Good music, bad type

So far, the highest number of comments has been for music recommendations. Next are fonts, then design. Be sure to read the comments for ideas on new music. Fuels the creative spirit and gives you something new to listen to.

Bauhaus Follow-up

I got a recommendation to use Futura to replace the evil Bauhaus. I have not pitched it yet. I have to do it over the phone and with pdf's. I used extra black, bold and text. Once again, weight in.

Polititian update

Despite the point person overlooking a citizen committee charged with defining the logo's tasks, the approval was granted. committee hell has been temporarily avoided and I am moving forward with a stylebook for the usual business paper.

I am a little touchy still about using Rotis Sans as I now see it everywhere. I am a cynic and a contrarian and hate to be a follower.

Angst is cleansing.

Why I design the way I do

Domus, a hefty, perfect bound design magazine for the industrial design industry has been around nearly as long as I have. I lost touch with it many years ago, but stumbled onto it again doing some Google®. Domus is their online teaser for subscribing to the magazine. More important to me than the subject matter is their strict adherence to THE GRID. Looking back at my past work I began to suspect that I am mired in the kinds of design that shaped my thinking many many years ago—publications such as Domus. Swiss, Swiss, Swiss, clean, clean, clean. I don't seem to have many samples doing some of the relatively grid-free designs I see in the work of younger designers, and especially students. I used to think that student work that flowed over a page or site was simply trying to find THE GRID. Now I realize I am the one stuck in a certain meta-think. Not that any of this is bad. I can either let THE GRID be a kind of work pattern/trade mark of my design, or, I can practice more free-flowing solutions.

I would really like to post samples of others' work that demonstrate both/either. Have at it.

Too ugly to live, or really nifty?

I have a small job for a client who requested this font: Bauhaus This was designed in 1969 and belongs there as far as I am concerned. Around this time, Lettraset, a company who makes "rub-down" type, introduced a great many hip, modish fonts. Like most designs, they were quickly adopted and used everywhere. Most had little merit, except some really nice ones such as Avant Garde, created for the magazine of the same name.

So vote. Best left in the past, or really hip today? (they always predict wide ties coming back but I have yet to see '60's hipster ties exactly matching what's in now.

Oh, and the replacement sync cord for my Nano ipod cost $19.95 plus tax.

Interesting interactive, flash and web design

jefflindesign is a student site. He appears to be a gifted code writer and visual designer. I jumped around his site and liked what I saw. Despite the dark, gloomy appearance of his site, his gothic signature and broken links, his sideflip animation and breakout game display a playful nature in his creativity

Check it out and give me your thoughts. Or better yet, post a link to your own site.

The Cure, Snow Patrol, Beatles, Arcade Fire

What are you listening to while you work? Please comment. I don't know if ANYBODY reads this blog. I live in isolation here and need some feedback.

I won a door prize raffle and got this nifty ipod nano. The slim one that shows pictures and rotates the pic as you rotate the pod.

The dog, well one dog, Abby, already chewed up the sync cord. Neat toy anyway.