™ ® © & Etcetera

Ah, Christmas. Traditions, family, egg nog. This one was much anticipated and further enjoyed by the fact that both my wife and I are gainfully employed. And not being a waiter was soooo nice. Working on Christmas Eve is horrible.

Let’s cut right to the chase, shall we? Gifts. I’m not about to say that is what Christmas is about, but it sure is becoming more commercialized and people are forgetting the true and righteous reason for the season. I won’t get into that, but for those of us who remember Jesus Christ’s birthday, these are rewards more than mere gifts. I progress… My wife knows me all to well. She is a brilliant gift giver and this Christmas was no exception. Two books: TM and Marks of Excellence.

TM is a collection of over 200 trademarks by one of the world’s most respected design firms (Chermayeff & Geismar) with identities for such companies as HarperCollins, TimeWarner, NBC and Chase Bank. I am, undoubtedly, the biggest fan of logos (I have no way to prove that) and this book is just a big collection of almost every logo coming out of this company. I love it! I could flip through these pages 6, 7 or 25 times and still think I missed something and yearn for more.

Marks of Excellence is the history and taxonomy of trademarks. I eat this shtuff up. Literally. If they ever came out with LogoLoops, I would buy my weight in the cereal. What's more, this book is packed with how a lot of these logos came about, how they affected the business and what significance they have on the industry for their brand.

This is only a sampling of my Christmas, but a very good one indeed. And speaking of brands, the NBC Peacock is regarded as one of the most recognized logos out there. However, I think NBC has a more potent and longer lived brand that is unmistakable and unforgettable: G-E-C.

Nutcrackers & Snowflakes

Saturday, I saw The Nutcracker performed by Ballet Austin. Fantastic. Another incredible date with my wife — more than merely the love of my life. This show being extra holiday-oriented really made me realize just how much she makes Christmas… well, Christmas for me. I love this holiday if only because she is with me during it. After such an awesome Saturday, the days just flew by and here it is, now Wednesday.

But, never fear kiddies, I haven’t forgotten about you. Just as I like to share my typographic discoveries with my wife - I will also share them with you. I sent her a snowflake constructed completely of type. Send your special someone a TYPEflake, won't you?

In case I have an incredible Christmas holiday (and subsequent vacation): Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Season’s Greetings, Happy New Year!!!

EPIC Realism

The scary part is that EPIC looks like it could really happen. This is some fine motion-graphics work and worth the peek. All the ideas and theories could really happen. Just how far will this “internet” take the world? And will it be for the better?

Elsewhere, I received the most excellent piece of mail yesterday. It was a nice envelope with my address ink jet printed on the front in what looked like Apple Chancery. Opened it up and there was a trifold "letter" of the same paper and a vellum sheet in it. It was, for all intents and purposes, a wedding invitation. I was like, “Now, who do I know that might be getting married.” It turned out, however, to be the most clever direct mail piece I have ever seen. It was a “wedding” announcement for Cingular Wireless and AT&T Wireless. It was brilliant. And from the looks of it, they sent one out to every one of their customers. What a great piece of junk mail. I am definitely holding onto it.

Weebl & Bob give another history lesson.

ASIMO Runs!

Honda has a robot. It’s called ASIMO. It -is- bad ass.

Now the thing can run. Only 3km/hr, but it is still freakin’ running. I have tried to keep up with this little guy (no pun intended), and this is just the latest news on the project’s progress.

Feeling Silly

Yesterday, I completed this little animated mini-comic based on FFXI. The art (the desert and the sprites) was inspired/duplicated from Kaahi’s avatar, of which I have seen several variations on, so I am not sure who the original creator of the avatars is.

I have always liked traditional animation and used to make a ton of animated web banners. This kinda brings me back to all of it and it is real fun to do. Having to illustrate the Goblin was the toughest part, but I think I did a pretty good job on him. Ultimately, you might have to be a player of FFXI Online to even get some of the toon. But it still looks neat, right?

