Frankenstein meets Frankenfont

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, reinvented from fragments of PDF fonts by the team at Fathom Information Design in Boston.
A team of visual storytellers from Fathom lead by data-viz wiz Ben Fry, recently recreated the entire text of Frankenstein using characters and glyphs from over 64,000 PDF documents obtained through internet searches. Precisely 55,382 different glyph shapes were extracted from 347,565 fonts in the PDFs, which were then coded and sequenced to fill all of the 342,889 individual letters found in the Frankenstein text. What emerges from this DNA-like sequencing is a new Frankenfont creation formed from font fragments by Fathoms' Fry and friends.
      The story opens with the display of the most common characters such as Arial, Helvetica and Times New Roman. As the story of the Frankenstein monster evolves, so does the text which is coded to completely devolve into grotesque shapes near the end. Familiar glyphs and fonts merge into obscure scripts; non-Roman fonts begin to appear; and even typefaces morph into pictograms. This Frankenfont transformation becomes the perfect metaphor for Shelley's classic tale of the deformed monster Frankenstein. 

While most books are typically designed to interpret the authors' words with little fanfare and with an obedience to convention as Stanley Morrison once put it, Fry's new Frankenfont edition plays with our sense of order, and the traditional design principles such as consistency, navigation and readability go entirely out the window. As a teacher of book design and typography for many years, I strongly advocate these principles of convention to my students. Afterall, books have been successfully published in this manner for over 500 years. Despite this endorsement, I'm also a big fan of innovation and experimentation in books. In Fry's edition of Frankenstein, a hallmark of book design and innovation has been reached with this conceptual approach to text layout.
      As a timely sidenote to this story, the topic of a frankenfont came up in my classroom just 2 weeks ago when Kevin Larson from the Advanced Reading Technologies Department at Microsoft, was speaking to my students about readability studies of various typefonts and individual characters. Larson is a text enthusiast and has published many studies on the science of word recognition and legibility of characters. The suggestion of a frankenfont was mentioned in jest as one which could build upon the best characters of many fonts in order to achieve greater legibility. The next day, my student Susan Schumacher added a post on our class Facebook page with a link to Fathom's new Frankenfont edition of Frankenstein.
      Copies of the Frankenfont project can be purchased in paperback or hardback editions on Blurb with all profits given to Donors Choose to buy books for students. Incidently, Ben Fry was recently awarded a National Design Award in Interaction Design in June from the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. 

All of the nearly 5500 unique words to be found in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. (Click image to expand). The key to any great novel is to put them all in the right place ; )
:: Thanks to James Gaddy of Co.Design for packaging this story so nicely.

¶unc†u@t!*n

From Vintage Marvels Etsy shop. 

Rearranging the Deckchairs

How many deckchairs does it take to rearrange an alphabet?
Spoiler alert: Just three, plus one to sit back with a cool glass of iced tea and enjoy it.
      Deckchairs Alphabet. A very limited edition screen print in two colors from With Relish. A font for those lazy days of Summer.

Letter Sweater

Seen hanging on a sidewalk rack in my hood recently.  

Not my colors, nor my fontstyle.

Housekeeping Alphabet

Printmaker Chloe Cheese created a wonderful series of original alphabet monoprints she titles Housekeeping. A few of her letters have several states of prints and some of her signed artworks are still available for sale at St. Jude's Prints in Norfolk England. Chloe belongs to a very distinguished group of fine British printmakers represented by St. Judes who produce artwork in various print media, including wood engraving, woodcuts, silkscreen, litho and letterpress. In addition to artist's prints, St Jude's sells beautiful patterned fabrics and other textiles of their artist's designs along with stationery products, and artist books of 3 of my favorites; Edward Bawden, Eric Ravilious and Angie Lewin. 

Marilyn's Home at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive: SOLD!

According to www.redfin.com, Marilyn Monroe's home closed escrow on September 8, 2010, and sold for $3,850,000.00, well above the original asking price of $3,595,000.00.

To read about my tour of Marilyn's home, click here.

My Tour of Marilyn's Last Home

On Saturday, July 17, I had the amazing and incredible experience of viewing Marilyn Monroe's final home, located at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive, Brentwood, California. The house is currently for sale. More information about the listing can be viewed at www.davidoffer.com and www.sawbuck.com.

