Right now, the iPad 1.0 is just that, a baby a few hours into a world that certainly needs it. I can only imagine how this baby will grow, and the potential it presents and the opportunities for all of us in the storytelling business.

Mario Garcia

I have an idea for a thing (1 million people)
I tried to build a thing (50,000 people)
I built a thing that works (10,000 people)
I built a thing that people use (1,000)
I built a thing that’s easy to use (50 people)
I built a thing that people enjoy using (5 people)
I built a thing that people love (1 person)

Andy Budd

You know how everyone who has ever done Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? always says, “It’s not the same when you’re actually here. So different from when you’re sitting at home watching.”? You know how often you’ve heard that? Well, you’ll hear the same from anyone who’s handled an iPad. The moment you experience it in your hands you know this is class. This is a different order of experience. The speed, the responsiveness, the smooth glide of it, the richness and detail of the display, the heft in your hand, the rightness of the actions and gestures that you employ, untutored and instinctively, it’s not just a scaled up iPhone or a scaled-down multitouch enhanced laptop – it is a whole new kind of device.

Stephen Fry

The Design Museum in London are currently exhibiting the immortal works of Dieter Rams. The exhibition began in November and will run until March of 2010.

As head of design at Braun, the German consumer electronics manufacturer, Dieter Rams emerged as one of the most influential industrial designers of the late 20th century by defining an elegant, legible, yet rigorous visual language for its products.

In his process, Rams adheres to these ten principles:

• Good design is innovative.
• Good design makes a product useful.
• Good design is aesthetic.
• Good design makes a product understandable.
• Good design is unobtrusive.
• Good design is honest.
• Good design is long-lasting.
• Good design is thorough down to the last detail.
• Good design is environmentally friendly.
• Good design is as little design as possible.

Find out more about the Design Museum’s Dieter Rams exhibition.

To clarify: http://thereisnopagefold.com is true, insofar as web pages do not fold. There is a viewport though which demands consideration.

Jon Tan

If you don’t know your counters from your bowls or your baselines from your x-heights, I’d highly recommend that you engross yourself in its content for an afternoon or two. It’s also worth bookmarking the accompanying ‘Thinking with Type’ website.

The vast majority of copy in the book is set in Scala. An exceptional choice in my opinion, as it’s an absolute pleasure to read. Don’t take my word for it though. Spiekermann’s FontShop thinks so too; having recently dedicated a little corner of the WWW to Majoor’s wonderfully Dutch creation.

Hidden deep in the ‘Free Downloads’ section of Scala’s mini-site is a fantastic specimen PDF of Scala. It was written by none other than Ms. Lupton herself, who was also responsible for the design of the document. Her insight into Karl Marx’s Commodity Fetishism theory, makes for interesting reading.

As a writer who is also a designer, I often compose my words directly on the page, and I am happiest when writing in Scala. Its crisp geometry and humanist references make Scala at home with both the visual and literary qualities of the written word. Scala’s x-height, which may be unfashionably large by today’s standards, has always sat well with me, reminding me of my own bottom-heavy figure.

Perhaps a little too much information Ellen? But, thanks.

With a redesign of my portfolio site on the cards, I’m hoping that this healthy-rumped collection of glyphs will be available on Typekit *very* soon!

A simple game: Go to the address bar in your favorite browser, and type one letter. Start with “a”, end with “z”.

• A: http://ashidashi.com/
• B: http://buildconference.com/
• C: http://copypastecharacter.com/
• D: http://dubbletap.com/
• E: http://elliotjaystocks.com/
• F: http://flickr.com/
• G: http://gonzo-design.com/
• H: http://hardgraft.com/
• I: http://informationarchitects.jp
• J: http://justmytype.org/
• K: http://keeganjones.com/
• L: http://ligatureloopandstem.com/
• M: http://mediatemple.com/
• N: http://niemanlab.org/
• O: http://owltastic.com/
• P: http://panic.com/
• Q: http://questionablecharacters.com/
• R: http://refreshbelfast.org/
• S: http://simplebits.com/
• T: http://thebignoob.com/
• U: http://uupadb.com/
• V: http://virb.com/
• W: http://webstandardistas.com/
• X: http://limmy.com/playthings/xylophone/
• Y: http://youtube.com/
• Z: http://zeldman.com/

You cannot not communicate.

Paul Watzlawick’s First Axiom of Communication

Die Zeit (English: The Times) is a popular German weekly newspaper that is renowned for its quality journalism. Their recently relaunched website has received plaudits from all corners of the web. Seasoned tangible newspaper designer, Mario García paid homage to iA:

Germany’s elite weekly newspaper, Die Zeit, has revamped its website and it is a wonderful example of what simplicity, elegance and good navigation can do … The type dances on the screen. Not too big, not too small … Minimalist, efficient and aesthetically pleasing. A good recipe for any website. A great recipe for any design project. In its subtlety, the concept becomes a design lesson for all of us.

Information Architects are definitely leading the way in terms of bettering how we interact with news content on screen. Their expertise in user-centred online publishing methods and relentless focus on user-experience design sets them apart from their competitors; so much so, that they’re presently in a division of their own.

Have you ever wondered how an Amazon Kindle is packaged? How sharp on-screen text appears? Or, how the device actually functions? If your answer is yes to any of the above, Jon Lax of Canadian based Teehan+Lax has put together a handy review of Amazon’s eReader.

26-year-old Nylund, is a Swedish Art Director living in London. Previous projects include the online Cadburys ‘Glass And A Half Full Productions’ campaign [collaboration with North Kingdom & Fallon].

Each of Nyland’s typographic experimentations can be downloaded for free and applied in any way, shape or form without restriction — what a nice chap.

The entire system is web-based and runs in the Chrome browser — right down to USB drive contents, which show up in a browser tab, and the notepad, which actually creates a Google Docs document.

They’re keeping pretty tight-lipped about when and how it will go to market. I like the concept though and will definitely think about giving it a spin on my under-used Dell laptop when it’s released.

Who takes Apple’s rumored touchscreen tablet seriously? Wired’s parent company Condé Nast.

Wired Managzine looks set to become the first publication to produce re-purposed digital content for display on upcoming tablet devices, including the Apple Slate (if it indeed materialises). Keep an eye out for the animated info-graphic around the 30 second mark.

I just said in a non-news related discussion: “You can’t ask people to pay for things that can easily be copied.

Oliver Reichenstein of Information Architects [via twitter]