I’m just full of computer beautification stuff for you today! (also side note, Mountain Lion is available now!) Sent to me by my friend Jack, (who also sent me Bartender and Fuzzy Clock) whose beautifully minimal desktop is pictured below. Satellite Eyes automatically changes your background to picture wherever you are. Totally neat!
No, this isn’t about alcohol, sorry! It’s a Mac app that hides all that crap like dropbox from your menu bar! (It only hides, individually at least, the ones you downloaded, not the ones that are actual Apple programs, which you would hide in the system preferences one at a time, or all at once with Bartender, like I have. You just click on the Bartender icon and all that stuff shows up again for a few seconds) Thanks Jack!
So now my beautiful desktop looks like this instead of this.
Also, here’s Fuzzy Clock which displays the time as “Wed, quarter past two” instead of “Wed Jul 11 2:15 PM” which is kinda fun. And if you hover, it shows you the full date and 24h time. Then you can just keep that outside of Bartender, and put everything else in it! nice and clean.
Okay, so speaking of Pantone, here’s a super weird project, Humanae, “a chromatic inventory, a project that reflects on the colors beyond the borders of our codes by referencing the PANTONE® color scheme,” according to their blog. (hey guys learn how to use the word reference. You can make reference to something or you can refer to something. Referencing is not a word!) Kinda weird to think about. I think my dad has a vintage set of crayons from the 50s where the peachy one is called “flesh” ew! ummm not everyone has the same color flesh thank you very much! duh! Well this Pantone Human Skin Tone thing whatever is pretty cool. Go take a look at the tumblr in progress.
(side note – the designer of the theme I applied to my blog changed from turn the page to continuous scrolling, which is annoying. And I’m approaching 10,000 views in approx 700 views from now! love my followers!)
I absolutely love this blog. Granted, I am not the target audience, being a 22 year old chick, and this is totally directed at 18-40ish year old dudes, but still. I love this site! It’s basically “The digital magazine for guys who love stuff.” You don’t have to be a designer to like it, but it sure does help! (It reminds me a lot of Better Living Through Design) Also, the writers are very witty, which makes it fun to read (and also tells you more about what the hell that thing in the picture does than I’m telling you so click on the pictures to read what they have to say).
I’ve been meaning to post about Uncrate for a couple weeks, so naturally I have like fifty tabs open of stuff I want to post from them. Here are just a few :) Hope you enjoy!
Items aren’t in any hierarchy or order, per say. And this is a semi-wishlist-semi-that’s-cool-but-I-don’t-need-it list :) They’ve got links in every post to tell you where to buy the items so click on the images to go to their site.
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Item one: Cube Tube
A clever contraption that prevents spillage in the freezer, and makes getting one cube at a time waaay easier.
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Item two: Symbol Record Console
Well this is just gorgeous! Price is still TBA, according to Uncrate, but when I have my own place to put this in, I want one!! Records, CDs, USB/iPod/iWhatever. love!
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Item three: Rip Cord Tape
As my friend Jason said when he sent this to me, this totally falls under the “Why didn’t I think of that?” category! Brilliant idea that would save us all a lot of trouble!
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Item four: Hone
My mom has one that you whistle into your purse until the thing beeps, but having an app on your phone seems more effective. Now they just need it to pair with the Find My iPhone app so it works in reverse!
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Item five: Sonos Sub
We (in the house I grew up in, not in the college-budget-house) have a Sonos system that I love! We hardly use the controller anymore (several years old) because, since they developed an app for mac/pc and iOS (mobile duh!), you can just control it from any room in the house. It applies services you subscribe to like Pandora, Spotify, Rhapsody, iheartradio etc, and you can store playlists/queues etc. We don’t actually use any of the speakers, just the receiver, but apparently now they have a subwoofer, which is great! Plus the products’ industrial design is beautifully minimal. Click the image to learn more!