Weekend Update

Meant to post this on Monday… even Tuesday… but time got away from me while work had me tight in its clutches. Friday was basically another day, however, it ended with the decorating of my mother-in-law’s Christmas tree. She has one of those trees that comes with lights built in. I think that is going to be the way to go for our next tree (when and if we ever get a next tree).

Saturday was the big day. We had purchased tickets for two concerts — Trans-Siberian Orchestra and The Nutcracker. This last Saturday was for TSO (with this coming Saturday being The Nutcracker). We made a date of it with dinner first and then the show. Dinner was outstanding. We went to the East Side Cafe and it was an excellent decision to do so. As all my restaurant reviews go, the salad is the key element. Very nice. I was worried it would be a little gamey because ESC grows all their own produce (they have a garden out back and even a store to buy their produce and gardening supplies) and was listed as having “wild” greens. Generally, that means it feels like there is sand still on the leaves. Not so here. And the waiter delivered it in a very timely fashion. The service was already top-notch and all that was left was the meal itself. Ever have beef tenderloin? It is a choice portion of beef and very tender. However, at East Side Cafe, it is beyond reproach. I have never had beef tenderloin so juicy and full of flavor. I will never be able to eat it at any other restaurant. And should I ever crave it again, I will not bemoan having to return to ESC. Overall, the meal was divine and the service impeccable. It is a quant atmosphere as the restaurant is actually 2 (or 3) old houses converted for the public and a must if you are looking for that romantic dinner for two.

The concert itself was remarkable. I do love going to concerts with my wife and this was no exception. Rock meets classical. Pyrotechnics accent the operatic. The sounds are just amazing. A great concert and should be seen if you get the opportunity.

Sunday was a day to relax and we did so with friends and then the weekly grocery trip. Yesterday, I got the DVD version of our sonograms (from the ruined tape) and am very pleased to now have them in some form of digital format — though I will have to try to figure out how to extract them off the DVD. I wanted the video converted to a digital format and ended up getting a full DVD. Quite a waste for only about 6 minutes of total video, but the “data” is one of the most valuable things I have right now and it is rather worth it. Ultimately, kudos to the Dub King for repairing the tape and the transfer of the video.

Irony doesn’t even begin to cover it.

Multifaceted Bembo

Back on topic: (I have a topic? Well, sure I do. This blog was to be concerned with design and related issues. So back to it.) Typography. Specifically, the type that makes up typography. Most of you who have kept up with my blog, to a certain extent, know of my love for the printed word. And you know the fonts that I would like to one day add to my collection (if not already in it). Some time ago, I attended a course given by Edward Tufte, a very good presenter, by the way. He has published three books. All three use the same fonts. Notably: Bembo and Gill Sans. Bembo for the body copy (the majority of the book) and Gill Sans for data representation and footnotes.

I like Bembo. It is clean and very readable. It is also very professional looking and has a decent weight. Not too heavy, not too light. A nice set of curves. Something to keep the printed page warm at night. I digress. I have used it on projects in the past (ex: a program for an award ceremony — of which I will be entering into the local ADDYs) and find it very suitable for the UT System. However… Tufte uses some hybrid or special version of Bembo I can’t figure out. All the letters are right, but the numbers are different. The number 1 looks like the Roman numeral variety and the baselines/x-heights for the numbers fluctuate (1 & 2 being similar, 3 dipping below the baseline, 4 sharing 1&2's baseline but not the x-height, etc.). If there is an Expert version of the font, I am not aware of it and do not have it (EDIT: there is). If there is a secret trick (key sequence) to activate the special numbers, I don’t know it (EDIT: No tricks). I would really like to use what Tufte uses in his books, but I find it hard to believe that he manually changed each number to a different font to accomplish what appears in the books (EDIT: He didn’t).

I still like Bembo, though. And all it’s dirty little secrets.

Oh, Baby!

