Kruts, simple Helvetica Type web dizains. Efektīvs Flash + video usage. Laba attēla kvalitāte. Tēma mums visiem vairāk vai mazā interesanta, bet vizuālā komunikācija uz 8 no 10. Nu man patīk.

I know it is old news but boy is this a handsome notebook. isn’t it funny how i feel like i would be infinitely more creative if i had this fine red notebook to doodle and scribble in…

Limited Edition Helvetica Moleskine

I updated the HikiCulture banner. In addition to updating the HikiCulture banner, I updated the banners for my Posterous, Tumblr and Blogger blogs.

The typeface used was Myriad Pro; bold was the weight I used for HikiCulture, and bold condensed was the weight used for A Forum For Reclusive People (and Hikikomori) part of the banner.

Myriad Pro is an under-used typeface that is considered by many people (who are into typography) as being a great alternative to the extremely over-used typeface Helvetica. I myself find Myriad to be a great alternative to Helvetica as I find Helvetica to lack 'personality' —- it's a very neutral font.

Enjoy.

Posted via email from HikiCulture – A Forum For Reclusive People (and Hikikomori) {HikiCulture.Com Site Blog}

Here’s the Mendeljev table for all graphic designers and typography-lovers. Everything is grouped by categories and therefore looks a lot like the old one.
This might get a special place above my bed: Probably more interesting than the real table?

Pick your favorite! Mine might still be helvetica.

Heh. This is an older amusing one that wasn’t covered in my post about past W(aL)D insanity.

This one isn’t really completely in the W(aL)D category, as it’s a legitimate complaint… but still, it’s ridiculous enough to share. Below is the my initial email regarding the incident, and I actually broke my “no calls” rule to talk to a regional manager who was not amused.

You can see what she had to say as it all played out in a thread at PittsburghBeat.com.

At any rate, it pays to make problems like this known.

Enjoy!

-mE.
.seitilibasid gninrael fo nuf ekam ot ynnuf ton yllaer s’tI

Forwarded Message —-
From: Eric Carroll <me@myaddre.ss>
To: dnstech@wendys.com; dnsadmin@wendys.com
Sent: Mon, January 26, 2009 11:45:04 AM
Subject: Wendy’s in Dormont (Pittsburgh, PA) – W. LIBERTY #5

Hello,

I’d like to share with you a review of my experience at a local Wendy’s (W. LIBERTY #5 according to the Wendy’s store locator), also posted on UrbanSpoon.com. I don’t have very many “bad” reviews up, but this Wendy’s location has gone slow and messed up my order countless times.

I’d like to know how Wendy’s as a corporation feels about restaurants like this, and what (if any) measures are taken by corporate to see that this kind of thing doesn’t go on.

The full text of my review can be viewed here: http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/23/1346715/restaurant/Far-South-South-Hills/Wendys-Old-Fashioned-Hamburgers-Dormont-Pittsburgh

But I will also post it here for your consideration:

“Dave Thomas would be ashamed…” by ERiC AiXeLsyD (63 reviews)

January 26, 2009 – Doesn’t like it – Seriously. I know I”ve said these words before about McDonald’s… I get that it’s only fast food, it’s cheap, and that I shouldn’t expect much… but holy cow, is this consistently one of the slowest “fast food” restaurants that I’ve ever been to. Of course, like an idiot, I keep going back hoping that it might someday be an actual convenience. Let me share with you my latest adventure…

Sunday morning, my wife & I were on our way out to my Mom’s house in the ‘Burbs… so we thought we’d get a quick bite to eat. It was nearing the 11:00am mark, so I knew we were going to hit the breakfast/lunch changeover. We skipped the McDormontonald’s because the drive-thru line looked like rush hour in the Liberty tubes. Thankfully, Wendy’s appeared to be a ghost town. There was hardly anyone inside, and there was one car ahead of us in the drive-thru but they were all the way up at the window.