Read about my visit to the house and view photos of the home today compared to images from when Marilyn owned the property.

The experience itself was an incredible one that I'll never forget. I was pleased to see the tiles reading "Cursum Perficio" in Latin, or, "My Journey Ends Here" in English as I crossed the threshold and entered Marilyn Monroe's home.


The House and Grounds

The house itself, while very similar to the time when Marilyn lived there, has undergone some significant changes. The guesthouse and main house have been joined. Several rooms have been added in the back of the house, but are not connected to the main house.

The pool area remains the same, as does the terraced lower lot in the rear of the house.

Many of the plants appear to be the same from the time when Marilyn lived there. I noticed that two palm trees currently in the back yard can be seen in photos of the property taken on August 5, 1962.

In walking through the spaces in the guest house area, I was surprised and immensely happy to see that the tiles Marilyn selected in Mexico still surround the shower in the guest bathroom.


The Master Bedroom and Bathroom

Marilyn’s bedroom has experienced some changes, primarily in that the door to the bedroom was relocated to a different wall. The area where Marilyn’s door was formerly is now a built-in book case. The door to the room is now immediately behind the area where Marilyn’s wooden bedside table was located. The fireplace in the room remains intact.


Marilyn’s bathroom has undergone major renovations. A full tub and shower is now situated in the area that was her sink and counter. Her tub and shower were removed and the room was extended (the reason for the door to the bedroom needing to be moved). The toilet appears to be in the original location.


The Living Room

I was immediately struck by the original open ceilings in the living room. The vaulted ceiling consists entirely of wooden beams and planks. While the overall design of the ceiling is basic, I found myself staring up for extended periods of time, just mesmerized by the beauty and naturalness of the original wood from the time when Marilyn lived there. The room overall was much smaller than I thought it would be. While somewhat long, it’s very narrow.

The tiles Marilyn selected in Mexico still surround the fireplace.

The Dining Room

Marilyn’s dining room now serves as a den for the current owners. Built-in cabinets have been added around the dining room window. The beam above the window in the current photo of the house (shown below) is the actual beam Marilyn hung from in photos taken by Allan Grant. I was always under the impression the photos from this session were taken in the living room. But it appears as if they were taken in the dining room.

The Kitchen

The kitchen has undergone major renovations and is not even recognizable today when compared to photos of the kitchen when Marilyn lived there. Only the location of the stove and the hood remain unchanged.

The main house and guesthouse are now connected and the kitchen was expanded. The area with Marilyn’s kitchen nook, with wooden table and built-in benches, and the counter area with the kitchen sink and dishwasher has been completely renovated.

Marilyn had the kitchen completely remodeled when she bought the house. I happen to own her personal copy of the kitchen floor plan, shown below.

The Sun Room

The sun room is primarily unchanged structurally from when Marilyn owned the home. I noticed right away that the tiles on the floor are the same tiles from when Marilyn lived there. This can be seen in the photos from 1962 and 2010. One wall now has built-in cabinets near the location of Marilyn’s liquor cart.

Note: All photographs copyright their respective owners.

For Sale: Marilyn Monroe's Final Home

The Spanish hacienda in Brentwood formerly owned by Marilyn Monroe is for sale.

"Sprawling and very special authentic 1929 Hacienda situated behind tall gates at the end of a quiet cul de sac on over 23,000 square feet (per assessor) of tree-filled grounds. The crown jewel and largest property of all the Helenas (one of Brentwood's most romantic and coveted locations) affording lovely vistas and great privacy & seclusion yet in close proximity to San Vicente shops & restaurants and the Sunday Farmer's Market. Thick walls, traditional casement windows, polished concrete and terra cotta tile floors, original wood beamed ceilings and period hardware & tiles create a warm, inviting and unique environment. French doors open to private courtyard, expansive grassy yard, pool, citrus grove & beautiful setting. Four bedrooms, three baths plus formal living room, family room, office, pool-side game room and separate children's play house. Sun-filled cook's kitchen opens to spacious courtyard garden. Wonderful charm and great architecture inside and out. Magical property in the finest Brentwood neighborhood."

The house is not identified as having been owned by Marilyn.

Asking Price: $3,595,000.00.

For more information visit:

www.davidoffer.com

www.sawbuck.com