Noisy Decent Graphics

Interview with the brilliant Marina Hyde

"Favourite Newspaper (apart from The Guardian and Observer)?

“Oh, God, it’s hard… I’m never off Mail Online – put that. I bet people don’t admit to it, but I love it. Never off it. And I love the commenters. I read more Mail Online commenters than I read actual newspapers. That’s another bad thing to admit.”"

Full interview 'Marina Hyde on the art of writing a column: ‘It’s a trade. You just have to fill the space’'

What is design? 100 definitions curated by John Sorrell.

In 1994, when he was Chair of the Design Council, John Sorrell was asked what design was. He published several definitions in a book released in 1995 to celebrate the Design Council's 50th anniversary. Now, over 25 years later, he has asked 100 people the same question and has published the answers in this book.

This book is a limited edition for the 100 contributors, of which I was one. Pictured below are just some of the definitions of design, including mine. It's a tough question and the answers are very varied, some quite of the moment. (I nearly wrote modish there but I don't mean it in a negative way.)

I've always really liked Ellen Lupton's 'design is art that people use'. I can't better that so I quoted it as my answer.

You can buy the book here.

Willian Kentridge typography

This isn't the main point about Willian Kentridge or the main point about the wonderful exhibition at the Royal Academy; but the way he uses type is great.

The new D&AD Annual is out

Online only, take a look here dandad.org/annual/2022

 

"Struggling with the pressures of the modern internet"

Aren't we all mate, aren't we all.

Psychic time

Many questions, but the first one is when did 1pm – 4pm become evening?

Exciting new blog

I mean my blog is an anagram so it only took him 17 years to catch up. aaiiintt.xyz

The opposite of clarity

The first sentence is always the most important sentence. This is a good example of why. You have absolutely no idea who it is or what they do.

I'm still none the wiser. 

The state of things

This shop could be closed for building work.

Or it could be open and trading round the clock. Might be a pop up shop for a limited drop. Might be a Christo.

Anyway.

A royally good list

Every London building the Queen opened.

Pub quizzes and technology evolution

Occasionally I'm forced to go to a pub quiz.

I've noticed how they've adapted to the rise of the smartphone and people googling the answers. In the early days of the Pub Quiz Technology Wars they used to ask you to turn your phone off. That worked as well as it always does. So instead they designed new questions that couldn't be googled. Or, at least, couldn't be googled quickly.

'Who was the second man on the moon?' is easy to google. A question where they play the instrumental of a popular song and ask you to guess exactly what time the singing starts isn't.

Technology makes the incumbent adapt. See Impressionism and photography and countless other examples. Related this from Brian and Kevin's subsequent comment. 

The prompt for the picture above was 'The great pub quiz technology war of the 21st century'. From Dreamstudio via SimonW. Am I a Prompt Designer now?

Good signs

Reminded me of Alex May Hughes, except she's better.

Sunrise

I went up a mountain, very early. It was dark when I set off and remained so until about 10 minutes from my destination. As I got closer I thought there was an unusually high number of cars. Turns out I'd accidentally timed my trip perfectly with sunrise.

I don't think I'd ever seen a full sunrise before. The full from 0-100 sunrise. It was an incredible sight. And full of Instgrammers obvs. 

And I mean Instagrammers, not photographers. The poses, the change of outfits, the camera stands etc. At 6am. Maybe these are my people.

 

Update. It was a bit like this Wish you weren’t here: the photos that show an hour in the life of ‘quiet’ tourist hotspots.

Goals

I've just been on holiday. It was rubbish, for reasons I won't go into. Whenever I need cheering up I get up early. Earlier than usual. The worse I feel the earlier I get up.

About 7:30 in the morning I found this little cafe in a picturesque town square. There was no complicated ordering, a nod and a few mumbled words procured a coffee and a croissant.

Just me and these fellas. Drinking coffee, smoking, reading the newspapers, chatting.

I didn't join in with the smoking and the newspapers, but otherwise we were in sync. Perfect.

 

Juice bar or bad incentive scheme?

All Carrot No Stick. A vegan grocery in Sheffield.

Just saying hello to Dan

Who's blogging like it's 2005. Hello Dan.

 

Rise up bakery graphic designer!

Someone's been having some fun at Gail's Bakery. These simple, fun posters have started appearing in their shops this year. I like them. There's nothing too clever, no laboured ideas, just a playful bit of graphic design. You can still read it and it's (mostly) black and white. Lovely.

Keep going anonymous designer!

 

Randomly accessed memories: 1

He leaned out of the upstairs window and shouted, "She's gone!".  I should probably write that as "SHE'S GOOONNNEE!!!" because that's more like how it sounded.

At secondary school I had to walk through two other schools to get to the college whether the bus would pick me up. At the entrance to the second of those schools was a big red brick building I always thought looked like a big house. It probably hadn't ever been a house but that's what it looked like to a kid. The rest of the school consisted of "temporary" portacabins, like all comprehensive schools in the 70s and 80s.

 

I had to walk past the big red brick building to go through the car park and then the fields to get to the college where my bus stop was. It was a long walk. I think 45 minutes. It was probably 15.

 

The person shouting was a teacher and he was shouting to another teacher walking near me. After he shouted, "SHE'S GOOONNNEE!!!" the other teacher did one of those tiny mini jump shuffles that middle aged people do and shouted "YESSSS!!!" in reply.

 

I had no idea what they were talking about.

 

I was 15. I was more interested in the news than most kids my age but not every detail of every news bulletin. My parents watched the 6 o'clock news every night and still had newspapers delivered but I had very little knowledge of politics, only the really big stuff would cut through.

 

The day was 28 November 1990 and Margaret Thatcher had just resigned.

 

- - - - - - - 

 

I've decided to jot down random memories when they pop into my head. I have nowhere else to put them so they will live here. I'm not starting a newsletter. They won't be in order. They won't have hidden meanings. They will be random.

 

 

 

 

 

Beyond bland

These animations pop up every now and then on LinkedIn. They're beyond bland. I know why this happens, but they really don't have to be so meh. Come on everyone, a few more turns of the wheel please.

Bike storage

Interesting view of balcony bike storage. Some satellite dishes too but mostly bikes. Circles. Chipchase would obviously say this better.