From the daily archives:

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

I’ve really been enjoying the Guardian’s latest freebie series, a series of posters extolling the virtues of some of the world’s most iconic buildings. As well as including original architectural blueprints, there are plenty of features about where each building’s design fits in to a greater scheme. For instance, today’s poster on Arnos Grove tube station makes reference to the 1938 tube train stock, the design of which was inspired by WS Graff-Baker’s five principles of good design:

  1. Will it work?
  2. Is it as simple as possible?
  3. Could it easily be maintained in service?
  4. Can it be manufactured?
  5. Does it look well?

If only all designers used these principles today, eh?

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Why write?

October 16, 2007

It may be a tough question to answer, but I love Neil Gaiman’s attempt:

The best thing about writing fiction is that moment where the story catches fire and comes to life on the page, and suddenly it all makes sense and you know what it’s about and why you’re doing it and what […]