Through Lines 289

These classic General Dynamics posters are a thing of beauty and it’s fascinating to watch them expertly repaired and restored. They’re considerably larger than I realized too.

Art & Design

  • RYBitten is a fascinating tool (and accompanying visual playground) that filters RGB colors to create various painterly variants based on historical color systems.
  • … The big successes at the moment are the publications that speak to a very specific reader, but that are also galvanizing the influence to bring in new readers. The Fence on the ad nauseum the death of print.
  • An oldie, but still a goodie, Kindra Murphy’s collection of Milwaukee Bus Passes is outstanding. I remember being introduced to these at TypeCon a number of years ago.
  • The idea of being in good hands is one I recognize in things that are well-made. Like trust, it’s something that has to be earned, and is easily lost.
  • File Under Places I’d Like to Visit: IKEA's secretive prototyping lab in Sweden. I do love a good lab.
  • There’s always something to be learned from those who came before if you’re open to hear them out. The Letters to a Young Curator collections from the Steve Jobs Archive probably have a little something for everyone.
  • Tess Needham has made a great little zine called Human creativity in the age of AI. Download, print, and fold your own copy.
  • The Print Arkive. Hide my wallet, seriously.

Type of Note

  • GT Mechanik by Shiva Nallaperumal, Reto Moser, and Noël Leu, at Grilli Type is a collection of distinct styles in the form of Mono, Semi and Poly which build on a common set of DNA and that gives each a unique visual expression. Of course, it goes without saying to not miss the font’s exceptional microsite.
  • Flavia Zimbardi and Caetano Calomino’s ZC Casual hit 1.0 status. Its five styles adds some distinctly Brazilian flavor to the classic speed stroke lettering style favored by sign painters all over the globe.
  • Benjamin Tuttle’s Racquet merges historic European styles from the late 1800s to produce a new rounded display sans. I dig its sharp curved tails and backslanted style especially.
  • Alpen Stencil from PFA-Typefaces is a low-contrast sans-serif stencil family that also happens to be reminiscent of morse code or stitching. Readability be damned.
  • And then there’s Coolkit — also an almost monolinear sans-serif stencil typeface. The rounded ends of its geometric forms and distinct flat crossbars give it a more human feel than something purely mechanical.
  • Cisne packs a lot into a tiny little package of near geometric forms and subtle, often dainty elegance. Its design and character feels very much of this moment.

One More Thing

Give yourself some time to dig into The Extrapolated Futures Archive because you’re going to need it. The site maps “real-world scenarios to the science fiction stories that explored them first.”

I’ve been busy the last few weeks quietly rebuilding the studio, or well maybe that should really be “reimagining” the studio. Like in many things I’m trying to find a particular focus and the place where I want to spend more time hasn’t been feeling all that enjoyable to be in, until now. It’s still rough around the edges, but it’s got a whole new energy now and it has me wanting to get back out there making things again in a way I haven’t felt in a little while. This is good — and I can’t wait to see what comes of it.