As we pulled up to the speaker to place our order, I asked if they were serving breakfast or lunch, & was informed that they were serving both. So, I ordered the breakfast chicken sandwich combo, and the wife ordered the #2 bacon panini combo.

After receiving the order in what would be considered a long wait in a normal fast food environment but translated to remarkably quick at this location, I pulled into a nearby spot to inspect the goods. (Sadly, a must any more.)We discovered that my order was fine, but the wife had received a sausage panini instead of the ordered bacon panini. I checked the receipt to see if I had mis-ordered the # of the combo. Nope. The receipt clearly stated BACON in that nifty dot-matrix receipt font.

My wife’s not a big fan of sausage patties, and she was reluctantly leaning toward just eating it because time was of the essence. I know I like to eat what I ordered & paid for, so I went inside to get what I thought would be a simple swap-out.

Oh my, was I wrong.

My first encounter was with the young girl at the cash register. I politely stated that we had just gone through the drive-thru and that I wanted to exchange the sausage panini that we had received for the bacon one that we ordered.

I was told that breakfast was over & that hey couldn’t make a bacon one. After a slight pause of disbelief and bewilderment, I told her that I had just been handed the sandwich less that a minute ago through the drive-thru window… and it had been made just seconds before that.

She then yelled for her manager, and I stepped aside so she could help the next customer.

Now, while never working at a fast food establishment, I do understand that changeover time is changeover time… something to do with eggs on the cooking surface and kitchen setup and all sorts of things that are surely beyond my comprehension as the average fast food consumer.

After a wait the manager (coincidentally the very same person who handed me the order through the drive-thru window) came over and I again explained my situation… and he looked at me. Yes. Just stared blankly at me. For an awkwardly long time. I actually started to wonder if he understood English & was capable of hearing. Compelled to break the silence, I even showed him the receipt that clearly said BACON. All caps. No confusion!

Again, I was met with “we’re serving lunch now, we can’t make that”. OK. I understand. I get that. The point now is what can you do for me?

I asked if I could get something else as compensation, and/or get my money back. (I think I was growing visibly frustrated by this point.)

I called the wife, explained to her the complexity of the situation, and she decided upon a Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger. So, I asked for one of those… and waited… and waited… While a guy who had gone in line in front of me had ordered during my exchange with the manager was waiting too.

After a while he exclaimed with multiple expletives that it was a ridiculously long wait, and how it was un-f’n-believable that a fast food restaurant with 3 people in it and a packed kitchen could go so slow.

I could hardly contain my laughter as I was also driven to the limits of my patience.

After what was surely sufficient time to cook & assemble 20 Jr. Bacon cheeseburgers, I received that, AND my money back for the sausage panini (which was now in the trash right behind the counter). So, I guess I got a free cheeseburger, hash browns & a drink.

I never did get any kind of apology, or admittance that they had messed up the order. (Which bewilders me that one can read bacon off of a screen and put down sausage… but I’m certainly not above making mistakes… so I can’t fault anyone for that.)

I just find it amazing that they weren’t apologizing from the start and presenting a solution instead of waiting for me to come up with one.

You’d think they’d have a “keep the customer happy” policy in place. Don’t they teach you any of this when you go to school to be a manager at Wendy’s?Take mom n’ pop shops… if they screw up an order or take too long, they’d give you a discount or a free drink or a coupon for next time… and they’re certainly taking more of a profit hit than a chain that would do the same thing.

At any rate, don’t go to Wendy’s in Dormont if you’re in a hurry, or if you actually want what you ordered.

I like Wendy’s. I grew up eating at the one in Murrysville, I frequent the one in Canonsburg for lunch. You have decent food for a cheap price, and I generally feel that the quality is better than that of other fast food chains.

I’d love to be able to eat peacefully and grab a quick bite to eat at the Wendy’s closest to where I live.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on my experience, and I look forward to your reply.

Thank you for your time, and listening to my story.

