Welcome to this week's edition of our Quality Linkage column. Please enjoy this week’s collection of interesting and entertaining links. Pour yourself a classy drink, find a comfortable place, and relax.
?: I can't put it any better than Jeff Sheldon of Ugmonk did in his newsletter: “Watching Zhu Caifeng make a teapot will be the most soothing 2 minutes of your entire day. So satisfying ?”
?: Are you the type of person who always has too many browser tabs open? Well, hopefully you'll take comfort in the fact that not only are you among friends here — how else do you think I write these columns, hm? — but this kind of behavior has apparently been an issue since at least the 16th century. Truly, nothing is new under the sun.
?: After looking at The New Dating Timeline (illustrated by Liana Finck), I'm all the more glad to be married and not dealing with the dating scene anymore.
??: Austrian design engineer and technologist George Cave wrote a whole article on the UX design of LEGO control interfaces, and if you're exactly the kind of nerd who gets excited by reading a phrase like that, hi, let's be friends.
♟⚙️: My son and I enjoyed watching this woodworker build a wooden mechanical chess set with gear hinges:
My grandpa would've appreciated this guy's workshop setup.
?: One of the bigger pieces of news here in the States this past week was Joe Biden's announcement of Senator Kamala Harris as his vice presidential running mate.
Like everyone else, famed type designer and Hoefler&Co. director Jonathan Hoefler, who had already been approached to help develop the campaign's typographic identity — and I must say, it's lovely work — wasn't notified beforehand who the nominee would be. And yet, a logo would be needed for the ticket as soon as the announcement was made, so what is a designer to do?
The answer? Design a logo for every credibly potential candidate, just in case. Obviously.
+ Here are 10 design experts weighing in on the new logo and what it represents (or doesn't, as the case may be).
?: Last week's link list featured a site aiming to be the “Unsplash of music.” Our April 18th link list brought a similar project to your attention.
Today I've got yet another resource of royalty-free songs and sound effects to share with you: the “One Man Symphony” collection.
With more than 200 tracks (and counting) that have been released under the CC BY 4.0 license — meaning you're free to share and adapt the material, even for commercial purposes, so long as you give credit to the project — this is another treasure trove of soundtrack materials for your next YouTube video, Twitch stream, video game, podcast, or whatever else you might need it for. ?
+ Check out the FAQ posted on Reddit by the creator.
?: I appreciate the charming silliness of this greenhouse where the “plants” are actually everyday objects. I also respect the sheer amount of dedication to their gimmick.
?: I've already bought the lemons I need to make Chef John's state fair lemonade recipe because it sounds amazing.
Neat Stuff We've Published Recently
- Sandqvist's “Stig” organic cotton canvas backpack in Honey Yellow sure is an eyecatcher.
- Zach Gage and Jack Schlesinger made a Sudoku app that doesn't suck. Go figure!
- Enhance your portable work setup with Plugable's USB-C to HDMI Multiport Adapter.
- Though it’s designed more for weighing jewelry, this highly accurate pocket scale works wonders for dosing espresso shots and single pour-over coffees. (On the subject of kitchen scales, this one is designed to hide amongst your cookbooks.)
- The Global “Classic G-2” chef's knife was often recommended by Anthony Bourdain, and for good reason.
- Ugmonk's refillable Discbound Heirloom Journal is made to be treasured for a lifetime and will wear beautifully with age.
Got any suggestions for articles, videos, stories, photographs, and any other links you think we should be posting in our weekly Quality Linkage? Please do let us know on Twitter.