Found via September Industry, a few more infographic videos in the style of the last one from Japan…

This one by H5 for Royksopp’s song, Remind Me.

This one, another from H5, but for nuclear company Areva.

And finally this oldish iMac advert from the UK (don’t know the producer).

Some dope animated infographic goodness from the land of the rising sun…

No better way to get the low-down on the high-level than a good infographic.

Chilling back in Sumner (a small hamlet near Seattle) right now, drinking some wine next to Jojo, and reading my father’s back issues of Dwell. I just came across a short article about Youth Design Boston, a program that introduces and integrates high school students with design mentors. Through the program, youths are made aware of various creative industries, and the way they are run. Most of the kids in the program go on to college, to focus on art or design.

I’ve always been a big believer in design as a path towards success. And my assumption is that most high school students do not have a view into the various realms of the professional design world. I also assume that if they did, a good many kids would be attracted to the lifestyle, the creativity, and the freedom that comes with being a designer, or working closely with them.

Christmas is already here - at least in the malls - perhaps it’s time to plan for a new years resolution to get more involved with Bay Area youth and design?

Pierre Igot in his Betalogue rants poetic about the horrors of the CS4 installer. I don’t agree that all his nit-picks are 100% relevant to non-obsessive tech geeks, but I do feel his pain. Unfortunately, the installer is quite complex and not nearly as well-presented as it should be.

As we prepare for CS5, it’s important that Adobe get a tight handle on the installation experience. Whether our customers download the Suite, or buy it in a box, the installation experience should be as intuitive and seamless as possible.

The more I use Flash Catalyst, the more I become interested in the code behind my sketches. It’s amazing how easy it is for me, a designer who isn’t motivated to code, to learn how Flex projects are structured, how motion and animation are programmed, and how to extend the code Catalyst generates.

So now I’m stoked and interested in coding Flex. Which makes me even more excited to have the new Tour de Flex as a resource. Tour de Flex is an RIA that provides useful, centralized examples of Flex capabilities, code snippets, custom components, and skins. It’s brought to you by a few Adobe Flex evangelists. Thank you guys! You can download it here.

It’s been a very slow blogging week for me. I’ve been recovering from MAX, and a nasty cold. Finally, I’m feeling better and this masterfull photo set of Obama on the campaign trail pepped me up more than a few notches. Take a peep, there are some truly moving photos in there.

Here’s a final plug for my MAX session titled “Sketching Interactivity.” It’s tomorrow, Monday, from 5-6pm. My objective for the session is to focus on how Thermo can be used to make your design process much faster and better, and to show you how to create some very cool and custom things using Thermo and Flex 4.

Here’s what you will learn:

1. Design Process
I’ll give you insight from real-world experience into how to improve your design process using Thermo to create interactive sketches. You may also learn about how to improve your design process, even without using Thermo!

2. Thermo Overview
Your’ll learn the rhyme and reason of Thermo. I’ll give you a good overview of how to use nearly every aspect of the application.

3. Create a Media Viewer
I’ll show you how to create three different versions of an interactive media viewer in 20 minutes.

4. Create a Flashy Portfolio
Finally, we’ll create a flashy portfolio navigation system in 10 minutes.

This great project by robotlab:

The installation ‘bios [bible]’ consists of an industrial robot, which writes down the bible on rolls of paper. The machine draws the calligraphic lines with high precision. Like a monk in the scriptorium it creates step by step the text.

Ever since I was in grad-school, I’ve been interesting in making information tangible. What I like best about the bios[bible] project is that it presents a great output tool - a robot scribe.

Now, imagine switching inputs, but keeping the output the same. For example, instead of the bible’s information as input, imagine using search queries, the contents of google groups, or even your company’s daily email flow. Same concept, different information flow. But what if we wanted more meaning added to the information? That’s where the remix comes into play.

To remix, imagine that a fairly stupid artificial intelligence program scans your company’s email for tone of voice. If the general tenor is happy, then the happiness variable is mixed into the output mechanism, altering the font style written by the robot scribe. Happiness might make the written script is a bit more lively, or even alter the font family. Over time, it would be possible to read the meta-changes in the company’s mood, via each day’s email output.

I’m loving this video advert for Toshiba by Hungryman, an evil genius worldwide media firm. As my friend Tim points out, the advert uses quite a lot of video-processing, and hipsters.

A nice touch: It also incorporates one of my favorite Crystal Castles songs, Air War.

If You Could is the self initiated project of London design studio HudsonBec. Working with established designers and illustrators as well as exciting emerging talent we produce work for publishing, exhibitions and events. If You Could has been featured in international design and style press including Creative Review, Grafik, Design Week, Computer Arts, Wonderland.

Two posters available each month, only for a month. I wish this project was on my radar last month: I would have had the chance to snatch this Ryan Waller’s “Up with Dystopia.”