Lessons from Instant Articles and Apple News

A few weeks ago Jim Ray launched a new blog called Flicker Fusion that I've been enjoying reading. The first article was about Facebook's Instant Articles feature:

Consider that a reader is just as, if not more, likely to get to your page via an app like Twitter or Facebook, with its own chrome, than the built in browser. Those positioned elements are only taking up valuable screen space and replicating functionality the reader already has built-in. Simplify your pages, reduce overhead (both cognitive and bandwidth), prepare them to live outside of browser.

And yesterday, he tweeted from @_flickerfusion:

The lessons from Apple News are the same as Instant Articles: be lean, nimble, ready to publish everywhere.

Publishers, take note.

Made By: Cameron Moll

Cameron Moll, who you may know as the founder of Authentic Jobs and the guy who designed those "Structures in Type" letterpress posters a while back, spent a couple days recording this episode of Envato's "Made By" interview series.

Here's a good quote, on the difficulty of creating the letterpress posters:

I think that's defined who I've been up to this point in my career. Trying stuff that I was totally unqualified for and trying to make it work, and make it look good, and make it perform.

The interview is nicely shot and I liked getting a peek at how Cameron manages to balance his work with being a family man. (On that note: Five sons?! I only have one son and he's already a handful at 3 years old. Props to Cameron and his wife for keeping their sanity.)

Update: Cameron wrote a little behind-the-scenes post (with photos) about the video on the Authentic Jobs Tumblr.

Field Notes "Two Rivers" Edition

“It's a hand-used book so it should be a hand-made product. That's kind of ideal.”
—Jim Moran (Director, Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum)

The Spring 2015 Field Notes Colors edition is finally here, and it's called "Two Rivers". My wallet and mind are ready.

This edition celebrates the history, Americana, and old-fashioned style of wood-type printing — particularly, the kind found on display at the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Watch the trailer:

Using the museum's collection of vintage type and ornaments, the Field Notes crew hand-set several of their own designs, which were then printed in two random colors on one of four cover stocks over the course of eight months. Further variations were introduced thanks to the vagaries of wood type and letterpress printing.

All of this work added up to thousands of variations, meaning no two books are exactly the same. a small sampling of the variations can be seen in photos at the bottom of the store page. (My heart goes out to the Field Notes completionists out there.)

What's more, two bucks from the sale of every 3-pack goes directly to support the museum. If the edition sells out, that means a minimum donation of $50,000. But even more can be donated, if buyers choose to add an extra amount to their order. I hope you'll consider it.

Get a "Two Rivers" 3-pack for $10 at Field Notes.

Typography in Ten Minutes

Matthew Butterick, in his online book Butterick's Practical Typography:

This is a bold claim, but I stand behind it: If you learn and fol­low these five ty­pog­ra­phy rules, you will be a bet­ter ty­pog­ra­pher than 95% of pro­fes­sional writ­ers and 70% of pro­fes­sional de­sign­ers. (The rest of this book will raise you to the 99th per­centile in both categories.)

All it takes is ten min­utes—five min­utes to read these rules once, then five min­utes to read them again.

A short, concise ruleset that can make any website look more professional. So often I come across blogs that would be 10x more readable if they accounted for rules #3 and #4 alone.

If you end up reading through Mr. Butterick's typography guide in its entirety, consider paying him a few bucks (or more) in thanks. He did a wonderful job with it. (Tip: hyperlinks throughout the guide are indicated by prepended diamond symbols.)

God is in the Details

No, I am not linking to a religious piece. I have no interest in such things.

This article by Buzz Usborne—UX Director at Campaign Monitor and founder of Prevue—is all about celebrating the importance of obsession over the tiniest details in one's work.

“God is in the details.”

It applied to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe when he was designing buildings in the mid 1900’s, and it remains true in product design today. Though I don’t profess to know much about architecture, another likely commonality with product design is that it’s those same details that are the easiest to forget. But it’s those little things, the tiny minutia of detail, that ultimately make beautiful products, and beautiful houses.

[...] I’m not talking about obvious design things; like colours, drop-shadows or placement. Instead I’m referring to something harder to define; experience and subconscious patterns that help the user feel more at-ease with an interaction. That detail might come in the form of a change in cursor, a “down” style for a button, or a helpful animation.

