the newest of thoughts

The most valuable of all that we can ever own costs us nothing. When it is passed from one person to another, it does not diminish in quality or quantity. In fact, what happens to this possession is quite the opposite – it grows. It develops and becomes strong, frightening the closed minded and exciting the willing. Let's have a look at few video presentations on this special little something at the Technology, Education & Design conference – TED.

When one has the same lesson over and over, it becomes known intimately. A person will know exactly how something will end, when it is experienced again and again and again. They will know the effect it will have, what the idea behind it is and eventually, even if it was at first, it becomes very unintelligent. It becomes stale, boring, obvious and foolish. This isn't a secret by any means, yet many seem to forget about this little fact when it comes to dealing with clients, who haven't had the lessons we have.

Blackletter, or as it is often mistakenly called, Gothic or Old-English, is an all-encompassing term given to a range of fonts which started with Gutenberg's 42-Line Bible. It strongly maintained its roots in the calligraphic scripts and organic shapes of its ancestors-in-influence for the following 500 years as it remained in strong use.

To be found this week is much in the way of publications. There are beautiful books, metal type, respect to white space and dramatic contrast in type sizes between body and heading. Not to mention a great deal of care taken in choice and positioning of photography and illustration. Everything I adore about publication design, be it magazine or book, online or off. There is also patterns and blades, a Wall-E cases mod which'll do well to cure any bout of laziness you have once the amount of work involved is witnessed and you'll want to keep your hands anything but idle.

Natural talent works well as a scapegoat and defense for one to protect themselves from the real world. To say someone is naturally talented is to say that no matter what efforts you exert, they will forever prove themselves better. Which is to say that they didn't earn what they have. What utter idiocy. It's a matter of being curious, answering questions which invoke inspiration and joyous hard work. That is where true natural talent lies.

Without intention, the design half of this week's links are all strongly typographic. I've been wondering of late what weight good typography holds in good graphic design. If what is shown here is any indication, it's must be the majority of the work, no? But then there's the art, with which the typography has something to play off and reflect. Hmmm. Ponderings aside, enjoy this week's links!

Asking the simplest of questions can debunk the oddest of requests. Asking Why? means those requesting the questionable must stand tall and proud and explain with certainty why they make their request. If they cannot answer, then it proves it was on a whim and probably worth ignoring. If they answer well, then chances are there is something beautiful-in-reason to be found in the answer.

The wing of a bird flutters, as the spoke of a wheel twirls, while the clouds of a wall float past a beast on a table and landscapes of fog mist. All this and other wankery phrases turned in this week's links! Oh, and a healthy dose of beautiful type! Can't forget the lovely letters.

In this feature-length article Grunge Type is looked at a little more thoroughly than most who employ such fonts would think to do. While there isn't anything wrong with type that has been beaten and broken, there is definitely an issue with most of the fonts that are put under this category. Let's have a look at how to do it well and how to give your headings real world grunge character.

Graphic design and those creative souls who linger behind the elements of it are, at it's core, fun, aren't they? Graphic Design is quirky. It's clever and it makes the world around us a better place to be in. This week's links are a small showcase of the fun people have had in their work, from the quirky cards of King Popcorn, the still brilliant posters for Olivetti to the workspaces where creative wonders are produced and the advertising that leads us to the places where the seeds of our skills are planted.