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spammer chutzpah

A recent bit of comment spam that Akismet filtered out:

to: Admin – If You want to delete your site from my spam list, please visit this site for instructions: [obvious spam site]

“If you want me to stop hitting you, please run into my fist.” That takes some balls.

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 2007 documentary about the typeface. But it is not true—or rather, it is only somewhat true. Helvetica is the official typeface of the MTA today, but it was not the typeface specified by Unimark International when it created a new signage system at the end of the 1960s. Why was Helvetica not chosen originally? What was chosen in its place? Why is Helvetica used now, and when did the changeover occur?

These are questions that only an actual designer, or someone who is a HUGE NERD, wants answered. He looks at the origins of NYC Subway wayfinding, as well as the modern design’s origins in Milan and (ugh) Boston, and along the way shatters the old “Massimo Vignelli created this identity with his bare hands” myth.

Vignelli still kicks a lot of ass, though. [article via Design Observer]

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.

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 bring up the weather in a translucent popup. Or you can highlight a bunch of listings on craigslist, press CTRL+Space, type “map these”, and instantly see a google map with the selected listings plotted.

Even my words of amazement can’t do it justice. Look at this demo video. And then marvel, because it’s a 0.1 release.

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

The only downside to the platform is that it’s not OS-wide. I would have to switch to Firefox on my Mac and keep it open to take advantage of the features. So it doesn’t do file management or work with any other apps–something Quicksilver does so well. But still, we’re getting so much closer to the point where we can simply speak or type a command into our computers and get precisely the information we want in the form we desire.

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

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 off with an amusing-and-scathing bit about Brett Favre, and then dives into ten pages of political witticisms. He then has the gall to opine:

The NFL switched its season opener to a 7 p.m. Eastern start time so the game does not conflict with John McCain’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention that night. This suggests the presidency is more important than football, an idea I am not entirely comfortable with.

Really? If you’d have talked about anything even remotely related to football for the last seven fucking pages, I might believe you. If you’ve nothing to say about football—not even a snide comment about the Arizona CAUTION: MAY CONTAIN FOOTBALL-LIKE SUBSTANCE Cardinals—just shut the hell up. Shut the hell up and don’t bother showing up until mid-September. I would sooner jam Bill Simmons’s Red Sox-fellating tripe into my own alimentary canal than listen to another goddamned NASA rant.

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 clock, light switch, faucet, shampoo bottle, toothbrush, razor…) Who makes all these things, and why do they look and feel the way they do? All of these objects are “designed,” but how can good design make them, and our lives, better?

One reason that I’m delving into the world of objects in this film is that I, admittedly, am obsessed by them. Why do I salivate over a shiny new piece of technology, or obsess over a 50-year-old plywood chair? What does all the stuff I accumulate say about me, and do I really need any of it in the first place?

The film is set for release in early 2009. As a side note, I was going to post this when I received the email announcement through the Helvetica email list. But then I was scooped by a half dozen different design and tech blogs I subscribe to within THREE HOURS. Moral of the story: I need to cut down on my RSS feeds and post faster.

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.

font conference

After the jump, an amusing video from the people who used to bring you “hottest college coed” contests.
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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 public beta, and it works on Blackberries, Windows Mobile and Palm smartphones, any cell phone capable of mobile web, and of course, the iPhone.