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 A monthly review of Web design and resources. October 2001
The only national nonprofit organization that is dedicated solely to preserving and enhancing the aesthetic character of U.S. communities and countryside, Scenic America agitates to reduce billboard blight, keep highways and byways scenic, and protect landscapes from road building that destroys natural beauty. Arguing that "growth may be inevitable but ugliness is not," the group posts news of its wide-ranging advocacy for state affiliates in California, Florida, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, and Texas, as well as a loose coalition of other scenic conservation groups nationwide. You'll also find information on the Last Chance Landscapes program, an annual listing that focuses on endangered scenery. Autotroph <www.autotroph.com> Brooklyn-based provocateur Barry Deck is best known for Template Gothic--the ever-so-nineties display font that was just about everywhere you looked a while ago--but he's no mere typographer. Deck posts cool corporate identity and interactive work for print, broadcast, and the Web at this quirkily contrary self-promotion. An autotroph, he explains, is "any organism that manufactures its own food through some internal chemical process" (photosynthesis, for example). Deck plans to build out from a sparsely illustrated portfolio that includes stills--no motion--from his broadcast identity for the Sundance Channel, and layouts and font showings for his stripped-down but expressive redesign of Raygun magazine. Architecture Now <www.architecture-now.com> With a smattering of news stories about integrating design thinking into business strategy, this site looks like an online zine. But it's really a promotion for the consulting services of Stephanie Smith, an author (Money: To Get Rich Is Glorious) and teacher who happens to run a flrm that helps corporations use architecture and design to enhance their marketing efforts. Targeted to company managers, the site is a terrific sales pitch for Smith's services, but the bulk of its avowedly hip editorial content appears to have been frozen sometime last year. Sigmund Freud Museum Vienna <http://freud.t0.or.at> Although still open to the public, Berggasse 19, the famed Vienna home and office of modern psychoanalysis's founder, is missing most of its original furnishings. That makes the vintage images of Freud's legendary digs--taken in 1938, the last year he occupied the premises before fleeing the Nazis--both an invaluable record and a fascinating glimpse into the grand old man's highly refined aesthetic. Housed under Topography on the museum site, a portfolio of photographs by Edmund Engelman shows that Freud's bastion, with its imposing rusticated facade and soaring entryway, was quite the showplace. In his consulting rooms, the famous couch looks strangely sybaritic; display cases are crammed with effigies of Egyptian deities and assorted bric-a-brac. Stylishly displayed, the accumulation of rampant visual metaphors packs an undeniable, visceral punch. Design Architecture <www.designarchitecture.com> Sponsored by Cosential, an "application service provider" for the architecture, engineering, and construction trades, this helpful and informative site features a portfolio of trendy international projects, a calendar of industry events, and special sections highlighting project types and business issues of interest to the field. From the home page, thumbnails take you to pop-up photographic enlargements and magazine-length coverage of projects in the news, complete with designer and client information. With daily updates on breaking trade news and new features every several days geared to coverage of design celebrities, this is one online promotion that transcends its humble origins.
As a building material, PVC is cheap, easy to install, and fast replacing such traditional stuff as wood, concrete, and clay. But it also has high environmental and human health risks of which consumers are often unaware. Notorious for their rambunctious seagoing protests and strident eco-activist rhetoric, the folks at Greenpeace strike a conciliatory note here, with a searchable archive of over 200 products from companies worldwide that offer options to this toxic and nearly ubiquitous construction staple. A user-friendly interface makes it easy for everyone from do-it-yourself enthusiasts to large companies to locate readily available alternatives to most (if not all) applications for which PVC is now in use. Browse our Screen Space archives for even more reviews of Web design and resources. Ken Coupland can be reached at screenspace@metropolismag.com. |
