Periodic Table of Typefaces Wall Decal

via scribbleoneverything


The Periodic Table of Typefaces Wall Decal, pretty darn geeky. Find out more about it here, and here.

“I wonder what drawing board manufacturers go back to...

via absurdoverheard 

“I wonder what drawing board manufacturers go back to if they fail.”
—Dr. J. Adam Moore

Absurd Overheard is Karen Kurycki’s “illustrated collection of absurd / funny / silly statements overheard . . . kind of like ‘Kids Say the Darndest Things’ for adults.” Visit her site here.

New Formulation Skittles™ are Gelatin-Free

via vgr news

“The VRG recently reported that Skittles™ candy contains gelatin. We were told this information in November 2010 by a customer service representative at Wrigley, the company that manufactures Skittles™. At that time, we were told that Starburst™ and Skittles™ candy, both manufactured by Wrigley, contained the same ingredients, including gelatin (in this case, non-Kosher, beef-derived gelatin). It was explained to us that different ingredient proportions and preparation techniques resulted in two distinct candies.

A reader wrote in stating that Skittles™ had changed its formulation in 2010 and was now gelatin-free. The VRG went back to Wrigley for confirmation. In December 2010, two other customer service representatives told us that at some unspecified date in ‘early’ 2009, Skittles™ underwent a recipe reformulation that removed the gelatin. Since the Skittles™ shelf life is seventy-two weeks, there may still be some old-formulation Skittles™ containing gelatin on store shelves. The company could not specify where nor how much older formulation Skittles™ remain on store shelves. ‘Gelatin’ would be listed on the label.”

Read the rest here.

Image of the Day: Crow

This is just one of the many friends, which included a raven, that came by today for breakfast.

I really appreciate the generous gift of peanuts from my in-laws so that pictures like this are possible. 

Love Knows No Bounding Box

A couple of years ago, I was made aware of the group To Write Love on Her Arms. It was encouraged [I think through either FaceBook or MySpace] to show support for people battling depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide by writing the word love on your own arm on Valentine’s Day 2008 and then posting photos of it online.

I decided to use an ambigram of the word love, so that it could be read in different orientations of my arm. I drew it on using a thin purple Sharpie. I think I freaked a few people in my department that day who thought it might be real. No one said a thing to me, but then again, I do wear a silver hoop earring, and for years had a ponytail.

Made up of 60 invisible points

Recently at work, I was using Adobe Illustrator to auto-trace scans of clients signatures in order to turn them into a font for use in multi-part project. As I was converting, adjusting, and fine-tuning the traced signatures, I found it interesting seeing all of the points and handles controlling the shape of the artwork. Then it occurred to me that the love ambigram might look neat — and extremely geeky — if the points and a few of the handles were shown as part of the final artwork. Love is an ongoing process of adjustments and fine-tuning as our lives unfold around us. And personally, I only share my invisible “points and handles” with a select few trusted friends.

Screenshot of bounding box

Point and handles of vector artwork are “behind the scenes” of the shape and are only visible when working on the original native file. So I manually added bigger blue boxes and lines to represent the exaggerated points and some of the handles [see larger image below]. In Illustrator, when you select one or more objects with the Selection tool [a black arrow], a bounding box displays around them. You then can use the bounding box to move, rotate, duplicate, and scale objects by dragging the object or a handle (one of the hollow squares along the bounding box).

I thought it might be interesting if the bounding box was broken open and reflected [and a working title became Love Breaking Bounding Boxes], but the design was getting too busy looking. So eliminating the bounding box from the design led to a simplified message, as well as title of the design. This year, rather than drawing the design onto my arm, I’m creating a temporary tattoo to apply. I’ll post a photo of the final applied image hopefully later this week.

So this year, I encourage you to show support for everyone everywhere battling the demons depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide by writing love on your arm. 

Earworm of the Day: Break on Through (to the other side)

Well, actually, any song by The Doors can become an earworm. For two years, starting in the summer of 1980, there was one student in most of my classes at the Art Institute who constantly talked about and played music by The Doors. Bill was quite the fanboy and would always be referring to their lyrics.

Some people believe that we only have a given number of breaths before we die. By the time I graduated, I came to believe that certain songs only need to be heard a given number of times in ones’ life. I have easily met that number and have my fill of any song by The Doors. I wish that there was a membership card or something that would exempt me from hearing Light My Fire, Riders On The Storm, Hello I Love You, The End, L.A. Woman, When You’re Strange, Love Her Madly, Love Me Two Times, and Roadhouse Blues. Been there, heard that, never need to hear it again.

Listen to Roadhouse Blues here, if you must.

February Wood Type of the Month: Kaufmann

via International Printing Museum

“Read this month’s wood-type of the month [here] to learn which typeface is featured in the title of 42 TV shows around the world.

