One of the hardest decision always is (at least for me) choosing typefaces. Matej has written a guide to help you (and me).

⇾ Visit: Combining Fonts by Matej Latin

As I am always curious, I of course have Mastodon accounts now:

• Marc Thiele -> @marcthiele@mastodon.social
• beyond tellerrand -> @btconf@mastodon.social

I was wondering which the kind of social media icon would be that someone adds in the footer. This one or this one or a completely different one? ;)

Anyways. You find me and beyond tellerrand there as well now, if you prefer Mastodon.

I know, I am late to the game, as Jeremy’s book called Going Offline was released in April already. I just simply never found the time to go and read it. Now, having had three weeks away and being in Italy’s Tuscany, I finally got the time to read it.

I did not expect anything else than a good read, to be honest, as I know Jeremy for quite some time now and know that he cares about what he does. Would it be running/organising events, like dConstruct or Responsive Day Out, making music with his band, or – of course – writing books and articles.

The books from A Book Apart are short books on a specific topic. Usually you can eat them within a day or two. Same with Going Offline. It took me a little more than one day to read it and even though I don’t have any clients to work for anymore, hence I am not involved in any projects, I try to keep myself up to date.

Jeremy’s way of writing certainly helps, as a specialised or technical book on a topic like Service Workers, could certainly be one, that bores you to death with dry written explanations. But Jeremy has a friendly, fresh and entertaining way of writing books. Sometimes I caught myself with a grin on my face reading things like …

Comments are a great way of leaving reminders for your future self, like Guy Pearce in Memento or Arnold Schwarzenegger in Total Recall.

… or …

You could even write the whole thing on one line if you want to be the James Joyce of JavaScript.

… just to mention two examples.

The book starts at the very basics of working with Service Workers and gives you a really good starting point if you never done anything with Service Workers, or even have never heard about it. It also might help you to get rid of some prejudices you might have about using Service Workers, in case you have any. Jeremy divided the book into 9 chapters, starting with a basic introduction into the concept and starting with and preparing your website for Service Workers:

1. Introducing Service Workers
2. Preparing for Offline
3. Making Fetch Happen
4. Cache Me If You Can
5. Service Worker Strategies
6. Refining Your Service Worker
7. Tidying Up
8. The Offline User Experience
9. Progressive Web Apps

All chapters are coming with a lot of code examples and tips and explanations on how to get to your first Progressive Web App. No matter if your visitors are in a city with great internet connection or somewhere, where – like for me in Tuscany – is nearly no reception and no wifi.

In short: go and read Going Offline!

In case you wonder, why I am slow with emails these days: vacation!

I love the Creative Mornings theme for my birth month. It is #community and I always emphasise, how important this is for me and beyond tellerrand. Looking forward to see who is speaking at Creative Mornings Düsseldorf.

Today, after a run, I decided to take a bath. Right now, it is too hot for a bath usually, but I did a longer run and thought, I’d just enjoy a beer while being in the bath tub and watch an episode of the Abstract series on Netflix, that I haven’t watched before. It was the second of eight episodes featuring Tinker Hatfield. I have to admit – shame on me – I haven’t heard of him before. I just wonder why. Loved the episode and his approach on designing shoes. And he ended with a sentence that stuck with me – even though you heard similar things maybe …

“If people don‘t either love or hate your work, you just haven‘t done all that much.”
– Tinker Hatfield

Tried to find out how to get in touch with him to simply state how much I liked the episode and him in it and being emotional when presenting the Jordan XV. Did not succeed. So, Tinker, if you ever stumble across these lines: Thanks ;)

I got and email from Mike yesterday night. He suggest that we both go and visit an exhibition in the Vitra Design Museum dealing with Vitor Papanek’s work.

The exhibition is called Victor Papanek: The Politics of Design. If his name rings a bell, it might be, because he has written Design for the Real World, up to the date one the most widely read book about design that was ever published. And even though the book was published in 1971, I think it never has been more relevant than these days, as it deals with topics like inclusion and social justice for design. His socially and ecologically oriented approach to design in the 1960’s is timeless and reading his books, as the one mentioned above or How Things Don’t Work (1977) and Design for Human Scale (1983), will still and definitely help you to be a better designer.

In the exhibition, taking place from 29 September 2018 to 10 March 2019, drawings, manuscripts, films, prints and much more – some of them never presented before – will be exhibited.

So, I guess, I have one more thing to do in this year. With or without Mike ;)

Read the full description for the exhibition “Victor Papanek: The Politics of Design”

I wish error messages would be more readable and understandable. This one here is from the KLM website during a flight booking. WTF?!

An email from X: “My name is X, I represent ABC-company - mobile app for conferences and expos https://…
Could you guide me please with whom I can discuss partnership opportunites?”

Me (knowing what he actually wants): “That would be me. I attached my Partnership Document for your information. Cheers and have a lovely Friday.”

X: “Thank you for your answer. Unfortunetly you didn't understand me correctly. We offer our service to events like yours. May we make skype-call I will show to you our service and discribe how you can earn with ABC-company.”

Me: “Ah ok. Sorry, not interested.”

X: “Are you not interested to earn more?”

Me: “Of course. But not interested in using a mobile app at my events. I wish nobody would even use a mobile phone during the event to focus on what is happening onsite and enjoy the event and chatting to other people.”

…

Why do I even reply to such emails 🙄

😂

My friend Brendan Dawes created a notebook. But if you know Bren, you know that it is not only a standard notebook.

Brendan sees this notebook as as creative inspiration and interruption as it is not just a blank notebook, but comes with a selection of his thoughts on making things. A lot of the pages furthermore come with grids, generated by his GridMaker. The whole package also contains three pencils as well as a poster with more things Brendan learned during the years running his business.

Check the product page for Notes to Myself for further detailed information

See my set of photos of Notes to Myself