“Ascenders, arms, crossbars, counters, spines, shoulders, tails, stems and spurs, altogether there are over 20 components in the anatomy of type. There remains a gap in the vocabularly of this most respected of crafts, however.

In the designing or cutting of stencil letterforms, one is invariably brought to a point wherein the supporting canvas is joined to counter of the letter. Up until now, these supporting areas have gone without definition or label. A gross oversight by the standards of any industry, let alone one with as rich and respected a history as typography.

The purpose of this initiative is to remedy this oversight by introducing a new term and definition into the common vernacular of designers and typographers.” (Thanks Grant!)

“Most of us need to make the time to go out on walks, swim, collect little bits of things, take photos, get drunk (or not), talk to friends, etc. So, you have to wonder, who wouldn’t want to spend 5 nights on an island while talking about and working with type? British Columbia in the summertime is heaven on earth—a place where most people would be happy to kick back and relax for a week, but if you’re into typography you can relax your body and exercise your brain at the same time. Three typographers, Marian Bantjes, Shelley Gruendler and Ross Mills will offer differing and convergent approaches to type in a relaxed but structured program over five days. [Note: This session is over but more are planned, like the one below.]

Type Camp—INFO DESIGN: 10-15 August 2008 | We’ll bring a bit of the Bauhaus to Canada with the head Info Design instructor, Jay Rutherford. Jay is a Professor of Visual Communications at the Faculty of Art and Design at the Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany.” (Thanks Chris Glass!)

Includes:

• SwirlyCurls 4 Vector Pack
• 33 Speech Bubbles Vectors - Adobe Illustrator
• Rainbow Brush Kit - Adobe Illustrator
• The Hairbrush Kit - Adobe Illustrator
• Swirls 3 Vector Symbols - Adobe Illustrator
• Swirly Curls 2 - Adobe Illustrator
• Angela’s Butterflies - Adobe Illustrator Symbols
• 18 Swirly Curls - Adobe Illustrator Symbols
• 36 Trees 2 - Adobe Illustrator Symbols
• 36 Trees 1- Adobe Illustrator Symbols

“A while back we had a roundabout discussion about the term illustration and its limitations. Bob Flynn and Jaleen Grove both pushed back a little against my impatience with the term, and the supposed tyranny of the word which I decried… Frustrated by the lack of a larger narrative in which to locate genres, careers, and achievements, I have been working on visualizations of the development of commerical images. This week I have blundered into print with one such attempt: Commercial Images: An Evolutionary Scheme, a two-page infographic that occupies a central spread in the new Modern Graphic History Library catalogue, out this week. It posits two basic strands in commercial image history: illustration and cartooning, increasingly intermingled but distinct.”

“A little over a year ago, I wrote on the short-sightedness of the visual style which had been named after the technology it had been associated with - Web 2.0. As predicted, the masses have begun to tire of the current trend. Additionally, designers are beginning to write about their dissatisfaction towards the Web 2.0 visual trend and are proposing alternatives to it. As the visual style attributed Web 2.0 wains, we are inevitably going to see the rise of another all but arbitrary visual style take its place which will be adopted by the design masses without a second thought.

A recent article suggests by using elements which are the exact opposite of the stereotypical Web 2.0 style, we will ensure that our designs remain fresh. While I appreciate the author’s intent, it is the equivalent of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.”

“The latest addition to the 100% portfolio is a lamp in shape of – you guessed it – a lamp. A wonderful idea that causes irritated looks followed by broad grinning. Born out of the fact that light bulbs have become a commodity product, that lead a pretty neglected life, only in our focus when it breaks and when we usually don’t have the correct replacement on hand. We are much more intrigued by the surrounding of the lightbulb, the shape of the shade or the way it is held, or the size… All of that casual usage of the common bulb will now change, and it will be displayed for what it is.”

“Use a Nikon?

Or at least that appears to be the message.

I opened my copy of Outside Magazine’s companion piece of fluff, Go, this morning and was greeted by an ad for Sony’s A700 DSLR with the tagline ‘In Photography, Timing is Everything.’ The accompanying photograph was spectacular and showed a leopard about to dispatch a baboon. Dust is flying and, clearly, timing has a lot to do with the impact of this photo.

It was also very familiar.

In fact, it’s a 1965 photograph taken by John Dominis for the late, lamented Life Magazine.”

“Find and download great looking Excel and PowerPoint charts. Our Chart Chooser lets you explore many different well designed charts and download templates for Excel or PowerPoint with a click. Chart Chooser is an online tool that answers two questions we commonly get:
1. What type of chart should I use to show my data?
2. How can I make good looking Excel or PowerPoint charts?”

Check out this wonderful calendar design by Noa Bembibre.

“Test your knowledge of HTML! This includes only HTML 4 Elements defined by the W3C. (Sorry, no blink or marquee tags).” (Thanks Jon!)

“If you talk to any mother who no longer has school aged children, they will tell you how they long for the quiet, simple days, when their children used to give them works of art they created with their own tiny hands and a box of crayons… As time passed those works of art became misplaced, or even thrown out. Now there is a way to preserve these memories forever, with the permanence of sterling silver. Create a heirloom that can be passed from generation to generation, with your own Child Artwork Pin.”

“This site converts bitmap images to vector art — it’s an online auto-tracer. Just upload your image and we will vectorize it for you. Vector art is useful because it allows you to scale an image without making it blurry or pixelated. Vectorization (aka tracing) is the process of converting a raster image to a vector image. Raster images are pixel-based, whereas vector images are represented by geometric shapes such as lines, circles and curves.”

Hey folks: I’m a judge in Crestock’s annual contest this year. You can win some nice Mac stuff — check it out.

Compete for free in the biggest Photoshop contest of the year to win amazing prizes for four whole weeks ranging from iPods and MacBooks to the designers’ Holy Grail – The Quad Core Mac Pro with dual 30″ LCDs!

Here’s how it works: There are four rounds with different themes, and you can contribute one image for each round. Sign-up and submission is completely free and without commitment.

For each round we will supply a set of source photos from our image library. Your entry must be based on one or several of these photos, but you are free to do with them whatever you like. You may also use other elements in your design, as long as one or more of the source images can be recognised as a central part of your design.

“Not sure how design could fit into your business? Want to find out how other people do it? Read our in-depth articles on how design is managed, with practical ideas and real-life examples of design being used for business success.”

“A nerd needs a project because a nerd builds stuff. All the time. Those lulls in the conversation over dinner? That’s the nerd working on his project in his head.”