Typo Type Typu

I bought a new book today! It's called "Designing Type" by Karen Cheng, and I read a bit of it on the subway ride home. I was so enthralled with it that i almost missed my stop...twice. I think I'm developing a weird obsessive relationship with typography but it feels good to be engaged in something that most people take for granted. It's such an interesting art, and the more and more you analyze it, the more you get that type is all about balance and cohesiveness, and because of this, every little thing about a letter has been designed to make it work with it's brothers and sisters. (to me, the curvy letters are girls, and the straight ones are dudes).

Bs Ps and Rs, while seemingly just additions and subtractions of each other are actually not that way at all. The bowl of the P is bigger than the bowl of the R, which in turn, is bigger than the upper bowl of the B....why? so that they're balanced with each other. So that when you're reading a line, everything flows, because if parts have too much white space, then your eye will stop, or feel fatigued.

I was very tempted to get this book on Jan Tschichold, but I thought it best to hold off on that until I finish Cheng's book. I also think I should read a biography about Adrian Frutiger first...I have wondered on numerous occasions the kinds of things that go on in the head of the type designer who made Univers and Frutiger. Especially rigid sans serif swiss type designer.

I also found out the difference between classical and modern proportions, how the classical is based on squares (and half squares) and the modern is more dependent on the relationship of blackness between one letter and another...I love fun facts.

What are we? Are we just specks of dust inside a giant's eye? Can we just say "we are" and can that be enough. The more I think about it, the more I think that I can't just be, and that's kind of depressing. Why should I have to be something.

It's Okay

Relax. Breathe. Everything is going to be ok. Something, somewhere, is looking out for you. It's more likely that you are the rule and not the exception, and that means many many others are going through what you are going through.

Move forward. Give yourself five seconds to decide, and then go, and if it was the wrong choice to make, that's ok, because at least you made it. Nobody makes the right choices all the time. People fuck up. And people are lonely because they fucked up. But at least they had courage. Courage, my love.

Scott Hansen Design

There's nothing I love more than a well-designed poster. And, although my tastes have recently favoured more complex, "generative" style poster artwork, processed, abstract artwork will always be second to a simple, fleshed out concept.

I like how Hensen's posters seem to take from different eras and have this kind of timelessness to them. They look like they could have been made in the 70s, but there is a very subtle modern-ness. (also i don't know when the last one was designed but i suspect more recent than 1973).

23 EAST 22ND STREET NYC

Rem Koolhaus (OMA) has recently unveiled this design located near Madison Square Park. I like it. I like this new kind of urbanism that sets these giant urban structures in opposition (or in tandem) with each other in a playful way. It looks like it's peaking around the other one, as if to say, "you can't steal my light. My European styling is way doper than your transparent cladding and you know it."

It reminds me of the kind of grand gesture that the CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (also designed by OMA) uses in which the separate structures compliment each other in grandiose space. From the right angle, it kind of gives the impression of looking through a frame, or TV screen, but in the most subtle of ways.

Overall, In my eyes, Rem Koolhaus is the most interesting contemporary architect, because he is critical (see SMLXL), and yet he uses his critical approach to create something that is playful and intriguing without being overly spectacular. I salute you, Remington.

DESTROYERS'S RUBIES: A MODERN LISTENING GUIDE

The first thing that struck me about this poster was the dope informational style it uses. I love how the simple little diagrams deconstruct the song, however useless the information is, really. It reminded me of these old popular science magazines from 1960's I used to read in my summer school physics class.

It's from the graduate show at the University of Brighton. Tons and tons of good sexy stuff going on there.

On a related note, IDN is dedicating their new issue to infographics. I have to say infographics are one of my favorite genres of design. I've even become accustomed to stealing the safety instructions when I'm on a plane. How sad is that.

OF INTEREST

I'm starting this blog as a sort of journal to keep tabs on the things that I find interesting. I think it will be good for my soul. My goal is to write once a day, about the things i find, and my own creations.