Noisy Decent Graphics

I crust can't get enough

Sent in by a reader, from Australia

 

Forgotten your password?

I hate this.

You go to some site that you rarely visit, say once a year. You can't seem to log in. You've seemly forgotten your password, although it's more likely you can't remember which username they forced you to use.

So you click on 'Forgotten your password'.

Look it says, "If you can't remember your details, use the 'Remind Me' form and we will send you an email reminder." A REMINDER. Good.

But no, instead you get a password reset. A new password. "Forgotten your username or password? Don't worry! Enter your details and we'll send you a temporary password."

I don't want a(nother) new password. I want to be REMINDED what the old one was.

Wankers.

 

Airside vs East 17

Last week Airside announced they were closing in March. Sad news for the industry. Airside were (are) a brilliant, innovative company and their influence spreads deep in the design world.

They've released this video commemorating their work. It's brilliant and I don't even like videos. (I do have a soft spot for East 17 though...)

Font or typeface?

"The way I relate the difference between typeface and font to my students is by comparing them to songs and MP3s, respectively (or songs and CDs, if you prefer a physical metaphor).

When you talk about how much you like a tune, you don’t say: “That’s a great MP3”. You say: “That’s a great song”.

The MP3 is the delivery mechanism, not the creative work; just as in type a font is the delivery mechanism and a typeface is the creative work."

Great way of describing it.

How to dunk chocolate biscuits without getting chocolate on your fingers

I've been using this biscuit prototype for years now. While doing the crossword with Matt Jones earlier today he encouraged me to socialise the idea on the web.

You take a biscuit with a chocolate coating. Using your mouth make two slight indentations on either side at slightly less than opposite angles. Matt is pointing out these indentations with his pen in both pictures above.

You then have the perfect grip for dunking your biscuit without getting melted chocolate on your fingers.

No need to thank me.

A Brody classic

As referenced by AAb in the comments. I thought it deserved a wider airing. Lovely to see this stuff again. Taken from here.

Current Graphic Design Trend

You see lots of these devices around at the moment. I couldn't find one to go along with this blog post, so I made my own. Black lines with generous kerning too. I'll see if I can spot some this week.

Twitter snowmen in the world

The first batch of FRSTEE Twitter snowmen have been hitting the doormats this weekend. People seem happy with them. They look good on Instagram.

Here is Rev Dan Catt's.

Here is Jeremy Leslie's.

And here is Mrs Willshire's.

Aren't they nice? Don't they look super? There is still time to order one and get it delivered in time for Christmas! SO ORDER ONE.

Good Eyes

Sent in by a reader, from Wales

 

More interesting than a slogan

This is what people who own wagons should do. Instead of just phone numbers and urls and, worse, slogans and stuff - put something interesting on your lorries.

Well done Anthony Ward-Thomas.

(NB I went to the url and couldn't find any mention of this or any other conundrum. But, you know, well done.)

FRSTEE the Twitter Snowman

Remember these from two years ago?

It was part of our DataDecs project where we made Christmas decorations from social media data, using the very latest 3D printing technologies. We had been wanting to play around with 3D printing for a while, and you know what we're like, we're more Tescos than Troika, so we made Christmas decorations.

Two years down the line and we've automated the process a bit and launched a thing where you can order your very own, personalised Twitter Snowman. Here's the science bit,

You enter a Twitter username and we extract the data we need. Then you fill in the order form and pay us using PayPal.Your data is turned into a 3D design file and printed on a machine called the Z-Corp. This makes individual 3D objects by applying glue to a bed of powder to make a durable solid object. Colour is applied to eyes, nose and buttons and the whole thing is cured to make it long-lasting.Then we pop it in a box and dispatch it to you, causing a uniquely Social Media frisson around your festive tree.

You also get your Twitter handle printed underneath. They are totally unique!

I guess the thing that's changed in two years is that we now have more experience of shipping and fullfillment. That might sound like a small thing but it really isn't. Having the idea, designing the thing - that's only the beginning. Real artists ship. The experiment that is RIG continues. Quietly messing about with new technologies. And occasionally shipping.

Anyway. Buy one! They make the perfect gift for that 'hard to think of a gift for' person in your life.

 

Kenneth Grange - Making Britain Modern

Last week I went to a Pentagram event at the Design Museum where I was privileged to hear Kenneth Grange take us through the exhibition and talk about his work. It was wonderful.

Kenneth Grange (in case you didn't know) is a designer, an industrial designer, responsible for  a ridiculous amount of things in British life. The Inter City 125 train, the latest version of the Black Cab, the Kodak instamatic camera, parking meters, Wilkinson Sword razors, Parker pens, Kenwood food mixers... so much it's hard to list here.

In fact it's hard to describe unless you go and see the exhibiton, then you'll wonder round pointing and thinking, "Oh yeah, I remember that and that and that and, oh, did he do that?". It's an incredible body of work. Incredible because there's so much of it, incredible because it's so broad (from a razor to a train) and incredible because it stands the test of time so well.

Grange is 82 and has an eneregy and wit that would leave younger designers in his wake. To hear him talk about his work was a fantastic experience. And you're reminded, as you often are at these things, what a different world it was then. It was all bumping into Managing Directors at Trade Shows and it was all - do you think you can do better, have a go and we'll call you back in a year.

In fact, I actually took some notes.

