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OBSERVED

Design Observer's Job Board has new jobs in NYC, Dulles, Philadelphia, Singapore, LA, Louisville, Dallas, Chicago, Cleveland and Boston. Companies hiring include New York Media, Shiseido, Gap Inc., Apple, E*Trade, Columbia College, GadLight, Inc., Leap Frog and Natural History Museum of LA. Post your job today. [JSC]

A rare opportunity to do great design for the Federal Government: the General Services Administration has posted a contract notice for "Graphic Design Services for the Design Excellence Program, Public Buildings Service." Interview here with head of the program, Casey Jones. Deadline is September 22; contracting officer is erica.pelham@gsa.gov. Please, someone good apply. [WD]

Design Observer's Job Board has new jobs in NYC, Boston, SF, Atlanta, Chicago, LA, Cincinnati, Barcelona, Seattle and Toronto. Companies hiring include The Atlantic, CREDO, Sunbeam, Rue La La, AOL, Zobele, WABC-TV, Bloomberg and Chase Design. Post your job today. [JSC]

Design Observer's Job Board has new jobs in Auburn, LA, Chicago, NYC, Toronto, Savannah, Austin, Philadelphia and London. Companies hiring include Auburn University, City of Hope Medical Center, Designkitchen, Landor, LEGO, Continuum, Samsung, Infusion Development and Martha Stewart Living. Post your job today. [JSC]

Parking garages: designed by Herzog and de Meuron, photographed by Alan Thomas and written about here and here. [JSC]

Jessica Helfand, the graphic designer, writes about Jessica Helfand, the artist. Three posts are up on Felt & Wire: drawing and painting in Rome, and more work in Rome, and her newest post, reflections on printmaking. [WD]

Design Observer's Job Board has new jobs in NYC, Atlanta, Seattle, Boston, Chicago, Miami, Hoboken, Portland and Plano. Companies hiring include WGBH, Apple, Humanscale, Toys"R"Us, Smallfry, Philips Electronics, Blue Shield, SCAD and Blue Flame Agency. Post your job today. [JSC]

Typography takes a star turn in this new video — a Knockout if ever there was one. (Thanks to Teddy Blanks and Joe Freedman.) There are countless examples of kinetic typography online, but here is one of our all-time favorites: just because it moves doesn't mean the kerning shouldn't be impeccable. [JH]

Steve Heller reviews a beautiful new facsimile of The First Six Books of the Elements of Euclid; a new guide to creating printed and online forms; a visual history of manuscript books and albums appropriately titled Strange & Wonderful; a celebration of 75 years of classic covers from Penguin; a great compilation of The Art of McSweeney's; and Various Illuminations (of a Crazy World), the catalog from Maira Kalman’s first major museum exhibition. [MB]

A fascinating paradox: viewers who elect to see the new Will Ferrell movie The Other Guys will, if they sit through the closing credits, receive a first-rate education in how a Ponzi scheme works. A brilliant example of visual thinking as public service: if we assume that today's adolescents will be tomorrow's bankers — and crooks — this mediocre film may have more staying power than one might think, thanks to the brilliant designers at Picture Mill. [JH]

Design Observer's Job Board has new jobs in NYC, Portland, Minneapolis, Seattle, Hong Kong, Savannah, Flagstaff, SF and Nashville. Companies hiring include Rodale, Ohio State University, Lifetime Brands, Plastic Dress-Up Co., Incase, Qatar Airways, AOL, Martha Stewart Living and Staples. Post your job today. [JSC]

John Leighton Chase, urban designer for the city of West Hollywood, and prolific writer on Los Angeles and urbanism, died suddenly last Friday. John Kaliski, has written an informative remembrance of him, Alissa Walker has also written a wonderful piece and here is a conversation on Frances Anderton's KCRW show, "DNA." [LW]

Design Observer's Job Board has new jobs in NYC, Flagstaff, Seattle, Nashville, Philadelphia, Shanghai, Kansas City, Boston, Boulder, SF and Minneapolis. Companies hiring include SBLM Architects, Samsung, Kathy Davis Studios, Kohler, SAP Labs, WowWee, Moment, Rick May, Inc. and Stevenson University. Post your job today. [JSC]

If you want to help keep Net Neutrality going strong, tell your friends to sign this petition. Or you can direct people to this speech at Netroots Nation or this op-ed on CNN.com. Or, support the cause by donating to reach more supporters. [WD]

Design Observer's Job Board has new jobs in NYC, Austin, Columbus, Minneapolis, LA, London, Seattle, Detroit, SF, Boston, Sydney and Orlando. Companies hiring include Aperture Foundation, Ohio State University, Aol, Dell, Equinox, Adidas, Spin Master, Daily Candy, Fox Head, Publicis and Kaleidoscope Inc. Post your job today. [JSC]

First there was Design Camp for creative people. Then there was Design Camp for teenage people. And now, for everyone else, there's Design Fantasy Camp! [JH]

Grace Bonney of Design Sponge and John Jay of Wieden + Kennedy are among those who discussed DIY at last week's IDSA conference in Portland, OR. [JL]

From the World Health Organization: persuading people to practice safe sex, eat well, and get children to brush their teeth. More public health posters here and here. (Thanks to William Helfand.) [JH]

Design Observer's Job Board has new jobs in Minneapolis, NYC, Seattle, London, Sarasota, Portland, Dallas, Chicago, LA and Melbourne. Companies hiring include Lucas Design, Target, One & Co, Mattel, Soap & Glory, Philips Electronics, Steelcase, The Taboo Group, Fossil Inc. and Night Agency. Post your job today. [JSC]

