Friday Finds 10.16.09

Jordan: 100 Colors, 100 Writings, 100 Days

What a lovely project. San Francisco–based graphic designer Rachel Berger pulled a single paint chip out of a bag every day for 100 days and wrote a short piece inspired by each hue. Design Observer posted her favorite forty, and the brief and beautiful collection is a treat to read (and very much makes me want to give it a go, too!).

Amanda: Microscopic photograph slideshow

I am both fascinated and mildly creeped out by this image gallery on Scientific American's website, featuring a collection of the top twenty winning images from Nikon's Small World competition. The contest has been around since 1974 and honors photomicrography, which is the process of capturing shots through the use of a light microscope. Fascinating: the weird and wonderful network of an algae diatom (above). Creepy: an aquatic fly larva with knife-like appendages. Shudder.

Aaron: The Melbourne Design Guide

As avid Dwell.com readers will know, I"ve been in Melbourne for the past several days. It's a wonderful town and I had a wonderful time touring round, but I must laud one very dense, well-designed book as perhaps my greatest (non-human) guide of all. The Melbourne Design Guide is lousy with hip shops, restaurants and design firms and is a must for anyone looking to find the best bars, cafes, and boutiques. It ranges from the scrappy to the posh, but at every turn it offers design, design, design. When I bought it, the woman I was with, a local tour guide herself, remarked, "Ah, you've found the Bible." Indeed I had, and its commandments are well worth heeding.

Sarah: Soft-Maps from the Haptic Lab

Since I'm spending a lot of time this week thinking and talking about craft, it's especially fitting that I've stumbled upon this beautiful application of the traditional craft of quilting, using the folksy art as a medium for thread-sewn neighborhood maps. They can be custom made and are machine-washable, so you don't have to hang them on the wall for display only; they can be tossed on the ground and lovingly used.

Kathryn: Elias Smiles iPhone app

For your design-savvy toddlers, check out Elias Smiles's Zoo and ABC apps. These beautiful, simple, and delightful kids' apps were developed by SOLV, a highly sophisticated design team comprised of Brian McGrath, JP Stallard, and Jennifer Shim. Intended for the  younger audience, my toddler friends absolutely love learning their ABCs, hearing the lion roar, and watching the sweetest, simplest, coolest graphics -- and with a penguin like this, who could put it down?