2011
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December 2010 Ken Carbone Judges Regional Design Annual Print magazine “It’s pluralism on steroids, stylistically speaking,” quips Ken Carbone about New York City, which has always been defined by its eclectic population. Carbone, the region’s judge, feels that the city’s winners reinforce the impression that creative diversity thrives here. www.printmag.com PDF

December 2010 For Holiday Movie Posters, Too Many Versions Dilute the Message Fastcodesign.com In today's fragmented media landscape, where some would-be critic tweeting a negative review from a darkened theater can kill a film, movie poster design holds more weight than ever. Studios can spend from $30 million on marketing for a romantic comedy to over $80 million for an international thriller. In an effort to insulate itself from financial ruin, Hollywood's advertising strategy for movies often includes designing an assortment of posters to assess which one attracts the best audiences. An understandable practice, but when broadcast through ever increasing media channels, can lead to some mixed results. www.fastcodesign.com PDF

November 2010 Inside the sketchbooks of the world's great graphic designers Graphic by Steven Heller and Lita Talarico This is a treasure trove of design inspiration for professionals, students, or anyone engaged in the visual industries. Almost all books on design present the finished article. Rarely do we gain an insight into how visual solutions have been reached or the exploration, experimentation, and embryonic ideas behind them. In this ambitious publication, some one hundred of the world’s leading graphic designers and illustrators open up their private sketchbooks to offer a privileged glimpse into their creative process. The result is a visual tour de force. www.thamesandhudson.com PDF

October 2010 Hats off to The Hat Book Felt & Wire Photographer Rodney Smith doesn’t always do big books. The Hat Book, on which Smith collaborated with author/designer Leslie Smolan, is smallish by contrast, about 7 inches high and just a bit wider. Like a great hat, the book is wonderfully mysterious — even romantic. www.feltandwire.com PDF

October 2010 GDUSA announces Paul Pierson + Rachel Crawford, Associate Principals GDUSA Carbone Smolan Agency promotes Paul Pierson and Rachel Crawford to the position of Associate Principal. "As a legacy design and branding agency, change is the constant that keeps us relevant," says Ken Carbone, Chief Creative Director. "This appointment of new partners is very much in that spirit," he says. www.gdusa.com PDF

October 2010 Ken Carbone and Pals Reimagine State License Plates NeenahPaperBlog.com “I doubt that any car owner doesn’t have some emotional attachment to their car unless, of course, it’s a lemon,” says Ken. “Then the state government comes along and demands that we slap an annoying piece of metal to the bumper. It’s a fundamental design problem that hasn’t been seriously addressed in decades.” www.neenahpaperblog.co PDF

October 2010 Cravath website recognized for its engaging lawyer biographies Above the Law So why are are law firm websites so focused on proving their attorneys know a lot? Because creating bios that make people like you and trust you are far more difficult to create. These bios require strategy. So what about the lawyer’s bio will make them likeable? This is not an easy question, but it is a crucially important one in drafting effective bios. One of the keys lies in understanding the strengths of an individual attorney. www.abovethelaw.com PDF

October 2010 Great Design Requires Great Clients Fastcodesign.com It's the Oscars of American graphic design. 2300 entries. 16 judges. 125 winners. All that's missing are the sequins and Hollywood spotlights but for many designers, the AIGA's 365 Design Competition is every bit as exciting. www.fastcodesign.com PDF

October 2010 Empowerment Thirty Conversations on Design For the second installment of 30 Conversations on Design, Little & Company asked 30 of the world’s most creative professionals two questions: “What single example of design inspires you most?” and “What problem should design solve next?” Their answers might surprise you. And, hopefully they’ll inspire you. Discover what they have to say. www.thirtyconversationsondesign.com PDF

September 2010 Journeys of Inspiration FastCompany.com Design inspires us, but what inspires designers? To find out, Canon armed a few of the best with EOS 7D cameras and set them loose in their respective cities to capture images and videos of their inspi- rations. As it turns out, everything from pistachios to a walk up the subway stairs can have an impact on the mind of a designer. fastcompany.com PDF

