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April 28, 2006
Bards, St. Patrick and Information Design
D: I don't think there is any real "design movement" to grab onto right now. There're inklings of a wave, though. I feel something coming on... Maybe it has to do with my fascination lately with "information design" or "scanning quickly" or just reducing down bits of text and pictures into fast, easy-to-digest snippets...
M: My, that's a lot to take in. I have found my thoughts quite often straying down a similar path, regarding the transition from traditional media to electronic media, what it means to all of us, and what it means to me specifically. I feel like great change is also afoot. "Information Design"... I like the sound of it.
D: Is it a good thing?
M: Probably very good, very terrible, and everything in between.
D: Does content get dumbed down? Are we becoming zombies?
M: Yes and yes, and it will take highly skilled and creative people to ensure that this decay stabilizes, or even starts to wane.
D: What happens with a fat book like Anna Karena, is anyone going to have patience to finish something like that or will they be too busy scanning blogs?
M: I like to think about what happened in Ireland (because it's easy) at the coming of St. Patrick, Christianity, and most importantly, literacy, to a land with an ancient and exceedingly sophisticated oral tradition of information. Bards did not cease to ply their trade, but they were however able to share their poetry or scathing satires with a much greater audience.
Monastaries worked incessantly producing both secular and religious books that standardized folk tradition and religion, and guaranteed their survival through the archiving of this information.
Storytellers and musicians were able to sustain themselves and their work, and share it with far more people than would have been, or in fact was the case in an illiterate Ireland.
I think the biggest difference between then and now is simply the rate and the strength at which the change is occuring.
Oh, I'm starving... back to my shredded wheat.
Hoo Roo,
~Mark
Posted by Dipika at 11:29 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 25, 2006
Handmade Books: Seattle Central Graphic Design Show
D and I just stumbled upon a student graphic design show at Seattle Central Community College today. As it happens the show's only on until tomorrow.
It's nice to see student work, and compare it to what's done by real world 'designers.'
The assistant curator who greeted us said the students made everything themselves, from the cover designs to the layout of the innards. They even bound the books by hand.
The results are very beautiful. Mind you, there's not ground-breaking design that pushes the boundaries of the medium, but you can definitely see each of these in real bookstores.
I can see us at DK working alongside the people who produced the books in the near future.
Congratulations to the Graphic Design students at Seattle Central, looking forward to seeing more!
Graphic Design Program Book Show
Date: Through Friday, April 26
Place: M. Rosetta Hunter Art Gallery, Seattle Central Community College
Hours: 9:30 - 3:30 pm, closes at Noon on Friday
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April 24, 2006
Rules on Glass Separatism
D: Don't throw the colored glass in with the clear glass.
A: Why not? They don't have bins anymore for colored glass.
D: ...
A: What. We can't just keep it here.
D: Maybe they have colored glass bins someplace else in the neighborhood? I'd hate for them to throw out the whole lot just 'cause we didn't bother to find out.
A: ...
D: ...
A:
------ Forwarded Message
From: Ask Evelyn Seattle Public Utilities
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 10:27:10 -0700
To: Akira
Subject: Re: Glass recycle
You can recycle all colors of clean & empty glass jars and bottles, with lids or caps removed (no bags, cartons or six pack rings) are to be placed in the glass bin.
Drinking glasses, light bulbs (dispose of fluorescent bulbs and tubes as hazardous waste) eyeglasses, ceramics, such as mugs, plates and bowls, Vases , window glass and mirrors, bottle or jar lids or caps you can NOT recycle in your glass bin or container.
Thank you for recycling!
For FREE monthly e-mail updates on conservation tips, events and activities happening around Seattle
------ End of Forwarded Message
Posted by Dipika at 9:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 18, 2006
A Word About Typography
Since The New York Times redid its Web site earlier this month to "sprinkle a little more serendipity around the site," and make it simpler, they say, I've been thinking a lot about front pages. The Oregonian's news designer Mark Friesen runs a site where you can download images of the faces of daily papers.
A link there pointed me to a guy named Mark Simonson's blog post on what he wrote as a youngster about typography. He said designer Herb Lubalin created this font (pictured) especially for a magazine called Avant Garde Gothic. That was in the 60s. Today it's a typeface.
I wonder if anyone is working on a font made especially for digital media? It can't be much longer before we get bored with the likes of Arial, Verdana, or... Times.
Posted by Dipika at 6:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 13, 2006
Four Lines from W.E.B. Du Bois
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April 12, 2006
Wordiness, and Other Such Items Related To This Theme
A lot of people in media agree that writing short is good. "When you can," they say, "cut out any 'jargonese.'”
This site provided these examples of wordy jargon:
synthesize vertical relationships
embrace real-time niches
unleash transparent interfaces
monetize web-readiness
target virtual schemas
See what I mean?
A pretty good book on clearing word clutter is On Writing Well, by former newspaper reporter William Zinsser.
Posted by Dipika at 8:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 4, 2006
Journalist Elizabeth Kolbert: Climate Change Will Be 'World-Altering'
A roomful of science people pressed forward as journalist Elizabeth Kolbert tapped her microphone March 23 at Seattle's Town Hall. The author of last spring's three-part series* on climate change for The New Yorker readied herself to share firsthand observations of how humanity's actions are already reshaping the planet's landscape.
The most dramatic changes, she said, are happening in the Arctic.
Kolbert met geophysicists and chemists in Alaska and Greenland as part of a quest to find out how serious a problem climate change really is. "Like a lot of people, I kept waiting for this story to be resolved," she said.
Now she says the fact that some still question human influence as a cause of climate change is "really comical, or it would be if it weren’t so scary."
Evidence of change is clear: Flowers open up a week earlier in New England. In the Northwest, the snowpack is melting 10 days earlier than it did 50 years ago. The year 2005 broke hurricane records. Lots of carbon is stored in permafrost that's starting to thaw. Kolbert said permafrost scientist Vladimir Romanovsky told her, "[Permafrost] is like a ready-use mix. Just add a little heat and it will start cooking."
She said people who say they're skeptical that human actions are the cause of climate change are either guilt-ridden, on a payroll or simply uninformed. "Fully 25 years ago, the changes we’re seeing were predicted by climate modelers," she said. So why is there still denial? "Problems that are hard to solve are also hard to acknowledge."
Recognizing the seriousness of climate change is even harder for those who don't interpret scientific graphs or models, since the effects of carbon loading today won't be apparent for several decades. "If it’s so bad," Kolbert said reluctant believers convince themselves, "I’d be feeling it by now."
Other than a few oil-producing states in the Persian Gulf, she said, the United States is among the biggest producers of carbon dioxide. Future generations will have to bear the negative consequences of our choices today, and for no particularly good reason.
Her concluding tone was dire. "I could end this talk by telling you to turn your lights off and save the world, but I’m not going to end that way," she said. "Climate change is going to be world-altering. I don’t mean inconvenient. I mean change in life-altering ways."
*You can read the articles, "The Climate of Man," here: I II III Interview
Here's a recent Wired Magazine article on Kolbert's message.
Posted by Dipika at 5:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 2, 2006
Last Night's Movie Stars
Saw a really intriguing animation yesterday as part of a collection of music videos and shorts.
Animator Max Hattler says “Collision” uses Islamic patterns, American quilts, and flag geometry to create "an abstract field of reflection." The shapes seem to take on personality as they shift about a white background; sound tells the story.
Hattler made the piece last year at the Royal College of Art, and it's been in a bunch of film festivals since. You can download it here, or catch it as part of the series...
Date: April 2
Place: NW Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., Capitol Hill
Time: 7 pm
Posted by Dipika at 11:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack