Stuart Kolakovic is an illustrator based in Rugeley, UK. His work appears in magazines, on book covers and concert posters. He even designed a skateboard deck. Kolakovic has illustrated for many major clients, including The Telegraph, Wired Magazine and Sony. He is currently working on Lichen, his first comic book.

Color is part of what makes Kolakovic’s style unique: his palette is faded, desaturated. The same teals and turquoises, yellows and oranges are present in many of his pieces. Shapes are simple, geometric and cut-out. Kolakovic applies a subtle texture to his work.

With an endlessly updating list of browsers being used on a variety of operating systems, web developers and designers require a tool for compatibility testing. Adobe fills this void in their suite of applications with BrowserLab, a new cross-browser compatibility tester. Released by AdobeLabs as beta in June 2009, it is still being revised through user comments and feedback. Adobe currently provides a free, limited version lasting through the end of 2010, for users to preview the application’s functionality and debugging. Starting in 2011, there will be a $10-20 monthly fee to use the service. For Dreamweaver (CS4) owners, there is a free plug-in available for download on Adobe’s website. This plug-in allows local testing of websites, while the web version requires a site to be live in order to download the code.

Currently, you can test with:

• Firefox 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5 (Windows XP and Mac OS X)
• Internet Explorer 6.X, 7.X, and 8.X (Windows XP)
• Safari 3.X and 4.X (Mac OS X)
• Chrome 3.0 (Windows XP)

The Euro icon, released on December 12, 1996, is the most recently designed symbol for a currency. The Euro character was the final selection out of ten other symbols presented to the general public. Its shape derives from the Greek epsilon (ε), and the “C” character, which references the cradle of European civilization . The two horizontal lines have been attributed to the stability of the European market. Before the symbol was created, the European Commision (EC) listed four criterion for the design:

It should be a highly recognisable symbol of Europe. It should have a visual link with existing well-known currency symbols. It should be aesthetically pleasing and easy to write by hand.

Flaunt is design network UnderConsideration’s first self-published book. It will officially be released February 22, and is currently available for pre-order.

Authors Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit interviewed, photographed, designed and produced the book. It’s objective is to provide a resource for inspiration in conjunction with a reference for those creating a physical design portfolio and entering job interviews. It contains over 40 case studies, almost 20 interviews and over 800 interviewers’ and applicants’ survey responses. The information gathered with these methods have been consolidated in an organized and concise manner. Gomez-Palacio and Vit created useful info-graphics and prepared exhaustive photo-documentation of each portfolio without sacrificing room for descriptions. Some of the information they include regarding individual portfolios are: the dimensions; typefaces used; type of paper; retail stores visited to collect materials; printer used; production time, and, of course; production cost.

I recently wrote about the Australian production company, Blue Tongue Films, and decided to take a deeper look into two founders, Joel and Nash Edgerton. They have received 25 awards since they began in 1998, including a Short Film Award Honorable Mention at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Since 1992, they have directed, produced, acted, edited or wrote in over 90 films.

The Edgertons provided interesting insights into both their inspiration and background, especially if you are considering a career in the film industry and require some guidance.

The Journal wrote on The Font Game, the iPhone edition of the font recognition game, a month ago. We sent a set of questions to John Boardley, the creator of the popular type blog I Love Typography. He recently wrote back with answers. In the interest of a new, more complete perspective on the subject, his responses are reproduced below.

The web version was created years ago, what led to the idea of the Font Game for the iPhone?

The iPhone’s popularity, and that it’s the perfect format for a game like the Font Game. And because it would be a challenge and an opportunity to work with Justin and Kari.

Why the word “fargo?” Why not “Handgloves,” or something else?

Handgloves is too wide for the iPhone screen in portrait mode — and too many letters. We don’t want to make it too easy. Fargo is happy compromise, and includes the a and g, which often can be quite distinctive.

Sorry I’m Late is a fantastic short animation by director Tomas Mankovsky. This was shot at the Amadeus Centre in London in December of 2007. The film was shot with a 1:1 ratio, successfully shattering my expectations of the limits of film and animation. Documentation on the creation of this piece can be found at the film’s website.