The Kodak instamatic, which came about because Grange mentioned to the Sales Director that they would sell more cameras if they looked better, sold 20 million worldwide.

In 1975 he was asked to design a coat hook by a former employee. The family firm had no money so they asked if he would take a royalty deal, "The story of my life I only ever say yes". That royalty only stopped last year.

Grange, of course, started Pentagram with four others and he talked a little about that. Interestingly he said Pentagram had no ideology in terms of design, but an ideology in terms of behaviour.

There was an incredible work ethic that came through, and actually comes through in the work. He mentioned how he was once "unemployed for a week or so and I really got desperate" so he took a job painting film sets.

I visited the exhibition earlier in the month and bought the book. I've started reading it, it's that very rare thing - a design book you can actually read. It's really good, full of stories like the ones above.

A wonderful evening, he really is Britain's Dieter Rams, except Grange got more stuff made across a broader range of briefs.

Sadly the exhibition closed last weekend.

Small footnote. This is his coffin bookshelf. He said he buried his mother and he didn't want his wife to have to go through the process of choosing a coffin, so he designed (and got made) this one. While he's alive it serves as a book shelf, but when he's gone, take the books out, put Grange in, unhitch the lid from the back and put it on the front and then send it underground. Fantastic stuff.

More pics here.

From Bierut to Minneapolis

It's been quite a week. But then they all are these days to be honest. Some good stuff, some bad stuff. Some exciting, some dull.

But hey, let's talk about some exciting bits.

Matt Locke generously organised a nice dinner with lots of lovely, friendly, smart people. Some people I knew like Matt Webb and Chris, some people I hadn't seen for 10 years like Johnny, some people I knew but hadn't spoken to properly like Alice and some people I'd never met before like Michael who works for Pixar. When I say "works", he leads the team that does pre-production engineering (Story, Art, Editorial, etc.) Amazing.

Inevitably, he has a brilliant business card. The kids loved that. Heck, the grown ups loved it!

 

Then Michael Bierut from Pentagram popped into work to chat to the design team. Enlightening and inspiring, as well as hilarious. There's no-one on earth who can make graphic design appear so... so god damn funny. That's quite a skill.

The most rewarding bit for me was the reaction from my team. He's an extract from one email I received afterwards, "Bloody nora. Amazing talk. He was incredibly inspiring, intelligent and funny."

I briefed the team on a new project that I'm expecting big things of.

On the way back from a meeting I went into a shop and bought a new book.

And then there was a meeting about a another thing. A thing which we're hoping will turn into a very big thing. I'm working on that this weekend. Rule breaking and extremely exciting.

And then tonight an exhibition opens at the Walker Arts Centre in Minneapolis which features Newspaper Club. I'm extremely proud of that. The people we're in there with are incredible. Next summer the exhibition moves to the Cooper Hewitt in New York, so I'm hoping to pop over.

And I had some very nice feedback from some people who've used Newspaper Club this week. It's so rewarding to hear that stuff. I don't have much day to day contact with the business that is done by Tom, Anne, Emily and Silje and who are all brilliant and are building something special.

I wonder what next week will bring. Well, there's Harriet and then there's the Kenneth Grange thing and then... exciting times...

Code 1057 IRL

After my blog post yesterday, Phil got in touch and sent me an actual copy of Code 1057. Lovely it is too.

As was the beautiful way he packaged it.

Kerning - the game

Kern 10 words, see how you get on. It's very difficult, the words they've chosen use notoriuosly difficult to kern letters. But it's FUN!

 

 

"There's never going to be a final incarnation of the Guardian"

We've made a little video of Alan Rusbridger and Mark Porter talking about the thinking behind the Guardian's new iPad app. (The app will launch in a few days...)

It's of interest in particular for designers because Mark talks about editorial design for digital devices, the grid he used and how design is more than just 'how something looks'. 

 

Code 1057

You know these symbols which you see all over town? You know how they can be quite different?

There's a book for that.

Phil Carter published this little book of bike lanes, in all their manifestations, as the result of recording his daily commute to and from the studio. It's called Code 1057 after the name of the Road Marking Diagram the symbol is derived from.

I think it's out of stock now, so keep an eye out on Abe Books for it. I've just ordered a copy.

Star Wars Moleskine

 

Russell (the other one) bought me one of these the other day. What a lovely gift.

Thanks Steve

To follow this BERG post.

At Foundation we had a graphics tutor who came in once a week. The one I mentioned here. I think he was called Peter. For one project I had decided to design a book cover.

When it came to the typography, Letraset, which I'd used previously, wouldn't do. We had to step up a gear. Peter took me into a PortaKabin which had desks along every wall. On every desk was a computer. Macs. It was 1994 (17 years ago) so I think it must have been a Quadra, I don't think it was a Power Macintosh.

Later on, at university, we had another room full of computers. Power Macs. And I used to dream of owning one. I never did at university.

I bought my first Apple, an iMac, with some money my Grandma left me when she passed away. That was in 1998.

 

 

 

 

 

Report any tedious activity

I had breakfast with Matt Jones from BERG this morning.

We went to Browns of Brockley which Matt has made famous through social media and the lastest BERG MegaLaserVideo. 

 

Product sketch: Clocks for Robots from BERG on Vimeo.

It was a very nice breakfast. I had two flat whites and a bacon and egg croissant. Matt is a very clever man and a good friend.