Through Lines 190

Buckle up for a long but entertaining ride through 1000 optical illusions made using matchsticks by Tomohiro Okazaki. Now that’s dedication to an idea.

• You have one life. Do you really want to spend it looking at your phone? No, and the simple truth is that we all have agency to not fall victim to this. Perhaps a better approach than just decrying the problem is to provide healthy alternative activities that are better for our well-being as a means of escape.
• A good place to start most things is to think like a child and say “I don’t know” — and then go investigate with an open mind. What does intellectual humility look like? Not like a typical tech company CEO, that much is for certain. Required reading.
• “…on average, each person on the globe now produces more anthropogenic mass than his or her bodyweight every week.” Yikes.
• This hunt & gather place in Minneapolis is going on the to-visit list for the next time I’m there. Definitely somewhere I need to experience first-hand. I might also need to bring a bigger suitcase or to maybe hide my wallet.
• The Creator's Guide to Comics Devices is just as handy for graphic design as for visual narrative storytelling. A nod to Robin for this one.
• TIL you can run Shortcuts commands in macOS from the command line. Interesting…
• A handful of simple, useful, and practical tips on expanding your creativity. The best one is still sometimes to let yourself off the hook and doing nothing.
• Surprisingly impressed with this animated fan film recreation of the Obi Wan and Anakin's final battle in the style of the animated Clone Wars series. Basically spot on.
• “My films are all problematic children.” Poor Things is a weird, trippy masterpiece.
• If you don’t like The Bangles' Manic Monday, I may have to fight you.
• Culture is the Client. Love this longform newsletter piece from strategist Nick Susi.
• Who Are We Now. Well, this is definitely going on my to-read list for the year especially given that there’s a print version of the text.
• Dan Sinker wins the end of year recap post race by a long shot. So good.
• iA’s Markdown Dictionary for macOS. Very handy.

Notable Type Releases

• To my eyes, Erik von Blockland’s low contrast, hand drawn LTR Limited Grotesque feels a lot like some of his lettering: loose, playful, slightly imperfect and yet not.

• Just under the 2023 wire, DJR dropped Map Roman Compressed Lowercase which builds on an existing release that debuted through his Font of the Month Club which strives to balance the tension between calligraphic and typographic character (just look to the g, r, and t for example) which imbues a jaunty livlieness.

• Designed by Luis Bandovas, Nereida’s generous x-height and almost dainty terminals give it an air of elegance, perfect for headlines, packaging and luxury goods. The extended set of included ligatures are possibly the real icing on the cake though.