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I’m starting something new. Wordguile is meant as a one month project that explores the power of words and how we learn them. Every day this month, I will be posting a new word and somehow bringing that word to life. It is an experiment for me to fall in love with words all over again, but also to remember the incredible power which they wield. They carry connotations and are packed full of meaning. We often forget how many things one word can mean.

Beyond the power of words, this is an exploration in communication. It is a challenge for me to find new ways to communicate the meaning of a word. Many will be visual representations of a word, but I will also be exploring other media for communicating – be it video or music, poetry or prose, look forward to something new from me. And who knows, that something new just may be incredible.

Without further ado, here is the very first Wordguile.

Sectionalism

Stay tuned for more.

While I’m very impressed with the technology, 3D seems to be one of those things that surely won’t catch on. For me, there are just too many barriers. Of course, that means I’m probably wrong, but isn’t this an uphill battle? What’s the benefit?

The Drawbacks

First, there’s the high price of entry. Don’t think I need to go to far into this one, but who has the money for this stuff? Second, there’s the goofy glasses. Please don’t dismiss this. It is just plain stupid to have to wear huge ill-fitting glasses in a movie theatre, but we are supposed to do it in our homes too? And have they not realized that MANY people complain that it makes their eyes hurt, or that it is blurry, etc. etc. etc? The technology needs some work.

The Gimmicks

But technology aside, I have consistently had one other major complaint – gimmicks – or, more accurately, just one gimmick. I would love to say this is because of the newness of the technology, but years ago when I went to Disney and saw Donald Duck in 3D, the only thing that was impressive was the wave of people reaching out and trying to touch him as if he were in their face. It seems like every movie being made now has the same silly gimmick. There is always a scene that is only there to make you think something it about to splatter, or jump, or explode, or erupt in your face. It’s just plain cheap.

The Good Stuff

I went to see Toy Story 3 today. This changed my perspective just one tiny little bit.

I don’t think the use of 3D was gimmicky at all, and in fact, it was very thoughtful. It got me a little excited actually. Their use of 3D in the credits was genius to me. The titles were slightly smaller and pushed slightly into the background, and the names were just a bit bigger and in the foreground. By adding this third dimension to the text, they effectively created a new level of hierarchy that I had never seen before. The names jumped to my attention, and yet the titles were not so far back that they were unreadable. This was a very welcome break to the typical title on the left and name on the right scenario.

I know it’s just one small detail, but that’s what takes things from good to great, isn’t it?

The Future?

Well, prove me wrong, but I don’t think 3D will be the future of television, or even movies. However, I do think there is an interesting future of a new visual language to be explored here. Exploring how foreground objects relate to background objects could be a very important part of how we design.

Even if there are no new big design revelations, I hope that this can be inspiration to how we think about typographic hierarchy in the future. How can we push certain details back, while highlighting others? While I’m not overly hopeful about the future of 3D, I do hope it can push the visual arts in a positive direction. Only time will tell.

I’ve been in Berlin for almost two months now and, as in any city, I am constantly coming across a unique visual language that identifies this city, giving it a character of its own. As I walk the streets, I am often stopped by the smaller details like iron work on bridges and signage on restaurants. These things are the things we take for granted. Maybe it’s a bit easier to notice them when you are in a new place, and they are not so common as they are to someone that is used to seeing them every day.

Signage

The simplest of visual cues often have a large part of forming our surroundings. They can make us feel comfortable or, conversely, they can make us incredibly aware that we are nowhere near home. Coming from a land of blue and green street signs with white text, these typical Berlin street signs are just one more visual sign that I am no longer in America.

Hand-Drawn Signage

Whether welcomed or not, hand-drawn signs (or graffiti covered buldings) are another unique identifier helping us identify where we are. These are two common examples. When I pass them, I know right where I am.

Storefront in Stockholm

Over the Easter weekend, my wife and I took another trip. Turns out there is more to Stockholm than H&M and IKEA (kidding). We really just did the tourist thing, but we were still pleasantly surprised by the city. It made me want to stay longer and explore deeper.

As always, the lady was laughing as I had to stop and take pictures of all the signage through the city as we walked. I’m becoming increasingly interested in the context of the typographic messages that we see. Individually, the type is not always that interesting, but in combination with the storefront, or in contrast to of the rough wall behind the highly designed signedthese pieces of signage start to become an integral part of our surroundings. And we may never consciously think about it, but these signs form a big part of our surroundings.

So without further ado… a snapshot of Stockholm.

Number 45

Another 45?

