My boyfriend just bought a Serge Gainesbourg record and I am enthralled. What is this full-sounding chamber pop I have been missing my whole life? In my renewed opinion, all music needs a custom-written strings section.
Gainesbourg had quite the full life; he was a French singer, songwriter, pianist, film composer, poet, painter, screenwriter, writer, actor and director. Once-lover of Jane Birkin and father of Charlotte Gainesbourg, Serge had been making music since 1958. I love the music for its interesting mix of sounds and, to be honest, the sound of French singing is very nice. I know Gainesbourg was a master of wordplay in his songs, but it's lost on me because I don't know any French! Maybe this will inspire me to learn.
Check out his duet with Brigitte Bardot, Bonnie & Clyde.
Accomplishment: Causes of Death
Yes, I did indeed get Downfall By Numbers up onto my website, it's all glossy and finished now. And as I say goodbye to the CMHA project, I recall that it is now three years old. I almost feel embarrassed to show it to anyone! But installation work always looks really impressive, so it will stay on the server until further notice.
Goal: RGD Awards & IBM Assignment
RGD Awards are due this Friday! I am taking an active stand against award competitions that require a cash entry fee, so this will be the final award for which I will be entering this year. I already have most of the assets prepared, but I know they like a typeset PDF document for each piece, so that will require some work. I will be fleshing it all out on Wednesday night.
I also have some homework to do for my IBM interview on Wednesday morning. I love wireframing apps. I've been hearing some very uplifting things from friends about the interview, and I can only assume they are trying to create a positive atmosphere with the addition of a slew of new designers. So that's going to be exciting!
Random Thought:
I saw this comic online and thought it was poignant.
As the internet will do, someone took an idea and poked some fun at the way we view products. But that's alright, it actually takes an interesting analogy and unfolds it a bit more to frame the way we feel about good UX versus bad.
Take the original, the diagram for Spotify, for example. A skateboard starts with simple functionality and not a lot of bells and whistles, and it does what it needs to do. Every upgrade from there adds functionality. Every step of the process is a finished product, but each upgrade is also an improvement.
The iPhone is pretty accurate, too. The skateboard will get you where you need to go but it's missing a lot of functionality. And as the product develops, not a lot has changed except for the size. You understand where this is going.
And of course, Internet Explorer is always the butt of the joke. Forever trying to improve, and always missing a core component that users need.
Inspiration: Paying It Forward
This one isn't exactly a design or visual-related inspiration, but more of an overall way to live. One of the best things about life is examples of kindness in strangers. We all want to do nice things for the people we care about, but what happens when we do kindnesses to people we don't know? I frequent a Green P parking lot in the Annex, and have noticed that a lot of people hand off their daily maximum parking passes to others as they leave. Someone gave me their all-night parking on Valentine's Day last year (yes, I remember the day!) and I think about it every time I park there. So yesterday, I did the same for someone else as I was leaving. As I gave the man the pass, he thanked me and I asked him to pay it forward. These small kindnesses that cost us literally nothing, go so far. I also try to do this when I am travelling from YRT into Finch station. I hold out my transfer and try to find someone who wants it. Occasionally I will actually ask people if they need it, and it does work some of the time. So here's my little promotion to hand off your YRT transfer to someone coming out of the subway at Finch! Let's all save a little money and make someone's day.
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