September 2010 Molto Delizioso! Eataly Arrives in New York City Fastcodesign.com With a warm hug and a kiss on both cheeks, Eataly, the largest artisanal Italian food and wine marketplace in the world, opened its first location in the Flatiron district of New York City. At 42,000 square feet, it’s equal in size to the arena at the Roman Colosseum, and features a megamarket fully stocked with cured meats and fresh fish, cheeses, fruits and vegetables, handmade pastas, desserts, baked goods, coffees and teas, canned goods, sauces and olive oils -- and that's only on the main floor. fastcodesign.com PDF

August 2010 Worse than Kong! New Tower Threatens Empire State Building Fastcodesign.com Fifteen Penn Plaza is the new gorilla on the Empire State Building's back, a 1,190 foot glass tower designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli that the New York city council approved plans for earlier this week. Slated to rise within 34 feet of the Empire State Building's 102 stories, the new addition will reside a mere two blocks away and is poised to become an imposing addition to the city’s revered skyline. fastcodesign.com PDF

August 2010 Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP website chosen as a Communication Arts webpick of the day CommArts.com Using images sparingly and trading Flash animation for a type-driven, simplified HTML structure that allows visitors to view content on all media devices, this site presents the firm’s strong, professional image. www.commarts.com PDF

July 2010 What makes a great partnership? Crain's New York Business.com Why do some pairings soar while others crash and burn? Mr. Wagner and Mr. Muller, authors of Power of 2: How to Make the Most of Your Partnerships at Work and in Life, explore a number of factors that make for success, like complementary strengths, a common mission, mutual trust and open communication. Fine, but ask entrepreneurs with partners, and you'll hear about all that and more. www.mycrains.crainsnewyork.com PDF Crain's printed journal PDF www.crainsnewyork.com

July 2010 Art Abounds! Ken Carbone’s Poster a Finalist in the 2010 Chicago International Poster Biennial Chicago International Poster Biennial Ken Carbone’s Frida & Diego poster, originally designed for the AGI-sponsored KahloRivera100 exhibition, will be on display later this summer for the second annual International Poster Biennial in Chicago. The Biennial honors designs that illicit an educational or emotional response, reaffirming the place of posters as a “quintessen- tial public art form.” Carbone’s poster is a playful homage Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, emulating the structure of a playing card to demonstrate the duality of this royal couple in the history of art. chicagobiennial.org PDF

July 2010 Indestructible: The Design of Old Glory fastcodesign.com More American than apple pie, baseball and obesity is the American Flag. With Independence Day approaching “Old Glory” will be cele- brated in bunting, at barbecues and with plenty of “bombs bursting in air” at fireworks displays. On the Fourth of July everyone is a patriot and no one seems to mind commercial exploitation of our national symbol. fastcodesign.com PDF

June 2010 CSA Work Featured in Graphic Design Solutions textbook Graphic Design Solutions Part how-to reference textbook and part showcase of graphic design applications, Graphic Design Solutions, 4th edition, features a selection of CSA work. Taubman branding, W.L. Gore exhibition design, Aether Apparel logo and branding, and Ken Burns’ “Baseball” brand identity and merchandising program were all selected as prime examples of effective visual communication for this compendium of design education. PDF

June 2010 If Texas License Plates Were More Badass Swamplot.com Whose idea was it to make the new standard-issue Texas license plates look like cheezy souvenirs from some island celebration vacation? Well, this should fix that: Here’s Houston graphic designer Craig Minor’s new no-nonsense version, intended to look especially sharp below the front grille of one of those mean wader pickups comin’ right atcha. And hey look, it’s bilingual! Swamplot.com PDF

June 2010 Toyota, Your Logo Is Broken Jalopnik.com In the space of a few short months, Toyota saw its public image go from hero to zero. Fast Company's Ken Carbone takes a thoughtful, humorous look at why the big T's logo is due for a change. Jalopnik.com PDF

June 2010 The Potential of Plastic Cups & Other Possibilities with Ken Carbone NeenahPaperBlog.com Ken Carbone is a smart man. He plays guitar. He is an accomplished speaker. He has a successful blog on Fast Company that gets folks riled up. He and his partner Leslie Smolan and other colleagues at Carbone Smolan (CSA) have a client roster that would bring tears of joys to the eyes of those of us who labor for less, um, erudite clients. The Louvre? Tiffany & Co.? Brooklyn Botanic? The High Museum of Art in Atlanta? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And more. www.neenahpaperblog.com PDF

