I'm generally opposed to murals, but I'd totally love this on one of our building's garage doors.

Recent Reading, Food Visuals

A look at the scale of modern American farming.

What 2,000 calories looks like before you eat it.

Visual management, kindergarten style

Toyota's lean operations system emphasizes making work and data visible inside the workplace. It part what's been meant by the term "visual management". It's an idea you can see in practice in any kindergarten. And no one has more fun with it than them!

Marilyn Monroe's lard and bacon order

Delivered to the Beverly Hills Hotel in March of 1960 when she was filming "Let's Make Love."

Approved use of a sign

Michael Pollan on labeling

 "I think we should have a lot more transparency about food, not less. I think we should label food if it contains pesticides, but nobody is talking about that. It's really peculiar that if you're not using pesticides, if you're organic, you have to pay to put a label on declaring you aren't using pesticides. It should be the other way around."

For my money Michael Pollan one of the most considered food thinkers of our time. His insights are profound but also realistic, sensible. This comes from a brief interview by New York Magazine's Grub Street about his new Netflix documentary Cooked, which I'm watching now. If you haven't read his book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, I highly recommend it. 

Recent reading, design edition.

Explaining graphic design to four year olds.

A comparison of Lush and Body Shop's website. Hat tip to Joseph Richardson.

An incremental design improvement, made over a weekend kaizen event, and the result is a machine that has outlasted four "improvements". A great article on why the B-52 is still the main big plane for the U.S. armed forces. 

Recent reading, moguls edition

The making of Shinola. A look inside a bit of the sausage making as a new luxury brand comes into existence right under our noses. 

"The biggest business incubator in New York" is a place that sells friend anchovies? The founder of Smorgasburg, the grandaddy of the new modern food hall movement, talks about the economics of running a modern food court.

Chuck Williams, one of the founders of the modern food catalog and how he got started.