September 4th, 2009
| books, digital, nature, print, travel | No Comments »
I study digital media. I was born in the early 70′. I am a dinosaur. My fellow students are 15+ years younger than me – born in another era, on a different planet. We learn roughly the same things from opposite directions; we each hold an end of the stick, so to speak. But we see everything in different shades. Some things comes naturally to me; they are lost. Sometimes the shoe is on the other foot.
Read the rest »
August 13th, 2008
| art, creativity, design, drawing, print, typography | 5 Comments »
‘…qualities like quiveriness and vulnerability come to mind when I think of creativity… creativity requires a sense of smell, a palate to taste the scents that make brilliance. All life feeds upon the random. Creativity is the haute cuisine.’
-Douglas Hofstadter-
Read the rest »
August 8th, 2008
| books, design, digital, print, typography, webdesign | 4 Comments »
Not sure I’d do so well at guessing these fonts myself. I imagine I’d get about half of them right. And which one do I like the best?
It certainly is not number eight….
Go oooon – guess!
Read the rest »
July 28th, 2008
| books, design, fiction, history, humour, journalism, literature, politics, print, travel, typography | 6 Comments »
Some of the best non-fiction books I have read. Some of them are not necessarily well written, and would not win prices for excellent language; at least one of them is actually annoying in that respect, but I have included them because the subject is interesting/important. I am sure I have forgotten some, but there you go. Teflon brain.
The art of looking sideways
Alan Fletcher
This is how it looks like inside my head. It a fountain of musings, facts, the odd, solid, and whimsical. It is design, doodles, unfinished thoughts, images, drawings. It is colours, shapes and wisdom. It is a delight and frustration at the same time – if I could show what goes on in my head, this is pretty much it. Read the rest »
July 19th, 2008
| design, digital, history, print, typography | 4 Comments »
I have been reading Design Observer on and off for a few years. Sometimes it’s desperately navel-gazing, sometimes is preaching to the already converted, sometimes it’s talking to a few insiders. Sometimes, it is good. The last time I scrolled through, though, made me feel despondent.
Read the rest »
July 14th, 2008
| design, digital, print, studies & education, trivia, typography, webdesign | 10 Comments »
I finally saw the much-trumpeted film. It was amusing; mainly for the characters in it – and I mean the designers, not the fontface. That helvetica is everywhere is no surprise. It is clean, bland, large, simple and good for signage. Generally.
But the designers was the funniest bits. Some of them are clearly off their rockers, and I love it. Especially Erik Spiekermann is a raving loony, a man with wit, opinions and a careless regards of others. “I am always on time, but always a year late”, he says. He despises Helvetica for having no contrast; no rhythm. He shrugs, and says bad design is everywhere.
Read the rest »
April 9th, 2008
| books, design, history, print, studies & education, typography | Tags: Add new tag | No Comments »
Went through some old notebooks, boxes and piles of stuff before moving here.. and the in the process found my old, precious Letraset book- it used to be a treasure, and a priced possession. Hands up, all who have done plaka lettering; meticulously drawing up and painting letters on awful quality paper. Thought not. Not a common pasttime, exactly. Art school stuff. Initially flicking past the endless pages of sans serifs, grotesks, helveticas, looking at fonts impossible to draw with silly names, flourishes and elan. Basically, it’s a good deal easier to camouflage mediocre penmanship in a swirly, messy font, than in the grotesks… and we where into art, not geometry!
God, how wrong can you be.
Read the rest »