He focuses on UX design mostly of course, but a careful eye will reveal philosophies that can apply to other kinds of creative work.

* * *

I would be remiss here if I did not also remind readers about my friend Shawn Blanc's wonderful ebook + audiobook + interview bundle, Delight is in the Details. Get this book and really absorb its lessons—your work will be better for it.

Celebrating CSS

Jeremy Keith on the 20th birthday of CSS:

“I think that CSS hits a nice sweet spot, balancing learnability and power. I love the fact that every bit of CSS ever written comes down to the same basic pattern:

selector {
       property: value;
}

That’s it!

How amazing is it that one simple pattern can scale to encompass a whole wide world of visual design variety?”

Words Are More Important Than Design

Frank Chimero:

“A young designer is beaten over the head with typefaces, grids, and rules—and rightfully so—but typography can act as a smoke-screen. There is so much to learn about the letters that it’s easy to forget about the words. Once a designer has the typographic skills in their pocket, anyone with their head on straight realizes ugly words in beautiful typefaces are still pretty dumb.”

This is just as useful a lesson for us writers as it is for designers. You're better off getting the words right than fiddling with the blog design—believe me, I know.

* * *

You want to know which site consistently delights me, one that I go back and read time and time again despite its ancient design? Maciej Cegłowski's blog, Idle Words. You know, the guy behind Pinboard. The man is such a fantastic storyteller that I'm always, always helplessly drawn in by his words. It doesn't matter that the site is ugly as sin.

Start with his Argentina on Two Steaks a Day piece and you'll see what I mean.

The New Tools & Toys is Live

Yesterday, I said I couldn't wait for the new Tools & Toys site to be revealed. Today, the veil has finally been lifted and you can check out the shiny new design for yourself. It's seriously beautiful.

There's a lot more to it than just a fresh coat of paint, though. Our publishing guidelines and philosophies have also been expanded, in ways that truly resonate with me and what I aim for here at The Spark Journal. Shawn Blanc explains further:

“With this new design, we are aiming to become more than just a cool stuff site. Our new, longer-form articles will center around the values of mindfulness, intentionality, knowing your tools (and your toys), and appreciation for quality.

As fun as it is to geek out over the latest and greatest stuff, at the end of the day, there is much, much more to life. Our self-worth is not tied to how fancy our gear is nor how often we upgrade it.”

We will continue to post about cool stuff we find throughout each week, but at a slightly reduced rate so that we can focus more on long-form editorials, reviews, and interviews. The best example of what's in store is Shawn's long-awaited review of the Olympus OM-D E-M10 camera. I love what we can do with photos on the new site.

Credit for the design and development goes to Pat Dryburgh, who is a genius. Hire him for your next project.

Let's Talk About Margins

Craig Mod writes about the power and character of well-designed books (bold emphasis mine):

“On the other hand, cheap, rough paper with a beautifully set textblock hanging just so on the page makes those in the know, smile (and those who don’t, feel welcome). It says: We may not have had the money to print on better paper, but man, we give a shit. Giving a shit does not require capital, simply attention and humility and diligence. Giving a shit is the best feeling you can imbue craft with. Giving a shit in book design manifests in many ways, but it manifests perhaps most in the margins.”

Big Update to Shawn Blanc's eBook, 'Delight is in the Details'

My buddy Shawn Blanc has published a huge update to his ebook about creativity, Delight is in the Details. Everything that made the original version awesome is still there, along with a ton of new content and refinements:

• The ebook has been upped from 75 pages to 88 thanks to the addition of two new chapters
• Two new audio interviews (Matt Alexander and Jared Sinclair), bringing the total to 10
• All of the audiobook and audio interview tracks have been remastered
• There are now transcripts of all the interviews, in case you’d rather read than listen
• A new Makers Q&A section
• References to iOS and OS X have been updated
• Three short videos about creativity and design, all with high production value. You can watch one of them right now: “The Creative Life”

If you already bought the first edition of Delight is in the Details, you get this update (and all future updates) for free. A Gumroad link to the new files will be emailed to you, so keep an eye out.

As for the rest of you, now is the perfect time to get in on a fantastic book that will spur your creative work and show you why sweating the details is so important.