June 2010 How To Fix The American License Plate Jalopnik.com From a design standpoint, the American license plate is a mess — some states' efforts are simple and appealing, but others are visual disasters. Ken Carbone of Fast Company commissioned a few designs he thinks'll clean things up. Jalopnik.com PDF

June 2010 Rebranding the License Plate: 4 Designers Clean Up Graphic Road Kill FastCompany.com "Back to the future" best describes the new license plate issued by New York State in April. The "Empire Gold" design which is now appearing on streets, has been deemed "quite unappealing" by more than 80 percent of New Yorkers polled by WCBSTV. www.fastcompany.com PDF

May 2010 Seattle’s Best Coffee Logo Is a Blend of the Bland FastCompany.com In the spirit of full disclosure, I confess that I drank my last cup of coffee 35 years ago. So I shouldn’t care about the re-branding of a legacy Seattle coffee merchant. However, the new logo introduced last week by Seattle’s Best Coffee deserves a branding taste test. www.fastcompany.com PDF

May 2010 ICFF: The Best Branding Behind the Brands FastCompany.com It's fair to say that 99 percent of people on the planet would see ICFF as 145,000 square feet of "unnecessary." However, for the remaining one percent of us who love design, it is an annual bazaar of the new and notable from the commercial and domestic landscapes that is not to be missed. www.fastcompany.com PDF

April 2010 The Toyota Crisis Calls for a Logo Tune-Up FastCompany.com The bad news at Toyota is in overdrive. Since the recall of the Prius for its deadly acceleration problems, the carmaker has been hemorrhaging sales and consumer confidence. Now, even its luxury brand, Lexus, is under investigation for "stability" problems. Ouch! www.fastcompany.com PDF

April 2010 The New Benjamin? Not So Money FastCompany.com It may be more legend than fact but when it was time to choose a symbol for our new nation it is said that Benjamin Franklin preferred the turkey to the bald eagle. Wish granted. The new $100 note that the Treasury introduced on Wednesday is a missed design opportu- nity. It was created with the criminal mind in mind and it looks it. www.fastcompany.com PDF

April 2010 Photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson: Father of Photojournalism FastCompany.com What is photography? What is a photographer? And, what is photo- journalism today? These three questions came to mind as I studied the 300 photographs at the new Henri Cartier-Bresson exhibition that opened at MoMA last week. The show entitled The Modern Century focuses on the master's most productive decades, the 1930s through 1960s. Curated by Peter Galassi, the show features iconic images that brilliantly chronicle the joy and tragedy of the human condition, all in black and white. www.fastcompany.com PDF

April 2010 "American Trademarks" Traces the Origins of Our Logo Lust FastCompany.com In the year 100,010, some evolved species will be digging through ancient digital rubble and find a strange visual iconography made of tiny colorful squares with rounded corners. They will diligently attempt to decipher what we meant by "I am T-Pain," "Doodle Jump," and "Zombie Farm." Finally, they will conclude that our native tongue was something called Apps. www.fastcompany.com PDF

March 2010 London, We Have a Problem: U.K. Space Logo Proves Graphic Design Is Rocket Science FastCompany.com Last week Great Britain announced the formation of a new space agency. At the event Science and Innovation Minister, Lord Drayson, said: "The action we're taking today shows that we're really serious about space. The U.K. Space Agency will give the sector the muscle it needs to fulfill its ambition." Britain's space industry can grow to £40bn a year and create 100,000 jobs in 20 years." This all sounds exciting, but the new agency's logo unveiled at the event is nothing to cheer about. www.fastcompany.com PDF

February 2010 Stone-Age Animation in a Digital World: William Kentridge at MoMA FastCompany.com Opening today at the Museum of Modern Art an exhibition entitled William Kentridge: Five Themes celebrates the work of the enormously influential South African artist who is a dominant force in contemporary art. Kentridge emerged from relative obscurity in the late '90s with a series of animated films entitled "Nine Drawings for Projection." These were films of expressionistic drawings done in stop motion technique or what Kentridge calls "stone-age animation." www.fastcompany.com PDF

