City of The Dead

RIP- our big tree.
10.19.07

Down at The Tube Station at Midnight

Print Magazine online has an article about the expanded font set Johnson Underground, designed by local font gurus P22.

The article speculates about the popularity of Gill Sans over Johnson Underground- a font famous to all London train riders, designed in 1916 for the London Transit Authority by Edward Johnson. This font had a popular rebirth with the digital remix years ago by P22, which was again remixed on it's latest addition (2007) of a super, powerful pro pack. It's like getting all those bonus tracks/beats on your extended music CD.

I have always loved the font, and it's delightful curves- it was like riding on the subway or a mountain pass highway. But it was clearly missing the extended faces, specifically an italic (I always slanted it in Illustrator- yuck) and bold (same deal, adding a stroke to beef it up).... but now we got it all including: thin, medium, heavy, small caps, light, demi and more.

The P22 website states that the Pro font collectively contains over 5000 glyphs! Holy extras, Batman!!

Was the font designer Eric Gill just trying to improved on the original Johnson Underground font with his Gill Sans- a very popular font? Let the type-geek discussion begin at Printmag.com....

A Rush And A Push And The Land Is Ours

Communication Arts online has posted a great feature on designing with type- Type is a Many Splendored Thing. For some designers, type poses a great and difficult task- the balance of light and heavy, the space between characters, between sentences, between block of copy and headlines- but a satisfying challenge worth conquering. The CA piece states:

Typography is complex, an intricate science. To the designer, and connoisseur of type, choosing to use a particular font in one’s work is a big decision. The implications are huge; the characters carry weight in terms of how they are perceived as well as what they are referencing.

This is exactly why I love to especially design posters and logos. A lot of the logos we design are built upon type-- often merging a symbol with text characters. The fun part for me is always the careful balancing of the individual characters. The same with posters, using bold and visually strong fonts, it is often about the perfect space between the characters, not just the characters themselves.

Read the article online- it features a really cool gallery of examples including last year's Typecon poster art designed by Roy Burns & Clifford Stoltze. The tagline was "Boston T Party" and featured multiple variations of the the letter T on tea bag shapes. Designing a type poster for type people- could this be one of the greatest challenge of all!

Who Needs Forever

Another one of those clever top ten lists for no particular rhyme or reason... just needed something.

Top 10 Things I Have Learned This Past Month (though some of them I already knew....) --

10) The Wiggles have absolutely no-talent and are weird old guys (similar to Jay Leno).

09) Rock is not dead.

08) Getting older is not bad. It gets better- look at wine.

07) Some girls are bigger that other girl's mothers.

06) Getting out of the office is good.

05) Don't sit and wait. Do.

04) Meat is murder.

03) Helvetica used to seem awfully plain-- but it is not, it is very cool.

02) The past lives in cyberspace (at least the last 10 years or so)

01) Don't say 'yes' when you really mean 'maybe....'

00) Don't trust the internet. She lies.

Waiting For The Sun

Waiting, wait, wait, wait.......

This Friday is a waiting day.

I am waiting for our development team to deliver, so I can present to a client.

I am waiting for a freelancer to finish a project.

I am waiting for some clients to get back to me, so we can move forward on a few jobs.

I am waiting for the drop of the puck for today's 1st Sabres game of the 2007-08 season.

I am waiting to hear color-man Harry Neale call his 1st game as a member of the Sabs broadcast team.

I am waiting to see that 1st Sabres goal of the regular season- who will it be? Any guesses...? (I saw ex-Sab Danny Briere score for his new team- Philly- last night on CBC).

I have been waiting 6 weeks for the tree executioners to come back like they threatened they would- they have not. Are they not coming.......??

I am waiting for design inspiration to strike like a bolt from today's clear blue (and extremely warm for Oct. 5th) sky.

I am waiting for my lost friend 'Uncle Rico' to finally contact me- it has been over a year!

I am waiting for that new client to call back like he said he would.

I am waiting to get paid on SOME PAST DUE invoices (but alas, the mail already came today with no ducats).

I am waiting for it to snow like it did that one October Friday- right about this time, I believe last year (very scary prospect)!

I am waiting for Saturday- I hope the weather is as nice as it is today! I won't have to work and can spend the day with the family.

I am waiting for an email back from a friend.

I am waiting for the song title to pop into my head.. what is that song I keep hearing!?!?! it's got a hip-hop I beat and you can really bug out to it.

I am waiting for a call back (there's the phone now!... false alarm).

I am waiting to have lunch- I think I'll just do that- one less thing to wait for.....

Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World

INDEX: is a global non-profit network organization that focuses on Design to Improve Life – e.g. design that substantially improves important aspects of human life – worldwide.

Every two years in Copenhagen, awards are given in five categories and the winner in each category receives a prize of €100 000. The winning designs are chosen by an international jury consisting of leading designers, design researchers, design writers and design thinkers from Europe, Asia and the U.S.

Announced August 24, the winners include:

BODY: Mobility for Each One
A super-cheap to produce ($8 US dollars!!!) prosthetic leg created by this Canadian designer.

HOME: Solar Bottle
An easy-to-use water decontamination system. Contaminated water is filled into transparent plastic bottles that when exposed to full sunlight for six hours, the crap in the water is destroyed- making it drinkable.

