Adventures in Design…

… changing the world one sketch at a time …

Ok, so I said I’d update, and I didn’t. I just can’t seem to get myself to sit down and just write. It’s not like it’s hard. Heck, I’m doing it now.

I’ve decided that instead of boring you with my usual “this is what I’ve been doing”, I’m just going to try to start posting semi-regularly again.

Also, I’m going to totally redo my website and blog design. I’m going to spend time on them and make them more consistent, as well as improve the behind-the-scenes structure to make them easier to maintain. I’m toying with the idea of using Wordpress as a CMS for the whole site. We’ll see how it goes.

Well… I’m back!

…expect a major update soon. As in this week. I’ve been moving, adjusting to a new city and a new lifestyle, working hard, and networking, so I’ve put the internet world aside for a little while.

I have found that I am quite fond of typography. I enjoy looking at libraries of typefaces. I like reading about the history of a typeface. I try my best to use type well.

The I Love Typography blog is a great place to go to if you find yourself strangely entertained by all things type-related. There are many articles for beginners and experts, as well as interviews and tutorials. The best thing is the community feedback, and the discussions that take place in the comments. Great fun.

Well, there’s also a series on the site called “So you want to create a font” (here’s parts one and two). Inspired by that series, and by some sketches of type that I saw on the site and around the web, I sketched some characters in my little A5 sketchbook.

Yes, that’s my attempt at a Helvetica ‘a’ on the top left. You know, you wouldn’t expect it, but sketching letters is fun.

This geometric type looked easy to vectorized, so I fired up Illustrator and started constructing. I ended up with the word ‘can’.

Looks alright. I think I need to sketch the rest of the alphabet before I vectorize it. Those lines in the back are the shapes I used to construct the characters.

This one I tried to trace in Illustrator, but it killed the entire character of the font. I really like how it looks in the sketch, and I’ve drawn out some more letters and they look good. I guess I also need to carefully draw the whole alphabet for this one, and do it larger.

The best thing about this is, it’s got me sketching more. Sketching is good

I’ve been without internet for a while. It’s good to be back. Just wanted to wish everyone happy holidays. Hope you’re all enjoying a break with people you love.

(Or 12-17-2007 for the American readers out there.)

I could have done this as a series of posts, but this makes more sense.

How colour-blind people see the world

I’ve always wondered what the world looked like to other people. Just how subjective is human vision? Well, this article was written by someone who is red/green colour-blind. Also, one comment suggested looking at each pair of images stereoscopically (by crossing your eyes, like those Magic Eye books) which merges each pair of images into one that seems like it might be an accurate representation of not-so-severe red/green colour-blindness. Interesting topic overall. From critiquewall.com via daily meh.

Why I don’t use Flash for websites

That image sums it up really nicely. From humanmachine. Via 60 Grit Beard.

The 13 kilo engine that runs on air

I think this engine is really neat. Using a rotary design instead of pistons, and compressed air instead of gasoline, this engine can be very efficient in its use of the power generated because of very little friction between the moving parts. I first saw it on Beyond Tomorrow on Discovery Science, and then did a little bit of internet reading on it. The guy who developed it is working on a smaller (6 kg!) version that will output the same amount of power. Will it change the world?

Loony Lebanese Lawyers

OK, they aren’t loony, but they sure look funny. I am in the process of getting a Lebanese driver’s license to replace the one that the Savannah DMV took from me, and I had to go to a courthouse to get some paperwork done. Well, I got to see Lebanese lawyers in all their glory, wearing their traditional garb. It was so funny I had to share. I don’t know how on earth they can be taken seriously dressed like that. That might be narrow-minded of me or something, but I’m sure at least some of you agree with me.

The courthouse looked pretty nice though. The columns make it look kinda like that building from that one scene in The Matrix. You know, where Neo and Trinity have a alot of guns and shoot a lot of people.

That’s it for now. I’m off to do some SolidWorks tutorials.

My last two posts were “quickies”. What’s a quicky? Well, jealous of the simplicity of my friend Adam’s tumblr, I found a plugin for Wordpress called “quickpost” that lets me do quick tumblr-style posts. But I wanted quickies to be small, quick posts that don’t attract too much attention, so I did a little bit of Wordpress magic so that quickies show up differently. Now they attract more attention than regular posts, but I’m pleased with the way they look. And, I’m tired.

So here’s to quickies. Take that tumblr! Wordpress is more flexible!

But Movable Type is looking good for some reason…