Threatened by extinction – the nordic ark

I took a trip to the zoo. And was reminded of how annoying humans are.

font conference

I laugh and laugh – this is too good.

A conference of fontfaces, deciding if Zapf dingbats should be given membership. Ransom interfers, and have taken Courier and Curlz prisoner, threatening to slash off their serifs. And what face saves the day?

..guess what fontface is my favourite..

best books – non-fiction

Some of the best non-fiction books I have read. Some of them are not necessarily well written, and would not win prices for excellent language; at least one of them is actually annoying in that respect, but I have included them because the subject is interesting/important. I am sure I have forgotten some, but there you go. Teflon brain.

The art of looking sideways
Alan Fletcher
This is how it looks like inside my head. It a fountain of musings, facts, the odd, solid, and whimsical. It is design, doodles, unfinished thoughts, images, drawings. It is colours, shapes and wisdom. It is a delight and frustration at the same time – if I could show what goes on in my head, this is pretty much it.

best books – fiction

I read a good deal of books, and picking out the best 10 was too difficult, so here is a handful, in no particular order. These I read and re-read over and over. I have probably forgotten some (best non-fiction and best covers coming up later). ..and please do not say the word post-modernism, social realism or stream-of-consciousness. I’ll throw up all over your tie.
Feel free to nominate other books.

The poisonwood bible
Barbra Kingsolver
A stunning story about a bible-bashing missionary, his wife and four daughters, in the last days of Belgian Congo. Impressively, the five women have distinct voices and their common story unfolds in different facets through their different viewpoints. The family and the country disintegrates, and the girls all choose different lives based on those two years in Africa.

Design Observer – the pathetic dinosaur?

I have been reading Design Observer on and off for a few years. Sometimes it’s desperately navel-gazing, sometimes is preaching to the already converted, sometimes it’s talking to a few insiders. Sometimes, it is good. The last time I scrolled through, though, made me feel despondent.

Helvetica, gods of fonts. I don’t like the a.

I finally saw the much-trumpeted film. It was amusing; mainly for the characters in it – and I mean the designers, not the fontface. That helvetica is everywhere is no surprise. It is clean, bland, large, simple and good for signage. Generally.
But the designers was the funniest bits. Some of them are clearly off their rockers, and I love it. Especially Erik Spiekermann is a raving loony, a man with wit, opinions and a careless regards of others. “I am always on time, but always a year late”, he says. He despises Helvetica for having no contrast; no rhythm. He shrugs, and says bad design is everywhere.

Found

Have found some good pictures out there on the big web. I like the genuinely miserable look on the left guys face.

All my secret passwords

You have to love ThinkGeek for coming up with the Top Secret Password Notepad. It is so obvious, no one will ever suspect. Especially not a bunch of dumb penguins we know…
Hide it in plain view they say. It’s the same technique elefants use when they hide in cherry trees.
Genius.