When I first saw this word show up on Wordnik.com, I thought it was more like, “Man, I really have a huge aitch on my…”, but alas, it turns out that some of our letters have a word dedicated to themselves. This made me intrigued. And so, here you have it. The letter (and word) AITCH. Enjoy

I started at a new company over 6 months ago and from day one my primary job description was to create a new website for our company. It is finally done.

It took about 6 months to wait on content, and then when I finally got permission to write it myself, it took about two more weeks for it to launch. Such is life. (This is also my disclaimer for the quality of copy writing).

Orchid Event Solutions

Being a company that focuses on excellent technology, reporting, and other pretty cold elements, I chose to highlight our more friendly side – our full service solutions. The main point here was to connect with the site users and convey a message of simplicity, competence, and confidence. I did this with images of nature that were meant to convey a much more casual environment- one where our clients are free to talk to us about any need they have.

The copy is also very casual and conversational. I really wanted to stay away from any type of dry corporate language or technological verbiage that could be distracting. The whole site was designed to be forward thinking but light and simple – not bogged down with any extra baggage.

There is still some work to be done, and the site will constantly be evolving, but I think the initial goals of upgrading our site to something more modern has been accomplished. Here’s the previous version – as you can tell- outdated, cold, corporate, and overall disgusting.

Orchid Event Solutions (before)

The keen reader may have noticed that the new site also includes a new brand. Good eye Magellan. There will be more about that an upcoming post.

Feltron Annual Report 2008

Insanity may be a bit of an exaggeration. A little OCD maybe, or somewhat neurotic. Whatever it is that drove Nicholas Feltron to keep detailed records of seemingly mundane facts about his life for the past four years, I am in love with this!

Feltron has published his fourth annual Feltron Annual Report about his life – miles traveled (through 15 different modes), reading and drinking habits, hours of music listened to, and more. This is a beautiful example of information design. Feltron has designed a beautiful report, regardless of the content. Of course, what sells this report for me is the attention to detail in creating excellent content.

I wonder if keeping this detailed of a record would change my habits.

Soon may be relative. I just wanted to point out that I am aware that this blog site could use a redesign. This is a template, a fact that makes me somewhat nauseous. As soon as I get a spare minute, I will be changing this. Until then, you’ll have to wait in dire anticipaiton.

I’ve used Photoshop a fair amount, and I’ve edited plenty of photos, but I don’t think I’ve ever actually sat down and fully re-touched a destroyed photo. This was time.

This man is a refugee from Iraq. He fled his country after intense persecution and torture to both him and his family. Part of that torture was destroying this traditional photograph as psychological torture. The original, tattered and really quite meaningless, was sent to me in a small file from a scan of the 5×7. I reproduced it as an 8×10 and was surprised and the quality when I upsized it.

I could have kept going for a long time to keep trying to get it right, but this served its purpose. When I presented this to Alaa, he pointed to his chest where his heart might be, and said in broken english, “this feels good”.

It felt good for me too. Just for a little bit of fun and a few giggles, I kept going and made the following stylized version. Probably not what he was looking for, so I presented him the simple re-touched version. I kinda like this though. (and yes, that IS his real name).

Stylized version

Today we are featuring some creative uses of type that will hopefully keep you awake.
First is a composite of Gramond from just power lines. Creative, and, honestly, a little more work than I’d put into it, but hey, still good stuff.

Garamond Powerlines

And I’ve joined the iLoveTypography “my favourite letters group” on Flickr. Not totally positive that this is my favorite in the whole world, but I do love it. I love that it has a lot of room for interpretation. I also am a huge fan of the way it is pronounced (albeit in different ways in different languages).

This is a very creative piece. The flow is marvelous, and it captures the piece quite well.

That’s it for today. Have a great Monday.

This video by Sony is simply phenomenal. The color is obviously breathtaking… that’s what the advert is for. But beyond that, they really nailed it with the movement of the dominoes mirroring the action in the shots they chose, as well as choosing some really great cinematography. But they didn’t stop there. The lighting is excellent, the characters are beautiful, the scenery is perfect, and let’s not forget the music that just seems to go perfectly. This is great stuff.

Sony Bravia “Domino City” from Film Construction on Vimeo.

Speaking of great use of music, some good friends over at Invisible Children have released their latest film, “Go“. I love their trailer, but have not yet seen the full film. Their use of music is always compelling. The best side of what they do is understanding their target market very well. It will not appeal to everyone, but their target market loves it (and I do too).

I’m always looking for a great new font, but it’s not every day that I find one that is as beautiful as Museo Sans by Exljbris. It’s a handsome family, but what really made me a fan was how it looks when in use. It just plain works. It’s a great new font for your collection.

Museo Sans font by Exljbris

I have to be honest here in that I’m not really a huge fan of the “k” glyph, but that is the only one so far that I don’t like. Enjoy