It's not just me

It seems I'm not the only one to prefer the use of Johnston's original 'underground' font rather than the reinterpretation his pupil created: Gill Sans.

Check out Ben Archer's very complete analysis of the inadequacies of Gill's most famous work.

London Olympics kills Olympic event in London

It was already know that London's only reputable Mountain Biking race venue would be lost for the period of the Olympics, but there are now suggestions that it will never be restored.

read about in on Bikemagic

Monument Valley

Monument Valley
Photo by me.

More from our trip at:
CB FLICKR Pool

Moab

Kelvin with no gears
Photo by Anne.

Home from Away

Climbing on the Slickrock Trail
Photo by Oliver.

Just got back from a great trip to Arizona and Utah. Lots more photos soon....

Chairs

Obsessed by chairs? David Byrne is.

Pine Needles

That's me that is
Photo by Phil Diprose.

I rarely like photos of myself cycling, but Phil's done a good job with this one. It's good to be back on a bike again, I missed it far more than the drink or food while I was ill, a lesson I'm going to keep with me over the holidays.

System IX

I'm quite jealous of Julian Opie's pre-OSX styled website . Looks great, works a treat, and is as intuitive to use as a real old Mac. Of course, as always, content is all, and he delivers in spades.

Robots Save Lives

From my www.spittingcat.com site last year, "Unlike most of Britain I have a very utilitarian attitude to cars. They get me where I need to go, and I feel no need to live out any Formula1 or RAC Rally fantasies. This might go someway to explaining why I feel no antipathy towards speed cameras on our narrow dimly lit residential streets. I'd much rather have those cheery camera signs, or robots as our 3 year old calls them, persuading me to slow down than car suspension and back breaking speed bumps. Despite, or perhaps because, no-one seems to share my attitude I've created a range of bags and t-shirts celebrating the speed camera sign. Available from the shop."



Now my sidelined views on speed cameras led me to the idea that those nice people at howies might be interested in my design, as they tend to favour the outsiders. So I, perhaps vainly, sent them my design. Not only didn't they take it up, no surprise there, but have done there own 'thought provoking' speed camera design. This one however seems to be disappointedly chasing the mainstream view that cameras have more to do with revenue than safety. Shame.

Not newsworthy?

Bomb plot

If the suspects were Muslim, I'm sure this would have made the national media. But as it is the truth doesn't fit the current 'story' of Muslims being more of a threat to our security than others.

DEF

Second part of an A-Z of great artists and bands you may not have heard of;

Dakota Oak Trio :: Derbyshire Krautrock and Folk
[see Badly Drawn Boy and Neu]

ESG :: real raw club music, by real raw women
[see A Certain Ratio and 400 Blows UK]

Fridge :: Drifting but not easy listening
[see Adem and Fourtet]

check out ABC

It's just noise

Very late last night, or it might have been very early this morning, I was listening to a big chunk of ambient music as I nodded off. Surprisingly something of my own came up; Looper. I think I wrote it back in 2003, when I wanted something I could listen to while getting my daughter to go to sleep. It was a one of a number of pieces of 'music' I wrote that were trying to create something akin to listening to a loud old fridge while under the influence of Opiates. Don't try playing it a party, but you might find that it's something nice to drift off to at night.

Hipgnosis eat your hearts out!

View from the Paiju washbasins
Photo by Oliver Townsend.

original modern

Peter Saville's influence on Manchester's civil image has started popping up all around the city, ready for the Labour Party conference. I haven't got any photos I'm afraid, but the look is also starting to be integrated into the web presence of some public bodies and a quick search should find you examples of it in use. Interestingly the treatment is being used in a very non prescriptive way, with all the disparate arms of public provision in Manchester allowed, or even encouraged, to use the elements provided in different ways. So the stripes motif, reminiscent of the work of Paul Rand and more latterly Paul Smith, appears in combination with many different logos and typefaces. Whether this free and easy approach was taken for practical, political or design reasons would be interesting to know.

Steven Appleby

See more thanks to the Guardian

Invisible Titles

Here's a simple technique for web developers wanting alternate text for background images. Why would you want this? Well background images often disappear, for example when stylesheets fail to load, or are over ridden by a user with poor eyesight. To make sure the page still makes sense in these situations, put the following CSS in the sheet that contains the linked background image urls;

    .invisibletitle {display: none;}
@media print {
    .invisibletitle {display:block;}
}
@media aural {
    .invisibletitle {display:block;}
}

Then class="invisibletitle" can be applied to tags around alternate text in the html, making the text invisible whenever background images are visible, yet visible/readable when background images are missing or ignored. I said it was simple!

Example: www.destiny-dubai.co.uk/holdingpage.htm
Do a print preview, or turn off stylesheets, to see the invisible titles appear.

Thoughts

Want to be modern?
Don't chase the now, by the time it's caught it'll be the tacky recent past.
Examine the true successes of the past and learn. Think about what lasts.

Do you know what really matters about you?
Lots of people have your skills, but none of them have your ideas.
Don't just do what people say, be sure to have your say; it counts.

Can you clone the essence of others?
What has made others successful is theirs.
Try and copy them and little of what worked for them will become yours.
Find a new way.

One step too far removed?
Design is problem solving, not just giving the abstract form.
Without knowing the problems of your clients or customers you can't give them an answer.

Mexico '68 - London '12

I've always envied the "completeness" of the ID work Lance Wyman did for the Mexico 68 olympics. That often copied font expanded out to form everything, from Bridget Riley style posters to the wayfinding system, and informed the whole look and atmosphere of the games in a way no other Olympics ID has come close to.


Now what can London offer?

I imagine Johnston's Underground font could be used to cement the London connection, but as the broadly simular Gill Sans has been used for recent games I hope the effort is made to develop something new and distinctive.

Wolff Olins have been awarded the work, lets wait and see what they come up with.

Simple

Kelvin
Photo by Simon D Barnes.

Singlespeed UK champs thingy was last weekend. After a nice big cup of tea on the start line I went on to be placed absolutely nowhere and had a great ride. Simon shouted at me every lap to try and get a response, in the end I shouted back. I think he got what he wanted in this photo.

ABC

First part of an A-Z of great artists and bands you may not have heard of;

Asobi Seksu :: Japanese blur of distortion and sweetness
[see My Bloody Valentine and the Other Two]

Blue Orchids :: lost Manchester classics
[see Inspiral Carpets and The Fall]

Camille :: French vocalist to twist your insides
[see Nouvelle Vague and Bjork]