Saturday, May 21, 2011
The Music of Philip Glass, Visualized in Fractals
via brain pickings“What fractals have to do with classical music and the secret of Einstein’s genius: I’m obsessed with synesthesia and the visual language of music, and love the work of Philip Glass, often considered the greatest living composer. Naturally, I’m head over heels with these spellbinding fractal visualizations by Russian artist Tatiana Plakhova, abstracting Glass’s music graphically….”
Read the rest here.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Wood Type of the Month: Balloon
via international printing museumRead this month’s wood-type column to learn what typeface was created for use in comic strips…
Glagolitic script
via typonine“The Glagolitic script didn’t evolve from any older orthographic system, it was created as a completely new and original script. At first the Glagolitic script was rounded in shape and in that form came to Croatian ground in 9th century. From 12th century Glagolic script exists only in Croatian area and it evolves to a new angular style which is called Croatian Glagolitic.
The basic shapes of Croatian Glagolitic are determined by a few basic strokes mostly horizontal and vertical. The architecture of characters is very symmetrical which enabled the creation of numerous two-, three-, even four letter ligatures. Croatian Glagolitic is consisted of 32 alphanumeric characters. The script got its name in the 19th century from a verb glagoljati — to talk. This script was used in holy books, poems, legends, novels and legal documents…”
Llama Font
via swissmiss
“Avery Oldfield created Llamafont.com, a site that allows you to type a message in a font made of llamas and share it with your friends. Why? Because llamas make everything better...”
Makes me smile.
First Solar-Powered Engine
via retronaut
‘Eventually industry will no longer find in Europe the resources to satisfy its prodigious expansion. Coal will undoubtedly be used up. What will industry do then?’
— Augustin Bernard Mouchot (1825-1912), French inventor of the earliest solar-powered engine, converting solar energy into mechanical steam power
I love that the industry used in the image is a letterpress, which looks very much like the one we have at work.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Final Encore: Pick Your Song For The End Of The World
via npr’s All Songs Considered“Let’s just say, for the sake of discussion, that Saturday marks the occasion when the righteous ascend to heaven and the wicked are sent to writhe miserably in the eternal damnation of hellfire. What single song do you plan to play when the end arrives?”
Join the discussion here. My song would be the Beatle’s “A Day in the Life”
Stand Up For Girls Big and Small
“...My five-year-old daughter came home from school last month and said she no longer wanted to wear pink because a girl in her class had told her that she hated pink and that it was too girly. My first instinct was to have my daughter tell this budding fashionista what she could do with her critique… but luckily I’ve learned to ignore my first instincts. I told my daughter it was a shame that her classmate couldn’t enjoy all the wonderful colors out there in the world. Then we made a list of some wonderful pink things: puppy bellies, cotton candy, strawberry ice cream, piglets, roses, bubble gum…
Let’s teach our daughters to celebrate other women’s strength, success and happiness. Let’s not limit their options. Let’s teach them that when they make decisions in their lives, to make them based on what’s right for them. Our dreams should never be hampered by fear of what others may think.”
Read the entire post by Tracey Stewart here.
How to create a ligature
via thisiscolossal“David Schwen demonstrates how typographic ligatures are created. It’s all about the details…”
Find out more here. This really makes me smile.
Douglas Coffin, Lettercarver
via typeculture“While this film may not be about type, it abounds with beautiful letters. Douglas Coffin is one of a handful of people in the United States who carve letters in stone with the same methods that were used in the Roman Empire. Two thousand years later, the most compelling results are still achieved through the design and carving skills of a passionate artist-craftsman…”
Watch this, and other short videos, here.
QR Code Portrait
via cmybacon“Scott Blake has been creating large scale “pixel portraits” using barcodes, and one of his most recent projects is a portrait of Amy Goodman using 2,304 QR Codes that link to 9 years of Democracy Now videos….”
Memento Mori
via makeCory Doctorow writes, “I’m often puzzled by how satisfying older technology is. What a treat it is to muscle around an ancient teletype, feeding it new-old paper-tape or rolls of industrial paper with the weight of a bygone era. What pleasure I take from the length of piano roll I’ve hung like a banner from a high place in every office I’ve had since 2000.
How much satisfaction I derive from the racing works of the 1965 mechanical watch I received as a Father’s Day present this year, audible in rare moments of ambient silence or when my hand strays near my ear, going tick-tick-tick-tick like the pattering heart of a pet mouse held loosely in my hand.
The standard explanation for the attractiveness of this old stuff is simply that They Made It Better In The Old Days. But this isn’t necessarily or even usually true. Some of my favorite old technologies are as poorly made as today’s throwaway products from China’s Pearl River Delta sweatshops.”
