Monthly Archives: July 2007
If you love type, you’ll want this book
July 31st, 2007 by Lucien W. Dupont
I found this via Daring Fireball , in which Khoi Vinh interviews Stephen Coles about FontBook, which seems like a fantastic resource for the coffee table for those font lovers out there. In talking with Jim about this post, he mentioned that Stephen Coles was on a panel we hosted called “Art Of Type”. You can listen to the panel discussion in the audio section of our blog.
The interview ends with a great quote: “…it’s an incurable, if not mortal disease. I can’t explain it. I just like looking at type. I get a total kick out of it. They are my friends. Other people look at bottles of wine or girls’ bottoms, I get kicks out of looking at type.”
It’s well worth the read.
Helvetica Film encore screening in PDX
July 30th, 2007 by Jim Kidwell
Thanks to the huge sellout crowd for the premier showing in Portland, Gary Hustwit has decided to bring the Helvetica Film back to Portland, Oregon for an additional screening. And, he’ll be there again to answer questions following the screening. The last screening had probably half of the city’s designers in attendance. I’m willing to bet that the other half will be at this one.
The film plays on Saturday August 4th at the Hollywood Theater on Sandy Blvd. For complete info, or to purchase tickets, check out: http://www.helveticafilm.com/pdx.html
I’ll be hanging out with the other type aficionados up in Seattle at Typecon for their “New Wave Celebration” in my best 80s garb, so unfortunately I won’t be able to make it to this screening. Where I’ll be hanging out I’m sure that there’ll be plenty of leg warmers, Weird Science quotes and Devo hats to go around. You’re jealous, I can tell.
Typecon 2007…no, it’s not a Transformer
July 27th, 2007 by Megan Banman
Though Megatron and Optimus Prime would seem to stroll happily hand-in-hand with Typecon, the latter is actually one of the top seminal typography events in the US this year.
And so, Extensis is packing up the family van and heading to Seattle this August to attend Typecon 2007, that which has been dubbed by the organizers as “the typographic center of the universe.” With 5 full days of sessions, over 85 speakers and 500 type-obsessed attendees, it does seem to be a Mecca of sorts for anyone who would list “fonts” in their list of favorite things.
Extensis attended Typecon for the first time in 2006 (see our booth in the picture above). We were amazed at the amount of font knowledge this conference draws. Some attendees could identify fonts down to the version number, simply by looking at the serifs, or lack thereof. We were even lucky enough to have Thomas Phinney from Adobe stop by our booth to critique the fonts we had used in our graphics. Needless to say, we’ll definitely think twice before using Times Roman again, instead of Times New Roman.
For the 2007 event, in addition to new and creative booth graphics, Extensis has two conference sessions slated for Friday, August 3rd:
The Experts Discuss Font Technology (12:15pm): A chance for attendees to have their questions answered by industry experts from Extensis, Microsoft, Adobe, Apple and others.
Coffee Break: Solving Common Font Problems (4:00pm): Product Manager Davin Kluttz will discuss the top five font management issues (TIP: if you’re one of the first 50 people to attend this session, you will receive a Starbucks gift card).
The conference runs from August 1-5 so if you’re in the Seattle area, stop by and say hi to our friendly Extenis representatives. They really are riding up in a van together so they should all be best friends by this point.
Graphic Designer of the Year
July 26th, 2007 by Nicole Andergard
Do you have what it takes to be named the graphic designer of the year? How about the international designer of the year? If you think your work is good enough – the iDA (International Design Awards) is currently accepting entries from both students and professionals. These awards were developed to recognize, celebrate and promote visionary designers and to uncover emerging design talent.
The graphic designer or the year will receive publication of his/her work in the 2008 iDA hardcover art book as well as promotion to 100,000 design professionals and potential clients worldwide and will be publicized on the iDA website.
The deadline is fast approaching for submissions, you only have until July 31st to hand over your project. Entries may be submitted by any company or individual in the creation or production of the project, including designers, the firm, or clients. For more information on the awards or submission process, visit iDA. Awards will be presented to designers in the architecture, interior, fashion, product and graphic design categories.
Heinz jumps into the user-generated content frenzy
July 26th, 2007 by Jim Kidwell
Heinz has challenged surfers to create their own video submissions in a contest to create the best commercial. Ever since Doritos drew so much attention with their SuperBowl advertisements this
year, it seems like there are many others jumping into the fray. With so many contests to choose from, will we continue to see the same type of attention? My bet is no.
Yes, user generated content is cool, but having people consistently generate entire commercials with some modicum of broadcast quality is a pipe dream. While video editing software is affordable, and everybody and his brother has a video camera now, the skills to create a quality product just aren’t all that rampant. The guys who won the Doritos contest were aspiring film makers. While I’m sure that there are a few others budding directors out there like them, my bet is that the pool of quality talent isn’t all that large.