Expect the time between my posts to start to stretch out as the holidays approach and my baby continues to dominate my life. It is very odd how this child already has me wrapped around its little nub of a finger before it is even born. Lucky little…

Anyway, Friday was our second appointment with the OB/GYN. Our regular doctor was out (well, not really, but he was otherwise detained), so we had a Nurse Practitioner doing all the honors. Nowadays, sonograms come with the check-up. I imagine this is relatively new as many of the parents we know did not have sonograms with every check-up. So our tape was added onto. And boy was it this time. Our child was lying on his/her side with their back facing us. What a beautiful spine. I have never seen a straighter set of prepubescent vertebrae. As if seeing our sleeping child’s perfect posture wasn’t good enough, the little bugger jumped. I mean it did this little hop, jump thing that was just amazing. I was completely blown away. Of course, it is still too small for my wife to feel it, but boy-howdy it was an awesome little jump. Who knew there was enough room in there for basic gymnastics.

Sadly, our video tape holding this miracle for posterity was the victim of attempted murder by my VCR. I don't think we had a chance to rewind the tape before the incident, so that could be something going in our favor. There is about a 4-5 inch portion of tape chewed up pretty bad. We took it to a studio on Saturday in hopes to recover what was on the tape onto DVD. Having it in a digital format makes me feel safer anyway. Needless to say, the instant I realized the VCR was trying to destroy the tape, I destroyed the VCR. Those things are surprisingly empty for how big they are. Also, we did not receive a printed version of the sonogram, so I will have to wait for the digital version before I can formulate a plan for making a pic for all to see here.

Oh, and neotamashii will no longer be posting to ffxi.allakhazam.com — it turned out to be a intellectually vacuous forum. Basically, if you posted something worth two spits, it got rated down so no one could view it. However, posting something completely irrelevant and meaningless would turn the member into a god. So, just for my own mini Google-bomb edification, Allakhazam.com is the sux0rs!

Your Kung-Fu Is Strong!

Bruce Lee. Obviously, his expertise in the martial arts is legendary and needs no validation from me. If film did not exist during this man’s life, the world would have likely never known of Bruce Lee, the very embodiment of martial arts. His films were all about the power that could be derived from being a master of this most physical of arts. They were realistic in the portrayal of the movements (get kicked in the face and you are not likely to brush it off and keep fighting) and were some of the best proponents of the martial arts in the western world. Everyone who studies martial arts, I imagine, would like to be as good as him and I would dare say that action stars would like to have the same pull to their films that Lee had to his.

Jackie Chan does films that are comedic in nature, but he does his own stunts and that lends credibility to his skills and that is why I think he was close to being the next "Bruce Lee". Jet Li is more artsy with his fantastical moves and makes the viewer wish they could have kung-fu skills of story book proportions and that is why I think he has the pull to his films that Bruce Lee had. So, who’s next? Who will try to combine the realism and credibility of Jackie Chan and the power and awe of Jet Li? Who will come the closest to Bruce Lee since, well, Bruce Lee?

That’s really hard to say. However, there is this one guy… Phanom Yeerum, aka – Tony Jaa. Now, his film credits are rather limited right now, appearing only as a stunt double in “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation” for Robin Shou (Liu Kang) and James Remar (Lord Rayden). But he has a film, which, oddly enough, had action scenes used in interstitial runners at the Alamo Drafthouse for the last year or so. Anyway, this film is called Ong-Bak. I think this film came out in 2003 but I never saw it advertised in the States until now. It looks a little antiquated (film quality wise), but that could due to where and what budget was involved in the production. Could give it some flavor. At any rate, the film looks like it has raw martial arts talent and no gimmicks (wires, computer graphics, photography hoo-ha) to muddy the pure nature of the sport. Tony could be the next Bruce. Who knows. I’d like to see it all the same.

Elsewhere: Santa isn’t real?

