Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps

An amazing collection of Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps from the late 1800′s, early 1900′s. The author has isolated the beautiful lettering and ornament from the map titles. I was delighted to see that someone also linked out to a Milwaukee collection (curated by UW-Milwaukee) in the comments.

Designing Delightful Experiences

An excellent article on Cooper.com on the “design of delightful experiences”.

“It is noteworthy when the design of an experience is so compelling that you feel wonder and delight. When designed right it feels totally natural, some might even say it is truly “intuitive.” No training is needed, no set-up, no break in flow, the tool fits seamlessly, improving without disrupting your experience; it’s like a little bit of magic.”

Paying Attention to the Mobile Market

It’s interesting to think about how articles like the two directly below will start to shape our client’s thoughts on their approach to web strategy. The call for mobile design has been building for quite a while and (from my point of view) really seemed to pick up momentum in the latter part of 2010. That’s not to say that it hasn’t been on the our minds for quite some time but I feel like we will soon start to see our clients more frequently questioning the need for a mobile strategy.

Link: Smartphone shipments surpass PCs
Link: iOS devices hit 65 percent of Apple sales

designspiration.net

One of my new favorites for inspiration. I was introduced via a tweet in which I saw someone stating their opinion on why this site is and will be better than FFFFound. Anyway check it out, I guarantee you’ll get hooked.