Business Cards: Page IV

Lots on blind embossing on this page, but the lower left corner is probably my favorite—blind embossing the lampshade is a perfect design solution.

Hex & RGB values for Crayola colors

via boing boing

“The Wikipedia entry on Crayola colors includes a marvelous reference: the hexadecimal equivalents for all your favorite crayons.”

Tea Fortune of the Day

Alphabet Animation

spotted on green chair press

“A nifty animation by Allesandro Novelli shows letters in various typefaces melting together and reforming.”


The Alphabet from n9ve on Vimeo.

Greenwich Locksmiths’ Facade

via scoutingny

Greenwich Locksmiths occupies a small storefront just south of Commerce Street. And though it’s been in business since 1968, it really hasn’t changed all that much. But take a closer look at the building, as something had changed. The new facade was designed and installed entirely by owner Phil Mortillaro back in October.

Read more and see some amazing photos of the Greenwich Locksmiths building here.

Naveen Chandru’s En Origami

via green chair press

“If you’ve ever folded a paper crane, you’ll immediately recognize the inspiration behind this display font. Angled lines cut back and forth, giving characters the illusion that they are made from thin ribbons of paper. Mountain and Valley folds reverse course to complete M’s, N’s, and W’s. Other letters make use of a different illusion: layering one form over another to create a doubling-up effect found in paper chains made of tightly folded gum wrappers.”

Read more about the font here. A good titling font; download it here.

1905: Flatiron Building

via shorpy

New York circa 1905. Flatiron Building, corner after snow storm. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company.

A lovely image. View full size here.

Original patents for famous toys

via retronaut


Patent for Etch-A-Sketch, September 1962. Go to this link to see the patents for Monopoly, Slinky, Lego, Barbie, and others.

Business Cards: Page III

Many of the cards on this page were paper samples. In the past, paper manufacturers would showcase their paper stocks utilizing various printing techniques. As time has marched on, many of the companies have merged together, and the number of stocks, as well as printed samples, has dwindled.

Middle card, top row: I like how primitive the artwork is in the circle. The card next to this is blind embossed.

Middle row, left card: Embossed and foil stamped, perfect to represent a financial service. Center card was given to me by my father-in-law. It is a Carte de Visite or calling card, and is the only one I have in my collection. Right card: Opaque inks [probably double-hit] on a deep teal stock.

Bottom row, left card: Nice incorporation of a map, though the address gets a little illegible. Far right card: Two colors on a guinea egg shell stock, embossed as well.

Click on the image for a larger view of the cards.

Year of the Golden Rabbit

via gidfengshui

“Thursday marks the year of the Golden Rabbit, the one and only golden rabbit you can find in the cycle of 60 permutations, the fourth in place from The Twelve Animal Zodiac. It is called the year of The ‘Golden’ Rabbit because we have the element of Metal (Xin) over Wood (Rabbit), however, Rabbit still belongs to the group of Spring of the four seasons, and in addition, it is the peak of Spring dominated by the major element of Wood in the Chinese Metaphysical Science. Thus, this is actually a wood year of Metal over Wood. And as Metal conquers over Wood in the cycle of destruction, this is not really a harmonious and friendly year generally speaking.”

Ice Storm

Near the Multi-Sport Facility on Penn State’s campus.

A sign nearby warned of falling ice from the roof of the building.

In our backyard -- I loved how the ice coated these leaves, and as the day warmed up the ice separated from them. 

Boston to sell off entire contents of its print shop

via boingboing

“The city of Boston has shut down its 78-year-old printing office to save money, and they're auctioning off 200 lots of astounding old print-shop junk. This is a potential bonanza for fine-art printers, zinesters, and people whose idea of fun is historical recreation of pre-digital printing techniques (green eyeshade optional). The auction is being held on Feb 24 at 11AM eastern and will be simultaneously conducted live and digitally.”

Read the rest here.

Amanda Rebuck Howerter

My mother passed along a book that was my maternal great-grandmother’s . 

She would have been about 12 years old when she signed this.

A great ampersand from the back cover.

Although this photo was taken in 1942, this is how I remember her.  She was about 63, and sitting on the front porch of her home in Pitman, PA.

Amanda with my great-grandfather George Monroe Howerter in 1942.

My great-grandmother Howerter passed away in 1965. She would have been about 86 at the time. My only memory of her was when she was on her death bed. I would have been 3 at the time. I remember going upstairs into her bedroom with my mother and Amanda was in a very large bed. She seemed tired, but was very happy to see me. I was wearing this Ratfink ring and was probably fiddling with it. She called me over to her bedside and asked to see it. I tried to explain to her what it was, and I recall that though she didn't really understand what I was saying -- I was 3 and probably didn't speak very clearly or make any sense -- she listened intently, smiled, and said something to the effect that she was so glad that I shared my special ring with her.

