Recently I’ve been obsessing over an often overlooked part of web design: the login form. There are few sites that have aggregated examples of login forms for perusal; this one by Design Reviver is pretty good. I’d prefer the list to be more like 500 examples, but it’s easy to go in search of other cool login form designs. The ones above are fun, but I’ve yet to find one that really knocks my socks off. Anyone know of some really superb login forms?

One of my favorite trends is the use of oversized text in the forms. Tumblr was one of the first places I saw it. Scott and I discussed it a long time ago in reference to the Nike login form, pictured above. Still not sure what it is about the giant text field that feels so right — maybe it just seems to reinforce what you’re writing. Like “Yes this IS my email address. BAM.”

In keeping with my recent car kick I thought I’d post these vintage BMW ads. The first one — created as part of BMW’s affiliation with the 1972 Munich Olympics — is vaguely reminiscent of Otl Aicher’s posters. I’m assuming this was no accident. It’s also a big enough file that you could probably get a pretty good print out of it off a nice inkjet (click image to view full size). I really wish more vintage posters like this were available in higher resolutions. With most of this advertising stuff, the owners of the copyrights have no intention of ever printing them again, it’s a shame they can’t be reproduced and enjoyed by more people.

Via CarType

I know starting out the year with a non music post from my end isn’t what I should be doing in my mind but its Sunday and before we get back into our consistent groove I wanted to share some prank calls from the very unique Longmont Potion Castle. His subtlety and choice of words some of the time really make these worth listening to over and over. He has this lazy and broad reply attitude that keeps people on the phone which I really admire and I think thats what made me want to share these with you all. If you like any of these there up on iTunes.

**Note some of this is NSFW

Ghostly’s 110 is a rundown of our favorite albums of the decade. In making the list, we wanted to share the albums we’ve loved over the last 10 years, so fans can compare notes and perhaps make a few new discoveries in the process. The impetus for this list was our belief that a record label is more than just a music distributor–it’s a perspective all its own.  

To start, we asked the Ghostly staff for their top 100 albums (no EPs, reissues, or various-artist compilations) from the decade.  While there was a stunning consistency within the top 20, there were hundreds of releases that had only one vote.  From there, we had to make some tough decisions. Tears were shed and punches thrown, but we ended up with a document that wears the Ghostly seal of approval with pride.

We also wanted to keep our list pure and nepotism-free, so we left off all Ghostly/Spectral albums, as well as any artist who has over a few songs on the label. Of course, this meant we couldn’t include eternal classics like Solvent’s Solvent City, Rafael Anton Irissarir’s Daydreaming, and of course, Tycho’s Past Is Prologue.

In short, it’s been a wild decade. We’ve all seen and experienced so much, and while no one knows what the future holds, we do know that good music will always keep coming.  Ghostly’s 110 is also a tribute to the labels and record stores that have inspired us, and the ones that we’ve lost in the last decade.

There are more than a few albums that could have easily made the list, and I wanted to recognize them below.

The Sea and Cake’s Oui (Thrill Jockey, 2000) was an easy contender for top albums of the decade that just didn’t get the votes, perhaps overlooked because of the bands consistent understated awesomeness. A mesmerizing album of subtle grace.

Dungen was a band that seemed to come out of nowhere with Ta Det Lungt (Kemado, 2005), capturing a piece of the global mindshare with this album of puzzlingly perfect rock.

I know E. Lipp is a fixture at ISO50, but Tacoma Mockingbird (Hefty, 2006) is the record that put him on the map. Beautifully conceived synth lines atop classic breaks.

Like a bolt from the (aqueous) blue, Portishead returned with Third (Island, 2008) having lost no steam and having found their new voice–while retaining the haunted, dusty majesty of their early work.

CHOP CUP from :weareom: on Vimeo.

I thought I should share this since the video treatment and unpredictable ending made watching it over and over a good time waster.

On top of wanting to travel the world this upcoming year I think one thing that I want to do along with seeing the new city is to hear Peter Broderick play live there so I hope the man tours this year so I can have some options. This beautiful collaboration called Blank Grey Canvas Sky by Peter Broderick & Machinefabriek has calmed me at airports and let my imagination walk slow and happily before I go off and sleep, highly recommended.

I wasn’t too impressed by the new Joe Goddard LP, his work with Hot Chip always excited me, and this song Lemon and Lime (Home Time) is more of what I wanted but instead a good portion of the LP has a ton of preset sounding synth work which was rough at times to sit thru. This track was well worth the purchase of the LP but man only if I got more of this sound i’d have it on repeat.

ATTENTION: this DJ Sprinkles Midtown 120 Blues album is my jam, soft 4/4 IDM meets deep minimalistic house, let it ride out don’t just judge it by the intro, it will reward you after the breakdown.

Horror fascinations for a music video and odd dark pop sometimes can be done well and Salem pulls it off but I think i’ll just stick to listening to the music and not getting too close to reading into the bands interests.