WORK: Tongue Sucker
A simple-to-use, on the spot medical device designed to stop unconscious folks from dying inspired by the London terrorists bombings in 2005. Designed by industrial engineers team from the Imperial College and the Royal College of Art in the UK.

PLAY: Tesla Roadster
The Tesla Roadster is a 100% electric vehicle, with zero emissions and zero-to-sixty acceleration in four seconds. Full electric and sporty too! Zippy!

COMMUNITY: OLPC XO
The XO Laptop is aimed to increase computer literacy around the world-- 99 % of children in developing countries leave school without having touched a computer. It is about the size of a textbook and lighter than a lunchbox, making it easy for children to carry. XO is designed to be used in parts of the world where many classes are taught outside, and therefore it is sunlight-readable as well as shock and moisture resistant. Very Mac-looking...

Winner of the 2007 People's Choice Award: Antivirus – a cap to protect against needle infections.

For full details, photos and information about the organization view the website.

Less Than You Think

Graphic designers are the new DJs.

I paid a visit to Krudmart on Elmwood Ave. yesterday to check out the cool Tees and I thought this was a pretty funny graphic- graphic desigr. Everyone wants to be/is a graphic designer, you know... Everyone with a computer and a mouse is 'designing'. Stevie is right, everyone is doing it. Unfortunately you need skills to do both...

As my friend Nate always says about DJs... 'Look at me, I am playing other people's music!"

Fall is upon us. The tree still stands 4 weeks later. And we don't stop rockin'-- courtesy of the latest Scion CD featuring Chicago DJs Flosstradamus!

So Hard Done By

Fontastic!

I have been in a real font mood ever since I saw Gary Hustwit's Helvetica movie a few months back, and on top of all that, hearing the news that TypeCon will be in Buffalo next Summer is awesome! Like I had previously mentioned, Jill and I attended the Toronto edition in 2002, and it was a lot of fun.

Anyway with fonts on the mind, I give you this little bit of font-geekery. Mark Simonson, freelance graphic designer and type designer from St. Paul, Minnesota (who started in graphic design in 1976- my kind of guy!) has published this interesting bit about movies using incorrect fonts. Fonts out of place, mostly fonts from different eras misplaced-- like fonts from the '70s appearing in movies supposedly set in the 40s?! Ha! Attention to detail- very important!

The article is called Typecasting: The Use (and Misuse) of Period Typography in Movies and it includes references to Chocolat-- set in the '50s using ITC Benguiat, a typeface which debuted in 1978 and was mainly popular in the '80s and Ed Wood-- set in the '50s using Chicago, the original Macintosh system font (TrueType version, 1991). It also details movies that have painstakingly correctly used period fonts as well.

Pretty font geeky, I must say. Read it/view it/click it hear.

Another cool article Mark Simonson has written is 'The Scourge of Arial".
You graphic freaks know what I am talking about.... Helvetica it ain't!

Check the Mic

Contextual Design Workshop has come up with a cool alternate for an iPod case made from reclaimed cassette tape cases. And you thought you saw the last of the lowly cassette. 45 different tapes are available including the TDK D-90, TDK SA-90, and the popular BASF CR-S II 90.

If you buy one would you scribble a title across it? Check them out.

32 Flavors

Food and t-shirts- together at last.

Lifelounge asked 22 designers to come up with a T design based on assigned flavour of ice cream. The results have been posted, check them out. One of my favorites is French Vanilla designed by Australian artist Dylan Martorell.

They are not cheap, but the are limited edition and come in a really cool package. Proceeds from the sale of these limited edition shirts goes to various charities (helping to feed the homeless).

Here are the 22 complete tees ready for your consumption. Get in lickety-split.

Skyscraper.... I Love You

New York's Metropolis Magazine has always been an interesting mix of design and architecture. The masthead describes the mag as:

"Metropolis examines contemporary life through design—architecture, interior design, product design, graphic design, crafts, planning, and preservation. Subjects range from the sprawling urban environment to intimate living spaces to small objects of everyday use."

Online they posted a neat feature to celebrate last year's 25 years in print (25 YEARS OF ARCHITECTURE DESIGN) which is a slide show retrospect of 25 memorable covers from the past and moments associated with them.

It is interesting to see how the older covers had a cutting edge feel (for the time) but still had a pasted togetherness about them. We had a subscription back in the late 90s and I remember the cover possessing a strange, modern, old fashioned vibe. I was always inspired by the masthead getting lopped off the page-- too close to the edge? Metropolis is always a great intersection of design-life-building things.

METROPOLIS- Covering Design for 25 Years (link launches a Flash page)

Swamp Music

The posts have been far and few in-between as we ran smack right into September. The kids are at school and we have been digging in deep as our design company is busy, busy, busy. On top of all that we have just received some bad news-- the city is going to cut down the huge tree in front of my house!

The tree is the oldest one on my block and it is uncool that is has been marked for execution. Though a few 'experts' have reviewed it and said it is probably not long for this world-- but ya know, it has lasted this long and it is full of GREEN leaves.... It is probably just a causality of the 'October-Storm-tree-chopping' that has run rampant in the Queen City.

So we will bid farewell to an old friend- the tree-killers are planning on coming back Thursday or Friday to execute her and all her majestic beauty. It is gonna leave quite a bare spot on our lawn, the street and in our hearts.