February 2010 Iran: Looking Towards a Bright Future? FastCompany.com True, every picture tells a story. But which one? The front-page photo in Monday's Wall Street Journal gave me a chill. Did Iran detonate a nuclear device? The Cold War era image of stern men donning protective glasses shielding them from an atomic blaze came to mind. www.fastcompany.com PDF

February 2010 Super Bowl XLIV Ad Quiz: 30 Brands. 30 One-Second Ads. How Many Can You Spot? FastCompany.com What do you do if you want to advertise on the Big Game but only have a $100,000 ad budget? Try a one–second "blink" ad. It's a daunting design challenge to get a powerful brand message to stick. www.fastcompany.com PDF

January 2010 Hey Stupid! Diesel Thinks You’re Awesome FastCompany.com Earlier this week I saw a couple of striking posters that caught my eye. They were bold, typographic and used hot colors. That was the good part. Then I read the message: SMART LISTENS TO THE HEAD. STUPID LISTENS TO THE HEART. BE STUPID. www.fastcompany.com PDF

December 2009 Guilty by Association: The Colors of Christmas (and Other Holidays) FastCompany.com Banished to the fringes of the spectrum are innocent color combina- tions that are doomed forever to be associated with holidays. This time of year the world is awash in red and green signaling the spirit of Christmas, good will toward men and mass hysteria at the mall. www.fastcompany.com PDF

December 2009 Inspiration or Rip-Off? From “I Heart NY” Tees to Amex Smiley Face Ads FastCompany.com Years ago, I participated in a brainstorming session with Richard Saul Wurman, the entrepreneurial wiz and founder of the TED Conference. During our meeting he made a simple statement: "Ideas are free, it's what you do with them that counts." A chill ran up my spine. I said nothing for the rest of the meeting, for fear that any creative spark I offered would be fair game. www.fastcompany.com PDF

December 2009 CSA Sells, YOU Buy School of Visual Arts: MFA Designer As Author School of Visual Arts (SVA) faculty member Ken Carbone puts his products where his mouth is with CSA’s 2009 holiday card, which was highlighted on SVA’s MFA in Design News blog. A “decidedly entrepreneurial venture,” the card doubles as a chocolate gift guide, matching personalities to products from a range of high-quality chocolatiers. Surprise “The Tree Hugger” in your life with a treat from Original Beans chocolate, or personalize a LogoChoco bar for “The Brand Guru” executive, all with the help of CSA’s resourceful greeting. www.design.sva.edu www.carbonesmolan.com/ecard2009 PDF

December 2009 Heard on the Field The Wall Street Journal With all the talk about brain injuries, Ken Carbone may be the only person lamenting the outside of football helmets these days. The New York graphic designer praises the symmetry of the Vikings’, Rams’ and Eagles’ helmets, the simplicity of the Cowboys’ and Browns’ and the tiger-stripe pattern of the Bengals’ helmet. PDF

November 2009 We Won! Print Magazine Declares CSA a Winner in their 2009 Regional Design Annual Print Magazine This month, Print magazine selected a logo that CSA designed as the winner of their 2009 New York City Regional Design Annual. Chosen from nearly 5,000 entries, the logo, created for Aether Apparel, em- bodies the brand’s sophisticated functionality and portrays an infinity sign circling a mountain peak. Check out the logo, along with infor- mation about the designer’s inspiration, in the magazine out on the stands in November. PDF

November 2009 CSA Work Featured in Brand & Branding Publication Brand & Branding First a brand is born, then it is made. Carbone Smolan Agency’s NIZUC resort campaign and Aether sportswear identity secured spots in Brand & Branding, a painstaking selection of branding projects and corporate images from around the world whose appeal lies in their convincing graphics. Aether PDF Nizuc PDF

November 2009 The Case Against Lowercase: Design Experts on Re-branded Aol. FastCompany.com Aol.’s new rebranding, which includes modified capitalization, punctuation, imagery and campaigns, has received attention across blogs and media. Fast Company posted a sneak peek of Aol.’s new campaign, and some design crticism from Ken Carbone and a variety of other experts. www.fastcompany.com PDF