Bringin’ Home The Mouse

So I pick up my wife at the airport in an hour. Man, did I ever miss her. And, boy, is she in for a surprise. I used the time that she was in Chicago to completely redo the closet (found a water leak, that turned into an exciting day, yesterday), clean the master bedroom (which was totally annoying her) and build her a porch swing.

I'm sleepy.

Er… Blog

So, ya, I haven't made a post since before Thanksgiving, but I don't have to explain myself to you people… not like there are bunch of “you people” out there to have to explain to…

Anyway, about a week ago, an old Lineage buddy of mine got a hold of me (through this blog, no less) and it kind of made me miss that game a great deal, specifically the guild (BloodPledge) system in that game. Unfortunately, I am pretty bad with playing more than one MMORPG at a time, so FFXI is the only game for me right now. Sure would be nice to have him join FFXI, hehe. At any rate, I will try to keep up with him and not lose touch like I did the last time.

In other news, my wife is in Chicago… blah… and I have to wait until Wednesday evening (tomorrow night) to see her again. I have missed her a lot these past few days and am grateful she is coming home soon. She will have quite the surprise when she gets home (*wink*wink*). We will also go in for our next OB/GYN appointment on Friday! I am pretty excited about that. I am not sure, but I think we get to hear the heartbeat this time. HOLY CRAP!

Elsewhere — yet another Salad Fingers. This one goes rather scary at the end, not that the others weren’t disturbing, mind you. Mr. Firth frightens me. Really. There is something wrong with him. I can't wait until #6.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is upon us and so the Holidays begin.

Iconfactory.com seems to be up to something, but God only knows what.
The fine folks at Typographica have just clued me into education that I drool about but will never have.
Cameron Moll has instantiated another Screen Grab Confab (I love those) and in so doing, it looks like Tori Amos’ website is to get a face lift. (There might be someone else you recognize as well -.^)

I am going to be prepping and then smoking the turkey this evening (another 24+ hour marathon of holiday madness for me). This weekend, I am going to spend as much time as possible with Melissa. She deserves the attention.

Have a good turkey day!

When Good Shows Go Bad

I don't watch a lot of TV. At least, I try not to. Now, I feel I have more reason not to watch television — aside from the fact that the majority of TV is just mindless fodder anyway.

One show that my wife just loves is "Gilmore Girls", on the WB and we try to catch it every week. It is a pretty witty and stimulating show and the girls have their fair share of drama and what-not. Well, on the episode last night it was made clear that they (whether “they” being the writers, producers or actors themselves) are not in support of the President. How do I know? Well, they promoted MoveOn.org by way of Lauren Graham (Lorelai Gilmore) saying to her mother, “Yes. Move on. Moveon.org” (which was a response to her mother getting back into the dating scene).

Shame on you, "Gilmore Girls". Keep your political agendas, regardless of whom they represent, out of your show. It just has no place there. Whether for or against the President, I don’t want to hear it, specifically if it is done in a sneaky and "out-the-side-of-the-mouth" fashion.

Planning On A Plan

I need to get back on the DSNLG bandwagon and churn out some stuff. I think I need to do the same for SPeCks as well — I've almost forgotten what they look like. I am also planning on making another desktop wallpaper for the “Where’s My Pickle” series. Now, the chances of all that actually happening? Who knows…

Hitchhiker’s Guide is coming to the big screen. I should read the book. It’s supposed to be funny. I should read a lot of things…

Regardless of the message — “What Barry Says” is an excellent example of motion graphics. The type (Tasse) is unexpected but highly effective for a constructivist-inspired piece. Negative space is used with such finesse that it almost becomes pleasantly dominant. I have always been a fan of propaganda posters, purely from an artistic point of view. This short-film is no different.

Feeling Creative

I read a good story, yesterday, by Pfuzzy (another Blogger). It’s not bad.

Well, it got me a bit inspired to make a page for some of the stories that I have actually jotted down in the past. While not the first one actually written, I have posted one to that page. Jakob Koli.

