Simon Griffee
Design consulting, art direction, photography.

December 2016

42nd Street and 6th Avenue, New York City, December 2016

Published 2016 December 23

SomaFM #

Over 30 unique channels of listener-supported, commercial-free, underground/alternative radio broadcasting to the world. One of my favorite channels is Mission Control.

Via di Santa Sabina, December 2013, Rome, Italy

Published 2016 December 21

Iconography Exploration for the Word ‘Capture’

A pencil drawing of a net and origami butterfly on a green background.

This is in the context of paper documents in a project where the words ‘scanner’ and ‘scan’ also need icons. I think the butterfly needs to look more origami-ish so it is not confused with a real butterfly, which I wouldn’t want to capture. Growing up I was often amazed by the iridescent Morpho menelaus when walking in a forest near my home.

Mino, Rome, Italy, January 2016

Published 2016 December 20

Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda #

An online handbook written in part by a group of former congressional staffers that attempts to demystify political influence and strengthen resistance to Donald Trump. See also: Nine Ways to Oppose Donald Trump.

5th Avenue and 42nd Street, New York City, September 2015

Published 2016 December 16

Nina and Bruce, Beacon, New York, November 2015

Published 2016 December 16

5th Avenue by NYPL, New York City, December 2016

Published 2016 December 13

Times Square 42nd Street Station, New York City, November 2016

Published 2016 December 12

Broadway Near Wall Street, New York City, March 2016

Published 2016 December 11

6th Avenue and 42nd Street, New York City, March 2016

Published 2016 December 8

The Battery, New York City, October 2015

Published 2016 December 6

Keep It Extremely Simple, or 66% of the Population Can’t Use Your Design #

Usability guru Jakob Nielsen:

Overall, people with strong technology skills make up a 5–8% sliver of their country’s population, whatever rich country they may be coming from. Go back to the OECD’s definition of the level-3 skills, quoted above. Consider defining your goals based on implicit criteria. Or overcoming unexpected outcomes and impasses while using the computer. Or evaluating the relevance and reliability of information in order to discard distractors. Do these sound like something you are capable of? Of course they do.

What’s important is to remember that 95% of the population in the United States (93% in Northern Europe; 92% in rich Asia) cannot do these things.

You are not the user, unless you’re designing for an elite audience.

42nd Street Near Grand Central, New York City, October 2015

Published 2016 December 5

14th Street by Union Square, New York City, October 2015

Published 2016 December 4

Trivium Art History Project #

The humanities are losing funding in academia, and people don’t see art history as relevant to their lives. Trivium’s goal is to bring art history back to culture.

This Is the Most Dangerous Time for Our Planet #

Stephen Hawking:

We now have the technology to destroy the planet on which we live, but have not yet developed the ability to escape it. Perhaps in a few hundred years, we will have established human colonies amid the stars, but right now we only have one planet, and we need to work together to protect it.

To do that, we need to break down, not build up, barriers within and between nations. If we are to stand a chance of doing that, the world’s leaders need to acknowledge that they have failed and are failing the many. With resources increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few, we are going to have to learn to share far more than at present.

Chinatown, Boston, Massachusetts, August 2015

Published 2016 December 1

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