-Eric Carroll

me@myaddre.ss

Drive Well, Sleep Carefully- a documentary style tour diary of Death Cab for Cutie- has been a favorite film of mine for a while.

This summer, I found a film entitled Helvetica- an intriguing documentary entirely about the typeface and it’s impact on the design world.

It wasn’t until just moments ago that I figured out these two great pieces of film were directed by the same person, Gary Hustwit.

Anyway, Hustwit has recently completed a new film by the name of Objectified about the world of design. It will be showing on PBS this Tuesday November 24th. Click here for more info.

p.s. I have a soft spot in my heart for documentary film, can you tell?

p.p.s. Apologies for the extremely long hiatus. Our train of thought temporarily derailed.

– Haley Rheinhart –
haley.dustbowl@gmail.com

So I watched the movie Helvetica last night and for those interested at all in typography I recommend it! I didn’t realize this before but there are 2 strong design camps on this topic – those who use Helvetica for literally EVERYTHING and those who DESPISE it. One guy even wanted to thank Helvetica in his wedding program!

My opinion on Helvetica and every other typeface is that there should be a reason behind it using it. I fall into the group of designers who uses fonts to compliment and express my design. I think the typeface is as big of a design decision as the other design elements on the page. So do I use Helvetica? Yes if it is appropriate to my design!

So are you a lover or hater of Helvetica? Or are you like me who sees it as just another great typeface in a sea of other great typefaces?

p.s. Do you like this poster I designed? It’s a quote from the movie. Obviously Helvetica is appropiate in this case

Homenagem a Helvética, uma das fontes mais usadas e melhor resolvida da história da tipografia. Sou fã, tanto da fonte, quanto da som.  Vai lá: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hulk4598/3973520125/

This is the Whatype 2010 Calendar. I’ve done using the Complex Grid. It’s almost an year since I’ve posted the article for this kind of grid and it has had a lot of views. I thought that making something using this grid and explaining the details could be fun and useful.

One of the advantages of making a grid with the care that takes to make a complex grid is that after all the work is done it’s really easy to make everything fit perfectly and our design almost ‘creates itself’. Since the Complex Grid divides the page in 2’s, 3‘ , 4‘ and 6’s; I had to use the 6 division to place two months. On this grid I’ve made there are 11 lines for each division of 6

So each month will take 4 lines and there will still be 3 lines left for the rulers. As we know, text bellow a ruler should be closer to the ruler than the text that stand above a ruler. This gives a more appealing visual effect.

On the above pictures you can check how I’ve made this (without the guides for the visual effect and with the guides to see how the placing was made).

As a designer should know ‘God is in the details‘. For the alignment of the bottom text; the 12 aligns exactly with the axis of the letter t. The size of the type for the large words in vertical allows for the horizontal slash of the first t to be exactly the height of a line as you can see in the following image.

Making a grid like the Complex Grid also ensures that the margins, the gutters and the columns all relate in proportion with each other, with the page and with the leading. As you can see in the next image, the position of the different items of this design all fit perfectly in the grid. The months take two thirds of the type area and the title (with white space) takes one third. The title area is also divided in two parts.

Further more you can also see that the space occupied by the text twothounsand&ten is the same as the white space to it’s right. That white space is twice the white space of the margins. You can see it in more detail on the image bellow.

To finish the explanation; since you are also setting the document grid to fit exactly with the leading (and the columns, the margins, the gutters, etc) you can easily make fine adjustments to your type, the alignments and even the type sizes. Check it out in the next image.

I hope you like this explanation and the calendar. Please comment or e-mail us your thoughts. I’ve made this calendar in A4 but it can be printed on A3, A2, etc… For printing one you can download the pdf without guides here or with the Complex Grid guides here.

By: Pedro Monteiro type: Helvetica

Font site Ironic Sans has put together this quiz that takes twenty popular helvetica based logos, and replaces them with Arial. Can you spot which is which? It’s no where near as easy as you’d think.

