thegoldieratio.com

Giraffes!

goldie — Mon, 23 May 2011 18:46:31 +0000

This week has been a multi-step process of everyone I know sending me links to the mini-giraffe site:

Yes, it did take me a day or two to process that it was actually a hoax. No, I did not go as far as trying to see which of said friends would pool in on a joint giraffe purchase with me. With such an insane waiting list, it wouldn’t have even been practical. I still have trouble wrapping my brain around how well-polished the site design is…I mean…check out the rockin’ bg image:

And then last but not least, the icing on the cake:

How is that even possible? For the record…this was NOT a search I already had in my search history. Plus the fact that I’m a good corporate citizen (or whatever), and have my default search set to Bing. Which suggests all sorts of practical things:

The Future…

goldie — Fri, 20 May 2011 00:09:48 +0000

…is now?

If only it were advanced enough to stabilize my hand while I take pictures. Oh wait. I think that exists…my phone just hasn’t implemented it yet.

CHI 2011 Recap

goldie — Wed, 18 May 2011 13:57:20 +0000

With CHI just a short (and oh so scenic) train ride away, I had no choice but to talk my boss into letting me run off on my second week on the job. In exchange? I had do a presentation to the team and bring back Canadian goodies to share. Fair enough.

Laszlo Laufer, one of Prezi’s user researchers, did a case study that inspired me to finally get back to my ZUI roots and give Prezi a shot:

CHI 2011 on Prezi

Definitely a fun way to think about your content – even if breaking out of the Powerpoint mentality can be a little challenging.

Recursive Imitation

goldie — Fri, 13 May 2011 01:03:06 +0000

Swang by Granville Island on my way to the train station today, and found this utterly impractical (what, you mean not everyone remodels their entire place to revolve around a 3′x4′ butcher block table?) but very cute cutting board:

In a world of the metro design language, it amuses me to no end to see the physical world trying to imitate the digital world trying to imitate the physical world. Or am I so deep in it that I look at tabs and can no longer even see the file folder tabs they were originally trying to mimic? Have I added one extra level of recursion?!

Royal Wedding

goldie — Mon, 09 May 2011 02:24:52 +0000

I know this image has been passed around and around past the point of attribution, but how did I not catch that it had been Photoshopped?! A bit disappointing, though admittedly still impressive. The power of suggestion is amazing.

Bing iPad App

goldie — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 22:41:00 +0000

Aaaand shipped!

One more screenshot of my favorite feature, trending topics, an almost but not at all treemap (now wouldn’t that be cool?)

Human Inspiration

goldie — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 02:51:12 +0000

Just got back from my printmaking intensive in Puerto Vallarta. There was one afternoon in the studio where I was working on a set of figure studies trying to narrow down to a finite cycle of walking poses. Miguel sees my sketches, yells something in Spanglish, and runs off to find something. He comes back with his cell phone, and shows me a video of a piece he had just finished:

Couple days later, we’re geeking out over Muybridge, and he’s offering to show me the original he has in his office. Turns out human motion, both in science and in art, is universally inspiring.

Dueling iPads!

goldie — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 18:26:53 +0000

The lovely Sheridan Martin Small, drawing me drawing her. My image will most certainly not be posted as it was my very first, and hers was something like #372 in a year of daily drawings. Check out her stuff, she’s all sorts of awesome. As promised, Puerto Vallarta dueling iPads:

Stylus Fun

goldie — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 01:50:17 +0000

Mexico! This is an embarrassingly cheesy drawing, but the sun has gotten to my head, and this was all I could muster up. On the plus side, it appears that 80% of the group has an iPad and talking styluses and drawing apps has become the cool thing to do. I’ve got a whole list of apps to check out stateside (or once I get the hotel Wi-Fi to cooperate). Either way…my first shot at drawing with vector shapes:

Kind of a paradigm shift going from thinking in lines to thinking in shapes. Sheridan swears this is the only way she’s ever been able to draw. I wonder how we divide into our respective camps, and if it’s just because of how we learned to draw in the first place.

Domain Name Awesomeness

goldie — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 17:49:14 +0000

I’ll admit that I’ve been sitting on this domain name for entirely too long. Yes, I was thrilled to pieces when I snagged it. How are the Goldie’s of the world not already all over this? Do you know how much you can do with a golden ratio themed website?!

Golden Ratio Calculator

Applying the Golden Ratio to Your Web Designs

Applying Mathematics to Web Design

Applying Divine Proportion to Web Design

Hmm. You thought that question was rhetorical? Anyway. I will continue sitting in paralysis for some time, but a thrown together landing page is better than none:

I love this image. I know it’s awful and low-rez. Let me be. Something about the real world superimposed on top of a form equally geometric and organic is just beautiful. I could wax poetic on this forever. Don’t worry. I won’t.