I backed my second Kickstarter project around 6 months ago. It was for the BAUHAUS Titanium Carabiner. I don’t know why I did it, I think I did because I found it cool. Maybe also because I have a thing for carabiners.

Anyway, I kind of forgot about the project after it got successfully funded. The good thing was the project’s founder, Sunny from MAS Designs, sent regular updates to us backers on how the project was coming along. I really enjoyed his updates. They were informative and really gave me an insight to what running a Kickstarter project was like. He mentioned the whole process being a frantic rush to meeting deadlines, dealing with bad manufacturers, rushing orders and everything else under the sun.

The Titanium Carabiner finally arrived in the mail last week. I love it. I’ve since attached it to a set of keys, and the bunch sits nicely in my bag now. Here are some photos. Sunny, I hope I’ve done your product justice.

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I hope I’m doing Standard justice.

I logged into wordpress today to a really nice surprise. I was puzzled because my site stats were showing a mini surge in referrals from Standard’s official website and really had no idea that this was coming. Upon investigation, I found out that my design of danl.im’s child theme was featured on 8BIT‘s official Standard Theme Showcase of classy customizations.

It totally made my day, and I’m really glad that my first foray into responsive site design has been pleasantly recognized. It’s a first for me, and I definitely hope it won’t be the last.

Of course, this wouldn’t have been possible without the help of Jason Bradley, Michael Novotny and John Saddington, who’ve all played a part in the development of danl.im. They’re all members of the awesome team behind Standard Theme and I think they truly deserve a shout out. Thank you guys!

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I’ve always loved how Apple puts so much effort into designing their products, and this video, Intention, clearly demonstrates their design philosophy and what goes on behind the scenes. There are so many people who love Apple, yet there are even more who hate them and criticize them for everything they do, every product they come up with and every move they make.

But if you were to strip all that noise away for a brief moment, forget about whether you’re an Apple geek or Apple hater, and spend the next minute and a half watching this video, you just might never look at the things the same way again.

“If everyone is busy making everything, how can anyone perfect anything? We start to confuse convenience with joy. Abundance with choice. Designing something requires focus. The first thing we ask is what do we want people to feel?

Delight. Surprise. Love. Connection.

Then we begin to craft around our intention. It takes time… There are a thousand no’s for every yes. We simplify. We perfect. We start over. Until everything we touch enhances each life it touches. Only then do we sign our work.

Designed by Apple in California.”

Forget everything Apple about the video you’ve just watched. Even then, it should form the basis of how we build and design our world, our lives and the things around us.

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This particular quote from WWDC by Sir Jony Ive really resonated with me. This is especially true in today’s world, when almost everything we look at or touch is interactive in one way or another. Design has never played a more important role in the history of mankind.

“Design isn’t just the way something looks. It’s the whole thing, the way something actually works, on so many different levels. Ultimately, of course, design defines so much of our experience. I think there’s a profound and enduring beauty in simplicity, in clarity, in efficiency. It’s about bringing order to complexity.”

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