I got an 18/20. Some of those all-caps logos are nearly indistinguishable!

Source: The Next Web

Josef Müller-Brockman was a Swiss graphic designer and teacher, mostly recognised for his simple designs and his clean use of typography. His shapes and colours have inspired many graphic designers in the 21st century, and made him one of the main precursors of the International Typographic Style, also known as Swiss Style.

Müller-Brockman designed Akzidenz-Grotesk, a realist font and the first sans serif typeface to be widely used.  Max Miedinger at the Haas Foundry used it as a model for the typeface Neue Haas Grotesk released in 1957, and renamed Helvetica in 1960.

Müller-Brockman was author of the 1961 publications The Graphic Artist and his Design Problems, Grid Systems in Graphic Design where he advocates use of the grid for page structure, and the 1971 publications History of the Poster and A History of Visual Communication.

The video below is an hommage to Müller-Brockman

As a graphic designer, I have access to thousands of different typefaces. I will be honest and say at least 80% of them are atrocious and shouldn’t even exist. Not to mention, of those 80%, they can not or barely be used in any sort of professional design. One font that I have found to be incredibly powerful and very simple is Helvetica. Here are a few reasons why this font could very well be my #1 font:

((1)) Keep it Simple// One thing that I loved when I first started using Helvetica was how simple and clean it’s look was. There was nothing too fancy about it and it wasn’t over-designed. Simple. Clean. Perfect.

((2)) Impact// If used correctly, Helvetica can convey a powerful message. I just recently used all Helvetica to design a postcard for my university’s upcoming senior exhibit. Just normal Helvetica didn’t say it enough but when switched to Helvetica Bold, it really set the postcard on fire. My personal motto as a designer is KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

((3)) Customization// With Helvetica, just because of it’s simple and clean look doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. Play with the kerning and/or tracking and you can come up with some great designs with just the type; which if you have fun with that, do more research on typography. My personal favorite thing to do with Helvetica is adjust the kerning to where the letters are connected or barely touching. Doing that, you can even make some neat shapes. For one design I did for a friend, with the layout and kerning adjusted appropriately, the type formed a heart which fit well with the message I was conveying.

Now, these are just a few of the reasons why I like Helvetica. Is it overused in today’s age? Yes. Sometimes, it’s not used correctly and does make things look boring. In the hands of a skilled designer or typographer, it’s like wielding the mighty Excalibur. Now, if there is a more suitable typeface to use in whatever it is you’re designing, definitely use it. Helvetica is a great typeface but it can’t be used for everything. Is it the perfect typeface? At times, it seems like it but as much as I love the font, it’s not the perfect typeface however, I also believe there will be no such thing as a perfect typeface.

Helvetica does come beautifully close though.

I renewed my portfolio, with photos by Murat Durusoy.

Helvetica is a film by Gary Hustwit that traces the history of the world’s most used typeface of the same name. The film is an indispensable resource for Graphic and other designers as you gain insight from some of the world’s most well respected Graphic Designers since the late 1950’s. Designers featured in the film include Modernists such as Wim Crouwel and Massimo Vignelli, post-modern designers Paula Scher and Stefan Sagmeister and the father of ‘Grunge Typography’ David Carson. The film also includes contributions from critics and writers including Rick Poyner and Michael Bierut.

Most interestingly the film traces the history of the typeface and it’s uses through the Modern and Post-Modern periods in design, analysing it’s various uses within these periods.

Watch this film to gain a real insight into why Helvetica has become the world’s most used typeface and some of the main characteristics of Modern, Post-modern and Grunge typography.

Helvetica [2006] [DVD]

Helvetica – for the poor

Helvetica is of course the typeface of choice for so many designers. If this is the case with you, you may be interested in these icons based on Helvetica bold (or 65 as it is also known).

