zrlnd

Found this tagged toilet roll today. Immediacy and brutality are the key words here. More elaborate piceces of graffiti from all over the world can be found on the Art Crimes / graffiti.org website. The crudeness, directness & presence of these tags made a nice contrast with the clean, cold interior of the toilet. Found near Mechelen, on the A1 highway.

Typography is indeed everywhere.

A question was put up over at Whitespace to describe your “Designers Config”, meaning the software you use to do your graphic design. I’ve posted my basic configuration there, I repeat this config here with some additions:

• RSS Reader: NetNewsWire
• Graphics Software: the Creative Suite by Adobe: Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign (for print), Acrobat & Cinema 4D for 3D graphics. If you’re serious about graphics. I also use Dreamweaver for web publishing & easy site management. Suitcase for font management.
• Word Processing Software: MS Word. Well, the whole Office suite actually. Seriously considering Pages (part of the iWork suite) however.
• Where do you put the dock? Hidden at the left hand side of my screen. I use Dragthing instead of the dock. I really hate that dock.
• Music Player (any besides iTunes?) Nope, use iTunes. Get an iPod. You WILL love it. Better yet: get the complete iLife suite. There is NOTHING comparable to it. Nothing, I say.
• Text Editor: BBEdit
• And not your “standard” graphics apps but “useful” in a way: Auto-Illustrator by Signwave for some goofy stuff, Iconographer for easy icon editing, MacOSaiX for mosaic pictures and last but not least: CosmicPainter, for the spaced out funky stuff…

Of course you already know I do graphics & webdesign over at Netlash.

They sure know how to design typefaces over in Sweden: Fountain is a one-man, independent type foundry, owned and operated by Peter Bruhn, who sell some very nice type.

Among my personal favorites:
Bruhn Script
Pussy
Revival

And, irresistibly cute:
Bully

Robert X. Cringely wrote an interesting piece on the new Mac Mini. In his article he made an interesting link between the Mini and serving media content:

When OS X 10.4 ships, the Mini will suddenly become Apple’s version of a media PC. Like the iPod, it will be a simple device that serves proprietary content, in this case HD video. Just like Gateway, HP, and Dell before it, Apple will start selling in its stores HDTVs, only they’ll carry the Sony brand.

My first thought was: “All good & well, but if I’m to store a couple of thousand songs, over 20.000 pictures, and, say, a few hundred movies then that hard disk starts looking awfully meager.

Enters the magic word: “expansion”. However, we all know how Apple thinks about upgrading a Mini (quoted directly from the Apple site):

Memory, AirPort Extreme and internal Bluetooth upgrades must be performed by an Apple Authorized Service provider; fees may apply.

Then I started thinking how “stackable” the Mini actually looks. Why not simply put a big hard disk, maybe throw in a TV tuner, put it all in the same enclosure as the Mini and stack ‘em all up? How cool would that be? It would be this cool:

I have been using the Trade Gothic Family in my designs quite often lately. Particularly the Trade Gothic Bold Condensed #20 and #18 variant. I’ve been using it mainly for setting headlines and subheads.

What I especially find attractive about Trade Gothic Bold Condensed #20, if set in all caps, is the air of robustness the typeface radiates while also conveying a particular high level of clarity & honesty. That’s 2 qualities not often found in one typeface. One of my all time favorites.

Designed by Jackson Burke between 1948 and 1960 for Linotype.

Pompous, over-the-top, self-indulgant. That’s what I would call this “The Lost 1984 video”. Being the true Apple geek that I am though, I love every minute of it! Honestly, I wish I had been there.

Apparently the Mac über-user called Scott Knaster kept the video tape for 21 years, and German media agency TextLab has now published this only surviving video tape of the launch.

At that particular point in time, 14 years old, I was making my first acquaintance with my brother’s Apricot F1 PC. We have come a long way, indeed.