Visual Scrap #11
Calgon, take me away!
Punk Energy
These illustrations by Ore stopped me in my scroll tracks. Not exactly manga. Not exactly not. Super dynamic compositions and interesting characters.
On Typography
If you think about typography, for example, you’re thinking about both what it says and how it says it. I don’t just mean rhetorically, but visually: a visual form conveys a lot of meaning. This is something every graphic designer knows. It’s pretty easy to understand how “hello,” written in sans serif, bold, condensed, means something very different than “hello” in a lowercase script. These lessons of how you can modulate a meaning with form, I think, are a good entryway into graphic design. It is a set of skills that could get you a job, but I also see it as a useful skill that’s applicable across many different disciplines. It introduces a rigor in the way you think—it’s a rigor that thinks about how a message is embodied.
– Designer, editor, and educator David Reinfurt Source
His book, A *New* Program for Graphic Design has been on my list for a while, and definitely is now. "Modulate a meaning with form" is a phrase I'm going to steal.
Why We Can't Have Nice Things
Can we congratulate the designer for having solved a problem in a niche community that was underserved? Also, I totally forgot how they used to blame literally everything on Satan worshippers.
On Indian Typography
India Street Lettering is a fully funded project by Pooja Saxena on Kickstarter. You can pre-order. But it's currently still live, and there are some really cool add-ons like font packages and a custom painted sign! She also runs the website India Street Lettering which is a great online reference.
The Sketchy Father of the Bar Chart
This deserves to be a movie: William Playfair's "lifetime (1759-1823) contained some momentous events: The development of the steam engine, The French revolution, American independence and the establishment of a new US government, The introduction of paper money, and in different ways, some of them fraudulent, Playfair played a role.
Among all the intrigue, scandal, and indebtedness, he found time to invent the bar and pie charts, and make pioneering use of line charts."
Phygital
This is a great example of a physical/digital experience that is also so simple.
Bonus Round
Are you Roy Kent?