davidthedesigner

what brings you here?

Well I know a lot of you are regular readers (and I'm very pleased to have your attention, by the way). But I'm intrigued by how people arrive here after doing a Google search, because it's very often to do with things that you simply couldn't have foreseen. The statistics on my main celsius site reveal that a large number of visitors land on my tiramisu recipe - not at all what I'd envisaged when I added a little bit of light relief at the bottom of the site navigation. But type 'tiramisu' into Google (at least in the UK) and there I am on the first page, nestling between Gordon Ramsay and Delia Smith. Still, at least they get a recipe for the best-tasting tiramisu they're ever likely to come across (he said, modestly).

But back to the blog, and most of these Google arrivals seem to result from image searches - the favourite at the moment being the Obama logo that appeared in this post. Not surprising as a subject, for sure - but a link through to this blog is not quite what I would have expected.

Other favourites are candy shops,

and Eurotrash.

And dear old Cow Gum always pulls in a steady stream of punters.

But the visitors I feel most sorry for are the odd (and I choose that word most carefully) visitor who arrives here looking for compulsory corsets. I can't help feeling that I completely fail to match up to your expectations. Sorry about that.

the internet makes working life so much easier, right?

(Image half-inched from toothpaste for dinner: I hope they don't mind.)

I'm just working on a publication that needs some photographic illustrations of very specific locations. Now, even five years ago, that would have presented enormous problems. I used to do a lot of tourist guides that would always involve trying to find usable images for countless locations throughout the UK. Take Aylesbury, for instance: I had to rely upon picture libraries, and spent many an (un)happy hour searching through basements full of transparencies (remember those?) trying to find a half-way decent image that I could use. All to no avail, which meant that I had to commission an illustrator to draw me an Aylesbury duck.

Nowadays all I have to do is type 'Aylesbury' into the search field on Flickr (go on, try it yourself) and you'll find hundreds of images that are there waiting to be used. But make sure you contact the Flickr user and get their permission and arrange to pay them an appropriate fee, mind.

All of which makes working life so much easier (unless you're an illustrator who can draw Aylesbury ducks, I guess).

But just as some things become easier, so others become far more difficult. Take logos for instance: if you're a designer, you'll always be having to include logos in things that you do - perhaps because an organisation has sponsored an event or an exhibition. And you'd think it'd be easy to get hold of artwork for these logos, wouldn't you? But oh no, they're fiercely protected. I've just spoken to a client who's told me that I need to include an organisation's logo in something that's on my list - but getting hold of the artwork's going to take two weeks, because she can't talk to anyone direct: she has to get her press people to talk to their press people, because it all needs careful control so that the aforementioned logo doesn't get misused or abused. Pulease.

Now, I'm not going to mention names here, but a little while ago I had to include the logo of a national institution in a publication. I eventually managed to get hold of somebody in their design department (not an easy task, because they don't include any contact details - apart from 'enquiries@' on their web site). Anyway, she emailed (remember that bit) an application form in Word format (eugh) that I had to print out, complete with every single last detail about the project I was working on, sign it, then fax it back to her. Fax? Hello, aren't we in the 21st century, already?

You know who you are. Except you don't read blogs, though - do you? You're too busy reading faxes, I guess.

this made me smile #56

It's not often that I mention my day job on this blog (it's an unwritten rule; but, hey, rules are to be broken, right?). Yesterday I was at the Crafts Study Centre in Farnham installing the graphics for it's latest exhibition, Czechmade. A superlative display of glass made by leading Czech glass artists and their students, including this wonderful little pony by Michal Šilhán. The exhibition's on until 25 October - do go and see it if you can.

write, i'm off!

Every week this little ad appears in my local freesheet, and every week I think 'hasn't somebody told them yet?'.

vee have vays of making you type

(With apologies to all you Germans out there.)

Well, here we are approaching the end of this series. It doesn't seem as though I've been posting fonts more than twice a month, but I must have speeded up somewhere along the line as I shouldn't be reaching Z until November. Maybe X will stop me in my tracks: we'll just have to wait and see.

But here we are at V, and first up is Van Dijck - which, you may be surprised to hear, wasn't designed by the man with the strange 'cockerney' accent who starred in Mary Poppins. Instead it was Christoffel van Dijck, one of the great 17th-century Dutch typefounders, who gave the font its name. Though this modern version of the font may not have been cut by him, it is nevertheless representative of the best designs from the 1600s, and was drawn at Monotype under the supervision of Jan van Krimpen. However, Van Dijck Italic, for which original punches survive, is almost certainly the work of van Dijck himself.

And in complete contrast, next up is Verdana. It's perhaps a given that this series is really all about type that has been designed for the printed page: that's something that can't be avoided. But if I were to be compiling this list at the beginning of the 22nd century, it would be interesting to see how many of them might be fonts that had been specifically designed for reading on screen. And whether Verdana would still be there.

Designed by Matthew Carter, and released in 1996, Verdana was bundled with subsequent versions of Microsoft's Windows operating system, as well as their Office and Internet Explorer software on both Windows and Mac OS. In addition, it was long available for download from Microsoft's web site allowing it to be used by any system supporting TrueType fonts. As a result, it is now installed on most desktop computers.

when form follows function

Whilst out on my travels last week I chanced upon this amazing building:

And you'd be forgiven, perhaps, if you thought I'd taken a trip on the TGV and had alighted at a new destination in the South of France: somewhere to match Avignon's shiny new station, maybe. Or that I'd stumbled upon a new Ted Cullinan project in Scandinavia: a scaled-up version of the Downland Gridshell.

But, despite appearances, this is no 21st century structure - because it was in fact built in 1838. It's purely functional: a covering for a slipway which would allow ships to be built under cover. And the shape and span of the structure is determined by the ships that it would accommodate.

It's now a Scheduled Ancient Monument with a Grade I Listing: it's the 3 Slip at the Historic Dockyard in Chatham, Kent.

...and don't you dare get grease on your spigots

teacher's pet?

this made me smile #55

Could you pass that by me one more time?

on the road again

I have to go and do some more art direction - so no more posts this week, I'm afraid.

Keep the place tidy for me: I should be back on Monday.