There is a lot of speculation as to what the future of publishing might look like. If one thing is for certain, it’s that it will involve a screen. Apple’s irresistibly cool hardware, intuitive software and lucrative App Store created a trifecta that arguably saved the music industry. With the iPad, Apple looks to do the same with the publishing industry, from books to magazines to newspapers.

A screen presents new opportunities for a once-static medium, while users demand richer more immersive experiences. The iPad presents its own challenges, like the exclusion of Flash, opting instead to provide these experiences via new developing web standards loosely referred to as HTML5.

To test these new technologies, I put together this interactive HTML5 demo using the Canvas element, Javascript and artwork from my Mecanum Wheels motion illustration.

A few caveats: This demo works only in the latest versions of Safari, Chrome and Firefox. On iOS devices like iPad, iPhone and iPad Touch, it may run slow because Javascript is processed much slower than the native Xcode.

An interactive HTML5/Canvas (no Flash) demonstration allowing users to discover how mecanum wheels work to allow vehicles to move forwards, backwards, side-to-side and rotate on the spot. Works best in Safari, Google Chrome, Firefox and Apple iPad & iPhone.

Some one-step how-to spot illustrations done for Canadian Family magazine’s Summer 2010 issue; How to eat the whole lobster, How to whistle with a blade of grass, How to make a jumpsie rope and How to raise an astronomer. Thanks to AD Colleen Nicholson who made this project a summer breeze.

One-step how-to spot illustrations to accompany suggestions on how to make the most of summer. How to make a jumpsie rope, How to eat the whole lobster, How to whistle with a blade of grass and How to raise an astronomer.

It should come as no surprise that I’m a huge fan of Mythbusters. I like their “failure is always an option” maxim, meaning if you have an idea you should try it out, what’s the worst that can happen?

While watching the program one day, I noticed something weird about their forklift — it moved sideways. It didn’t just turn on a dime, but actually moved perpendicular to the direction of the wheels. Upon closer inspection, they looked more like worm gears than wheels. The answer was just a Google away: The Mythbusters’ forklift is equipped with Mecanum Wheels, also known as Omni Wheels or Ilon Wheels. These wheels work by rotating independently, depending on the desired direction of travel.

I had an idea that this might make for an interesting motion graphic (above), since still images really don’t do this technology justice. So I tried it out (what’s the worst that can happen?)

What are Mecanum Wheels and how do they work? Mecanum wheels, also known as omni wheels or ilon wheels, consist of a hub with rollers oriented 45° to the axis of rotation. Perfect for tight spaces, they enable conventional forward & backward movement as well as side to side and even rotation. To accomplish this, each wheel turns independently. To move side to side, pairs of wheels oppose one another, acting like a worm gear or screw.

I’ve always been into music but only recently picked up a guitar and started to learn to play. I had seen guitar tablature (or “tabs”) before, but only knew it as some sort of esoteric shorthand musical notation encoded in monospaced gibberish; a specialized language for people who had studied music and practiced guitar to some degree.

When I started browsing for the best approach to learning guitar, the first page of every book, the first image on every site, the first video in every tutorial, was always an image like this:

Whether it takes the form of a drawing or marked-up photograph, this image is the standard starting point for learning to play guitar. Ignoring all other elements, the title and the image of the hand alone clearly communicate “to do this, do this.” To play the G chord, place fingers 1, 2 and 3 on strings A, E and e, in positions (frets) 2, 3 and 3, respectively.

The chord chart to the left abstracts this fingering map, representing the fingers, strings and frets in a simpler, more condensed form. It’s understood that these two images represent the same thing,”to do this, do this,” but without the fingering map the chord chart would mean nothing to the uninitiated.

The tablature (or “tabs”) on the right further abstract and condense the concept. We are presented with a column of our six strings with numbers representing the position (or frets) our fingers need to be in. The specific finger we use for each string/fret is taken for granted and omitted.

Whatever form it takes, this image is a technical illustration. It decrypts esoteric, specialized knowledge into general knowledge that any person could interpret and employ. With one image, I went from looking at a bunch of lines and numbers to music.

The first decorated trees were adorned with apples, strings of popcorn, candy canes and pastries in the shapes of stars, hearts and flowers. In 1847, Hans Greiner, an artisan in Lauscha, Germany, began producing more permanent decorations – glass baubles in the shape of fruit and nuts.

To do this, he heated a glass tube over a flame, then inserted the tube into a clay mold, blowing into the heated glass to expand it into the shape of the mold. After the glass cooled, a silver nitrate solution was swirled inside, the outside was hand tinted, and the bauble was finished with a cap and hook.

The ornament became vogue in the late 1840s, when a photo of Queen Victoria’s Christmas tree was shown in a London newspaper, decorated with lights and glass baubles from her husband Prince Albert’s native Germany. Today, holiday decorations are second only to gift-giving in seasonal sales. Ornaments are mass-produced world-wide, and about 20 small glass blowing studios still exist in Lauscha, Germany.

2009 was a great year for me. Thank you to everyone who was a part of it. I look forward to starting something new, solving problems and making things in 2010. Happy holidays!

Step-by-step instructions to performing a 360° “thumbaround normal” pen spin. (I can do this and a lot more with a pen!)

Made a couple additions to the site: An illustration of Boston Dynamics robotic mule, BigDog, and a spot illustration for Canadian Woodworking Magazine. Also made some minor layout changes and major backend changes that should improve the efficiency of the site.