November 2009 Man Ray: An Artist Any Designer Could Love FastCompany.com Man Ray has one of the coolest names in the history of art. However, he was born Emmanuel Radnitzky. He rejected his birth name moved to Paris in 1921 and became the sole American in the vanguard of Parisian Modernism. This transformation represented a conflicted identity and his deep desire to escape the limitations of his Russian Jewish past. www.fastcompany.com PDF

November 2009 Penalty! Unnecessary Blandness! Redesigning the Worst NFL Helmet Graphics FastCompany.com The conservative columnist George Will once said football combines the two worst things about America: violence punctuated by committee meetings. As a designer who occasionally gets caught up in the fury of the game, I'd like to add graphic design to what's wrong with football. www.fastcompany.com www.howdesign.com www.tmagazine.com www.thewallstreetjournal.com PDF

November 2009 Big League Chew: Phils Out-Spit Yanks FastCompany.com To quote the late, great sportscaster Jim McKay, "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat" never looked better than in high-definition TV. The pristine, crystal clarity of the widescreen image adoringly captures an athlete's grace, strength, speed and--in the case of baseball--his saliva. www.fastcompany.com PDF

September 2009 Creepy, Crawly, Crafty: A Tapestry Woven by Eight-Legged Artists FastCompany.com What could possibly drive two men to spend $500,000 of their own money over four years, become employers of a million female spiders, and rekindle an indigenous tradition on the island of Madagascar? The answer: To create an incredibly beautiful artifact that is unique in the world. www.fastcompany.com PDF

September 2009 Full Throttle: Vintage Motorcycles, Custom Choppers, and Racing Machines FastCompany.com This slideshow highlights five of my favorite custom bikes from the exhibition, Full Throttle: Vintage Motorcycles, Custom Choppers, and Racing Machines at the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont. I’ve limited the technical information because I have no idea how to describe the impressive features of these motorcycles. More import- antly, I want to avoid incurring the wrath of any burly bikers who may be reading this should I confuse a brake caliper with a clutch housing. The exhibition is up until October 25, 2009. www.fastcompany.com PDF

September 2009 Designed to be Wild: Full Throttle Choppers In Vermont FastCompany.com I've never ridden a motorcycle and probably never will. Too fast, too dangerous. However, this conviction was seriously challenged when I visited Full Throttle: Vintage Motorcycles, Custom Choppers and Racing Machines at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont this past summer. Now I can almost imagine leather pants, a cut off denim jacket, and maybe a star-spangled helmet in my designer wardrobe. www.fastcompany.com PDF

September 2009 Why Does My Firm Own Everything I Do? Intellectual Property & You Core77 For young designers at a firm, the lines are often blurred when it comes to the ownership of their work. Does it belong to the employers, the employees, or the clients? To alleviate some of the confusion, Ken Carbone weighs in on intellectual property rights issues for an article by Katy Frankel in Core77 magazine. He offers up a few of CSA’s poli- cies, which are constructed to allow for “the platform for creative entrepreneurialism.” By providing designers the appropriate recog- nition for their original work, Ken says it “ensures that the best creative ideas stream through the firm.” www.core77.com PDF

September 2009 The Customer Is Always Right. Really. Sales & Marketing Management Magazine Leslie Smolan makes a case for the customer in her new article for Sales and Marketing Management magazine. When Canon USA, leaders in imaging and printing, gave its “customers” (CSA designers) the chance to be the first to explore the innovative possibilities of the new imagePress C1+, CSA knew they had to think big. By using the printer to invent a new brand and marketing campaign for an imagi- nary bakery named Zest, CSA proved that “creative users will find unexpected ways to use the equipment and create more markets for the printer.” Along with an overview of the Zest project, Leslie also lets us in on tips for any successful new product launch—all of which point to the power of the customer. www.salesandmarketing.com PDF

September 2009 A Better Way to Health Care Reform: We Need an Information Design S.W.A.T. Team FastCompany.com Long before the "town brawls", "grass roots vs. Astro-Turf," and "death panels" became the three rings of the health care media circus, an op-ed piece appeared in the Washington Post positing that the U.S. health-care system was critically ill. The diagnosis? Terminal Information Design. www.fastcompany.com PDF

