davidthedesigner

things i've seen enough of, thank you very much #2

Skulls.

Just what is it with artists and skulls? They just can't leave them alone, can they?

OK, we're all mortal. I get the picture. Enough said.

this made me smile #167

From today's Guardian:

The world's first vegan strip club, in Portland, Oregon - a hippyish town in the US that prides itself as the most vegan-friendly in the country - serves up meat- and diary-free chilli cheese fries, chocolate/strawberry cheesecake and mushroom burgers along with the naked women.

Presumably because you're not allowed to take them out on a date.

i've been wondering...

Hello, you out there. Yes, you. The one that watches but never comments. I'd like your advice please*.

The 52 fonts that you could use instead of Helvetica has long been the most popular item on this blog - and it represents around 50% of hits via Google (closely followed, I must admit, by that damned cat). But I'm not here to talk about cats - I'm here to talk about type.

I've been wondering whether to turn the 52 fonts series into a book. What do you think? Would you buy it if I did?

Please let me know. And if you're too shy to leave a comment, just drop me an email at davidthedesigner(at)studiohyde.com.

* Of course, the same invitation is open to all of you who do, or have, commented. The more who respond, the better - obviously.

things i've seen enough of, thank you very much #1

Graphic designers' wedding invitations.

Now I really do try not to be negative on this blog (it's one of my unwritten rules). But sometimes I think it's best just to face up to the facts: that there are some things that graphic designers didn't ought to be allowed anywhere near. Top of the list being wedding invitations, especially if they're for themselves.

Forgive me if you think I'm being a killjoy here, but I don't know these people, I'm never going to meet them, the wedding's already happened anyway - so I don't need to see the invitation, thank you very much. Not that I don't wish them all every happiness, mind.

I'd just rather not see their invitations cluttering up the interweb.

this made me smile #166

Lionel is now available on a Tea For One.

(via ian claridge.)

the very shy r.m.d.

If you happen to have 15 minutes to spare in the next seven days, then pop along to the BBC iPlayer and have a listen to this week's Four Thought. It's the very Interesting Russell (with an M) who starts off by telling us that blogging is like networking for shy people and then moves on to enthuse about the next revolution: the internet with things. Things like things that blow bubbles when someone tweets.

plodding along

Something that's always fascinated me are the characteristics that are associated with particular groups of people or certain occupations. Take builders for instance: we probably all know that builders like copious amounts of tea - and very sweet tea at that (rarely less than six spoonfuls per mug). And mugs, mind - never cups and saucers. Of course there's good reason for this: instant energy hits and necessary fluid intake. But is this a characteristic that one develops once you've decided to become a builder, or does a predisposition to taking a large amount of sugar in tea as a youngster mean that you are most likely to enter the building trade when you leave school?

And policemen: what about the way they choose to communicate?

Which is rather a long way round to showing you this old postcard:

For I happen to know that this card was written by a policeman. An off-duty one sending greetings to relatives and waxing lyrical about his motoring tour of Scotland and the magnificence of the mountain scenery along the route. Here's how he describes it:

1. Dear Doris and John
We left Chiswick at 1pm on Tuesday and arrived at Washington at 6pm. 282 MLS. After a comfortable night at the New Post House we left at 8.15am and Betty drove to Edinburgh & the Forth Bridge by noon 117 MLS then on to Perth. Pitlochry, passed the ospreys on Lake Garten to Inverness. Stopped at the Trust House and left for Ullapool in the morning.

And I guess that's about as lyrical as a policeman's ever likely to get.

taking it at a leisurely pace

I also spent a few days of my extended break in the Cotswolds. The cottage had a well-thumbed (but still perfectly servicable) copy of the AA / Ordnance Survey Leisure Guide to the area, which came in jolly handy.

It added a certain frisson to my experience, for this was a guide that I myself had designed (along with perhaps eight or nine others in the series) in the early 1990s. And all done by hand - that is on a drawing board, without an Apple Mac. What a sweat that was, I can tell you.

oranges aren't the only fruit, fortunately

Free wi-fi from orange - which turns out to be not so free after all.

this made me smile #165

Darth Vader watching over me.