I saw Avatar last night (in full 3D IMAX glory) and really enjoyed it. It reminded me of how I used to feel when I would play video games as a kid — not so much because of the graphics or anything like that, more because of how in it I felt. I remember when I used to play Zelda for example, my imagination would just take over and for those couple hours I lived in that universe (I was a nerdy kid). Avatar is like this; it is very easy to forget you are watching a film and think you are actually physically along for the ride, as there are no visual limitations to give you any indication otherwise. There were moments when you could hear the whole theater let out audible gasps as something incredible came on the screen. The first time you see one of the giant mining machines is pretty amazing. Of course the plot follows an extremely predictable trajectory, but seriously who cares. When things look this cool I am willing to make concessions on freshness of plot.

I saw the film with a few friends, one of whom is an interaction designer. He was mesmerized by all the crazy user interfaces the characters were manipulating. The spherical and detachable computer screens were a favorite. Meanwhile I couldn’t get over the choice of typeface for the subtitles; Papyrus (or some variant, essentially the same thing). The rest of my friends thought I was a huge nerd when the first thing I said out of the theater was “What was with that subtitle font!?” It is crazy to think (in my opinion) that $280 million went into this movie and they chose the one font that is at the end of most typography jokes (save maybe for Comic Sans). I know it probably fit better than a super clean sans serif (and I can’t imagine there weren’t hours of discussion over this point), but seriously, Papyrus?

Further: Kottke describes another interesting issue, regarding the realism of the Na’vi’s technological development. I don’t necessarily agree with his point (I think they were as advanced as they wanted/needed to be given the physical and spiritual qualities of their world), but he makes an intriguing argument.

The Museum of Flight displays an impressive collection of vintage airline logos. As I’ve just spent most of my young life traveling between DC and SF over the holiday, airline logos aren’t exactly what I want to be looking at right now — regardless, some of these are too good for me to mind. Lufthansa is still my absolute favorite (I gravitate towards anything with a stylized bird). The images are relatively high quality and they have a ton more over on their site.

The wondrous Gestalten has a terrific selection of videos up on their site Gestalten tv. Anyone familiar with their publications knows that Gestalten is synonymous with extremely high quality production. I wasn’t familiar with many of the subjects listed, but found each one engaging and very well done. The one on Postlerferguson above was especially entertaining. Definitely going to order a paper MP5.

Of course I had to include the recent video on Dieter Rams above. I find interviews with him to be mesmerizing and am nowhere close to tired of seeing new ones pop up (as his exhibition makes waves in London). The book Less and More is available for purchase from Gestalten (in Europe), Vitsoe, and Amazon (though looks like not until January).

Gestalten.tv creates a broad range of documentaries, interviews and features that introduce Gestalten related subjects alongside individuals, projects and companies that are vanguards of visual culture.

The holiday break has been great and I hope you all have been finding some time to rest and listen to new music. With this new playlist option I wanted to maybe drop in and make a few select artist playlist and why not start with a favorite like Cocteau Twins, let me know how you like these and if they flow well and if you want a few more.

I’ve been geeking out on ’70s supercars lately and came across these gems depicting a BMW concept from 1972. The “E25 BMW Turbo” was commissioned to celebrate the 1972 Munich Olympics. BMW tasked famed automotive designer Paul Bracq to create the concept of which only two were ever built. Honestly, I love the front angles, but not really feeling that rear end. It feels very hatchback/kit-car-ish and the doulbe logos are killing me. Thankfully some of the finer points made it into production in the form of the M1 and some others.

That first shot is just off the charts; in the background you can see BMW’s Munich headquarters which was designed by architect Prof. Karl Schwanzer shortly before his death in 1975. In the other shots you can catch the games tent and the communications tower providing apt backdrops for the Turbo.

Every year around this time I like to pretend I have a rich uncle or something and then think about what they would get me for Christmas. This year rich uncle would get me a Linn Sondek Limited Edition Retro LP12 with the walnut finish. I’ve been thinking a lot about home stereos lately, I really want to build a solid system for listening. For a long time I’ve lived by a rule that I’d only spend money on things related to making music or graphic design. This means I have a great set of monitors in the studio, but in my living room I listen to music on a $200 set of Logitech speakers. For some reason I never really thought about how ridiculous this was, especially considering how much enjoyment I get out of listening to music.

So I was walking down Market street the other day and stumbled in to San Francisco Stereo & Theater Systems where they had a pair of B&W 683’s on the floor. I plugged in my iPhone (I know, MP3 is not worthy of a hi-fi system, but it’s all I had), cued up Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve’s rendition of Midlake’s Roscoe and proceeded to melt into the seat. I’ve never heard sound like this. Yes, I have Adam’s in the studio, but that’s a near-field system designed for professional use. They’re meant to sound very flat and honest, they’re not necessarily supposed to sound pretty and warm and they’re certainly not designed to fill up a large room.

So this all got me thinking, I need to build a proper hi-fi. I have an old (but powerful) Denon hand-me-down amp in storage that I could dust off, just add some B&W’s and I’m set. But then I started thinking that I couldn’t bring myself to play MP3’s through a system like that so I would have to start rebuilding my music collection based on FLAC and WAV, which could take some time. Finally I realized this would still involve D/A conversion at some stage (which I was thinking could be handled by a spare MOTU 828MKII) so it still wouldn’t be ideal. This is when it finally occurred to me that I need to get a proper turntable and expand my vinyl collection.

