Archived entries for web

The iPad for the Elderly

Even my grandmother has an iPad.

Before my grandfather died, my grandparents each had their own Mac, their screens facing each other as they sat at their respective second-floor desks. My grandfather’s computer was surrounded by volumes of his chemistry books and patents of his own design, while my grandmother’s was framed by a window looking out onto Muddy Cove. These were Apple people, and though I was a PC devotee in my earlier years, I enjoyed disrupting the tyranny of solitaire on their machines to play Ingemar’s Skiing Game during summer visits.

Every few years, they would upgrade to better and better Macs. My grandmother, a former teacher, mastered all manner of patience games, many bearing exotic names like Spider and Klondike. In addition to playing solitaire, she could send and receive email, check the news, monitor the weather, and waste time on Facebook. She was, if not a power user, perfectly competent.

Continue reading…

Portfolio

I’m pleased to announce my new portfolio of personal and professional projects. I call it “Folk Taxonomy” and it covers my branding, print and web work from the past few years. I’m also proud of the site itself, which is clean, responsive and grid-based. Have a look around!

Folk Taxonomy: The portfolio of Brian Cook

23 Favorite Google Web Fonts

Almost as soon as the World Wide Web was a real thing, designers have been pining for more type options than those offered by the core web fonts: Arial, Comic Sans, Courier, Georgia, Impact, Lucida, Palatino, Tahoma, Times New Roman, Trebuchet and Verdana. While Typekit has delivered on the promise of a web type revolution, it carries with it some baggage that doesn’t sit perfectly with many designers. Jeffrey Zeldman sums up these misgivings admirably. Personally, it’s important that I feel ownership over what I create, and Typekit’s rental model doesn’t quite fit. I also have a strong affinity for free. All of which is to say that Google Web Fonts scratches my itch. Continue reading…

Folk Taxonomy: A Portfolio

I’ve created a minimalist portfolio of my design work to keep those projects distinct from the more varied and editorial content that appears on this site. I call it “Folk Taxonomy”, which is any sort of vernacular naming system (see Wikipedia). Some items I’m particularly excited to share are:

Enjoy!

Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

I was recently moved to give a donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

“Leukemia is a type of cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow, the spongy center of bones where our blood cells are formed. The disease develops when blood cells produced in the bone marrow grow out of control. About 3,500 children are diagnosed each year.”

I hope you’ll join me.



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