In this months Print Magaizne, there’s a short write up about the Free Font Manifesto which was proposed by Ellen Lupton at ATypI 2006 in Lisbon in 2006. The question she asked - What if every type foundry on earth gave away one great typeface to humanity? - was supported by 5 reasons:
• To make a selfless gift to humanity.
• To raise global awareness of typographic excellence.
• To create a visual resource that will be used by students, citizens, amateurs, and professionals all • over the world.
• To contribute to a global design vocabulary.
• To seed the world with a visual idea that could be built on and enriched by other designers serving smaller linguistic communities.
via David and Goliath
There’s a lot of support gaining for this movement, especially in the age of social networking and social media. Font foundries are seeing the potential in opening up their libraries. With FontShop’s introduction of FontStruct last year and subsequent positive reaction from the design community in letting users design their own fonts and having the community rate them, it’s a step into the social networking arena.
Later this summer, FontShop will add user profiles as well as social networking features – making it a kind of typographical MySpace.
via Print
Hopefully it’s more like Facebook. It is exciting to see the potential in having more designers becoming their own brands and sharing their creations in a central location. It’s especially great for the young designers and creatives who are looking for inspiration, direction and an outlet for their creativity. Type is so vital to our daily lives and communication. With so much bad type out there, it will be great to expose as many people as possible to beautiful type and beautiful design.
You can read more about Ellen’s manifesto here.
The great American tradition on the 4th of July is not the fireworks, flags and BBQ’s. It’s the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. An this year was an epic to end all epics. Joey Chestnut, ousting the 6-year consecutive defending champion Takeru Kobayashi in what was a world record setting battle last year, successfully defended his title in a dog-off. The new format for the eating contest was shortened to 10-minutes from the original 12 this year, but after a neck-and-neck battle, both competitors were tied at 59 hot dogs eaten after regulation. The decider was a 5 hot dog “dog off” for whomever could consume them the quickest. Talk about pushing the body to its limits. Chestnut squeaked out the win in an amazing feat of eating to defend his title.
Th event at Coney Island gets larger and larger every year, with the estimated size of this years crowd at around 30,000 people. What used to be a novelty is now a novelty with fandom.
Competitive eating and it’s Federation, the IFOCE, has gained some popularity with it’s Super Bowl being the Nathan’s contest on Coney Island. More amusement than anything else, it’s something to behold someone stuffing their face with obscene amounts any food imaginable to take the crown of World Champion. Seriously, Kobayashi once ate 17.7 pounds of fried cow brains… in 15 minutes! It is quite awesome and stomach turning to watch and yet, you find yourself cheering for the competitors. Go Black Widow!
photo by Sara Kugler - AP
Last night I clicked into my dashboard and was a little taken aback by the black hole on my temperature widget. Granted, it was a new moon last night, but it was strange to see a dark icon in place of where the sun or moon usually is. Maybe the vortex to the other side has finally opened? Hmm..
Flushed Away was on TV. I had never seen this movie, but am a bigups fan of Aardman Animations which you may know better as the studio behind the genius Wallace & Gromit.
I missed the opening few minutes, but enjoyed the movie, especially the subtle and very dry English humor I am very fond of. One particular moment had me ROTFL. If you have seen it, you’ll know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, it isn’t much of a spoiler. Roddy (voiced by Hugh Jackman) and Rita (Kate Winslet) are amidst a chase sequence set to the Dandy Warhols’ ‘Bohemian Like Me’, both hanging on for dear life, when they catch each other’s eyes and *boom* slow motion look of love with Christopher Cross’ song Sailing in the background before *wham* back into full swing.
That song and that moment were classic. And it got the song stuck in my head. I’m a fan of it, I’ll admit, however Velveeta it may be. But it’s one for summer and laying on the deck of the yacht sipping a cocktail soaking in the sun. Or just imagining you are. So add this one to your summer sailing playlist or toss it on at the BBQ. It’ll definitely stir up some nostalgia.
Christopher Cross - Sailing
via Que Pasa 305 who has a great Yacht Rock playlist.
Hooray for Independence! Here’s a little Muxtape to kick off the big 4th of July activities. It’s an eclectic mix this month, inspired by GTA IV, movies and yes, summer BBQs. It kicks off with an oldie but a goodie that many people will not recognize. Grauzone’s Eisbär. Ice Bear in German or as we know it, a Polar Bear. I figure a little cool for the summer heat to start is good.
From there I hit up four derivatives to the original. Three that follow have a sample or are inspired by the original while the closing song, Nouvelle Vague’s “Eisbaer,” is a cover. I usually love hearing the similarities between any music. Makes for great mashups.
Here is the July Muxtape tracklist. Think of it from morning til evening:
GRAUZONE - Eisbär
The classic. You’re alarm clock wake up.
LADYTRON - Cracked LCD
Blippy beaty goodness that sounds just like the title. You can hear the Eisbaer influence but made with the unique Ladytron touch. Morning coffee.
