In sticking with the theme of the Industrial Revolution and modernism, I decided to look at something I have always been fascinated with… trains. I am aware that this isn’t typical amongst college students, but I can’t help but finding them fascinating. One train I am particularly interested in is the Pioneer Zephyr, a stainless [...]
Archive for February, 2010
Trucks and Trains
Posted in Uncategorized on February 19, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Modern Times of Rock N Roll
Posted in Uncategorized on February 18, 2010 | 1 Comment »
After what seems like an endless number of literature courses, I feel like I have a pretty solid grasp on modernity, however, this is the first time I have looked at it from a perspective other than that of literary analysis. Looking into the physical-visual elements that came along with modernity (i.e. steel and iron [...]
The Technicolor Phase
Posted in Uncategorized on February 12, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
This is not my first reading into color. We briefly covered some color theory in Kalmbach’s Hypertext course, mostly in the relationship between colors for schemes. I take a particular interest in readings on color in relation to usability because I have red-green deficient colorblindness. Horton’s Color in Icons is another excellent “applicable use” reading, [...]
There’s a Food Such as I
Posted in Uncategorized on February 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
After the readings on color, and thinking about the applications of color, I started noticing trends in uses of color. I particularly began focusing on logos, something I very interested in. One thing I started paying attention, especially driving around in Bloomington-Normal, is fast food restaurant logos. So many fast food restaurants, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, [...]
Mad World
Posted in Uncategorized on February 7, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
AMC’s program Mad Men is a critically acclaimed and award winning television show documenting the life and times of the employees of a fictional advertising agency (Sterling-Cooper) in the 1960’s. The term “Mad Men” is a portmanteau on the the phrase “ad men” and Madison Avenue, the street in New York City where many of [...]
Green Typewriters II
Posted in Uncategorized on February 6, 2010 | 1 Comment »
This is by far the best thing we have read so far. Discussing the nuts and bolts (I have a dear obsession with nuts and bolts) of readability, and how to make things readable, and how to avoid making things unreadable was incredibly useful. Looking for line thickness, x-height, descender and ascender lengths and flourishes [...]
When I Give the Signal, Run
Posted in Uncategorized on February 2, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Font choice is clearly one of the most important aspects of successful design. As I learned from the two chapters in the reading this week, it can increase readability, functionality and set the mood in a document. This is rings even truer in a more artistic design forum. For example, if you were designing a [...]
Green Typewriters I
Posted in Uncategorized on February 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I liked the introductory history of typefaces; I had no idea that the first fonts were based on calligraphy. Aside from the movable type printing press being invented by Gutenberg, I was completely ignorant on the history of fonts. I was also unaware that there was any kind of resistance to an expanding font library, [...]
