Adobe Illustrator Ad c.1987

This Adobe Illustrator advert c.1987 which was ruthlessly torn-out of an old U&lc Magazine (I promise I was not the one responsible) has been floating around my bedroom for some time. This was way before my time... in-fact I hadn't been born.
Anyway, this advert just makes me appreciate how easy we have it these days on the digital front. I mean, just take this copy for example, "You can also rotate, add type, combine one image with another, share images with other users, or even incorporate images into the most popular page layout programs." Who woulda thought?

Arthur Rackham

I just thought I'd share. I was going through some old books on the shelf when I came across Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. The illustrations are seriously awesome. Really beautiful stuff. His work almost reminds me of Sam Weber (who is going to make my wife pregnant one day so I can have awesome kids).

I found a website documenting his work but the scans are darn awful.

Ooba vs Ooba

My brother made me aware of this. Shall we play "spot the difference"?



Ooba.co.za is a rebrand of MortgageSA... a South African company which deals in home finance etc. They've just been made techno-savvy with this 'hip' rebrand which... well I guess the design studio they consulted seriously ripped them off. Shame.

more at http://www.wibble.co.za/blog/ooba-mistake

(Also, their logogram is just a little reminiscent of Sony Ericsson wouldn't you agree?)

Post Comment (a One Minute Movie)

The Making-Of Story.

Steve (me): the camera guy
Louis: the angry concept guy
Dustin: the people relations guy
Dane: the vibe guy

It took a total of three days planning to conceptualise and put into process the movie. That is, three days in Dustin's lounge sweating over cups of tea and trips to Pick 'n Pay. An immediate rift formed between those who wanted to incorporate their hobbies of skateboarding and street art into the movie and those that wanted to create cutting edge journalism. Finally on the third day we had a concept formed around Louis constant need to try start social revolutions and my desire to create cinematic history (at this point Dustin and Dane couldn't get a word in)

Monday Morning / The Rig:
Thanks to a 1975 Nikkormat camera with 50mm and 135mm prime lenses, microscope slides, parafin wax, dane's beeswax hair products, pieces of pipe donated by KwaZulu Plastics and loads of black electricians tape we had "The Rig". Precarious, shakey, unpredictable and ultimately awesome, The Rig was ready for shooting.

Monday Day / On Day One
We shot the typewriter, the hand writing scene and the postcard scene. Interior lighting is too poor for The Rig to cope. Dustin stepped in with a silk screen exposing unit loaded with four 500 Watt halogen bulbs. This provided enough light to shoot all the interior scenes and baste roast mutton.

Tuesday / Day Two
AM. Organise five 2nd Year tech students to pose for portraits, print out their facebook profiles and make sure they show up at the Loft for the shot. Done.
PM. Organise a good looking couple to pose with their cellphones for a scene shot at The Cube park. Done.

Thurdsday Night / Day Three
We had to get Ryan 'Rock Jaw' van Rooyen to show up at an undisclosed location in Queensburgh on Valentines Night for the "Have We Lost Touch" Scene. This was difficult but he took pity on our student endevour. On that same night, the fax machine scenes, computer scenes and morse code stop motion were shot.

Week 2, Monday /
Editing begins in ernest. All four of us are behind the computer at my home in Queensburgh. Cut, trim, re-arrange and time scenes to music. Edit music track. Movie is out of sync. Cut, trim, re-arrange and time scenes to music. Out of System Memory. Shut-down and Restart. This continues into the night. By midnight we're all satisfied with the movie. Hoorah.

Tuesday /
Wrap it up and everyone can go home by noon. I don't provide good breakfast anyway.

Eric Gill

Arial Must Go

Like many people out there I feel pretty peeved that Microsoft indoctrinated the world into Arial. In fact, a study could probably show that the world is 2% less intelligent as a result of reading wonky “a”s and the angled tips of “t”s. I don't mind so much the 12px high digital reproductions of it so much as when I see a 10ft high, 3-dimentional, light-up logo carefully crafted to the exact specifications of a second rate typeface.

The bottom line is:


A really good article that sums it all up: The Scourge of Arial

and a quiz: Arial or Helvetica