Wichita, Kansas

Dominic Flask has created an interesting online collection of graphic design history: Design is History, developed as part of his graduate thesis at Fort Hays State University.

(Does the fact that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting or associating with many of the designers whose work is featured on this site make me historic? No—don’t answer that). Thanks to Martyn Schmoll for the link.

Van Nuys, California

Older, devout design practitioners will no doubt be able to relate to these Patron Saints of Graphic Design (St. Exacto, St. Typo, St. Pixela)… more here.

(Thanks to Bob Roach for the link).

(click on image for larger size—found here)

(You can take this one to the bank… thanks Marian).

London, UK

It has taken humanity less than nine months to blow its ecological budget for the year, according to data from leading independent UK think-tank nef (the new economics foundation) and Global Footprint Network, a California-based environmental research organization.

Ecological Debt Day comes a full month earlier than last year, reflecting not only greater consumption of resources on a global scale, despite the recession, but also improvements in data collection giving a more detailed analysis than ever before. The new research, for example, indicates that the world has less grazing land available than previously estimated.

(Thanks to Jacques Lange in South Africa — sorry, link is now broken).

This day and age we’re living in gives cause for apprehension.
With speed and new invention, and things like third dimension.
Yet, we get a trifle weary, with Mister Einstein’s theory,
So we must get down to earth, at times relax, relieve the tension.
No matter what the progress, or what may yet be proved,
The simple facts of life are such they cannot be removed.
You must remember this, a kiss is still a kiss,
A sigh is just a sigh…
The fundamental things apply, as time goes by.

—from Herman Hupfeld’s “As Time Goes By,” 1931

(thanks to Bob Roach from the GDC Listserv for the lyrical prompt)

From the troubled land of sans/sens…

I grew up with Helvetica (almost literally—during my elementary school years while living in Reinach [on the outskirts of Basel, Switzerland] I would pass by Münchenstein by tram twice daily; Münchenstein is where the Helvetica typeface was developed in the late 1950s by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas’sche Schriftgiesserei [Haas type foundry]).

So, while I admit to a biased preference for Helvetica over Arial (dubbed by many in our field as a “shameless impostor”) I do find it interesting to observe how much fuss some designer colleagues raise over the similarities and differences of these two leading sans-serif faces.

(I’m not sure of the original source of the image above, but it does provide a useful comparison of some of the similarities and differences in “tone of voice” of these two popular faces).

+ + +

Friend Martyn Schmoll has suggested a great little article on
I Love Typography: Arial versus Helvetica.