August 2009 Les Paul: The Guitar, the Logo, the Legend FastCompany.com Guitarist, entertainer, pioneer, inventor, audio engineer, hit maker, Grammy winner, "Architect of Rock & Roll": Les Paul earned all of these titles. He's best known for creating the first functioning solid body guitar back in 1941. Other inventions include multi-track recor- ding and special effects that changed the course of 20th-century music. If you could imagine a Mount Rushmore of innovation featuring Thomas Edison, Edwin Land, and Tim Berners-Lee, Les Paul would be in their company. www.fastcompany.com PDF

August 2009 Bill and Kim's Excellently-Posed Adventure FastCompany.com There they are, sitting side by side in a photographic balance of power. President Bill Clinton looking his sartorial best and Chairman Kim Jong Il looking his janitorial worst. This photo released yesterday by the Korean Central News Agency, is designed to demand the respect the totalitarian state of North Korean so desperately wants. This tableau is so perfectly choreographed that it begs visual analysis. www.fastcompany.com PDF

August 2009 Ron Arad at MoMA: Who Needs Discipline? FastCompany.com Ron Arad's exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York is a lot about "no." No limits. No right angles. No expense spared. Entitled No Discipline, this show is the first major retrospective of Arad's work in the United States. He is well known for his creative versatility and the experimental way he fuses technology, manufacturing processes and a daring array of materials into objects, furniture and architecture. www.fastcompany.com PDF

August 2009 Angst Hotel and Residence featured in HOW magazine HOW, Creative Talent Angst Hotel and Residence, once a premier luxury resort on the Italian Riviera, is returning to its origins with the help of Carbone Smolan Agency. New owners Bizzi & Partners turned to CSA to “bring the property back to life” after being abandoned for years. In order to create a contrast from the strong name itself, the rebranding reflects a “refined, somewhat feminine, soft, elegant and delicately ornamented” design to achieve a balance in the new identity of the hotels and residences. PDF

July 2009 François Robert Finds a Face for FLOR FastCompany.com The unintended consequence of industrial design and manufacturing is the parallel humanity that lives in the objects of our lives. It's a global population and they surround us. A wall outlet seems to be expressing a face of fear. A baby's pacifier possesses a bulbous nose. The front end of a vintage roadster can suggest some fierce facial features. www.fastcompany.com PDF

July 2009 Aether Featured on Brand New Brand New Aether Apparel is a new line of sportswear specifically made for the “outdoor enthusiast who wants the function of outdoor garments with- out sacrificing modern design aesthetics.” The icon is meant to evoke “infinity and clouds circling a mountain peak” and supports the lofty name of Aether, which can poetically mean “the heavens” or at the very least, the air and space above and beyond the clouds. www.underconsideration.com PDF

July 2009 Architecture In Golden Gate Park: A Matter Of Life And Lifeless FastCompany.com During a recent trip to San Francisco I had the pleasure of visiting Golden Gate Park, which has undergone a wonderful transformation since my last visit almost ten years ago. I had planned to spend the day there and was pleased to see that I was not alone. The park was packed and so was my agenda. I wanted to visit both the de Young Museum designed by Herzog & de Meuron that opened in 2005 and the recently debuted California Academy of Sciences by Renzo Piano. I had seen press coverage of both and was anticipating a delicious serving of world-class architecture. www.fastcompany.com PDF

July 2009 Dear SyFy, Imagine Greater – Please! FastCompany.com We have been warned. The Sci Fi channel announced that it was changing its name to SyFy a few months ago, and the switch happens tomorrow. Unfortunately Bruce Willis is not going to rescue us from this colossal attack of bad branding and phonetic foolishness. This name change has been widely criticized, so I’m only adding a final pinch of salt to the wound on the eve of its debut. www.fastcompany.com PDF

June 2009 Cell Phone Roundtable FastCompany.com They follow the speed of developing technology and new gadget lust. As "must have" features are offered we see tempting new ways to simplify life. However, let's face it, there's also status to owning the latest and a stigma to having the old. www.fastcompany.com PDF

