SVG icons for popular brands, maintained by Dan Leech.

⇾ Visit: Simple Icons

During my morning read of several blogs in my RSS reader (yes, I am using RSS still), it was sad to read that the German Fontblog closing the doors. For 13 years I read many articles on this blog, which was started by the Fontshop AG in 2004. In 2015 I already was sad when I read, that Yves Peter said Goodbye to Fontfeed, a blog he was running. So the only one still existing in that range now is the Fontshop News now – correct me if I am wrong.

I mean, yes, I can see that writing for your blog eats quite some some time. Especially if you write longer blog posts and articles. But it is sad to see their statement, that conversations and discussion will still be led in social media. They write …

Solche Diskussionen gibt es auch heute noch. Wir führen sie in den sozialen Netzen, schneller, einfacher und demokratischer, denn jeder Empfänger ist auch Sender […]

Translates to something like …

This discussions still exist. We just have those discussions in social networks, faster, easier and more democratic, because each recipient is also sender […]

Sadly this is what many people tend to do and think nowadays. Social media is faster, reaches more people and people can interact easier.

Not completely right in my opinion. Not every medium is a platform for discussions and rich conversations. What about Twitter? 140 characters – really? Even Facebook or Google+. It is no platform, where I want to read a long article on Typography (maybe just a matter of taste, I know). I don’t want to go into detail and criticise social media – I use it myself, a lot – but it is sad to see this all or nothing mentality. Why not using the blog as source for thoughts and writing and then social media to point people to it. Even discussions can be led with using things like Webmention, for example. And this across many social media platforms leading all to be shown and collected on your own blog. It’s far from being perfect, but maybe a start into the right direction?

So yes, even though many new blogs pop up and people start to write more in their own blogs again, even though many new newsletters are created every day, I fear that those personal platforms and ways to express your thoughts and ideas are fading away.

This morning, while having a coffee, I stumbled over a project called Underlook by photographer Andrius Burba. He took photos of animals from a very different perspective: from underneath. The results of the images are sometimes funny, sometimes just simply beautiful, but always interesting. Maybe because chances are rare, that you see a horse from underneath without being hit by their hooves. Maybe only because you don’t usually have this perspective. One reason for sure is, that he did great work catching those animals, like cats, dogs, horses and rabbits, in front of a black background (accept from the rabbits), which gives every image a very high contrast. I myself got caught by the horses somehow.

But check yourself what you like most in Underlook

Nice write-up by Oliver Lindberg for “A Day with Shopify” in Bristol last year.

⇾ Visit: “A Day with Shopify” in Bristol – write-up

Watching Abstract: The Art of Design on Netflix at the moment. Season 1 contains 8 episodes right now. Everybody a well-known name in their discipline. I quite like the way it is done. I watched Christoph Niemann and Paula Scher so far. Totally in love with the work of both.

Other episodes in season one are with:

• Architect Bjarke Ingels
• Interior designer Ilse Crawford
• Photographer Platon
• Stage designer Es Devlin
• Shoe designer Tinker Hatfield
• Automotive designer Ralph Gilles

If you want to see Paula Scher live, watch out for beyond tellerrand Berlin announcements. Just saying … ;)

Sonja Broda, aka texnixe, has written a very nice article about how to handle images in Kirby.

Read: Handling images in Kirby

⇾ Visit: Handling images in Kirby

Kevin Vigneault asks an interesting question with:

Do responsive sites have to be so tall on mobile?

He doesn’t only ask the question, but comes up with some thoughts on what to change in his opinion.

Read: Do responsive sites have to be so tall on mobile?

⇾ Visit: Do responsive sites have to be so tall on mobile?

I don’t stumble across or download a lot of new apps these days. In September last year though, at the Typo Days in Cologne, I have seen an ace talk by Frank Rausch, who later also spoke at beyond tellerrand in Berlin (<- links to the video of his talk). In his talk he spoke about his app and how he dealt with typographic hurdles and difficulties, when it came to displaying all the information that Wikipedia provides in a good to use and good to read, but also beautiful way. As I was curious, I bought his app right after the talk and am happy to suggest you to do the same.

His app, called V for Wikipedia, is not only one of the best designed apps I have seen for a while, when it comes to typography and how he displays information from Wikipedia, but it also is a lot of fun to use with extra feature, you don’t have when using Wikipedia directly. It is so much fun to use, that since I got it, I must have convinced at least 25 people (if not more) to also get it, only by showing them how I use it, when we are out in a city. I love the “Nearby Places” feature and often use it, when I am somewhere for an event and want to check what else is interesting around me, to explore a few places. Of course the reading experience is fantastic as well, as I said earlier. V for Wikipedia supports a lot of different languages and it is super easy to switch from one to another – in my case often between Englisch and German.

Visit Frank’s V for Wikipedia website and check all the features in detail to get an impression. But honestly, if you use Wikipedia usually, you’ll love this app. And if you don’t use Wikipedia, you’ll do from now on ;)

Oliver James has created a very nice and useful resource to learn about the Internet called Interneting is hard. It is not, like Jeremy’s Resilient Web Design, about the history of the Web, but nicely written tutorials for beginners.

Many chapters, well illustrated and easy to read and understand makes this source a really good starting point for anyone starting from scratch. The hands-on examples help to understand and learn what you just read. And the best part: it is totally free!

Check Interneting is hard

What a lovely project. Skateguitar.

We are two friends who once had an idea to combine our passion for skateboarding and music.

⇾ Visit: Skateguitar