A is for Antelope
Can you tell I’ve just become a father? There is a pattern emerging here.
Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich’s Bembo’s Zoo: An Animal ABC Book, is a clever and beautiful children’s book that is illustrated using only letterforms and punctuation from the Bembo family of typefaces.
Check out the online edition here or buy it at Amazon.
Handwritten Typographers
Cameron Adams asks:
And answers with handwriting examples from leading type designers. This post is for the hardcore lover of typography so sorry in advance.Do typographers exert some extraordinary control of the pen that laypersons don’t? Does a typographer’s handwriting influence the typefaces they produce?
Acrobat v9
Mark Pilgrim on the latest version of Adobe Reader.
Adobe today reminds me a bit of Apple in the mid ’90s when I bought my first Mac. Tremendous engineering and design talent, loyal customer base built over 20 years and a management that just doesn’t get it at all, and seems hell-bent on running the company into the ground.Adobe® Reader® 9 is out. It’s now almost half as fast as Foxit Reader. It lets you embed Flash in PDF and embed PDF in Flash. Adobe supports both kinds of music, country and western. They’ve also “conveniently” bundled Adobe® AIR™ for no apparent reason and added synergistic integration with their cloud, which claims it doesn’t support my browser and then requires both Javascript and Flash to sign up for an Adobe® ID, the use of which is governed by this draconian service agreement, which is a PDF. You can’t make this stuff up. And apparently it gets worse if you try to, you know, actually install it.
NEW: Less Hyphen, More Burst
Walmart (unhyphenated as a single word from now on), one of the largest retailers in the world is launching a new logo. This is what Armin Vit had to say:
They should totally go back to the one they used from 1964-1981. Dress everyone in the stores up in cowboy outfits and sheriff badges, the whole nine yards. Giddy Up!The change to title case helps humanize Walmart with a name that reads more like John, Albert, Sarah or Wilbur; it really looks very different and sets a different tone. The wordmark is nice and friendly and has enough customization to feel more proprietary than out-of-the-box. The new icon, however, is very questionable. It reflects technology start-up or telecommunications company before it does discount retailing that will make anyone live better. Sure, it might represent a flower or a sun, but the execution is too modern and cold to be seen as a natural element.
Why the logo change? Reports in the media all allude to Walmart's continued evolution and progression from its less-than-glamorous reputation and image as an invasive retailer with less-than-desirable employment and environmental practices. And the evasive press release does little to explain anything:
But what really matters is what happens out there in the stores. This update to the logo is simply a reflection of the refresh taking place inside our stores and our renewed sense of purpose to help people save money so they can live better.
Me Mobile Pretty One Day
With title apologies to David Sedaris.
While iPhone owners were busy banging their overpriced first-generation iPhones on their foreheads, Apple followers have been fiercely belittling the logo for the new syncing feature, MobileMe. BuzzFeed gathers the links to the best, seemingly endless cheap shots.
On first seeing Apple’s new branding for MobileMe, I was struck by how over engineered it appeared. Do they really need so many elements in the design? Other Macheads are up-in-arms at how similar it looks to the WindowME signature Micosoft rolled out some years ago. Whatever their grievances, I think it’s a bit on the nose and at odds with Apple’s simple and elegant DNA.
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
It’s a wonderfully simple piece. Watching Job draw the letterforms is mesmeric enough, but when his son (?) joins in, I found myself laughing as he tries to imitate his fathers work. This leads to some funny-looking characters (c and d are particular favourites of mine).
I’m particularly jealous of the beautiful free-hand script of Job. It really is a joy to watch.
‘abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz’
A video by Job & Roel Wouters recorded in Amsterdam at studio Xelor early 2008
Hand 1: Gradus W. Wouters, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 2003 Hand 2: Job Wouters, Leiden, the Netherlands, 1980 Director: Roel Wouters Director of photography: Sal Kroonenberg Music: Rik Elstgeest & Bo Koek Production asst: Ton de Munck
On a bizarre side note, I also see Mark fathered a baby girl named ‘Alys’ on the exact same day my daughter was born, April 15 2008. What are the chances of that happening?