Enter the Linn Sondek LP12, which apparently sounds incredible and — as you can see from the photos above — is absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately it’s about $2500 so it’s never going to happen. There’s got to be some less expensive alternatives out there, guess I’ll have to dig around a little. At any rate, if my long-lost, wealthy second cousin is reading this, you can ship it all direct or I’ll take a personal check.

#10 City Center – “City Center” (Type)

City Center ISO50 posts: 1 / 2 / 3

#9 Neon Indian – “Psychic Chasms” (Lefse)

Neon Indian ISO50 posts: 1 / 2 / 3

#8 Various Artists – “Pop Ambient 2009″ (Kompakt)

Pop Ambient 2009 ISO50 posts: 1

#7 Junior Boys – “Begone Dull Care” (Domino)

Junior Boys ISO50 posts: 1 / 2

#6 Atlas Sounds – “Logo” (Kranky)

Atlas Sound ISO50 posts: 1 / 2

#5 Kings Of Convenience – “Declaration of Dependance” (Mawlaw 388 Ltd)

Kings Of Convenience ISO50 posts: 1 / 2 / 3

#4 Fever Ray – “Fever Ray” (Rabid)

Fever Ray ISO50 posts: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

#3 The Horrors – “Primary Colours” (XL)

The Horrors ISO50 posts: 1 / 2 / 3

#2 Washed Out – “Life Of Leisure” (Mexican Summer)

Washed Out ISO50 Posts: 1 / 2 / 3

#1 The Drums – “Summertime!” (The Drums)

The Drums ISO50 posts: 1 / 2

2009 was a creative year for musicians like City Center who has the perfect voice and a natural sense for lo-fi singer songwriter material, if you’ve worn the groove out of your Panda Bear record then look no further and pick up his self titled LP. We saw Dubstep take over in the US and UK clubs with unique takes on albums from Martyn, 2562, and many others. Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear showed the top 40 charts that indie rock has a big say in what people want to own and even Jay-Z thought so. Lo-fi is back on all different levels like surf, folk, and a fusion of a ton of different genres which really had a big impact on my daily listening.
I’m not going to ignore that some people didn’t like my #1 song and #1 album of the year and I kind of want to share why I liked it so much. At first they were a band that i wanted to sign but after seeing a few shows of them playing live I was hooked, soo much energy, passion and catchy parts plus the band is just fun to watch, the tambourine player even was more hyper than any musician I saw all year. The songs all have this mash of a lot of music that I grew up on and still to this day listen to frequently. I see them as a band that can jump into the top 40 and get a budget to be a great band to see live and I guess the live show did it for me this year and I loved sharing the bands songs with friends, so I guess those are some of the reasons why I loved The Drums release.

HONORABLE MENTION:
Telefon Tel Aviv – Immolate Yourself

*Please note I did not include any releases by Ghostly International, Moodgadget, remixes, Tycho songs and ISO50 exclusives just to make this a fair collection. If you like this list then take a second and check out ISO50’s 2008 list.

The Auteurs has a post on their picks for the top movie posters of the decade. Considering that the vast majority of modern movie posters fall short of the standards set in heyday of film, this must have been a difficult list to assemble and a boring task to complete. Nevertheless, they have managed to dig up a few gems. Good to see The Bank Job in there — always a favorite — but I was pleasantly surprised by Funny Games, hadn’t seen that one.

Can you think of any obvious omissions from this list? Let us know in the comments

For some background, more good movie posters from years past can be found in these older posts: 50 Beautiful Movie Posters, 100 Greatest Movie Posters, and, of course, SOLARIS!.

Via The Auteurs

My rebranding Playboy project came to a close last week with the end of our fall semester. If you read the last article, you are familiar with the first part of this project, which was the new logo for Playboy. While it is absolutely the flag bearer of the entire project, the logo development represented a small amount of the work we were required to do for the overall project. The final deliverable for the class was a book in which we the explain history of the brand, walk through our rationale for the new identity, explore the process of the logo development, present brand standards and guidelines, and show example brand implementations and extensions. Other than this required content, there was no specific criteria for the book. Each student also gave a short final presentation explaining their rebranding and the choices they made along the way. Everything was created for the Nature of Identity class at the Academy of Art, as part of the graduate graphic design program.

I really enjoyed the conversation the first post on this project generated. I was excited to see that the new logo was as polarizing as it was — I feel like these types of solutions are the most exciting and rewarding for me. I noticed that many people were up in arms about the idea of Playboy removing nudity and becoming an all article magazine. While I would like to note that the new strategy was purely a conceptual exploration constructed in an educational environment, I actually do think they might be well served to switch things up this drastically. Playboy was once irreverent and boundary shattering. They are no longer. I can think of no better way to recapture this audacious spirit than by doing something this extreme…

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