The idea of jumping on the social media bandwagon is very tempting for many companies. Yes, it can be a fun arena to dabble in, but in the long run, it doesn’t even begin to compete with the need for talented, well-trained professionals. This goes for still media as well as video. What do you think? Would you jump into this type of thing, or would you rather leave it to the “weekend video warriors?”
What’s that Harry Potter font?
July 25th, 2007 by Jim Kidwell
If you’re like me, you probably spent a good deal of time recently with your nose buried in a large tome that is the final installment of the Harry Potter series. After having my eyes dried out and crusty from so much reading, I am finally able to take a moment to think about the fonts used in the book.
As is pointed out in many online forums, the only font that’s given any credit in the book is Adobe Garamond. Yet, with so many notes, letters and such in the series, the book’s designers have had a fun opportunity to include many additional cool fonts over the years. My original thought was to go on a quest of my own, identifying fonts along the way. Of course, as with many a journey, others have already embarked on, and nearly finished the journey.
Mark Simonson maintains a list that contains all of the fonts used in books 1-6. He hasn’t added the most recent book yet, but we’re only a few days after the release, perhaps he’ll update it soon. It’s good to see a list of the authentic fonts used, not the the 1001 knock-off free fonts that you’ll easily find in this genre.
Also, this site (link removed due to pirated material contained therein), maintained by “Hurry Patter” contains a good list, plus some of the usual free font links. Click on the Harry Potter fonts link to view the complete list in a pop-up window (unfortunately that’s the only way of viewing the page).
Will EXIF metadata locate the Harry Potter Pirate?
July 24th, 2007 by Jim Kidwell
The power of embedded metadata has come home to roost. You may already know, but your image files already contain a slew of information, including the aperture, shutter speed and ISO used when the image was captured. The standard set of information that is embedded into your photographs is called EXIF, which stands for Exchangeable Image File Format.
Well, unbeknownst to the silly person who thought that it was a good idea to use his Canon Rebel 300D to photograph pages of yet-to-be-released final Harry Potter book, the camera’s serial number is automatically included as part of Canon’s EXIF metadata. So, if the pirate has sent in his registry card, Canon is one step away from initiating what’s surely to be a monstrous lawsuit. Check out this article on the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s website for more info with a focus on privacy.
This story only serves to underscore the power of embedded metadata. Of course, Extensis Portfolio can be used to automatically extract metadata and present it to you in an easy-to-browse way. Metadata is the heart and soul of locating and tracking your images for future use – of course, we’d prefer if you keep it all above board.
50 years of Helvetica – 50 fine art prints
July 23rd, 2007 by Jim Kidwell
In honor of Helvetica’s 50th birthday, Blanka & Candy in association with Veer have commissioned 50 graphic designers to create 50 works of art that are 50 x 50 cm, cost 50 pounds to purchase, of which only 50 of each will be created. Each designer was given a specific year from Helvetica’s life as inspiration.
An exhibit of the results runs at the Design Museum in London through September 2nd, and it looks like it’ll travel around the UK thereafter. Haven’t seen anything about it coming to the US just yet.
Pandora poster contest
July 20th, 2007 by Amanda Paull
Quick link here. Pandora- the ‘stream of consciousness’ site of the radio world- is holding a poster contest. It is easy to enter and the deadlined is August 24. Even if you’re not feeling up to the task, you can participate via voting on the current submissions.
Extensis launches Portfolio 8.5 at Apple’s European Executive Briefing Centers
July 20th, 2007 by Claire Taylor
Following the announcement of Portfolio 8.5 at the Henry Stewart DAM Symposium we held three European Portfolio Server 8.5 launch events, to ensure that our European customers were kept up to speed on our developments. The events took place at the exclusive Apple Executive Briefing Centers in Paris, London and Munich, all of which are fantastic locations.
The events gave us the opportunity to present a sneak peek at the new features of Portfolio 8.5 Server to both press and customers. Attendees also got to see the first European live demo’s of Portfolio 8.5 Server conducted by Sales Engineer Chris Stevens.
We invited Adobe along to the events to talk about the integration between Portfolio 8.5 Server and CS3. Portfolio Project Sync is an important new feature of the upcoming Portfolio 8.5 release that links the Adobe Creative Suite directly to Portfolio. In a nutshell, Portfolio Project Sync allows CS3 users to directly access assets from Adobe Bridge, or through any standard Adobe dialog. As Project Sync was designed in close partnership with Adobe who better to present to customers than Adobe themselves.
As well as presentations and demo’s from Extensis and Adobe attendees also got to see a presentation from Apple on the Xserve.
“We were delighted by the strong turnout to our European Portfolio Server 8.5 launch events, attracting over 70 people from a diverse range of companies from a number of vertical markets, but sharing a common business need to organize, manage and distribute quantities of digital assets. The fact that so many different organizations were present underlines the fact that the need for DAM is commonplace,” said Richard Bamford, European Business Manager.
