Thanksgiving has come and past, and with that, our fourth annual By a Show of Hands competition has drawn to a close. The Rule29 crew was faced with the difficult task of setting down our turkey sandwiches and picking the winning examples from an amazing turnout of 134 hand turkeys. It wasn’t easy. There were some fierce arguments over personal favorites but we came to a peaceful consensus on this year’s winners.

Without further ado… Read the rest of the entry >

No design project is inherently easy – but if you were to ask designers which audience would be the most difficult to design for, you’d probably get “other designers” as a response more often than not.

Rule29 set out create a unique promotion for O’Neil Printing at this year’s AIGA Pivot conference that would help the in-kind sponsor stand out to the 1600+ designers (and other designerly-types) that passed through the marketplace to snatch up all the freebies. Read the rest of the entry >

The James Webb Space Telescope. Are you familiar? Named after the NASA administrator who served from 1961-1968, this telescope is set to replace the aging Hubble as our window into the furthest reaches of the universe. Hubble has allowed us to see further and learn more about our cosmos than any other device that I can recall. The JWST is set to build upon that legacy, and then some, with infrared instruments and a mirror that’s about seven times that of Hubble’s primary mirror.

Development and testing of the JWST is well underway, but the telescope is close to losing its funding entirely. Amid delays and cost overruns, the JWST is on the congressional chopping block. At some point, our leaders stopped dreaming.

Recently, this video from Real Time with Bill Maher was shared with me. Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium, gets fired up when Bill brings up the JWST and puts some of the congressional decisions in perspective (much more eloquently and passionately than I could).

I love the way Dr. Tyson talks so passionately about the dream that we’ve so carelessly let slip away after taking it for granted for so many years. NASA has the tools to tell the stories that will help inspire a new generation of kids that will grow up without a Space Shuttle. For instance, the #NASATweetups for Juno and GRAIL help tell the tale of an ever exploring NASA even without the Shuttle. Even administrator Charles Bolden is often outspoken with his emotions when discussing the Space Shuttle and future SLS programs – it’s a refreshing honesty and story that I wish more people in leadership positions would share. What will it take for the leaders in our government to start dreaming again?

A few months ago, one of our development partners, Floodlight Design, came to us for an update to their identity. The business had grown exponentially since the formation of the original identity and it deserved an update to reflect that. It was an incredible opportunity for us to really push the aesthetic and strategic boundaries of the brand. Read the rest of the entry >

It finally happened! As some of you may recall, way back in September I was selected to be a part of NASA’s tweetup for the 39th and final launch of Discovery. Long story short, after 115 days, Discovery finally lifted off on her way to the International Space Station on February 24, 2011. We were fortunate enough to be invited back by NASA and their amazing staff to witness the launch from the press area. It’s about three miles from the launchpad and, from what I’ve been told, just about as close as you can safely be to a launch.

As the countdown clock ticked down, everyone was getting situated in their spots for the launch. The edge of the press site was lined with on-lookers both Tweetup and press related. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so many DSLRs in one place before. I was armed only with my iPhone 4 camera and a desire to just soak it all in.

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