Today, though the ring part is long gone missing, the Ratfink holds a special place in my typecase display.

More ampersands can be found here.

The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies

Follow-up to an earlier post on Peter Rabbit

I purchased this copy of Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies almost twenty years ago from the local library’s sale shelf.

I love the ampsersand, as well as the decoration inside of the “O’s” in Flopsy and Potter on the cover.

This edition is dated form 1937, and though the cover is in quite bad shape, the pages are lovingly worn by generations of readers.

This always makes me sad, and I almost feel obligated to purchase these books to save them from a landfill.

How many children’s books contain words like soporific? 

More ampersands can be found here.

Reverse Mixologist: 1920

via shorpy

Washington, D.C., circa 1920. U.S. Treasury, Internal Revenue Department. Measuring the alcohol content of various libations and tonics at the start of Prohibition. National Photo Company Collection glass negative.

View full size here.

Mooch: Fashionably Early

This photo was taken a few days before the cartoon was published.  

Seven Squared

Some links and ramblings on forty-nine:

Interpreting The I Ching - Hexagram 49 Ko
Keyphrase: Revolution.
Formed By The Trigrams: Lake over Fire.
verview: Ko appears at a time of potential radical transformation. Although fast, decisive, action is often the best way this is not necessarily so when Ko appears. Timing is crucial. Any action needs to be thoroughly thought out and based on very solid foundations. Action should only be taken if absolutely necessary. Resist the temptation to act impetuously as that will undermine your efforts and quite possibly have a negative affect.

. . .


Shakespeare’s Sonnet 49 (Addressed to the Unidentified Young Man) 
Against that time, if ever that time come,
When I shall see thee frown on my defects,
When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum,
Call'd to that audit by advised respects;
Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass
And scarcely greet me with that sun thine eye,
When love, converted from the thing it was,
Shall reasons find of settled gravity,--
Against that time do I ensconce me here
Within the knowledge of mine own desert,
And this my hand against myself uprear,
To guard the lawful reasons on thy part:
To leave poor me thou hast the strength of laws,
Since why to love I can allege no cause.

Here is what Shakespeare says, on the surface, to the young man: 
Suppose a time comes when my flaws become annoying to you and, as a result, you evaluate our friendship–weighing the pluses and minuses as a bookkeeper does. Suppose a time comes when you walk by, hardly even noticing me, because your regard for me is no longer what it was and you have settled upon reasons to break off our relationship. Well, if such a time does come and our relationship ends, I will still hold you in fond memory and, like a soldier, defend your reputation against anyone who criticizes you for your action. I will defend you by pointing out my faults, noting that they are good reasons for you to go your own way. With all my defects, I will not be able to make a good case for you to stay.

. . .


Atomic Number 49: Indium; In
A rare soft silvery metallic element; occurs in small quantities in sphalerite. Its major uses are in low-melting-point alloys that replace mercury in thermometers, and in flat screen televisions. Indium was discovered in 1863 and named for the indigo blue line in its spectrum that was the first indication of its existence in zinc ores, as a new and unknown element.

. . .

True indigo in its spectrum, I like that.

Official Green Hornet Agent

Sometime after 1964, I became a Green Hornet Agent. I apparently had to sign the back of the badge for it to be official. Even though the badge is 4" across, it still wasn’t big enough for my signature at the time, so I had to add the S above the M and the E.

Morgans Hotel Inspiration

via notcot

Morgans Hotel Penthouse in NYC leaves The School Of Life quote postcards on your pillow. Fun, inspiring, and nice clean typography. Makes me smile.

See them here.

Matches

via Design Observer, John Foster’s Accidental Mysteries, 01.30.11

“Accidental Mysteries is an online curiosity shop of extraordinary things, mined from the depths of the online world and brought to you each week by John Foster, a writer, designer and longtime collector of self-taught art and vernacular photography. “I enjoy the search for incredible, obscure objects that challenge, delight and amuse my eye. More so, I enjoy sharing these discoveries with the diverse and informed readers of Design Observer. All images link to their original source and are copyright their original owners.”

See the rest of John Foster’s Accidental Mysteries here, link to original image here.

Steampunk Memory Keys

via retronaut


See other steampunk flashdrives here.

TED: Jake Shimabukuro

This is a follow-up to an earlier post of mine;
Jake Shimabukuro was recorded at TED2010, February 2010, in Long Beach, CA playing his cover of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Watch it here, duration: 7:08

Bluebirds!

On our travels today, we saw at least two male bluebirds. Pretty exciting that we saw some of the earliest arrivals of the annual spring pilgrimage to the Northeast.