Dangle the idea of a carrot in front of a horse and, not surprisingly, you’re not going to get the same response. That’s where one of the joys of being human comes into play. We can feel good about nothing. Really good. The No-Prize isn’t a new idea, but it’s quickly catching on as one of the easiest ways to generally make your users feel good. Foursquare has badges, Reddit has karma, Xbox Live has achievements – what do these all get you? Absolutely nothing.

What do you get for spotting continuity errors in Marvel comic books? Yep. An empty envelope.

Well, nothing physical. What they give users is a goal, something to brag about, a reason to come back – it’s the gold star on your math homework, it’s an affirmation that what you’re doing is good and that you should keep doing it! Who can really say that they wouldn’t appreciate a good pat on the back now and then?

One of the most interesting online representations of incentivization is Reddit.com. Reddit is a social news aggregator where the non-existant incentive is key to the existence of the site. Users submit stories and make comments – then other people can vote on those stories and comments based on how useful/interesting they find the content. The points (called karma) that users accumulate are worth absolutely nothing; you don’t get more influence because of them, and don’t get penalized for not having them. With over 2 billion unique pageviews this past December, it’s hard to argue that the karma isn’t working. It’s an interesting concept – and it can serve multiple purposes. For example, instead of penalizing users for being rude, irrelevant, or posting spam, karma discourages the negative behavior by rewarding and recognizing the good users. The community largely self-moderates itself through positive reinforcement.

So, when you’re developing your next website, app, or product – maybe you should stop and ask yourself what nothing can do for you.

I think a lot of people don’t understand typography, and Google should have just omitted that detail [from their Icecream Sandwich announcement] completely – I know they’re proud of it but all the “variant of Helvetica” talk is just annoying; really with that logic Arial would be a variant of Helvetica to most people as well.

Additionally – yes, you can overlay characters and say “look at how close they are!” but a typeface is really a lot more than just the characters – for example, the kerning and kerning pairs (space between letters) are much tighter in Roboto, which really plays a huge role in how a font reads. In body copy Roboto feels completely different from Helvetica, and becomes easier to read at smaller on-screen sizes (it seems to be just a hair heavier than Helvetica as well). Here’s a quick demonstration in body copy for skeptics out there: http://imgur.com/TCPH5 – they’re not as close to each other as a simple character analysis would lead you to believe. I imagine readability was a huge factor for the Google team, and in my opinion they can go ahead and hang the “mission accomplished” banner on this one.

The criticism of Roboto thus far is kind of like the criticism of a car’s body without any inspection into how it handles on the road; sure maybe it’s a bit ugly up close – but in the end it’s all about the drive.

This was a bit of a ramble, but as someone who works with type daily I get annoyed by somewhat amateur criticisms of typography from tech columnists. It’s a bit silly to get annoyed by it, sure, but it’s my job.

Sure, maybe up close it’s a bit ugly – I won’t argue against anyone saying that – but overall I think the most important factor in this case, readability, has really hit the mark.

This Campbells soup packaging is great. Clear plastic so you can see the soup (likely reusable), hefty kraft paper labels; blows everything else on the shelf out of the water, even the classic Campbells cans.

The label design itself is a bit outdated in my opinion (which does kind of give it a more authentic feel) – but the feeling of the packaging itself is just so right.

Arby’s has a new site design that isn’t something straight out of 1970? Good work guys! Love the nice usability considerations like not having to click through to a separate locator page to enter your zip. I’ll take 5 Arby’s Melts please.

Piece of a new artsy piece I’m working on, part of a series of artwork that isn’t art for work.

I really need to make more time to do random personal doodles like this. You can go like this and other things I do on forrrst if you’re into that type of thing.

Awesome simple typesetting for the opening of John Carpenter’s The Fog (1980) – appears to be ITC Kabel Ultra.

Love the artwork and typography on these machines I spotted while walking by a laundromat in Boston – the best part is that they’re not trying to be retro – the machines are just, really, really old. Nothing says ’70s like a black, red, and yellow rainbow.

Here’s a perfect example of the difference between hiring a designer versus cheaping out with a $50 online logo service. Granted, I’ve seen far worse than the before shown here; but it’s just such a bland representation of something that has so much potential for fun. Hell, logos from Horrible Logos have more character and presence – and at least you get a guarantee.

Image from Brand New B-Sides.

There’s nothing like staring at fried food all day (except maybe getting to eat it). As one of my primary tasks at Connelly Partners I work with art directors to concept, create and update Papa Gino’s ever-changing POP materials; everything from window posters, register inserts, menuboard panels, counter displays, floor banners, website promo assets, packaging, and even employee uniforms. I also work with photographers and food stylists to provide art direction at photoshoots when new images are required, and retouch the resulting images when necessary. What you see here is just a small sampling of the massive amounts of material that I help create for Papa Gino’s.