Link Banana

The Dieline has some interesting photos of old Crayola crayon packaging. I think the prominent marking of them as “school crayons” is notable.

Made manifest in the number of ways we can get on and off roads that don’t slow down.

(via kottke)

As an IE hater, I’m a fan of the globe metaphor theory.

(via Gems Sty)

While they obviously have their nontrivial problems, unplanned urban development has some characteristic that unlikely people are praising:

Prince Charles of [Wales], who founded an organization called the Foundation for the Built Environment, praised Dharavi (which he visited in 2003) for its “underlying, intuitive ‘grammar of design’ ” and “the timeless quality and resilience of vernacular settlements.” He predicted that “in a few years’ time such communities will be perceived as best equipped to face the challenges that confront us because they have built-in resilience and genuinely durable ways of living.”

I was just thinking that all webpages should have a reading view — the way Hulu or YouTube allow you to dim light — and today everyone is talking about this superb-looking bookmarklet.

It has choked on a number of sites I’ve tried it with — spitting out a sidebar, the comments, or in at least one case, the header instead — but when it works it’s pretty good.

In the most recent A List Apart, Mandy Brown says many of the things I’ve been thinking about reading on the internet over the last few months. If you’re interested in design, or the problems of reading on the internet, I’d strongly recommend it.

There are many dogged readers who will make this commitment whether or not the design of the page makes it easy on them, but as designers, there are a number of ways we can assist readers in the transition. Consider all of the elements that accompany an article and organize those that are most useful for gauging interest at the top. Summaries or pull quotes, as well as illustrations, allow the reader to quickly assess what the article is about. Categories and links to related content provide context. The name and affiliation of the author communicate the authority of a text. All of these elements combine to create an entryway into reading.

Until I saw this Flickr set of the Washington State Department of Transportation’s sign shop, I’d never stopped to think about where exactly those road signs come from.

Also, the Washington State Department of Transportation has a Flickr account?

(via BB Gadgets)

There’s love, and then there’s commissioning a neighborhood in the shape of the profile of your beloved.

Over the last 24 hours, I’ve wasted at least two staring at pictures of tech offices around the world. Perhaps I have a problem… There’s also the related Home Office Snapshots that I’m doing my best to resist.

Also: the left and right arrow keys save you from having to make thousands of mouse clicks.

(via Bill Israel)

An ephemeral art display explains the beauty of ephemerality. For those too lazy to find the translation in the comments, every twelve hours the wall reads:

Time passes, and each time time passes, something gets erased.

(via kottke)

Like Mr. Kottke, I had no idea that it involved a spiral. Also, school films from the 1940s and ’50s are a style that I may never tire of. And: the book that caused someone to dig out the video.

This thing made me go “Wow!” It’s a map of America’s Interstate highways smoothed into a series of straight lines, like a subway map.

(via Snarkmarket)

Everyone and their brother have linked to this by now, but I still can’t resist.

This stuff fascinates me. And the obligatory link to the Helvetica cover concept.

(via kottke)

Gems Sty points to a very cool way to browse Flickr photos: by color. It even lets you do many colors at once.

There are no doubt hundreds of posts like this one floating around the internet, chronicalling all the small houses one can find within a few Google searchs. None the less, I really liked browsing through this one.

(via MeFi)

This bridges are literally awesome. If you don’t take a look, you’re really missing out.

(via Neatorama)

There’s something about this “Anthropomorphic Cannabalism” Flickr set that’s undeniably good.

(via Boing Boing)

Sadly refraining from linking to the source, Gems Sty highlights a pretty clever idea: a tent that looks like a car covered by it’s obsessive owner, allowing you privacy on even the world’s busiest streets. (Well, assuming you can find a parking spot.)

I’m a little disappointed by how obvious all the character choices in this sketch were, but I did laugh a few times anyway.

(via Daring Fireball)