IAMTHETREND: ROAMERS – New Releases Available on Karmaloop

ROAMERS just dropped some hot new items, and some of them are available exclusively on the Karmaloop Kazbah. This season they’ve added some fresh women’s pieces that are selling fast. Get yours now before it’s too late! LINK

Thinking of Ebook Formatting? Know the Media Devices

Every day I get questions from customers asking about formatting their ebook. This is not unusual as that is what I do, but what is difficult to understand is why they do not understand the medium they are trying to “advertise on.” “I am viewing my book and there aren’t any spaces between the paragraphs.” [...]
- Unruly Guides

IAMTHETREND: Trust Apparel March Sale

Trust Apparel presents its March sale! Straight out of Northern New Jersey, Trust Apparel is offering their shirts for as much as , including their newest long sleeve, “Unstoppable”. Shipping is only .50! Enjoy! LINK

Characters: Cultural stories revealed through Typography

Review by Veronica Grow

Like most typo cognoscenti, Stephen Banham is fondly known for being somewhat fanatical and nerdy on the subject of type and letters. In my opinion, it takes the obsession of one such fanatic to compile such a vast treasure of information, so clearly, in the form of this fascinating book named Characters. Characters focuses on the cultural role that typography plays (especially in the guise of signage) in defining the flavor and character of the City of Melbourne, Australia. Banham states that it is his intention to “offer a new way of looking at the familiar”.

Banham, who comes from Melbourne, has quite a weighty reputation as an authority on the topic of typography. Baseline magazine, Emigre, Adbusters, Face, Typo, Eye and Monument are just a few of the publications to which he has contributed on the subject. His body of work over the last 17 years has provided valuable commentary and insight into the changing nature of graphic design and typography as a cultural phenomenon.

The book is engaging because essentially it is the story of Melbourne told through pictures and anecdotes of its signage. And Banham really knows how to tell a good story by focusing not only on the quirky and unusual, but also the minutia of detail. Often when I was reading Characters I saw parallels to my enjoyable reading of More Please by Barry Humphries that tells his story of growing up in Melbourne in the 1950s. But Banham was not around in the fifties and sixties and so deserves respect for the many lonely years of research and interviews that he has compiled, unearthing dozens of stories and hundreds of pictures included in the book.

I enjoyed the interviews with everyday folk who talk about constructing signage, and their memories and evocations caused by well known but now vanished neon landmarks. We should thank Banham for recording the stories of the everyday, for they are the very valuable cultural fabric of a city now lost forever. One such story is that of Ian ‘Podgy’ Rogers, the Neon maintenance man who worked on the Craven A Filter sign:

“Craven A Filter was one of the largest roadside signs ever made. It was just over the Princes Bridge at the start of the railway. Had over 800 bloody globes in it. Late one night I was working on it and I was that bloody tired. Rang my missus and said, ‘I won’t be home tonight. I’m going to sleep with this Sheila called Craven A. She’s cravin’ for me.’ She asked where I was and I said, ‘I’m sitting up in the sign above the Yarra River and I’ve got about an hour of work to do. I’ll have a sleep here tonight.’ So I crawled into the corner, put my toolbag under my head and didn’t wake up until eight the next morning.

Podgy is one quintessentially Australian character who helps give the book its flavor. Banham goes on to recount many more stories, ideas and themes in the book (53 in all), making it valuable for anyone who is interested in the shaping of the identity of cities. I like his plain, clear and accessible writing, which lends an authenticity to the book.

Thought provoking historical photographs profoundly demonstrate the significant change of many well-known landmarks in Melbourne. I have to say I felt a sad nostalgia for my childhood when I skipped through the book, reminded of the rich visual language and character that Melbourne and my home city of Adelaide have lost. Today they have been transformed into just other cities in our international landscape, with few distinct local features.

If you are a practicing Graphic Designer, Town Planner, Architect or Place Maker, the book will help you gain greater depth and understanding of how type and lettering define the vernacular style of a city. For the Graphic Design student, Characters will enable you to understand the relevance of your practice as someone who shapes our culture. The ideas and notions within the book hold valuable teaching project reference and ideas for Communication Design lecturers, who I believe should be creating project briefs that centre on the same topic. The book would make a wonderful gift, being a valuable reference for the many years to come.

