sissyphus | journal

PLZ TO HAV

.. one in "small" for my own?

We've all heard it before. Your friend is explaining his really weird dream, going on and on about all this random stuff and right when he gets to the good part it abruptly ends with ". . .and then I woke up."

Labels: design, fashion, geekiness, hint, shop, typography, want

hand-lettering for mila's niece

hand-lettering for mila's niece
Originally uploaded by +kdis

my workmate's 2nd birthday gift for her niece

"Isa-bear" is her little nickname. :o)

Boy, that was fun. :) Mila asked if I could hand-letter a birthday message on her gift for her niece who is turning the big 2. I haven't used chalk in ages + have forgotten how unruly it can be while trying to draw curves. Not bad for not having to erase anything... Well, I did have to have a second try at the bottom-left flower. :)

_ 13 March 2k9
_ @ the studio

Labels: art, design, illustration, photo_entry, posted_via_flickr, typography

TypoThom

I realize that this treatment of using type as illustration is not 100% type, but you have to agree that it is beautifully executed. The concept behind the design is just muy fabuloso. Helps that it is a depiction of Thom Yorke—one of my favourite musicians that have stood the test of time.

» Regurgitated info c/o Pitchfork

After a long, dark slumber, the Grammys may be waking up. The tiny gramophone awards have suffered a steady decline in interest (last year's broadcast was second to only 2006's all-time ratings low), but this year's surprisingly aware nominees-- Lil Wayne, M.I.A., Radiohead, Kanye, T.I.-- and an admittedly eye-catching ad campaign are poised to prevent more dismal numbers for the February 8 telecast.
...
Part of Grammy's "Celebrate the Music That Made Us" campaign, the ad is made up of the names of songs that have influenced Mr. Yorke over the years, including Björk's "Unravel" (web-famously covered by Radiohead), David Bowie ("Ashes to Ashes") and Liars ("The Wrong Coat for You Mt. Heart Attack"). Grammy gets to use Thom; Thom gets to promote Liars song names. An even trade!

* Many thanks to J for sharing the link! :)

Labels: advertisements, art, artists, creative, design, illustrators, music, radiohead, typography

THANK GOODNESS FOR HELVETIREADER !!

*yay*

Now my eyes don't hurt when I look at my Google Reader window.

No offense, Google, but somebody had to come up with a skin for your feed reader. Look at it this way: At least you won my heart with Gmail themes. :)

» Get your own Helvetireader. Now.

Labels: design, geekiness, interactive, link, plug, promote, typography, web

Why the big type, ol' chap?

It's not just for the focally-challenged anymore...

If you haven't yet noticed, trends regarding type size on the web have been reversing in the last few years. We used to think bigger type looks juvenile + that smaller displayed better—for example, setting body copy to Arial 11px, or even using tiny bitmap/pixel fonts in Flash-based sites—especially because our browsers didn't allow for much back in the day of tiny 640 x 480 screen resolutions. Not to mention, using smaller text to be able to establish hierarchy between headings, sub-headings, body copy, + disclaimer notes on top of keeping important content "above the fold". Project after project we've tried to push smaller, "cleaner", pleasing-to-the-grid type to our clients + yet have always been requested to go bigger for legibility's sake.

"Can we see it bigger than Verdana 11px?"

If designed properly, using 14-16px type for main content doesn't seem to look so "clown-sized" these days. The NYTimes.com has been using this on their articles for awhile now. It's a trend that seems to be more the norm to help improve online readability, to cause less strain to the eye, + to help some of us avoid from having to use the key command shortcut 'COMMAND/CTRL +' times three to zoom into our browser content. It helps that the commonly used screen resolution is leaning more towards at least 950px of usable width to accommodate a type size closer to our browser's default type size, which is set to 16px.

Check out the case study by Oliver Reichenstein mentioned within the blog article link below. The visual comparison really puts it into better perspective. Also, read the comments following the article for other points of view. Something worth thinking about when considering layout options for a new website project.

Really, the moral of the story is: Use big type for good, not evil.

Relative Readability
Why go so big on type? There's a short answer and a long answer...

Labels: design, interactive, typography, web

Letter cakes, mmm...

Man, I'm such a consumer... Or I at least want a ton of things, but never really act on my impulses. :P

I mean, I have to shell out 45 bones just for coasters ??