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Item six: Jawbone Jambox
My friends have one of the little ones (in red) that they were given as a gift!! jeallllllous! they’re expensive, but they sound damn good! (and I think it’s showerproof too!) Bluetooth links with iPhone etc. I can only imagine how good the big one must sound (in the picture).
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Item seven: Recycled Record Guitar Picks
In my opinion this is a much better use of recycled records than those sorta-cool-but-mostly-really-ugly-matches-with-nothing-recycled-record-from-a-band-you’ve-never-heard-of-bowls-for-chips-your-uncle-gave-you-because-he-knows-you-like-music-apparently. I mean, I play acoustic guitar, so mostly I prefer my fingers instead of picks, but these are still great.
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Item eight: Sensu Brush
I don’t actually have any iPad apps for drawing because I like the tactility (also I don’t pay for apps because there are so many free ones! There have been a few exceptions though). This is cool though. I’m a mouse designer not a tablet designer though, so I don’t really have any opinions about using a tool instead of a mouse to draw. I also have no idea if this pairs with Wacom tablets or not. Click the picture and go read Uncrate, they might know.
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Item nine: Stake 3-in-1 BBQ tool
I’m guessing it’s a play on words of steak, and not a spelling error :) Nifty little tool. Super macho. Hopefully useful, though I can see needing a spatula in one hand and a fork in the other, so I don’t know if it’s a replace-all-tools-kinda-tool. That steak looks so good!
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Item ten: Salt Made From Tears
Um sure. I think you just mean those are the “flavors” but I doubt you have people crying and evaporating…. yeah okay. But the package design is nice! Super weird concept though :P
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Item eleven: Pantone Rubik’s Cube
This isn’t an individual post from Uncrate, this is from one of their style guides. But it caught my eye so I clicked one of the links at the bottom. I already have a normal Rubik’s and a Sudoku Rubik’s (that I am neeevver moving because I’ll never get it back to normal!) Maybe I should add this to my ridiculous collection. I don’t understand how designers are minimalists, but collectors. Doesn’t “collector” mean “packrat?” Also, I’m not supposed to be collecting things until I have a semipermanent living situation, not just here for a few months and then there… Well it’s a semi-wishlist until I have the funds and storage for all the crap I sorta want :) Pantone Rubik’s cube designed by Ignacio Pilotto.
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That’s all for now! If you’re a dude who likes stuff go check it out :) And if you’re a chick like me who also likes stuff, you might still like it! Hope you guys don’t mind these super long posts! Let me know if I’m writing more than you want to read and I’ll try to curb my enthusiasm. maybe…
I hope everyone of my readers in the United States had enjoyable Fourth of July festivities, and for those of you who didn’t just celebrate Independence Day with lots of barbecue and beer, I hope you had a perfectly marvelous ordinary Wednesday :)
If you haven’t heard the name David Airey already, you may be surprised to learn that you do know something for which he is responsable. One of the more famous graphic design blogs (which is now a book), Logo Design Love is his main venture, though he also has a portfolio website, as well as another great blog called Identity Designed.
Today I’m giving you a shortened version of his list of 13 typefaces for graphic designers, which you can go read in detail here, complete with type specimen and links to the foundries etc etc that I’m too lazy to include because he already did that! :) Useful post my friends! David Airey is great! go check out his stuff. He also has great advice for design students.
The typefaces are:
1. Akzidenz-Grotesk
Released in 1898 by the H. Berthold AG type foundry. Not to be confused with Helvetica or Univers. It’s one of my favorites.
2. Avenir
Designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1988, (and then redone in the 2000s, renamed Avenir Next, my personal favorite being the condensed version) for Linotype. Airey includes an interview excerpt in his post which you can go read.
3. Bodoni
First designed by Giambattista Bodoni in 1798, not to be confused with Didot. This typeface has flat unbracketed serifs and extremely high contrast, which makes it super elegant, and a favorite of high fashion magazines etc.
