Monthly Archives: March 2007
Adobe’s creepy clown contest
March 30th, 2007 by Jim Kidwell
With all of the hooplah surrounding the recent launch of the Adobe Creative Suite 3, in typical fashion, Adobe has pulled out all of the stops to create a slew of new marketing materials.
A polished set of interconnected product demonstrations surrounding the fictitious “Aquo” company were created for each of the products. This made the products really feel like they are truly connected, and was really well executed. In addition, to help us choose between the many different suite bundles, they created a slick creative license site. This was also very well done, as well as informative.
I have just one niggling little question about how Adobe is choosing to represent itself on the main creative suite page. I don’t know about you, but when I first opened the page, I was a bit shocked to see a creepy clown staring at me from the page. What exactly are they going for with this image?
I understand that there’s a new feature in Illustrator that allows you to map an image across multiple planes of a 3-D image. Is this what they’re trying to show off? It’s a cool feature, but this is really disturbing way to show it off.
Maybe I just lack the clown-appreciation gene, but I’m just not getting it.
So, just what is this all about? The person who gives me the best answer will win a bundle of Extensis swag.
UPDATE: I’ve dubbed Micchele Lytle the winner of the Extensis swag pack for her description of creepy clowns invading our dreams. Thanks… I won’t sleep well for quite a while now. At least until I upgrade, I suppose.
Extensis announces plug-ins for Adobe Illustrator and InDesign CS3
March 29th, 2007 by Jim Kidwell
Today we announced new plug-ins that provide font auto-activation compatibility for two Adobe CS3 applications. Within the coming months we will provide free plug-ins that support Suitcase Fusion, Suitcase for Windows, Suitcase Server and Font Reserve Server.
For complete details, check out the press release.
Magic mirror advertising medium
March 29th, 2007 by Jim Kidwell
Working creatively, it’s often very important to know where your final work will be used. The display considerations of a large billboard vary greatly from those of a online leaderboard or skyscraper advertisement. Well, how about this for yet another type of display consideration: a bathroom mirror.
Magic Display is marketing a mirror that turns into an advertising display when a person isn’t directly in front of it. Coming soon to a toilet near you!
Helvetica haiku contest winners
March 28th, 2007 by Jim Kidwell
In honor of the SXSW premier of Gary Huswhit’s documentary on the film Helvetica, we recently posted a font haiku contest. We had an amazing response to the contest with well over 150 unique poems submitted. The haiku were judged by Extenisis employees, and I’m happy to announce the following winners. We had difficulty choosing just one, so we’ve got three top prizes.
First place – winner of the limited edition Helvetica fine art poster by Experimental Jetset
Alex wrote:
Helvetica sits,
watching you try the new fonts.
It knows you’ll be back.
Second place – winner of a fine cache of Extensis swag
Christina wrote:
wedding invite came
they chose brush script mt bold
i give it six months
Third place – winner of a smaller, yet equally snazzy pack of Extensis swag
An anonymous reader, “name goes here” wrote:
Strong, bold, smooth, clean lines.
Like all the men in my life,
You are just my “type”.
Honorable mention winners. Just to give a bit more exposure to some wonderfully witty writing, we’d like to recognize the following haiku for originality and creativity.
Dory wrote:
I sure like your type
maybe on some page we can
spoon like ligatures
Brian Faust wrote:
Ubiquitous font
My mom even knows your name
But I still love you
DJM wrote:
i shot the serif
left him there full of leading
yearning for kerning
Nicole Stamp wrote:
COMIC SANS: a haiku
Hey guys! LOL!
I forward jokes! And cat pics!
I heart MSN.
Sean wrote:
Dale Earnhardt so sad
Helvetica not on car
Mullets at half mast
Craig wrote:
not arial, my
helvetica brings the
boys to the yard
Andi wrote:
Dear Helvetica
My apologetica
as this ditty sucks
Patrick M wrote two good ones:
She misunderstood
When I said she was “Grotesque”
Akzidenz happen
Mind your q and p
Futura’s not ours to see
Que Serif, Serif
Thomas Patrick Hutson wrote:
breakup memories–
she wrote it in Monaco
I cried in Georgia.
Bruce wrote:
Lord Helvetica
One typeface to rule them all
And in print bind them
Eric H. wrote:
Like primates on the
march of time, Helvetica,
your a’s lost their tails
Eddie wrote:
there is no simpler
joy than having all your words
dressed in their finest
Janelle wrote:
helvetica, so
modern, so serif-less so
sue me, i like it.
Kevin wrote:
Please don’t call me fat.
My name is Bauhaus, you jerk -
German for “Big Boned.”
Thanks again to everyone who had a bit of fun creating a haiku or two, and congratulations to our winners!
