A WORD ON WINEHOUSE

So, I've been listening to Nina Simone and Billie Holiday for five years or so. They really spoke to my quarter-life crisis. Nowadays, I'm less tortured.

Still, soul and old-school style singers are all the rage lately with Amy Winehouse. She is not the first woman to wear thick black eyeliner, but since she has gone mainstream, her press coverage would have you believe she invented the beehive. And yes, I do love most of her music. At least with Mark Ronson. Musically, it is classic and classy. In the real world, not so much. I wouldn't call Winehouse a lady. Neither would she. This piece via PSFK delves into her popularity with the kids. It all just makes sense.

UNDERWERKET

Underwerket, or Lisa Grue, is always coming through with simple solutions to some of my design problems at work. I've worked with her on a project and now we are using her for our straightforward instruction. My favs of her work are the flat, predominatly black and white illos. She always does a very pretty femme face, without overdoing the doll quality. Check out these new pieces for Anni Sui she just emailed me. The girl is rocking it.

MANY STUFF

from many stuff: Annette Stahmer & André Heers

I love checking manystuff. There is always something interesting conceptually— and tons of great links.

FELTRON ANNUAL

Nicholas Felton's Annual Report is a feast for infographic nerds and number freaks. It is always awesome to see information ordered clean and easy to ingest.

I HEART MARC

Marc has done it again. This splashy sweet print dress makes me feel like spring might just be around the corner. Love the hint of 70's super graphics. See it at shopbop.

SPOON, THE BAND SITE

DANG IT.

You know, when you actually surf the web (so 90's!) you can find some nice stuff. I blogged the other day about a Spoon interview. From there, I linked to their bandsite. I went back yesterday and checked it out in detail. I love the usability and design. It makes so much sense. All of the menus act as their own movable post-its aka information panels. Of course this interface design would not work for a super commercial site, but for a band, perfect. The site is full of band snap shots and a shot of an old school hot chick opens the site and you can customize the wallpaper. It is full picture splashy, but clean. The details are maddening: the post-its are "stuck" with translucent tape, and even the page title uses a visual trick that only the super-dorky designer will see.

Of course I saw it.