Beyond Typography

A picture is worth a thousand words

WOW! Saw a link in the latest Creative Review for Wordle.

Wordle is a java applet created by Jonathan Feinberg, a senior software engineer at IBM Research. it creates “word clouds” from any text that is entered. The images created using Wordle are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license, so can be used commercially. You can print the images or save them onto the constantly updating gallery.

By the way, the image above made from last week’s posts.

Monkey Magic

If you remember the series on BBC tv back in the ’80s called Monkey, then you'll love the BBC sports trailer for the Beijing Olympics. Illustrated by Jamie Hewlett, the co-creator (with Alan Martin) of Tank Girl and the illustrator of the Gorillaz. The music is by Damon Albarn, also of Gorillaz fame.

There's more at the BBC’s Monkey Olympics site.

Via CR blog.

Olympic designs

 

Well, the Olympics Games open in Beijing tomorrow. The opening and closing ceremonies have been designed by Zhang Yimou, the Beijing Olympics Committee art director. He is the outstanding film director who made Hero and House of Flying Daggers, amongst other things.

A raft of high-profile designs will be rolled-out as companies try to maximise exposure to the global audience.

Here is an interactive graphic about the evolution of the Olympic torch.

Have a good day.

Forget The Film, Watch The Titles

Ever watched a film and thought the title sequence was better than the actual film itself? (I thought this most recently with a film called The Kingdom, where I thought I could use a similar style for the presentations I produce at work! The film itself is rubbish.)

Anyway, there is a website called Forget The Film, Watch The Titles where you can view independent and hollywood film title sequences.

I've been visiting this site for a few years, but I see it's getting noticed elsewhere now.

Dull Tuesday

It's raining, I'm snowed under with work. But this had me in stitches...!

Via Quipsologies

Going Public

I went to visit The Public at the weekend. The Public is the new arts centre in West Bromwich designed by Alsop Architects. I remember reading about the project in 2003 a few years ago in Design Week. The idea was to put West Bromwich on the arts map. It was delayed and had problems with financing and a change in management.

But it is now open. To a muttering of disapproval from the locals. A lot of them said it was a waste of money, they could've built a new hospital/sports centre/swimming pool/shopping centre, etc. Yeah, like they'd use them – that's why they demolished the previous swimming pool. And West Brom is about half way between the revamped Bullring in Birmingham and Merry Hell shopping centre in Dudley.

If they thought about it, there is now another reason to go to West Bromwich (outside of the football season – but that's another argument!) As well as being a cultural centre for the locals, it was Bollywood weekend and there were free screenings of a couple of classics plus other activities, there is an art gallery. I'm guessing the intention is that it will draw people in to the area who will spend money.

It's always the same. Wherever something new or different is proposed/built/opened the vocal local populace are interviewed to knock the new thing. For example, if the media were to be believed, the majority of Portsmouthians did not want the Spinnaker Tower. It seems if you're thick and speak with a local accent and hang around the city centre, then you can represent the views of the rest of the populace. 

Anyway, The Public is an interesting venue. The gallery section isn't open to the public yet. The rest of it is imaginative and a really nice place to sit and drink coffee. I will visit this place regularly, and I'll post my thoughts when the gallery is open. 

There are some more pics in the photo album.

Metro maps

Following on from last Sunday's post, I thought I'd do something about the maps. Most maps fall into two categories: diagrammatic and representational. The obvious examples of each are the London Underground and New York Subway maps, respectively. I think that good information graphics should be clear and concise. Is it really necessary to know the geography above ground to make sense of a tube map? The unfortunate thing is, a few years ago they had a really great map by Massimo Vignelli but it was ditched in favour of the current one. There are now attempts to have a version by KICK Design adopted.

You can see Vignelli talk about his design on www.helveticafilm.com.

A good article here about subway map design on the Johnson Banks website. 

Information Architects, a Tokyo-based brand agency, have created an web-trends map based on the Tokyo Metro map. They have even created a clickable online version.

All the subway maps of the world can be viewed here.

Ink-ling of the future?

I've been reading about the forthcoming US edition of GQ magazine which will have a flashing coverline. The headline uses E.Ink technology to make it blink on and off. But only for 90 days before the battery runs out. And only in greyscale. But it blinks. Read more here.

The thing is, it's not very environmentally friendly – the batteries are manufactured in China, the magazines are put together in Texas, the batteries are inserted in Mexico, then shipped to Kentucky for distribution. Read The Real Cost of E-Ink for more.

The headline? "The 21st century begins now". For the first animated headline they could have thought of something better.

Meanwhile, over at Wallpaper* magazine, subscribers were treated to a different type of new ink technology – magic! The ink becomes visible in sunlight. It was used for a special edition themed on The Secret Elite. Read the full story at MrMagazine.com. 

A new magazine-based file-sharing website called Mygazines.com has just launched. Copyright violations? Yep, but Mygazines say it is just like browsing magazines in the doctors' waiting room. Obviously, the ad pages haven't been scanned!

And if you really want to publish your own magazine, you can! With MagCloud. All you have to do is upload a pdf and they'll do the rest. It is in beta testing at the moment, so distribution is restricted to the US. A 20-page mag will cost $4 each plus $1.40/copy shipping.