May 2009 GDUSA announces Ken’s Blog GDUSA May’s issue of GDUSA announced Ken’s recent and on going blogging stint with Fast Company. Ken’s blog, ‘Yes to Less’ centers around design critiques of a broad array of subjects that he rates from Flaw- less to Clueless. Fast Company kicked off the blog in April, with a video highlighting Ken’s Curiously Curious habit of documenting life in his private journals. www.fastcompany.com PDF

May 2009 Hot Diggity Dog! Design That's Good Enough to Eat FastCompany.com If you're looking for a tasty lunch wrapped in tasty design, DOGMATIC is for you. Located on a street full of fast food fare near New York City's Union Square, DOGMATIC stands above the rest. They opened their doors last October just as the world was imploding, but their top-to-bottom commitment to great design shows no sign of compromise. www.fastcompany.com PDF

May 2009 One in a Billion: iHandy Level - A 'Yes to Less' Review FastCompany.com One app in particular is quite ingenious and employs the iPhone's built-in accelerometer to great effect. The iHandy Level, one of five tools in the iHandy Carpenter suite, is a virtual bubble level and is very cool. Just to be certain, I calibrated it with my "real" bubble level, and then began straightening picture frames around my house. It works and it even allows you to adjust the bubble sensitivity for greater accuracy. The illustrative design of the interface mimics the look of real tools in nice detail including the feel of machined metal and wood grain. Now, I might not trust this for serious measurement, due to the short 3-inch span of the iPhone screen, but as a portable design aid it's pretty sweet. www.fastcompany.com PDF

April 2009 Ken Carbone: A Look Inside His Private Journals The Donut Project Ken Carbone is eternally curious. The Carbone Smolan Agency cofounder has been documenting his life in journals for 15 years, recording a wealth of visual inspiration collected from his daily activities. The Donut Project recently blogged about these troves of art, linking to coverage from the first installment of Carbone’s Fast Company blog, “From Yes to Less,” where he critiques worldwide design on a scale from “Flawless” to “Clueless.” The journals are also the basis of one of Carbone’s popular talks, “Curiously Curious: Celebrating Analog in a Digital World.” www.thedonutproject.com PDF

April 2009 Flawless to Clueless, Part III: Peanut Birdfeeder FastCompany.com Five years ago our family moved out of Manhattan to Palisades, New York, 30 miles north on the Hudson River. One of the great joys of living there is that it is teaming with wildlife. Among this host of fauna, I'm most fond of the wild birds that I keep happy with a daily feeding of nuts and seeds. Unfortunately, I've been unimpressed with the many birdfeeders that are commonly available. Most look more like cages and lack any design merit. www.fastcompany.com PDF

April 2009 Flawless to Clueless, Part II: The Fender Telecaster FastCompany.com What constitutes a "game changer?" It's usually an idea so bold that its effect completely alters preconceived notions of what something can do or should be. Think Apple's iPhone, Toyota's Prius or even the typeface Helvetica. www.fastcompany.com PDF

April 2009 Curious Fast Company magazine Features Ken Carbone Guest Blogger Ken Carbone is featured as a guest blogger for Fast Company Magazine Online. His blog entitled “Yes to Less” will critique some design classics, some personal favorites and a few latest and greatest that celebrate simplicity. The spectrum will be very broad and include graphics, industrial design, architecture, interiors, web sites, digital applications and curiously brilliant design solutions found in nature. www.fastcompany.com PDF

April 2009 Viva Le Louvre! FastCompany.com From the moment I.M. Pei's design for the pyramidal addition to the Musée du Louvre was introduced in 1985, it was the subject of controversy and international attention, derided as a violation of the museum's classical integrity. But two decades later, it is one of the top tourist attractions in Paris, attracting some 8.5 million annual visitors. www.fastcompany.com PDF

January/February 2009 Nizuc Communication Arts: Exhibit Carbone Smolan Agency’s NIZUC campaign was recognized in Communication Arts Magazine’s Exhibit, a monthly showcase of ‘outstanding examples of graphic design.’ Leslie explains CSA’s unique approach to designing for a resort that didn’t yet exist, “We brought the brand to life by combining the essence of Mayan culture with a modern aesthetic and developed the brand strategy, name, identity, sales and marketing collateral, Website, advertising and promotions. This brand platform became the concept from which all decisions about the hotel and resort flowed.” www.commarts.com PDF