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"Pinpoint the Tension: This is where we start finding those weird links. Look for the elements that don't fit together, that seem opposed. Find two contrasting elements and isolate them."

I enjoyed this description of a creative brainstorming technique that involves connecting previously unconnected dots.

"CARI, or Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute, is an online community dedicated to developing a visual lexicon of consumer ephemera from the 1970s until now."

What’s the German word for existential dread mixed with nostalgia? Asking for no reason.

Fun gallery of vintage record sleeves. [via webcurios]

"Are you developing public services? Or a system that people might access when they’re in desperate need of help? Plain HTML works."

Good reminder that web design can fail without accessibility.

Nice explanation of why CSS is different from other types of programming. It's a positive feature of the Web that we don't have the same control as the printed page. (I keep telling myself.)

"Browse and download high-resolution, public domain artworks."

Endless art scrolling.

"Illustrators and designers know the power of good design to communicate a message or a feeling or an idea," Morris explained. Right now everything is changing so fast, and there is so much uncertainty and so much information flying around, I think everyone is really hungry for clarity and understanding.

I've seen these illustrations all over social media but it didn't register they were by the same team: cartoonist Toby Morris and microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles. These are great!

The web is becoming more and more ephemeral.

"Vanished are amazing pieces of writing on kuro5hin about tech culture, and a collection of mathematical puzzles and their associated discussion by academics that my father introduced me to; gone are Woodman's Reverse Engineering tutorials from my high school years, where I first tasted the feeling of dominance over software; even my most recent bookmark, a series of posts on Google+ exposing usb-c chargers' non-compliance with the specification, disappeared."

This article includes some steps you can take that could help preserve what you publish. Complex frameworks, walled-gardens, and serverless publishing trade away endurance for convenience.

"But everything that looks good doesn’t necessarily work well. In fact, those two traits are opposed more often than not: efficiency tends to look messy, and good looks tend to be inefficient."

I really enjoyed this essay about perceived efficiency and complexity. Especially with the Chesterton’s Fence kicker. Understanding an existing system before changing it is important.

I love the Paris summer olympics logo and type design. I’m a pushover for deco inspired type. Even though I know it’s the Mini Cooper move of forming fonts it always strikes me as hopeful future. And compared with some of the goofy Olympic logos of the past, this one is playful and clever.

Have I mentioned how much I like the Micro.blog layout? This is their discover page that shows recent updates. So clean. No like counts. No ‘share this’ button. No ads. No calls to add a comment or sign up or subscribe or download the app or turn on notifications. More like this please.

I really enjoyed this conversation between Jeff Veen and Mike Monteiro discussing Ruined by Design. There's nothing like hearing from two Internet Olds™ who watched the Web appear and had their idealism about it crushed in many ways. (And I say that affectionately as an Internet Old who has had crushed idealism.) They also discussed Chris Wetherell's remorse about automating retweets. There has been a lot of regret floating around lately. Tim Carmody called it The Builder's Remorse:

"This is the builder’s remorse. Not that you invented a thing, not that the consequences were unforeseen. It’s that you gave the thing to a power structure where things were overwhelmingly likely to end in ruin."

Web development as punk rock was a lot of fun for certain segments of the population. Now it's time to nurse our hangovers, clean up the garbage, and turn it into a profession. Mike Monteiro says it much better than that though which is why you should get his book if you haven't yet.