Read the rest here.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
The Rapture: May 21, 2011 6:00 p.m.
via The Bennington Vale Evening Transcript
Read the rest here.
via wikipedia“Harold Egbert Camping has gained recent notoriety due to his prediction that the Christian Rapture will take place on May 21, 2011 and that the end of the world will take place five months later on October 21, 2011. Followers of Camping claim that around 200 million people (approximately 3% of the world's population) will be raptured. As for the remainder of the human population, Camping himself believes in annihilationism, which is the view that those who are not saved will simply cease to be conscious rather than spend eternity in Hell. Those who were "unsaved" and died prior to May 21 will not be affected by or experience the Rapture or the end of the world…”
Read the rest here.Or you can slog through his site here to learn more behind his prediction, or here and here or more links.
The Post Rapture Looting Facebook page [here] just makes me smile, as does the Post Rapture Pet Care Facebook page [here].Classroom-Sized Camera Obscura
Cuban-born photographer Abelardo Morell demonstrated the concept of camera obscura to college students in 1988 by turning the entire classroom into a camera.
Read the rest here.
Creating a community of happiness
via felt and wire“Eric Smith’s Live Now project began as a website collection of inspirational quotes illustrated by designers. It quickly turned into an international community project, which has now been released in book format. The Live Now book includes the contributed works of 65 designers and illustrators from around the world. Of the message that he hopes Live Now will inspire…”
Read the rest here, visit the Live Now community here.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Cartography and Photography
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| London, 2011 and 1572 |
via imprint
“My, how our perception of the world has changed in a few short centuries—a heartbeat in the universe’s chronology. The Atlantic has an intriguing slideshow comparing differences between cartographic representations of major cities in the 16th century, and modern Google Maps views. In many cases, the difference in underlying geography are striking…”
See the slideshow here.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
On Interrobang, Pilcrow, Capitulum, and Wayzgoose
Some small random bits . . .
via Shady Characters The secret life of punctuation
via worldwidewords
via Shady Characters The secret life of punctuationRead an addendum to the Interrobang, here.
via H&FJ
“ . . . In any case, Pilcrow & Capitulum would make a fine name for a pub, and a grand place to host a typographers’ wayzgoose.”
Read the entire post here.
via worldwidewords“The end of summer came early in old-time printing shops. By the third week in August candles were needed to light the final hours of the long working day. To mark this shift to winter working, it was usual for the master printer to give his journeymen a feast around St Bartholomew’s Day (24 August). This was the wayzgoose or way-goose…” Read more about this feast here and here.
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| Wayzgoose for Coventry printers at Stonebridge, c. 1907. |
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Summit at Shilow: Proving Grounds?
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| The Summit at Shilow |
So...is this some military or government proving ground for secret testing? A search online turned this up about communities like this during the Cold War, “… Homes and commercial buildings were built to standards typical of American and European cities. Other structures included military fortifications (of types used by both NATO and the Warsaw Pact), civil defense, and ‘backyard’ shelters. In a typical test several buildings might be built using the same plan with different types of paint, landscaping, cleanliness of yards, wall angles, or distances from Ground Zero. Mannequins were placed in and around vehicles and buildings...”
Read the rest here about destruction and survivability testing at the Nevada National Security Site (N2S2), National Test Sites (NTS), and Proving Grounds. Perhaps this development just has some restrictive covenants for noise and being seen in public, in addition to the usual not hanging clothes on a clothesline.
Television ‘Deaths’
via wired“Retro televisions sparked an interest for Berlin graphic designer Stephan Tillmans after he noticed the brightly colored picture breakdown when certain screens were switched off. After much experimentation with old televisions, Tillmans realized that every old television has its own ‘death,’ and, with enough patience, this could become an intriguing photographic subject…”
Read the rest here.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Image of the Day: Panorama of Philadelphia
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| This is another postcard that I purchased at a flea market, postmarked June 25, 1909. |
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| I love the sepia-toned ink, and find it quaint that this is referred to as a ‘postal.’ But who is ‘Brother,’ why did he run away with Fred, and why didn’t she expect him to return until September? |
Graphic novelist and comic book creator Drew Weing to speak May 23
via Penn State University Libraries Newswire “Drew Weing, American comic book creator and Honor Book winner of the first Lynd Ward Prize for Graphic Novel of the Year will speak at 7 p.m., Monday, May 23, in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library, on Penn State's University Park campus, with satellite video broadcasts throughout the state...”
For more information, or to watch a webcast, visit here and here.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Color Bar Mighty Wallet & Designer Buttons
“The Mighty Wallet™ is tear-resistant, water-resistant, expandable and recyclable. Printed with the bold color bar printer's marks this cyan, magenta, yellow and black design has a graphic presence that any designer or artist would appreciate…”Read more about it here.
And not to be forgotten, the Graphic Designer Button 4 pack can be found here.