–

Characters: Cultural stories revealed through typography by Stephen Banham is a joint publication by Thames and Hudson and The State Library of Victoria. You can purchase it on Amazon (US|UK) or find it directly in The Designer’s Review of Books Amazon store.

About the reviewer

Veronica Grow is from Old School the New School for Design in Melbourne, Australia. She is an ethnographer, illustrator, publisher, graphic designer and educator who is interested in telling stories with pictures and social design. You can follow her on Twitter under @oldschoolthenew.

Possibly related posts:

1. Studio Culture: The Secret Life of the Graphic Design Studio What the public eye sees most often is the finished…
2. Art of the Modern Movie Poster & Translating Hollywood (Guest review by Daniel Gray) As commercial art produced to…
3. Buy Books, Help Australian Bushfire Victims Sitepoint, the Melbourne-based publisher on all things web, currently has…

The Designer’s Review of Books

Organic from Kapitza

Organic is the second release from the London-based Kapitza studio, run by sisters Nicole and Petra Kapitza. The book is 224 pages filled with colorful patterns inspired by the Kapitzas’ love of chance and randomness in the natural world. The patterns, which range in shape and scale, demonstrate a playfulness with color, layering and proportion. Organic is a paperback volume, handsomely printed on a soft, uncoated paper which makes the book a delight to handle.

In his introduction to Organic, Simon Thorogood gives readers some insight on the Kapitzas’ source of inspiration:

“In nature, it might be the smooth tactility of a pebble, the spread of petals on a flower, the shimmering flow of a stream, fissures on the bark of a tree, the crystalline forms of ice, or surface soil pellets left by tunneling earthworms…”

The Kaptizas’ process for creating Organic began with hand-rendered drawings of irregular structures found in both their natural and man-made environment. Then, based on these drawings, the Kapitzas made a series of fonts in order to digitally produce their patterns.

Creatives working in the fields of illustration, graphic design, fashion or textiles might find a source of inspiration in Organic. For those who want to incorporate the Kaptizas’ patterns into design projects, there are a few available options. Nicole and Petra included a CD of pattern fonts with their first book release, Geometric. While no disk accompanies Organic, some of the pattern fonts that Kapitza developed for the book, such as Orbit, can be purchased on the Kapitza web site. Designers can also license the patterns by contacting Kapitza directly.

Publisher Information

Organic was self-published by Kaptiza. It can be purchased at kapitza.com.

About the Reviewer

Aggie Toppins is an adjunct faculty member and an MFA candidate in graphic design at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She is passionate about making work that helps people share their stories. Aggie lives in Baltimore with her husband Jason and their basset hound Jolly.

Possibly related posts:

1. geometric from Kapitza [Update: Abduzeedo are giving away a copy of Geometric to...
2. Tauba Auerbach: 50/50 (Click to enlarge) Guest review by Andrew Shea. Tauba Auerbach…
3. Designing Type Karen Cheng’s Designing Type is the answer to the needs…

The Designer’s Review of Books

IAMTHETREND: Arcane Movie Tees: New website. New image. New designs.

Arcane Movie Tees have recently launched their new online store. A brand new image and user friendly interface, still packed with original limited edition movie inspired T-shirts, Caps, Hoodies and Posters. LINK

The Impenetrable Spy: Future Dreamer (book #2)

Sneak Peek of Book #2: Agent Zack Carter is back. Five years has passed since the events of The Impenetrable Spy. Zack Carter’s oldest friend has been murdered. The gun is covered in his fingerprints. Now on the run, Zack has to pit himself against CIA agents while trying to uncover the truth.
- Unruly Guides

IAMTHETREND: Breakfast with Marilyn – Limited Edition Tee

Following on from our hugely popular Audrey tee we bring you Breakfast with Marilyn. Only 25 of these will ever be made and they come packaged in hand made individually numbered cereal boxes with badge and sticker pack! LINK

The Author’s Image

Yes, I mentioned this last time … The Author’s Image … it’s one of my pet peeves! It could be because I’m a baby boomer, it could be because I’ve spent so much of my career helping to repair clients image after a faux pas. Sometimes a little oopsie is enough to cause your prospective [...]
- Unruly Guides

IAMTHETREND: Loud Silence Vol. 2

To further extend your passion for music and clothing Loud Silence has released Vol. 2. (4) new amazing designs including the debut of our icon “Beary Loud”. IATT15 for 15% off at checkout LINK