. The finalists are listed on their website. The games that impressed me were the ones with really stylized art, each could exist as an artistic installation even without any interaction so I imagine playing them would be […]

Mar 2009

Digital keyboard

Optimus Maximus

Art Lebedev studio designed a keyboard that blends traditional with an emerging screen-based model a few years ago called the Optimus Maximus. The keyboard features OLED displays under each key that are capable of displaying video at up to 10fps. This makes it possible to have a customised keyboard for each application using letters or […]