4. Caslon
This is a great one I’ve used many times because of the nice x-height it has. (remember when pairing two different typefaces – i.e. a serif and a sans, they must have similar x-heights to match) Caslon was originally designed around 1734 by William Caslon. Airey includes more history if you’re interested. It’s pretty cool.
5. Clarendon
This one, I’m almost positive, is the typeface of choice in the Port Authority Bus Station in New York City. It was designed in England by Robert Besley in 1845. I like this one because it’s super heavy weight but still manages to be lighthearted with its ball-terminals and slab serifs.
6.Franklin Gothic
Always a classic. Don’t dislike a typeface just because it came with Microsoft Word. It’s still a great one! Designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1902. Gothic (as you will notice if you flip through your own collection of font-families) refers to sans serif typefaces. This one is partially condensed with a high x-height.
7. Frutiger
Since frutiger has so many weights, it’s a great one if you’re only looking to use one typeface (as is Univers). Designed by Adrian Frutiger (who designed Avenir, among others, remember?) in 1968. I did a project on this one. He designed it for the airport system in Roissy, France, so it had to be clear, legible from distances at fast speeds, and strange angles and in the dark. Pretty cool! Read more on Airey’s blog.
8. Futura
Paul Renner. 1927. High x-height, very geometric, super round. This is not one of those ones you’d call a “humanist” sans serif. It is very constructed. As Airey points out, it is very related to the Bauhaus movement, though Renner was not involved directly.
9. Garamond
This one is super old, though it’s been redesigned a couple of times to fit technology advances. Designed in 1540 by Claude Garamond. This one and Sabon are both great. Notice the spurs on the T, that’s a big indicator when you’re trying to identify typefaces.
10. Gill Sans
Designed by Eric Gil between 1927 and 1930, this is a hefty one, designed to be as legible as possible, functioning both as a display and a body text face, which isn’t always easy. You generally would have to make adjustments for very large type versus type that will be read in paragraphs.
11. Gotham
Another Gothic typeface, designed in 2000 actually, by Tobias Frere-Jones (you know him as a part of Hoefler & Frere-Jones type foundry in New York).
12. Helvetica
Duh! It had to be on the list! A lot of people are tired of this because it’s so widely used. When I was 11 and I first learned of it, I dislexified it into Helcleteeva in my brain somehow :P there now you know my secret! (you know how when you’re little and you’re reading something to yourself, never saying it out loud or hearing it before to know the proper pronunciation? also by the way, I’m not actually dislexic). Designed by Miedinger and Eduard Hoffman at the Haas’sche Schriftgiesserei (a mouthful unless you speak the language) in Switzerland. I’ll let you read the rest of the history on Airey’s blog. Incidentally, he includes a cool graph comparing Akzidenz with Helvetica.
and finally
13. Univers
Originally designed by Adrian Frutiger in 1956, one of the first typefaces to have a bajillion weights (no actually just 63 variants, by the time it was reworked by Frutiger with Linotype in 1997) My favorite is the Univers ultra light ultra condensed (I know that’s not exactly what it’s called but you know which one I mean).
PS I am not sure whether he arranged the list from best to last or just arbitrarily. I’d say everyone has their own favorites and it just comes down to what is appropriate for the project. As my (now former) professor, Doug Scott, (see this post) will tell you, as I have told you, and as Airey mentions, just because we like these 13 typefaces doesn’t mean they are appropriate for everything! Use the discretion of your own knowledge, taste, and whatever suits your assignment before you just pick something. Do a little research about your topic and about some of the typefaces and see if they match.
I am including a list of typographic resources below that you may find useful. Airey also includes a list of links at the bottom of his post, though his serve a different purpose.
I like these for looking up facts/info/specimen of typefaces:
Identifont
My Fonts
Typedia
What The Font (by My Fonts)
There, was that a long enough post to make up for the semi-infrequent posting? More soon guys! keep reading!
PS Thanks David for your kind email! I love when people I post about write back!
stream of consciousness 