The Dog Days are Over – Florence and the Machine

The Dog Days Are Over - Florence and the Machine

The design is based on Florence Welch’s description of the song’s meaning, as well as an attempt to capture the offbeat energy and emotion in the song.

Stay tuned for the next instalment – Uprising by Muse.

Wrong! Social responsibility extends beyond carbon emissions and child labour. It means taking ownership of our impact on every aspect of our society — Political/Legal, Cultural, Demographic, Economic, Natural, Technological and any others you might think up.

Here are a few simple ways to ensure that our impact on the world is more good than evil.

1. Recognising that you do have an impact (and identifying it).

There’s no sidestepping the issue here — your actions make a splash. The first step to being more socially responsible is simply accepting this fact, and identifying the key areas for improvement. You can do this by…

2. Thinking outside your own box.

Projects in our industry are almost never the sole work and responsibility of one person; the nature of the design beast is highly social and group-oriented. And while things might seem peachy from the confines of your cubicle, you should also consider how your work will affect others involved. Yes, the die-cut business card you created in Adobe InDesign is only a digital file, but that fancy shape might create a lot of waste for your printers — how can your work help them be more socially responsible?

3. Watching what you’re using (and how you use it).

When the project has physical results, it’s fairly easy to monitor and control the materials with which the end product is created. We can usually specify the card or paper stock, inks, and binding materials for a company brochure, for instance. Something that is perhaps less obvious — but with just as much impact — is the way we use these materials. Does the job necessitate such an excessive use of ink on white stock — and if so, might you benefit from tinted stock instead? Often the entire gamut of variables is open for modification, only the client or designer is unaware, or unwilling to make the effort.

Digital projects are a bit more deceptive, as their impact is not always evident. Consider the tools you use — are they open-source/community-developed (Wordpress, MoveableType, jQuery library) or commercial (Adobe Flash, Microsoft ASP.Net)? Are they standards-driven (HTML, Javascript, PHP, Firefox) or proprietary and profit-driven (ActionScript, ColdFusion, Internet Explorer)? Edit: Proprietary products do provide employment and fund R&D, however there is no reason that this can’t be provided by open-source, standards-compliant projects. Look at Google for proof. As with design for a physical product, we aren’t always allowed — whether through industry habits, client preferences or availability — to specify the development tools. When we are given this freedom, it is more socially responsible to select from those that are community-developed and standards-driven, as these are developed for the benefit of people rather than a corporate entity.

4. If you see something, say something!

We produce work, therefore we create an impact; ergo, it is essential to monitor — and perhaps alter — our behaviours for the greater benefit of our society. However, as professional thinkers and influencers, we have a unique opportunity to help others do the same. Our day job is full of interactions with clients or peers, whose requests and solutions may not always be as socio-friendly as they could be. If you’re presented with a situation wherein you can devise a more sustainable, more socially responsible solution, don’t be shy! A polite

have you considered this approach?

will rarely be met with much worse than a polite

that’s not for me,

and might even result in a resounding

You genius! What other helpful insights can I pay you to offer?

This is by no means a complete or definitive guide, but rather a handful of suggestions to get you started. If you have any other suggestions, I’d love to see them in the comments!

I saw these specimens on a mop bucket in my brother’s laundry, and my interest was piqued.
Does anybody know what typeface this is? It appears to be in transitional cursive style, or maybe oblique transitional serif.

Two hours of reading, viewing, laughing and ooh-ahhing follow.

Ok, so still no ‘eureka’ moment; still no brilliant topic about which to write. Still nothing spectacular to share with you, but I do have a kickass collection of blogs, feeds and syndications. Shall I share those with you?

Okay.

