Category: Design

This Is My Job

Actually I rarely do design these days, I project manage; so I get to be the interface between the Client and the Designer. One day I’ll find the perfect cartoon representation of designers, I’ll link that post to this, and that’ll be my new website! :)

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Cork County Council Crest

The Cork City Council crest is an excellent example of simple, representative design, but the County Council one is much more interesting. Well, for nerds anyway. Here’s the logo:

corkCOCO

And here’s your anecdote for the pub:

TeachNet: In May 1899 Mr. Robert Day was appointed by the Council to select the most appropriate design for the seal of Cork County Council from 65 submissions. The winning entry was from Guy and Company Ltd., Cork, and is described as follows:

“The design contains within the trefoil shape the shields of four ancient boroughs corporate, Youghal, Kinsale, Bandon and Cork, the latter occupying the central position as the chief city of the province, and which gives its name to the county. In the angles of the trefoil are placed the shields of three of the less important towns within the jurisdiction of the County Council. The whole enclosed in circular form, the upper part bearing the title and at the bottom the year of institution. The raised outer rim is composed of a running border of shamrocks. Celtic ornament is introduced into the sunk trefoil shape.”

The three towns not mentioned are Castlemartyr, Charleville and Midleton, all of which had been boroughs corporate prior to the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act, 1840. Clonakilty had also been a chartered borough but surprisingly never had a shield or coat of arms and this perhaps explains its omission from the shield.

Micro-USB Mobiles in Europe

Obsolete before it actually happens?

Top mobile telephone suppliers have agreed to back an EU-wide harmonization of phone chargers, the European Commission said on Monday, hailing the pact as good news for consumers and the environment.

The Commission said the agreement would involve the creation of an EU norm, and that the new generation of mobile phones would use a standard micro-USB socket to ensure compatibility.

via Reuters.

Sliding House

You’ll be seeing more of this kind of thing from now on, as I gear up to buy a house in the next year or two. Obviously this is pie-in-the-sky for someone on my current income, but the ultimate aim is to self-build something unique, for life. We need to buy something in the interim to get ourselves on the ladder though, if possible something that will prove we can actually self-build! :)

(Home-Designing.com via Digg)

Palm Pre

[This has been in my drafts since January 9, only noticed it now. It does have a motion sensor and landscape mode btw.]

The wife’ll kill me, I want one of these and I only have my Treo Pro a couple months.

Palm Pre

It seems to settle a major deficiency in the Treo Pro, namely Windows Mobile. It’s not a bad mobile OS per se, but the hardware is a tad underpowered for it, and it has niggles that can’t be addressed because of it’s closed nature. That said, I don’t know if the Pre’s webOS will be open either, but hopefully Palm will have generated Clue from their Windows adventure. And drop it forevermore…

One other apparent deficiency would appear to be a motion sensor and/or landscape mode. You’d think that if it had it, the presenter in these PC Pro videos – well worth watching by the way – would have demoed it; although it has to be said that despite best effort, he’s no Steve Jobs and might have been better off deferring to someone with more charisma.

(Via Slashdot.)

Bookstairs!

Gizmodo: Here’s a great idea for anyone who loves books and doesn’t have enough apartment space or a Kindle: a “secret staircase” made of English oak, lined with books left, right and center, leading to a loft bedroom in a Victorian 1898 apartments block.

Bookstairs!