Nike+ Paint With Your Feet
via swissmiss“...Zach Lieberman and his team collaborated with Nike for which they wrote software that makes paintings from GPS data of your runs that Nike+ gets. The basic idea was that it will allow you to ‘paint with your feet.’ They trained a group of runners how to use it and how their running styles affect the system, then worked with them to design posters.”
Read more about it here.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Orphan Annie & Hot Metal Type
via kickstarter“Our Orphan Annie isn’t a cute redhead who sings. She’s a big, old cast-iron Monotype Sorts Caster who clicks more than sings, but isn’t doing either at the moment. We want to change that—and we need your help. Orphan Annie was part of the type foundry of the late C. Christopher Stern. Chris inspired many in the letterpress community with his brilliant printing, use of typography and enthusiasm for the craft of hot metal type casting. We’ve moved the foundry to Portland, Oregon and are now in the process of restoring it to working order. In early 2011, we’ll be opening the foundry as a working museum with public programs designed to preserve the craft of casting type, educate, and inspire creativity for a new generation of printers and thing-makers. The Orphan Annie is one of the foundry machines we want to revive.
Our Kickstarter project is to restore the Orphan Annie, record the process, and get her back in the business of casting metal type. We’ll use the money we raise to fund restoration materials and a public space for this industrial machine. We have volunteers to restore and make Orphan Annie sing again, but we also need to ensure she has a stable home and won’t be kicked out into the street. The typeface we’ll cast with her during the inaugural run will be Stern–the typeface created by the legendary typographer Jim Rimmer in honor of Chris Stern (and documented in the Kickstarter-funded film Making Faces). We'll be casting from Jim's original matrices, which he bequeathed to the Type Foundry in 2010. After that, we hope for many tomorrows filled with creative letterpress printing adventures with Orphan Annie and her metal type.”
Find out more here.
Reddy Kilowatt & Willie Wirehand
via creativepro“Electricity once had a perky little mascot, Reddy Kilowatt, with a light bulb nose, plugs for ears, and a body made of lightning bolts…There was even a Reddy Kilowatt typeface!”
Read the rest here.
And you can learn about Willie Wirehand and his 50th anniversary as the electric cooperative spokes-character here.
Inverted Art Made with Spools of Thread
via a friend“Devorah Sperber is showing some fantastic works…What Sperber does is take multi-colored spools of thread and arranges them in a way so that they appear like pixels. Taken as a whole, the spools look like a hot mess, in other words, like your grandma went crazy and glue gunned her thread collection on a wall. Look through a viewing sphere (a small, transparent ball) that's conveniently placed in front of the piece, however, and get ready to be amazed. As Brooklyn Museum states, ‘Sperber deconstructs familiar images so that the brain can reconstruct them. Her framed crystal reproductions similarly address the way we think we see versus the way the brain processes visual information.’”
Read and see more here.
Handheld Printers
via printeresting“If you can look past the cheesy corporate infomercialness of the youtube promo video, this handheld printer from EBS Ink-Jet Systems has crazy potential. It’s 2011, street artists. Hand-written tagging is so last decade! Around 2:35, the video clearly demonstrates how ridiculous hand-stenciling is so it’s time to toss away your spray cans and get with the program. The future is here…”
Watch it here.
Pouch Camp
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| Dark Shadows, © 2011 Nathan Kensinger |
via Nathan Kensinger Photography
“There are many strange things in the Blood Root Valley. There is the half-abandoned tuberculosis hospital. There is a 260-foot mountain made by Robert Moses. And there is Pouch Camp, a hidden 143-acre oasis with a 68-year-old lake, mountain ponds, rustic cabins and 55 lean-tos. For over 60 years, Pouch Camp has been a secret haven for New York City's boy scouts. Each year, thousands of scouts learn to swim and camp within the boundaries this vast idyllic refuge. Located in the heart of Staten Island, Pouch Camp is so large it even has its own private island, which is difficult to reconcile with the fact that the camp is situated inside the most populous city in the United States. Located just 10 miles from Wall Street, Pouch Camp has somehow remained largely anonymous…”
Read the rest here.
Mimi and Eunice: Posting Art Online
via Nina Paley’s Mimi and Eunice
“There’s lots of insanely bad behavior online, but even more insanely good behavior. In particular, the gushing praise and encouragement people offer just about any creative effort posted online. Yes, there are trolls and savage critics, but far more people are kind than cruel. It’s no indication of quality, but it is very sweet…”
Find out more here.
The National Jukebox
“The National Jukebox is spinning tunes – and you don't have to drop any coin to get it to play. Today the Library of Congress and Sony Music Entertainment announced the launch of what's being billed as ‘the largest collection of historical recordings ever made publicly available online.’ The new website provides access to more than 10-thousand historical recordings for free on a streaming-only basis – no downloads. It covers the first quarter of the twentieth century and includes music, poetry, political speeches and other spoken word recordings...”
Read the rest here, and visit the National Jukebox here.
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