I have an awesome (yes, it inspires awe) collection of eye and mind candy on which I feast quite regularly – and perhaps excessively, – and a big part of its awesomeness is its extensiveness, spanning fromadvertising to Melbourne local life with many stops in between. I don’t want to bore you by spilling them all at once, so instead I’ll pick out the top 9 sources – in no particular order – from an arbitrarily selected folder. This week the folder is…

Typography

Typophile News/Releases

Typophile.com is a great place to start your typographic explorations

I subscribe to two feeds from Typophile, but I feel justified in grouping them because they sometimes overlap in content. Documenting the latest in typographic news and font releases, Typophile is a great place to start.

Typographica

The RSS feed may not include images, but it's worth subscribing to

This is a great website with amazing typographic content. One small caveat is that its RSS feed doesn’t include imagery, however the content is well worth the clickthrough.

Fontfeed

Some beautiful specimens and funny typographic observations

In the same vein as Typophile, Fontfeed gathers and distributes typographic news with gratuitous abandon. Far be it from me to complain though. I love them for it!

The Daily Dropcap

One beautiful, handcrafted letter per work day. Heaven.

Strictly speaking, this is more lettering than typography. Jessica Hische creates beautiful, ornate letter forms and hands them out with all the affection of a mother buffalo nursing her calf back to health after an attack from a pride of lions and a crocodile.

For the Love of Type

Gorgeous specimens of typography and lettering

Presumably the journalings of a professional letterpress printer / typographer / designer, FtLoT delivers some really beeeyoodiful real-world examples of typography, lettering and letterpress printing.

Friends of Type

typographic and lettering studies with real panache

An excellent source of typographic and letter form affection, in the shape of type and lettering studies. For those times when you don’t want to be just friends with type *wink nudge*.

I Love Typography

Me too, my friends. Me too.

Similar to Typophile and Fontfeed, I Love Typography is an aggregation of typographic news and beauty. Sprinkled among the many typeface release reports, there are also type-rich videos, studies or street finds.

Hoefler & Frere-Jones

The industry demigods share their typographic wisdom

Writings, proclamations and witticisms  from the eponymous New York typography studio, this feed supplies me with a veritable slew of beautiful typeface specimens.

A Blog About Typography, Letterpress & Printing History

Letterpress and old-fashioned type make me quiver...

I am In Love with vintage typography – letterpress, woodcut letter forms, black-and-white film titles, et cetera ad infinitum, – so a blog that is overflowing with imagery of both the printing tools, as well as the type specimens they produce makes me giddy.

1. We would pass through the small town of Braidwood, NSW.
2. There would be copious amounts of drinking and revelry.
3. Hangovers were likely to follow.

While I knew that #2 and #3 would leave me with very little time – or coordination – with which to create content for my weekly blog post, I was determined to make the most of #1.

Braidwood, NSW, is a small town approximately 85 kilometres from Canberra; its park and bakery have featured in every New South Wales coastal excursion in which I have participated. The town has a quaint, almost American-Western film ambiance lent to it by its various hand-painted store signs, dual-storey porches, wide roads and colonial colour palette.

Lettering like this is evident in most small towns around Australia (and arguably around the world), a style which of late is making a resurgence in modern typography and graphic design. Below are a few that particularly caught my eye.

Two fine examples of old-fashioned hand lettering

The leftmost sign shows an awesome crossbar on the upper E and F, though the weight contrast on the A combined with the low crossbar make it appear out of place.

On the right a calligraphic brush face is contrasted with a confident woodtype face. The subtle hints of serifs caught my eye, but the tail on the R strikes me as unusual and maybe even lovely – I am as yet undecided.

Slab serifs on the "National Theatre"

In stark contrast to the 1920’s wood-type (I think) style of lettering employed by the Braidwood Deli, the other side of the road sports another beautiful typographic exploit. Herb Lubalin’s slab serif “ITC Lubalin Demi” is given an authoritative, wide measure and offset with an interesting middle-dot. I’ve recently fallen in love with slab serif typefaces, so this could not go unmentioned.

** Sidenote: How “national” could this theatre actually be? Has it seen any performances that weren’t cooked up in the Braidwood backstreets?