This next one really made me laugh. Maybe the letter “j” was just really ugly in that font and they really liked this one? Or maybe it fell off, and they only had this one to replace it with. In any case…

I wonder what kind of design they do...

Store Signage

Sometimes it's just a regular apartment entrance. So simple, and yet I love it.

Store signage

As always, you can see more of my found type on my Flickr Page

recalcitrant

Today’s word of the moment is Recalcitrant.

According to Dictionary.com (our always loyal friend), Recalcitrant is something like this:

\rih-KAL-sih-truhnt\ , adjective;

1. Stubbornly resistant to and defiant of authority or restraint.

If they lingered too long, Clarice hurried them along in the same annoyed way she rushed recalcitrant goats through the gate.

- Kaye Gibbons, On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon

Image via Flickr.

Font used:  Droid Serif.

For years the complaints have been filed about fonts on the web. The limitations are strong which leaves only a few typographic choices. This is nothing new. When I first started designing websites, I remember being shocked by the constraints. MS Word could use many more fonts than the web could, and I felt like the internet was a much more evolved place technologically. This was backwards.

As the complaints continue to mount up, various options have slowly started to break down the barriers in recent years. SIFR and Cufón have recently been seen as a solid replacement to the somewhat bulky and antiquated (although not even close to obsolete) method of image replacement.

Enter Typekit (and a whole bunch of other great technologies outside the scope of this article).

Typekit

There have been a few major issues that have prevented us with limited web font options until now. One is the (in)ability of browsers to support something like the @font-face CSS declaration, which is now garnering a lot of support from modern browsers. The other major concern has been font foundries coming to agreement on the best way(s) to license their fonts on the web. Typekit is bridging that gap by hosting fonts from a growing number of foundries. Many of the foundries have been smaller ones until FontFont joined this week. I heard about this from an understated twitter message, but this is huge news.

There has been talk of more fonts on the web, but we are finally reaching a point that may be pivotal. It is already starting, and within a (relatively) short period of time, we could have a rather large set of fonts to choose from when designing new sites.

A landscape of chaos

So where does that put us?

Unfortunately, along with this freedom come a sense of chaos, driven largely by “designers” that don’t know anything about typography and abuse this newly found typographic “ability”. With this new power we, as designers, will need to exercise large amounts of responsibility. Choosing the font that is right for the project will become much more important that it has been in the past.

I agree with the sentiments of Jason Santa Maria in that we are going to see a great abuse of this new ability. However, I am optimistic. The chaos will reign for a period of time, and designers will do all kinds of new tricks, just because they can (does anybody remember the blink tag). I predict though, that when the dust has settled, the good designers will be even more apparent. You will recognize them as the ones using decent typefaces in their design.

The day is coming when fonts on the web will serve to further distinguish great designers from those that don’t know what they are talking about. Typekit is leading the way in what will hopefully be a future full of visually rich websites.

I guess it’s time to really hit the books and start learning about these typefaces and their best uses. We’re gonna need it.

I’ve been challenged by a good friend to combine my love of words, phonetics, and typography. I am going to start taking a word of the day from around the internets, and translating it into a “visual” work of art. Ok, work of art might be stretching it, but I’m trying. I hope it will spark conversation, or at least help my vocabulary.
They are words.. for the moment. So I call them “word of the moment”. Creative… I know.
Here is yesterday’s word of the day from Dictionary.com.
PERSEVERATE

It was another Friday evening, straight after one of those full on corporate mumbo jumbo weeks. You know, the ones where you spend all week being productive and making people happy, but really, you look back and you didn’t make a single creative move all week.
That’s where I was.
Cue the beer.
And the Nikon.
I started walking from our house, camera in hand, looking for something to capture, but seriously, there’s not too much that is overly compelling about completely middle class houses built in the early 1900′s. We’re not talking about gems here, just your normal bungalows.
But right about the time I got to Coatsfield, I began to think it would be interesting to take a picture of every house number on one street- not just the nice looking ones – every single one. So I did.
I was a little timid, so I didn’t get too close. I guess some people think it’s strange to point a camera at their house, snap a shot, then keep on walking- only to do it again. A little over halfway through, one concerned citizen approached me and started his interrogation (quite politely I might add). He said they had three break-ins over the last month.
Um. Sorry good citizens of Coatsfield Ave. I was unaware.

The fruit of my voyeurism? This series of photos. I am still amazed at how diverse the house numbers can be on one single, (seemingly) homogenous, neighborhood block.
Any you particularly like?

803

804

808

814

817

821

826

831

854

867

871

872