information architecture reading

(oh my goodness, this reading was one of the most well-written things i've read in a while. it was beautiful.)

richard saul wurman begins his introduction with a metaphor almost resembling a fable, telling of a tsunami of information and data, constantly flooding and washing up bits and pieces. there are those that charge smiling and confidently into it, groomed by a lifetime of pretending to know what they are talking about. but the flood keeps redoubling. they can't just scoop information up and walk away with it, indiscriminately clutching it like they have something valuable. there's too much and no way to correlate it, but everyone pretends that they understand it, because we have grown up believing that to be unsure of ourselves, to ask questions and admit that we don't know things, is to fail.

what must happen is that someone look at it all, the information, and rather than assuming they should know what it means, really analyze it, make relationships, pull it apart and try to put it into a usable formation, arrange it into a meaningful pattern so that others can understand without faking.

those people are the information architects, and they're here to take graphic design back from the dropshadows and gradients.

pardon my french, but. "hell yes."

knitting book final reflection

we chose a small book size because it was conceptually relevant in the hand motion of reading a small book resembling the motion of knitting, small and intimate in your hands. it was a challenge to reinterpret all of our information into a smaller size, however, because it had previously been quite large. more to come.

I LOVE HATS.

hat collection! first, arranged by type of hat.

next, arranged by color.

then, arranged in order of perceived silliness/practicality.