Sign Spotting

As seen in the hood recently and posted on FB by an apparel design student. Gotta love the telephone pole dialog prompted by one bad ass type crime. Thanks for sharing Dorothy! 

The First iRapture

Photo by Amy Rolph/seattlepi.com

I'm backkkk. No it wasn't the rapture. It's been a week of grading, business, travel and service interruptions, but I've saved up a few things to post soon. With another anticipated judgement day just a week away, I thought I would share a local sighting of a billboard on Aurora Avenue, one of our finest corridors of signage proliferation in North Seattle. I think if anyone is judged on judgement day, it will be the marketing department of the WeCanKnow.org, the official site of the Family Radio group predicting the end of times next Saturday, May 21st. Don't they know how ridiculous their signage looks with the random alignment and such a goofy layout? And witness their traveling Noah Knew bus and billboard below with the nod to the 2008 Obama campaign and the period in the headline. What's most interesting is that this may be the first iRapture ever. The WeCanKnow people want to encourage the use of technology for witnessing on the 21st. You can download books for the Kindle, organize scriptures and audio commentaries on your iPod Touch and "use internet radio to play the Family Radio from anywhere". Meaning you can listen from heaven or hell? No, I'm afraid that would just be called hell. Sorry class—homework will still be due on the following week.

Built to Chill

Ephemeral ice typography by Vancouver BC artist, Nicole Dextras who takes words to the frozen North and exposes them to the cold elements. Over time, guess what? They melt and disappear, just like the ephemeral words vanish into thin air as we speak them. The photographs at least freeze the words in time and insulate them from the elements. Each 7' tall letter is created with wooden forms and they are transported to locations and set out on frozen rivers or lakes. Holes were augered into the 2 to 4' deep ice and water pumped into the forms. Words are left to freeze and the wooden forms are later released to reveal the fragile and frozen letters of ice. According to Dextras, "Legacy refers to the landscape as being the heritage of the inhabitants of this (Yukon) region. The gold that was found here a hundred years ago is what attracted people to come to this remote area. Now the inherited legacy of this pristine landscape is theirs to protect and pass on." Other installations include smaller frozen words with tints of color which fade with time. You can see a video of one of Dextra's icy word installations here and view photos of her Frozen Typography here.

America Needs Typography 101

Aside from all of the tedium and negativity during this long election season, there is one thing that has become crystal clear to me: America needs to learn how to make their own signage. It's like learning how to make a good thought bubble, except without Comic Sans. The comic relief on the other hand, displayed at the Sanity/Fear Rally in DC a couple days ago, was a welcomed pleasure to see. America still does have a great sense of humor. Well, most of us do. Those that have learned how to use their indoor voice instead of shouting that is. And this is what gives me great hope – and graphic designers job security – so long as people can still read I guess. Here are just a few out takes of Stewart and Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in DC on Saturday to bear witness. See many more great signs here and here and here.

Going Rogue

Going Rogue - An Experimental Typeface from Ryan Ogborn on Vimeo.

For someone who has serious contempt for firearms, I find it ironic that my last 3 posts all have a gun-related theme. This one comes from my student, Ryan Ogborn, who took to a shooting gallery to "design" his experimental font this quarter. He claims it is inspired by the font, Bernhardt Medium and Sarah Palin. I admit I was very reluctant to give him my blessing on this production, but I think it is quite mavericky–and in that case–experimental. I'm rather offended however when I see the bullet-riddled face of Bernhardt, (Cheney could have done better), but sometimes one has to take a hit for art's sake. Frankly, I think Ryan scored a big hit with his Palin-inspired tribute. However the winking emoticon on his poster (click to enlarge) got a big zero.

xType Culture Show

The rules of engagement for my experimental typography class were an "about face" from classwork of the previous quarter teaching the fine typography skills required of book design. Here are just a few of the 37 great examples currently on exhibit in our school's art gallery through end of April.

From the top: Emi Buckmaster: Ephemeral (Suminagashi) | Shinya Iwaki: Cityscape (Handmade letterforms of architecture) | Sean Fischer: Dance Team (video of dancing girls, a pirate and a cat) | Adam Curtis: InterAction (Flash animation and lots of coffee) | Atticus Waller: Dreamgasm (Handmade letterforms) | Reis O'Brien: Toypography (cheap plastic toys) | Jordan Dailey: Micron Font (100s of Micron pens) | Mike Holm: ABC Gum (26 pieces of gum) | Anna Goldstein: Typuccino (26 lattes) | Jen Pearce: Rind (Oranges).