As I mentioned, these styles are becoming more prevalent outside of the small towns in which they are most common – or maybe it’s just that I’m noticing it more. Whatever the reason, I fully support its resurgence – as far as I’m concerned, there can never be too many well-executed references to the forefathers of type.

Kings & Quinns is, in a nutshell, a fashion blog. Musings, discussions and rants centre on the vast and beautiful – for lack of a more appropriate word – world of fashion culture, from Haute Couture to more accessible street fashion. What makes this blog interesting and perhaps different to other fashion blogs – though I must say I am no aficionado in that respect – is the fresh perspective brought by the author. Katherine is a student (with all the monetary “perks” pertaining thereto) living in Canberra, Australia (somewhat of a fashion anticlimax) and yet she manages to deliver poignant observations, and with unabashed flair.

Contained within the walls of Miss Quinn’s website are interviews with local designers, idiosyncratic observations on popular fashion culture, thought-provoking discussions on the social implications of the industry, some pretty hilarious anecdotes, and most of her posts are riddled with eye candy on which to feast. The writing style is oh-s0-smooth – intellectual yet unassuming, flamboyant yet succinct, witty yet accessible. All of this is to say that each post in itself is a joy to read, but the article that really got me hooked was Model Guidelines for Models which talks about the issue of body image from a practical point of view. Possibly at the heavier end of the spectrum, it is an article that lends a different perspective to an always-topical issue.

As a designer it’s important to keep abreast of the visual zeitgeist in all its glorious forms, from print to web to fashion, et cetera, ad infinitum. I am by no means an old hand when it comes to fashion but through Kings & Quinns I’m starting to learn – and I must say I am thoroughly enjoying it. Please Miss Q, do not stop writing.

But as the turn of the decade approaches I’ve begun to think about resolutions – I will study harder, I will visit the gym more frequently, I will eat healthier, I will spend less on alcohol, I will listen to new bands, I will party more often, et cetera – and all this thinking makes me realise how silly it is to wait until the new year to make the changes. After all, what is the new year but an arbitrary point in our orbit around the sun? So I’m taking this opportunity to enact one of those resolutions – albeit that for all the time I’m saving, I may as well have waited – and committing to a blogging regime for my website, redesign or no. My posts will primarily focus around graphic design and visual communication, and will occur approximately once a week – sometimes more, sometimes (though hopefully rarely) less.

I think I’m setting a fairly ambitious objective, and it may be that the lack of an enthralled readership dooms it to failure, but what is life if not the pursuit of unachievable goals? As a famous dandy once said -

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

So this little website of mine may not have a large following – in fact, to paraphrase Larry Sanders and David Duchovny it has more of a ‘cult following’, or almost no following at all. But those of you who at least try to keep up to date with my updates would have noticed that my collection of musings has been completely absent over the past few weeks. This is partly due to technical difficulties with my hosting provider, partly due to impatience with said provider’s technical difficulties, and partly due to laziness on my part in fixing said technical difficulties. However there is no more need to despair over when you will be able to get your next fix of Juan-branded insanity. I have reinstated my blog and am ready to begin posting things once more.

Another thing that may have piqued the interests of my more observant readers, viewers and fans is the apparent lack of a site design. This is a side-effect of the aforementioned technical difficulties but more importantly, serves as a precursor to the long-overdue redesign of JuanOjeda.com. Over the next few weeks I’ll be hitting the drawing boards, arming myself with new colours, updated grid-layouts, fresh and fragrant fonts, and all other weaponry inherent to the great battles of web-design. It won’t be pretty behind the scenes, but it sure as heck will be when it’s done… I’ll be working hard to make sure that the design is so fresh and longlasting that Wrigley’s will be knocking down my door for the recipe.

Finally, a lot has happened in the many weeks that span between updates, and it is my duty to share these events with you. Although it is far too early in the morning for my mind to transform these elusive thoughts into lucid posts, rest assured that I will be working hard to keep you in the loop – the Juan loop.

