"The Rake's Song" →
decemberists.com
For free download: the first single from The Decemberists’ forthcoming new album The Hazards of Love.
Also, Colin Meloy is on Twitter.
January 2009
13 posts
“After I launched the site, in March, I heard immediately from both the major record labels and the RIAA, which are related but distinct entities. The RIAA asked me to remove a handful of specific muxtapes because they contained songs they felt were infringing on the copyright of their members. I followed their instructions, and in the meantime began negotiating a licensing deal with the labels, who agreed to let the site operate as long as they felt negotiations were proceeding constructively. In August, after not hearing from them for months, I received a much larger takedown notice from the RIAA and was forced to shutter the site. I didn’t get any support from the labels. I made the difficult decision to walk away from licensing and rethink the whole project.”
—Muxtape developer Justin Oullette, interviewed by Sasha Frere-Jones
TTC Metropass redesign — Valentine Makhouleen →
new-media.ca
Making the Toronto Transit Commission less ugly will take a lot more than this, but it’s a lovely start. Too bad it’s not real.
Good customer service from AutoShare
I signed up for Toronto car sharing service AutoShare and then, when I went to make my first reservation, discovered that all 4 cars near my house were scheduled to be out of service at the same time that I wanted to book a car. I sent them a message pointing out the inconvenience of this, and they called me back by phone a couple hours later to sort it out. End result: I got one of the cars, and they promised to make sure it didn’t happen again. Very nice.
All of Inflation’s Little Parts - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com →
nytimes.com
This is old, from May 2008, but it’s an unusual and excellent data visualization.
A Shinier White House →
whitehouse.gov
In August, I wrote about how Barack Obama’s campaign evinced a quality of graphic design that felt more Hollywood than reality. Now that quality has been extended to the new White House website that everyone’s talking about. The typographic treatment, the regal use of blue and the overall spareness make this by far the slickest-looking government website ever. Is this the entrée to a new era where governments disseminate information in an attractive, clear fashion? Someone tell the Government of Canada if so.
Introducing Changeling Neo →
marksimonson.com
It’s probably all the old sci-fi movies I’ve been watching lately, but I’m digging Mark Simonson’s Changeling Neo, an update on a typeface he released in 2003. I used Simonson’s Proxima Nova for some Dabble DB work, but his less conventional typefaces are also invariably works of high quality. Mostra has become a favourite for book cover and movie poster designers.
Runnin' With The Songsmith →
music.metafilter.com
Somehow, someone published David Lee Roth’s vocal track from “Running With the Devil” and, sadly for all of our ears, someone else fed it into Microsoft’s new muzak-machine, Songsmith.
