Read At Work
I’m a web designer/programmer by trade (Please don’t judge me based on this website. Please.), and so it’s odd that I don’t post about more innovative web design here. The truth is, I’m picky. I’m pretty loose about a lot of the other creative fields, but in my own I’ve got a very selective eye. I know good design when I see it, but I don’t celebrate it. I celebrate great design; the kind that boggles my mind in ways I didn’t know it could be boggled. Surprisingly it’s a new website for the New Zealand Book Council that shook me up this morning. The Read at Work website mimics a Windows XP desktop, but each of the folders on the desktop contain books to read set up as faux Powerpoint presentations. The desktop idea has been done a couple of times in the past, but the design behind the Powerpoint presentations is really genius. I just literally cannot explain how perfect that shit is. I also like the idea behind the site: to read at work without getting caught. It fosters a love of reading, while at the same time turning it into something mischievous, something to “get away with.” And on top of that the selection of books they’ve incorporated into the site are great. In a field where innovation is severely limited by technology, clients, time, and talent, it makes me a little misty to see that there are still great works to be done. Damn fine job.
Subscribe to my feed.
June 12th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Are you sure innovation isn’t also severely limited by… people reading at work all day?? It is amusingly analogous to (likewise legal) glass pipes and bongs, though.
June 13th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Reading at work is analogous to getting high? I’m not sure I see the connection. Hell, if I were high all day at work I think my level of innovation would skyrocket. My level of production would fall, but what I did manage to crank out would be strange on a whole new level. I never should’ve quit chiefin’.
June 13th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Ah, perhaps that was too vague… I meant the “legality” of what looks like a normal desktop (glass pipe), but which is used for “illicit” purposes (chiefin’).
I like your interpretation better, though.
I connected to your site through our common friend Bunny… I read it every few days, and I really like it. I don’t have time to search for new art, so you are like my culture consultant, and like your mom, you’re totally free!