In other news, I’m still struggling with my type site. It looks better, but I feel like the amount I’m putting into it is not paying off. Ah well, some projects just don’t sit right. Hopefully I’ll finish it up more or less this week.

There’s that project, and now another web project, three other projects from Carry, some things for Tony’s class, all the essays and reading I have to do for my writing fiction class, and all the studying/reading/essay writing I have to do for American Art history. Yes sir, this is probably the busiest semester I’ve had in my entire schooling career. Not so mention trying to find an internship. But I haven’t melted down just yet, so I’m keeping with it.

Until next time…. (which will hopefully be sooner than later)

Also, web typography is TOUGH. I can’t believe people live with it. There should be an uprising. Ok, well, it isn’t that terrible, but I’m probably just complaining because I am inexperienced. But still.
I have to get on working on my web project some more, so I don’t get behind. Oh the fun of being a design student.

*coughs from dust*

*clears throat and contains self*

*looks back and forth suspiciously*

*whistles like nothing ever happened*

I find it odd that with all the new technology and information on the web, and more so the popularity of both, we still don’t, as designers, have total control, if very much at all, over typography on the web. Or gratuitous use of commas.

It does keep under control the amount of terrible fonts or bling, but it can be a real hindrance to designers. But then again, Photoshop is widely used and available, and you can see  how well that worked out for your eyes.

Maybe designers can have a special internet code that unlocks the secret typography section, so only we, the elite, can use it.

But I digress.

You would think W3 would get on this like white on rice, but… nope, they still haven’t done anything. And again, looking at their site, I’m not sure I would let them use the Powers Of Typography anyway. Oh burn.

Just a little more control on the web over typography is all I need… the amount of control right now is ok, I suppose… but it could be better. Oh yes, much better.

I don’t have any cool links to link to, because I know as much about the use of typography on the web as the next man. Or woman. Or even Photoshop/InDezillashop fiend.

So I think that one of the first steps we need to make in breaking the barrier between web, digital, and print (oh yes, there is one, and it will be broken) is to make typography much more natural to use with more options, so you can still copy the text or do whatever you wish with it. It can be done… we just need people to, well, do it.

Experimental:

<http://unlimited.orange.co.uk/flash/go>

While there is information on this site, the vast majority (and by vast I mean vaaaaaaaaast) is a never ending website full of repeating cute monster thingies you can interact with. And yes, the scroll bar does move as you descend, but take it from me, even if you reach the end it keeps going. (oh how I wish I could have those ten minutes back)

So it does have information about how it is a phone company, but I consider it mostly to be interactive. Or does that make it a hybrid?

Reference:

<http://en.wikipedia.org>

What can I say, I’m a fan of Wikipedia. Probably the definition of a reference site, all it has is information… knowledge at your fingertips. Although you are most likely to be here just to quickly look something up. I have been known, however, to get lost in a stream of related articles, and realize I started out looking up something about sponges and land on a page about the video game Metroid. Thanks a lot Wikipedia.

Informational:

<http://www.att.com>

Or, most every corporation’s site. Like the others, it’s got information on it’s products, where to get them, how to get help in using them… I think it’s safe to say we’ve all seen these before.

Hybrid:

<http://www.icetruck.tv/news>

Hmmm…. I’m not sure is this one will count, but… I’ll try. It’s for a tv show on showtime called “Dexter” about a serial killer who works for the Miami Police Department. Basically, you can send a custom video including information about them, and make them think that this press conference is real. There was also one before that in which your friend (after filling out information about them) appears to be next on the hit list of a serial killer, shown in the style of a news report on a youtube like site. The first one I did, and was actually pretty funny and cool. I haven’t done this one yet, so I can’t really make any claims on it’s hyrbidness. The only reason I would say it wasn’t a hybrid site would be that when making the video, you know what/who it’s for. It’s not a mystery like Subservient Chicken.

I suppose that’s it for now. Projects await to be finished by me.

Bad Science – Pink, pink, pink, pink.  Pink moan.

And sort of unrelated to culture, but still interesting is Dr. Gachet’s thoughts on van Gogh’s use of color in his portraits:

Mind Hacks – Attending van Gogh and his asylum art

Colour Lovers

They’ve got some pretty good pallets… you can search by color which is nice.  Also there’s patterns.  I haven’t really looked at the patterns yet, so I don’t know how good they are.  I’m sure they’re super.

Here are some pictures of the first one I did.  It was based around Carl Sagan quotes and contact with aliens.

Obviously, there’s some lost in translation onto the computer, but…

And the second one I did, I took the beginning text from James Joyce’s Ulysses.  It’s kinda grungy, like a zine.  The pictures I took were terrible (worst than the last ones!) so I just made computer layouts as if you were going through it page by page:

Mmm, one does have to learn to look at art. But it’s up to the artist to use the language that can be understood. Most of these jokers don’t want to use the language you and I can learn; they would rather sneer because we ‘fail’ to see what they’re driving at. If anything. Obscurity is the refuge of the incompetent.”

Now, maybe I was in the minority, I don’t know, but I really didn’t like the over that much when I first saw it.  Mostly because it had a dramatically different look than their previous two albums.

Pretty psychedelic, right?  Anyways, qualms aside, I stumbled upon this one artist called Carrie Moyer, and I thought something looked strangely familiar…

It was the hand/tower thing!  Well, surely the artist wasn’t stealing from Carrie Moyer, right?  Well, sort of.  It turns out there was a old French print that had that same motif…

[via Sleevage]

And it has some meaning in the French culture at the time, like revolution or something like that.  The text roughly translates to something like, “The press is toxic” so maybe the had doesn’t necessarily mean revolution, but… you know.

But later I stumbled upon some even more incriminating evidence of the “borrowing” that the artist did.  Here’s their most recent album, We Are The Night:

Pretty cool, huh?  That’s what I thought, until I found this on FFFFOUND:

LOOKS STRANGELY FAMILIAR.  Sadly, there wasn’t a website associated with the picture, so I couldn’t figure out its source.

Later, I was searching to find out what happened to Blue Source, the company that did the covers for Surrender and Come With Us, because their website didn’t exist.  In that search, someone posted that Virgin had been threatened legal action, because the album cover looked strikingly similar to a print done by artist Herbert Bayer.  Here’s the Bayer print:

Even more incriminating is the “in progress” version of the cover that was released before the final version came out.

Look very similar.  I wouldn’t be surprised if whoever is suing for Herbert will win.  It’s a pretty blatant rip off.  Oh well.  I suppose all bands can’t be perfect.