JULIETTE & THE LICKS - Inside The Cage (David Gilmour Girls Remix)
Headed up by Juliette Lewis (yup, the actress) I had to snag this song after hearing it while playing GTA IV. It’s on the Liberty Rock radio station and I heard the sample of Eisbaer in it. It put the wheels in motion for the whole Grauzone tribute.
GROOVEZONE - Eisbaer
Just had to kick it up a notch with this one. The lunch whistle.
BROKE ONE - EVRBD!
Hard house music from Italy. Feels like a space party that you bounce to.
SUNDAY BRUNCH - Midsummer Nights
Sweden in the summertime. Lovely then. Evening rolling in.
THE RHYTHM METHOD - When You Go Out
Funky goodness. Makes you feel pimptatstic for… when you go out.
Q LAZZARUS - Goodbye Horses
I always thought this was a man’s voice, but nope. It’s a woman. Great song and simply catchy. The track is pretty well known, but usually forgotten. You may recognize it from the infamous Buffalo Bill Dance from The Silence Of The Lambs (NSFW.) Ahh yes. Tuck that knowledge in your back pocket for the future.
LADYTRON - Tomorrow
Probably the best track off their new album Velocifero and one of their strongest off all their albums. Just a great compliment of vocals and chords.
THE HIGH VIOLETS - Chinese Letter (Ulrich Schnauss Mix)
Ulrich Schnauss lends an ethereal touch to this song. I imagine the sun setting and moon rising with the stars coming out accelerated. Like in the Discovery time lapse pieces.
THOMAS NEWMAN - Define Dancing
From the WALL•E soundtrack. Spectacular movie and even more so for tracks like this, which is the theme for Eve, the apple of Wall•E’s optical sensor. The bedtime story
NOUVELLE VAGUE - Eisbaer
A nice loungey cover to tuck yourself into the covers with. Gütennacht!
When Friendster first appeared on the interweb many many many a year back (March 2003 - that’s a long time in web years, ) I had friends touting it to me for months. “Best way to keep in touch!” and “You need to join, it’s so cool!” I hesitated for a while, but then caved to the social pressure to have an online persona. Friendster brought a new way to socialize and opened the door for making random “friends,” online dating, gatherings and a variety of other activities.
But being popular is hard. Soon the Friendster servers started chugging, glitches appeared and users became frustrated. Then the new kid on the block showed up. MySpace. And for a while, it was a back and forth as both tried to duke it out to be class president. Eventually MySpace won and made Friendster obsolete. Or so it thought. While MySpace now has to deal with Facebook, Friendster is making it’s comeback. How? Asia.
Friendster is embracing this potential online market of 3.8 billion, yes, billion people. They’re innovative. How could you not take advantage of virtual goods and their love of gaming in an extremely wired part of the world, if not the most (like Korea.) How quickly will this happen? Well, it already has. And by a 2-to-1 margin. Friendster looked at 36 million visitors compared to Facebook’s 18 million (poor lil MySpace clocked 16 million.)
What’s old is new again.
Read the full Venturebeat article here.
Two of my faves from this month’s Jargon Watch from Wired.
NOMOPHOBIA
n. Short for no-mobile phobia, it’s the anxiety produced by losing cell phone contact, for lack of coverage or power. A recent survey in the UK estimates that half of its citizens are afflicted. The condition is said to be as stressful as a root canal.
DARK MARKETING
n. Discreetly sponsored online and real-world entertainment intended to reach hipster audiences that would ordinarily shun corporate shilling. McDonald’s is the latest mega-brand to adopt this paradoxical promotional tool, with an alternate-reality game called The Lost Ring, nearly devoid of golden arches.
I especially like Dark Marketing (Darketing mayhaps?) Being in the biz and knowing full well about these tactics, marketers and advertisers are trying to find the hook to lure in the target audience. Especially that 14-24 year old set that holds the holy grail - moolah.
The Lost Ring was a curiosity for all of an hour or less until people found out it was from McDonalds, which was found out by checking their Privacy Policy page. Nice. But they have done some nice marketing with it even with the cat out of the box.
The Dark Knight marketing has been absolutely awesome, but it’s such a popular film without the covert tactics. It’s really for the fans.
Cloverfield probably had the best marketing before the Dark Knight kicked off it’s reign.
Darketing is great when it works. It’s a real tight rope walk in trying to find the right brand or property and the right experience. That’s the rub. Because when Darketing goes sour *pucker* it can really hurt.
“Here’s what’s gonna happen, Tonto. Kimosabe’s gonna have some flavor…”
- Vince Vaughn in Wedding Crashers
I’m Royale excited after seeing the trailer for the new Bond film Quantum of Solace coming Nov. 7. It’s viewable over at Movifone, but for some reason the link keeps crashing my blog and site. Wünderbahr. Anyhow check it out. I love that the reboot of the Bond franchise upped the ante for action films. It took a great hint from the Bourne series of films which are also top notch.
I’m also super excited jumping up and down like a kid needing to take a whiz about the announcement of the Arrested Development movie! Probably the greatest writing on a TV series ever, it’ll be phenomenal to see the antics of the Bluth family once again.