Adobe CS3 brings new fonts to the mix
March 27th, 2007 by Amanda Paull
Several new fonts will arrive with your CS3 upgrade. Two note-worthy additions- both designed by the in-house Adobe type team:
Arno- named after the river in Italy, this font has an Italian flow to it, and is akin to a modernized Venitian oldstyle. Designed by renowned type designer Robert Slimbach, considered to be one of the best type designers in the world. If you downloaded the beta of Photoshop CS3, you may have already seen this one.
Hypatia Sans- named after a Greek mathematician, this font is a geometric sans serif in the vein of Futura or Avante Garde. Designed by Adobe Product Manager, Thomas Phinney, this one should be available upon registration (now there’s a very nice incentive!) Thomas recently talked a bit about the development of this font over at the type forum Typophile.
Update: Adobe has set up a site so that you can watch the live launch of CS3 today at 3:30 EST.
Bravely facing the public
March 27th, 2007 by Jim Kidwell
Everyday, most of us walk out our front door reasonably assured that we’ll have a decent day navigating the ups and downs of everyday work and family life. As adults, typically we don’t fear for our lives every moment of the day as we pass through life.
Unfortunately due to death threats, this is now how Kathy Sierra has been living her life. While Kathy may have not stepped out onto a real street, as a blogger the virtual streets of the internet have proved to be much more terrifying. Kathy recently canceled a number speaking engagements due to a number of threats that she has received on her blog and others.
In these days of To Catch a Predator, we all know how easily online communication can translate into real world action. The threats by this unknown individual have caused Kathy to fear for her safety, and are definitely illegal and repugnant. No one should be subjected to this type of behavior, and it is my sincerest hope that the individual(s) responsible are caught and punished.
If you get a chance, stop by Kathy’s blog, Creating Passionate Users, and share a few words of support.
Scientists create smallest movable type ever
March 27th, 2007 by Jim Kidwell
Scientists at UCLA have created the smallest movable letters ever. The letters require a high-end laser and a batch of scientists to move them into position (not exactly OpenType compatible) yet it is still interesting to see just how small they are able to make things these days. I wonder what point size these little sans-serif goodies are? And, better yet, what kind of font manager will you need to for your inevitably jumbled collection?
This is an interesting proof-of-concept for the futuristic tiny machines that will be unclogging my arteries when I’m in my 70s. I think that I’ll have a triple-decker bacon cheeseburger for dinner! Yum.
Chris Jordan’s photos and statistical representation
March 26th, 2007 by Jim Kidwell
Photographer Chris Jordan’s images take a wide open look at American culture and more specifically the current culture of consumerism. His most current series, Running the Numbers: An American Self Portrait makes an impact just by being able to visualize the data when the numbers are so staggeringly huge.
My favorites are the images of the 2.3 million orange prison uniforms and the aluminum can representation of Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grand Jatte.
Photoshop World – Free Expo Pass
March 23rd, 2007 by Jim Kidwell
If you’ll be in the Boston area during the first week in April, you can take advantage of an opportunity to get into the Photoshop World expo hall free of charge. It’s open to the public April 5th from 10:00 through 5:00. The catch is that you’ve gotta sign up before you head on over. Visit this page to get your free pass.
UPDATE 3/26: Looks like Photoshop World is entirely sold out, yet you can still get in on the free Expo hall passes from the above link.
Everyone loves a Top 10 list
March 23rd, 2007 by Jim Kidwell
You’ve probably seen a number of “Top 10″ lists around the web. We’re definitely no stranger to the concept. For example:
- Top 10 things that you can do to better manage your fonts
- Top 10 successful ways to sell asset management to your boss
- Top 10 things to consider when choosing an agency
- And even the tongue-in-cheek Top 10 ALTERNATE ways to sell asset management to your boss
I find Top 10 lists an incredibly useful way to quickly distill a potentially large and complicated issue down to the bare essentials. And heck, everyone loves to make lists to rank things, otherwise end of the year predictions, top albums, most embarrassing moments and so forth wouldn’t exist (VH1 and the E Channel live for this kind of stuff). You’ll find Top 10 lists ranked highly on DIGG, reddit and other social bookmarking sites (not to mention, nightly on fellow Hoosier-export David Letterman’s show).
Here are a few of my current favorite Top 10 lists:
- The Register’s Ten reasons why you should buy a Mac.
- Google Sightseeing’s Top 10 naked people on Google Earth – Excuse me, I’m having a real Enemy of the State moment right now.
- Speaking of the State, how about the FBI’s Ten most wanted fugitives.
- For some cubicle fun, how about the Top 10 Rubber Band Guns.
- Or even a Top 10 list of Top 10 lists.
Do you have a current fave?
