Dive into the archives.

• helvetica and the subway

  Over at AIGA’s site, calligrapher and typographer Paul Shaw has an awesome nine-page article about the long history of unified wayfinding design in the New York City Subway. There is a commonly held belief that Helvetica is the signage typeface of the New York City subway system, a belief reinforced by Helvetica, Gary Hustwit’s popular [...]

  19 Nov 2008 Nerdery & Sundry, Telegram Metro (NYC); no comments. permalink   

• doesn’t make me want to switch back, but it’s funny

  The first Bill Gates-Jerry Seinfeld commercial: Take a good look at the picture on his Shoe Circus card. If you’re a geek or a fan of The Smoking Gun, you’ve probably seen it before.

  04 Sep 2008 Nerdery & Sundry, Technology; no comments. permalink   

• the march of tech productivity continues

  For those who are fans of hyperproductivity app Quicksilver, Mozilla Labs has a treat for you! Ubiquity is a browser-side command interface that lets you manipulate things you see in your browser (currently, Firefox only). By pressing CTRL+Space, you bring up a command line in which you can type, say “weather chevy chase, md” to [...]

  27 Aug 2008 Nerdery & Sundry, Technology; no comments. permalink   

• why i’m on twitter

  Biblethumpers went after Lennon for his > Jesus comment, but somehow left McCartney alone for his ode to paganism, “Wiccan, Work It Out” —@farkerpeaceboy

  21 Aug 2008 Nerdery & Sundry; no comments. permalink   

• tmq: shark-jumping for a decade

  Gregg Easterbrook has had a mostly entertaining column in Slate—and then in ESPN’s Page 2—for the better part of a decade. Most of the time, his fifteen-page football rants are enjoyable. But sometimes, one just wishes he’d shut up. He’s back for the shiny new 2008 NFL season with a shiny new column. He starts [...]

  14 Aug 2008 Nerdery & Sundry, Sport; no comments. permalink   

• objectified: the new film from gary hustwit

  Gary Hustwit, the documentary filmmaker who brought us the most excellent Helvetica, has a sorta-sequel: Objectified! Objectified is a documentary about industrial design; it’s about the manufactured objects we surround ourselves with, and the people who make them. On an average day, each of us uses hundreds of objects. (Don’t believe it? Start counting: alarm [...]

  30 Jul 2008 Nerdery & Sundry, Pop Culture & Memes; no comments. permalink   

• It’s 1975 And This Man Is About To Show You The Future

  From “Square America”, it’s a collection of slides from a 1975 IBM presentation. Online! Database! BOLDER! It’s kitschy goodness in a delicious Futura-Franklin Gothic-Akzidenz Grotesque sauce.

  28 Jul 2008 Nerdery & Sundry; no comments. permalink   

• font conference

  After the jump, an amusing video from the people who used to bring you “hottest college coed” contests.

  22 Jul 2008 Nerdery & Sundry; no comments. permalink   

• travel channel GO

  The Travel Channel just released a new mobile web app–Travel Channel GO–which gives information on restaurants, hotels, tourist attractions, and other points of interest. I may or may not have an ulterior motive in recommending it, but I know the TCM interactive team put a lot of work into the app. It is a free [...]

  24 Jun 2008 Nerdery & Sundry, Technology; no comments. permalink   

• perhaps the best bollywood cover ever

  Classic Bollywood liked to copy American songs with reckless abandon. (Today, they just copy pathetic Casio keyboard beats and rap in “muscle” shirts.) Indeed, I probably heard “Mere Jaisi Hasseena” (Armaan, 1981—so hot) before I heard the song it covered (“When You’re In Love With a Beautiful Woman”, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, 1978). [...]

  23 Apr 2008 Music, Nerdery & Sundry; one comment. permalink