This winter has been the snowiest on record in the D.C.-metropolitan area. Last week’s blizzard confined me to my house for several days resulting in constant window-watching to monitor the storm’s progress. Observing the accumulation, the design nerd in me couldn’t help but appreciate how the snow reduced the surrounding landscape into a beautiful, clean canvas. Any object not blanketed by white exquisitely popped out because it wasn’t competing with the usual, surrounding visual clutter.

 The classical composer, Debussy, once noted that “Music is the silence between the notes.” … read more

My 7-year-old son is in a Spanish immersion program — his Science and Math classes are conducted in Spanish, while his English and Reading classes are in, well, English.  Having had years of Spanish in high school, and having grown up in Los Angeles, my Spanish is usually adequate to get the gist of the his math homework instructions.  The exception to this is when they include more specific math terms, which “Hi Roberto, how are you today” just didn’t cover.  Yesterday, his … read more

I’ve always been fascinated with design of informational symbols, referred to in the industry as iconography. This art form has played a pivotal role in shaping our cultural and educational environment. Approximately 32,000 years ago early man decided to paint images on the inside of caves to document stories. Roughly 5,000 years ago, Egyptians used hieroglyphics as a means of communication. These early artists saw the power of communication through symbols.

Well-designed icons are like beacons rich in symbology. Today we see many icons daily and most of them communicate very effectively, … read more