Sgt. Juan,

Over & Out.

Of course Australia – and Victoria in particular – is no stranger to the flames. Every summer we hear news reports of small country towns licked by smaller bushfires around the nation, however none with such dire consequences as the recent catastrophe. Even those fires that up until last week were considered our worst fires in history are dwarfed by the fires of February 2009. The ‘Black Friday’ bushfires of 1939 tore through 20,000km of land, leaving 71 dead. ‘Ash Wednesday’ was worse, claiming the lives of 75 Australians across Victoria and South Australia, and leaving many others homeless. The deathtoll from the bushfires of February 7 have already almost doubled these historic disasters, at more than 130 confirmed deaths and approximately 100 more missing and expected dead.

In light of such a terrible catastrophe, it’s awesome to see my country rally together to support the victims of the affected areas. Already, over $45m worth of support has been raised and donated, whether in the form of cash, goods or services. The government is also bending over backwards to assist through sending support teams, providing instant cash relief, and setting up relief funds for a more long-term support solution. Rebuilding the destroyed communities and recovering after such heartwrenching loss is not going to be easy, and it makes me proud to be part of a country so eager to help.

But while we’re on the note of monetary support for the bushfire victims, I’d just like to share my worries about the way that some businesses respond to these disasters. Certainly it’s great to see some of the bigger corporations (Coles, FFA, Hoyts, etc.) pledge support to those in need, but as a Business student, I can’t help but wonder how much is true, benevolant philanthropy and how much is simply using ‘corporate philanthropy’ as a means to boost sales. Take for instance Hoyts’ pledge of $2 from every ticket sold this Sunday (15 Feb). Now, $2 doesn’t seem like much when FFA and Coles are donating all their profits to the cause, and when you consider that a child’s ticket costs $12, there’s still more than 80% of the ticket price to go to expenses and – of course – profit. I know that the cinema industry doesn’t make all that much from tickets, but if this is the case, shouldn’t they be donating from their profits (including concessions) rather than a measly $2 from one day’s ticket sales? It seems like they’d be profiting more from this gesture than they are giving.

Another no-good, self-centered type of miscreant who appear in this type of situation are people like this. People who pose as charity collectors, fuelling their schemes with the misfortune of others, only to line their pockets with the dollars of their more trusting and charitable peers. If this isn’t a characteristic of the most base and degenerate citizens our country has to offer, I shudder to think what is. Most people would agree that this tactic is despicable, it’s not far from the pricing strategies employed by the Canberra building firms after the 2003 bushfires, in which many houses were destroyed. Feeding off the terrible destruction that sparked a vast necessity to rebuild, these firms raised their prices drastically, knowing that the fire-affected would be receiving grants from the government and payouts from their insurers to help subsidise the inflated costs. Of course, this left many families (those with reluctant insurers, those not affected enough to be eligible for grants, and those who were simply building within the next few years) spending much more than they should have been.

What really confounds me is how we, a society willing and eager to help those in need in any way we can, are capable of producing these fiends at the opposite end of the spectrum. Is it just as much a part of our nature to take advantage of a terrible situation as it is to help those affected by it? In any case, I’m sure that the generous and charitable members of society greatly outweigh the more morally devoid characters. I just hope that there are measures in place to prevent any unnecessary cost to those affected, and that those taking advantage of these tragedies for personal gain receive their just desserts.

These photos were taken this week when I took my little brothers Mateo, Daniel and Lucas to the Australian National War Memorial in Canberra. I have to admit that I had slightly selfish intentions on this outing – I’ve been wanting to go and see the tanks, planes and guns for a long time now – but it also provided a great excuse for spending time with my younger siblings, and also to help make their school holidays memorable, exciting and (less-importantly) informative.

Anyways we saw many aircraft, seacraft, landcraft, weapons, uniforms, drawings, and other wartime artefacts. I’ll probably have to go back there again some time soon, because It’s pretty much an awesome place.

Photos taken 7th January 2009