For a long time I’ve been wanting a really good backpack or satchel but I have yet to find one.
Whenever it came to assessing a potential bag, I could never quite articulate what actually made a bag good so, one day, I decided to sit down and think about it.
I ended up with a checklist of the attributes and features I wanted in my perfect bag. I’ve just come across that list again and finding the requirements still valid, I’ve decided to put it up here:
My perfect bag
- Balanced
The bag must be able to stand upright without toppling, even when full.
- Multi-leveled
It must be possible to put and retrieve items from areas other than the bottom of it.
- No waste
Little to no wasted areas or excessive bulk. Large partitions with very specific functionality must either be removable or absent.
- Multi-layered
Storage must be available both on the inside, for larger items in a water *proof* area, and on the outside for smaller items (still water *resistant*).
- Additions advantageous
Attachments for external addition of specialized pockets, etc.
- Comfy fastenings
There must be various levels of fastening the bag, from a simple single strap over the shoulder to additional straps that go across and ensure it doesn’t come off even when running/hiking.
- Grippy straps
The straps must not slip and slide unless you want them to (see next point).
- Access ability
The bag must be out of the way when carried around, but should easily shift into a position where at least its external storage is easily accessible. That means it must be possible to somehow disengage those grippy straps previously mentioned.
- Materials matter
It should be made from a natural, durable and sustainable material.
- Pretty subjective
The bag should be beautiful to me.
Those were the things I came up with back then and they pretty much still hold.
The search goes on.
A fantastic flight of fancy which just shows how wonderful the world can be when you never grow Up.
As some of you may know I am currently working on my final master’s project at the AAA.
The project seeks to explore and develop the interfaces we might use to interact with the growing e-book collections of the future.
Already a large proportion of you read a lot of stuff on the internet and the number of
e-book readers, although still in the minority, is growing rapidly.
In order to gain some insight into how people think and feel about their books and book collections I recently prepared a questionnaire and asked as many people as I could think of to give it a go.
The questionnaire is still active and I encourage you try it if you haven’t, but today I took a snapshot of the data and have posted the charts for everyone to see. The full dataset comprises both written and multiple choice answers, but I have not posted the written answers in case anyone would object.
About the data:
As you are about to see there is a strong bias towards young students and although you can’t see it from the charts, primarily Danish ones. This is because of the channels (Facebook, Twitter & school mail) I’ve used to recruit my sample (that’s you, guys).
I am, of course, keeping this in mind as I analyze the data.
There’s a fairly even split between book lovers and casual readers which I’m happy about since that, at least, should give more balanced data.
Borrowing and lending is very popular and possibly a reflection of the social nature of the mostly young people who also overwhelmingly find new books by personal recommendation.
A huge 82% use their book collection for inspiration which is great news for my project since part of my thesis is that persistently visible e-book collections make for better, more useful collections.
A lot of work lies ahead, parsing all this beautiful information, but for now I owe a big thank you to all those of you awesome enough to give a slice of your time to help me out.
Anyway, here comes the data…
About you:
About books:
About the book collection:
About the future:
Here’s another, in what is becoming a gallery of deeply inspirational, motivational and passionate people; Salman Khan.
Salman Khan is the force behind Khan Academy, which I really hope, and almost dare to believe, can change the way we teach and learn…well, anything.
The best way to understand what he has done, and why it will change everything, is to see his TED talk.
Galco’s Soda Pop Stop
This awesome guy, John Nese, had me smiling all through the video.
Real passion for pretty much anything is such an inspiration to me. If you are anywhere near this place make sure you go pay it a visit.
Real Moxie.
/via @tomcoates / CHOW.com
Katie Shelly is onto something with these visual recipes.
Her hand drawn instructions show cooking as the fun and playful thing it should be and, because both ingredients and process is visible at once, you get an immediate feel for what is involved in making it.
/via fastcodesign / GOOD
The Mavenist, a new blog by the hugely inspirational Frank Chimero, set up temporarily (I think) whilst he is writing his book The Shape of Design.
The blog is a scrapbook of research, thoughts and inspiration. He calls it his shot at a commonplace book and despite having only been going since February, it already reminds me of one of my most prized books, The art of looking sideways.
Check it out.
UPDATE: It seems this was more temporary than I thought. The blog has been “not found” for a few weeks now. As an alternative there’s always Chimero’s stellar.io stream.
UPDATE 2: The Mavenist has risen again, this time with its own domain here.
A favourite from the beautiful cover remakes by littlepixel.
The Jolly chair by Valdenassi is beautiful in materials, form and idea.
Wish I’d had it.
Unless Adobe has already spent vast resources porting their remaining suite of popular applications to run on Flash I don’t understand why they are wasting so much cash and public goodwill on what seems a secondary, if all-pervasive, product.
Adobe’s “ad”:
And the response.
This beautiful book, made by the Studio 3 folks from Oslo, Norway, teaches you typography in the style of a vintage children’s activity book.
The idea behind it is that you can learn about typography in a fun and colourful way.
You can look at the full contents, if you temporarily disable your flash blocker, from the book site here.
Update:
I recently came across this book in its Die Gestalten Verlag and am sad to say the print quality was awful.
I was only able to see the one copy so perhaps, hopefully, it was a one-off misprint. The whole thing looked fuzzy, and as though the colours weren’t properly aligned. So, either go for the first, Arctic Paper edition or make sure to check your copy before you buy.
As a half-italian the love of pasta is already in my blood, so finding a book that dishes up recipes in a bold typo/graphical style is too much to resist.
The video below shows it off beautifully and should really be made into an iPad version of the book.
/via kitsunenoir.com
Sometimes all it takes is getting up and looking at things from a different angle.
from imjustcreative