Decided to change it up for this one. Instead of film news and movie news, and the like. I decided to post a roundup of great videos I watched on the internet this month. It may slow loading time a bit, but it should be fairly enjoyable. Thanks for waiting

New video for Giorgio Tuma “And three parasol stars”. out on Elefant Records Video by Emanuele Kabu

A Humanoid robotic body developed by Kaist called ‘Hubo Humanoid’ has installed an animatronic head of Albert Einstein from a well known engineer David Hanson of Hanson Robotics. Those who fear the uncanny valley beware.

VIDEOGIOCO animation and concept by Donato Sansone

Trailer for the new documentary from the director of Helvetica.

Let’s Paint,Exercise,& Blend Drinks TV!

Chemical Brother’s Star Guitar music video by Michele Gondry

Trailer for a documentary about John Hughes

Trailer for a French cowboy film called Lucky Luke–they love cowboys over there. (the flash video player isn’t working for some reason, none-the-less, the link is visitable).
//

There’s quite a bit more where that came from, but I imagine this already slowed the sites loading time way down. Enjoy.

I och med att jag införskaffade domännamnet johanbrook.com kändes det som att den uppfräschning var på sin plats. Den tidigare designen (som jag råkade skriva över, och därför inte kan visa här) var ljus, ogenomtänkt och saknade kontraster. Koden var lika rörig som en myrstack efter en svensexa och det enda som gick att göra var att göra om allt.

Första iterationen framkallade denna design:

Egentligen ska det vara en ensam orangebrun gitarrform högst upp. Jag utgick från den filen när jag skapade nästa version, och än en gång råkade jag spara över originalfilen. Tänk er alltså en gitarr där istället.

I övrigt ville jag köra lite mer propert med layouten och typografin. Seriftypsnitt och centrerat. Jag arbetade ett tag med ikonnätet där nere. När man hovrar med musen över visas en text, och ikonerna själva hoppar till lite. Fancy. Ni kan kolla live HÄR.

Allt eftersom jag arbetade med sidan kändes det som något var fel. Detta var inte en redesign – det var en evolution. Jag tänkte inte nytt. Därför började jag om igen (det enda att göra). Spånade runt på internet efter inspiration, och hittade sida där designers hade inspirerats av affischer av schweiziska konstnärer från 50- och 60-talet. Det var Helvetica (typsnitt) och spartanskt färgval så det small och blev över. Det var då jag kände klicket; jag ville också göra något liknande.

Nu är ju min version inte alls så komplex och avancerad som vissa andras, men det tog sin tid att skapa den ska ni veta.

Sparsmakat, rent, och Helvetica! Jag använde mig mycket av halvtransparens här. Textfärgerna är inte helt solida, vilket ni ser om ni laddar om sidan. Magi! Bakgrundsfärgen slumpas vid varje besök samt när man klickar på plustecknet under rubriken. Alla plattor är halvtransparenta vilket möjliggör olika toner m.m. Denna design känns mer alright än de förra. Se gärna närmre på gitarren bredvid mitt namn också. Surprise, surprise.

Om jag inte sagt det förut är denna sida skapad för moderna webbläsare. Internet Explorer 6 är alltså borträknad med råge. För bästa effekt, se den med Safari 4, Google Chrome eller Firefox 3.5.

Det var detta kreativa utlopp. Snart tröttnar jag väl på denna layout och gör om allt. Igen.

<a href=”http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6520256-laying-a-ghost” style=”float: left; padding-right: 20px”><img alt=”Laying a Ghost (Laying a Ghost #1)” border=”0″ src=”http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1244069925m/6520256.jpg” /></a> <a href=”http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6520256-laying-a-ghost“>Laying a Ghost</a> by <a href=”http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1563721.Jane_Davitt“>Jane Davitt</a><br/><br/>

<a href=”http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1368724-eyre“>View all my reviews >></a>

This Helvetica series poster by @imjustcreative inspired by the TV show House MD is simple but cool.