I Don’t Do Windows

IE for Windows is a joke. What a nightmare of a program. As a designer, and Mac-addict, I am proud to only sport two programs on my machine that bare the mark of the beast. Those being Windows Media Player (far too many sites employ this web-video format) and IE for Mac (to test websites with, ironic that an outdated, no-longer-supported web browser is more compliant than the latest and “greatest” available for Windows users). Even Forbes agrees IE is a waste of code.

I pray that one day websites will make use of the following text on their homepages:
Best viewed with any browser other than Internet Explorer.

Until then — might I suggest downloading the final 1.0 build of Firefox. Do spread the love folks.

Incredible Talk Radio

Who would have ever thought that NPR could be so addictive? Certainly not I, and yet… for the last week I listen to it through-out the day. I am sure the novelty of it will wear off by the middle of next week, to which I will return to listening to my usual library of music. I am considering playing with thoughts of NPR logo designs. I like NPR’s current one, but it seems it could use an updated look, but perhaps that is part of the theme for NPR. Exercise is exercise.

Today is the release of “The Incredibles”. I would really like to see this today, otherwise, I will try to see it this weekend. I have really liked all the Pixar films and feel this one will deliver like so many others.

Cup Stacking is awesome. So is pen spinning.

A Little Trick

Take out a coin. Quarter, dime, nickel, whatever. Now flip the coin three (3) times. Make note of what comes up — Heads or Tails. Which one came up more?

You can use this trick to determine a decision because one will come up more times than the other. Kind of a majority rules thing. Sure, it's random, but the principle is still there. The majority rules.

Spooky Scene

Halloween is just too damn much fun. On the 29th, my office had an Employee Social where we could dress up and I wore the same get-up I had last year. However, this year, I was sporting new “pants”. A Hakama style pant made exclusively for someone with an extra 2.5 feet of leg. I won “Scariest Costume” and I deserved it. MWAHAHAHA! I have no idea who the guy beside me is. Poor soul looks absolutely terrified, though, doesn’t he?



Sunday, unfortunately, my costume’s left stilt suffered a crippling injury. The whole back-end came apart forcing me to abandon my high perch and carry the costume back. I did get around the neighborhood pretty good and was on the last bit anyway, so it wasn't a total loss. I love the haunting and just out-and-out freakishness of the costume, but I might go with another costume next year. Of course, it will have
to be equally (if not more so) as frightening as the last two years ^^.

Monday. Ahhhh, Monday. You know what happened on Monday? I saw the most wonderful and fantastic thing in my life. There are very little things that will bring me to tears, or any man for that matter, but when you see your 7-8 week old baby’s heart beat in the womb, there is nothing more awe inspiring and frightening at the same time. What a miracle. Thank God for video! There are no words to describe what I saw. A picture truly is worth a thousand words.



And of course — it is Tuesday. November 2nd. Well… I voted and am damn proud of that fact. It's a privilege everyone should practice. When you slide that completed ballot in the box, you are allowed to complain. And that is what it is all about really — the right to bitch about something. It's the American way! If you don't vote, shut up. Period.

Rawr!

I have been on DSNLG for a while now and one of the better dudes that participates on the site is Kevin Cornell. He also has his own wacky site, Bearskinrug (also his alter ego, online persona). However, there is so much going on with Mr. Cornell, that it is just a wonder if you ever see it all. After a visit to one of my Dailies, I discovered ’ol Bearskinrug has one of his sketchbooks online. It is just awesome. Sometimes, I wish I had that kind of illustrative talent. I guess I will just have to make due with drooling all over myself in awe of other’s talents.

Personally, I have 2 sketchbooks already “completed” and am currently on page 202 of Sketch III. The first two (while not completely cover to cover full of stuff) are basically archived on a bookshelf. When I complete S3, it will rest beside them. Thus will spawn Sketch IV. I have been working in S3 since November 1st, 2001. And -it- is quite full. It will be my first cover-to-cover sketchbook.

There’s a new Orisinal game available. High Delivery. Very beautiful.