Through Lines 258

There’s one or two Pearl Jam albums that I’ve honestly never taken to. Lightning Bolt was one of those, but this new video for the track Future Days which turned up in the second season of The Last of Us makes think I need to give them another go.

Art & Design

  • It’s not really a surprise that most of us derive our self-worth from what we do. Emily Rudow on why Who You Are is Not What You Do. If you read any one thing this week, this is a good one.
  • Hats off to Lovefrom for a delightfully restrained and highly refined redesign of the William Stout Architectural Books site. Lovely new type as well courtesy of Antonio Cavedoni.
  • Jeffrey Ludlow’s A Sign Is… that shines a light on the humble, ever-present, and often overlooked sign (in all its forms) is going right to the top of my book wishlist.
  • Ok, maybe right after James Edmondson’s sure-to-be-brilliant and kooky The Ohno Book which you can preorder now if you want a masterclass in typeface design (available mid-October).
  • One of my favorite places on earth, The Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum in Two Rivers, WI is looking for a new Executive Director. If I had any hope of convincing my family to move there, I’d jump on this myself.
  • Alex Tomlinson’s USPS Birds artwork is a little piece of pure, unadulterated visual delight. Available in tea towel form!
  • No free pitches. ‘Nuff said.

Type of Note

  • Pleasing to my eyes and charming as hell, Soft Text from Kyle Letendre was made as an instructional typeface for his lettering workshops as a way to make content more approachable to beginners. Expansion plans include more weights and italics.
  • GT Standard is a contemporary response to the pursuit of typographic standardization. It (quietly) screams neutral Swiss modernism clarity, and minimalism — yet also feels expressive and adaptable which is no small feat.
  • Eclectic and packed with confidence and character, Raffine from Contrast Foundry uses exaggerated proportions and asymmetry to evoke something classic, and elegant while also retaining a sharp, unpredictable originality.
  • Dalton Maag’s soft and almost gooey Jovie is perfect for ice cream or condiment packaging, especially the Glow subfamily styles which really shine (pun intended).
  • I have a soft spot for monolinear, router-like rounded type such as SourceType’s Karl which also includes a monospaced variant.

Technology

  • Wendell Berry’s prescient writing about our behavior towards the environment and technology always hits home for me, especially his Nine Rules for Evaluating New Technology. Be sure to read the full essay linked in the post. We have or continue to fail at nearly every one of the things.
  • On one hand, the G1T4 MINI is kind of dumb, a little robot to follow you around and carry stuff, especially for nearly $3K. On the other, the robot designs from Star Wars are probably closer to what we should be building instead of things that look like T-800s.
  • 10,000 Drum Machines! Ok, maybe not, but this is still neat.
  • It’s wild to think about what’s possible with CSS these days. CSS shapes is no exception as a replacement for SVG, though both I’m sure will continue to have their unique benefits.
  • What really happened back when Sam Altman was temporarily relieved of his position as OpenAI's CEO. The real story is finally starting to come out and what it ultimately means doesn’t make me feel any more comfortable with where that technology is heading.
  • Just f*!king use HTML. Seriously.

Music & Film

  • ‘Tis but a flesh wound! Monty Python and the Holy Grail is 50, and now available to stream in its entirety for free. Still hilarious.
  • Have I mentioned that you should watch Andor? The series wrapped up this week with a final trio of episodes, but I’m still thinking about Mon Mothma's stirring and powerful speech in episode 8 as delivered so beautifully by Genevieve O’Reilly.
  • One final episode of Andor: Declassified covering the final block of 3 episodes (ep 10–12). Elizabeth Dulau is rightly the real breakout star of the series, but every single person involved in the series deserves a very long standing ovation.
  • The action figure style opening title sequence for Murderbot is pretty great, and it sounds like the show (mostly) is also.
  • Task from the creator of Mare of Easttown looks sufficiently creepy.
  • I’m increasingly optimistic about what James Gunn is doing with Superman. This is the glimmer of goodness and hope we need.

Humanities

  • I now believe with all my heart that it’s only in the crushing silences of boredom — without all that black-mirror dopamine — that you can access your deepest creative wells. Craig Mod on the power of walking as a creative spark and respite from the noise of the modern world.
  • I would very much like it if designers would think about the feral effects of their projects. Anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing on the act of noticing and considering the feral effects of the things we put into the world.

One More Thing

  • Naomi Klein on what Trump, Musk and their cronies are ultimately after in the deranged circle of hell they’ve engulfed us all in.

Although I woke up and felt pretty wiped out this morning — I think the daily commute up to SF takes as much a mental toll and physical one from all the walking to and from the train — and despite some fairly intense winds, I managed to pull myself together to get out on the whip. Like walking, this is as good for my mind as it is my body and I never regret it afterwards even if I feel like questioning my sanity somewhere in the middle. It’s Hometown Days this weekend here in San Carlos so that means lots of time outside with family, friends, and neighbors. I’m more than ok with this.