The iPhone channels Humpty Dumpty, and then some: reconsidering form, function and a gadget's lifespan. [JH]

Wanted: Torch designers for the 2012 Olympics. (Via Unbeige.) [JL]

"Museum as Hub: The Bidoun Library Project" at New York's New Museum is "a highly partial account of five decades of printed matter in, near, about, and around the Middle East." The exhibit features 700 publications "on subjects like the oil boom to the Dubai bust, the Cold War to the hot pant, Pan-Arabs to Black Muslims, revolutionaries to royals, and Orientalism to its opposites." [JL]

Design Observer's Job Board has new jobs in Austin, DC, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Baltimore, NYC, Chicago, Vienna, SF and Jacksonville. Companies hiring include LVMH Perfumes & Cosmetics, BEHF Architects, ONE, Continuum, Night Agency, Owens Illinois, Cole Haan, Mass Art, Abercrombie & Fitch and The University of Chicago. Post your job today. [JSC]

Core77 announces its new retail store — in Portland! [JH]

The Giving Pledge, an initiative started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, urges Billionaires to give away half of their wealth. So far 40 have pledged. (Thanks to Eileen Schmidt.) [JSC]

The Art Directors Club announces its Hall of Fame laureates for 2010: creative director Fabien Baron; typographer Matthew Carter; the late illustrator and educator Philip Hays; photographer Brigitte Lacombe; design legend George Nelson; wunderkind Christoph Niemann; Wieden+Kennedy cofounder Dan Wieden; and, last but not least, our very own William Drenttel and Jessica Helfand. Congratulations to all! [MB]

Architects and designers on the cover of Time magazine. [MB]

Design Observer's Job Board has new jobs in NYC, Chicago, Boulder, London, Madison, Boston, Toronto, Seattle, Blacksburg and West Palm Beach. Companies hiring include IA Collaborative, IDEO, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, The Alloy, Modea, Equinox, Kohl's, Silk Road Group and Stumble Upon. Post your job today. [JSC]

The design enthusiasts weigh in on the debut of season four of Mad Men, set in late 1964: start-up Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce's new home is the Time-Life Building (perfect), and they've updated their moody late 50s interiors for a brighter , sleeker look, with all that smart, if slightly mismatched, furniture. And then there's that logo! No, not Arial, but the always tricky Akzidenz Grotesk. More from DO on Mad Men here, here and here. [MB]

Design Observer's Job Board has new jobs in Boston, NYC, London, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Chicago, SF, Toronto, Seattle, Burlington and DC. Companies hiring include NPR, Lego, Tuesday Creative, Addison, Puma, Adelphi University, Odopod, Design Phase and The Art Institute of California. Post your job today. [JSC]

TWITTER

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Michael Bierut

James Victore: Straight Up

There are two kinds of graphic designers in the world. One kind sees each project as an opportunity for self-expression, producing a body of work that bears an unmistakable mark, that is more alike than different, that is more about the maker than the message. The other kind of designer attends first to the client, to the message and to the audience. This graphic designer’s role is to be neutral and invisible, an efficient conduit between broadcaster and receiver.

James Victore is good because, amazingly, he combines the very best of both ways.

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Alexandra Lange, Mark Lamster

Lunch with the Critics: Park51 & 15 Penn

For this second installment of Lunch with the Critics, Mark Lamster and Alexandra Lange traveled to midtown to visit the Hotel Pennsylvania, across from Penn Station and Madison Square Garden on Seventh Avenue.

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William Drenttel

Dogs and Their Designers

Today is August 26, also known as National Dog Day. In honor of all our faithful four-legged friends, we are re-running this post, which originally posted on November 11, 2008.

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Jessica Helfand

In the Palm of Your Hand: Dexterity Puzzles

Dexterity games — also known as skill games, palm puzzles and hand-held games — have fascinated adults and children since the 19th century. The essential hand-eye challenge of rolling a ball into a hole or tilting a capsule through a maze has proved among the most delightful, maddening, and enduring diversions of the modern age, despite — or perhaps because of — its sheer simplicity.

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Eric Baker, The Editors

Today: The End

Goodbyes are never easy. And so it is with Today, our weekly smorgasbord of images curated by Eric Baker, which concludes with this final post.

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Johanna Blakley

The Costs of Ownership: Why Copyright Protection Will Hurt the Fashion Industry

While fashion design doesn’t qualify for the same legal protections that other artistic creations have (because the courts decided that fashion is too utilitarian), the creative possibilities for design and the rapid pace of innovation have increased exponentially. Nonetheless, after three false starts, the Council of Fashion Designers of America has finally pulled together a viable piece of legislation that will give copyright protection to fashion designs. The sad thing is that just about everyone will suffer — well, except for lawyers.

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Alexandra Lange

When Shopping Was Sociable

Design Research closed its doors 31 years ago. Baby boomers remember the store like it was yesterday. D/R was where they bought their Marimekko dresses, the minute they realized a girdle was no longer required. D/R was where they touched the Kaj Franck china, buying one place-setting at a time for first apartments in Cambridge or San Francisco or New York.

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Lisa Bielawa

Chance Encounter on the Tiber

One hundred movable red chairs and a musical performance on the Tiber River made for an interesting urban experiment. This collaborative project by Robert Hammond and Lisa Bielawa created unexpected results this past May in Rome.

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Robert Grudin

The Bakers Table

Those tables taught me something. I realized that by designing them I had turned impoverishment into enterprise. I had transcended my own inhibiting academic world and briefly explored the material presences of daily life. I had freed my eyes and hands to converse with varieties of shape and substance. I had engaged my little world and changed it. For these reasons, there is something special for me about the practice of design.

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