A lot of thoughts on the urban environment lately, or at any rate the one perceived and experienced by me. I’ll start with a few notes on how it’s evolving of late, here in glamorous Lakewood Ohio.
Most of the bigger de- and re-construction projects are taking place up on Detroit Road, the city’s “main street.” I think all of the major ones underway just now involve the arrival or relocation of chain establishments, three of those establishments being eateries.* And one, in particular, being the subject of a modest amount of local controversy. Though in spite of controversy, all four seem to be going ahead, including the demolition of the old Detroit Theater prior to its being replaced by a drive-through McDonald’s.
I’m not especially enthusiastic about this particular development, although after giving it much thought I had a difficult time coming up with a convincing argument to block it, and apparently it’s a moot point now anyway. I do find it kind of regrettable, all the same, as much for the alteration of the city’s general urban landscape as much as for anything particular about the establishments involved. For me, at least, a big part of what makes Lakewood interesting and vibrant and attractive rather than just another suburb of strip malls is this kind of “main street” scene:
This is from Detroit Road; similar development lines much of Madison Avenue, home to my studio and self
In the tradition of previous “please add this feature” and/or “fix this bug” suggestions, I am going to post another which is long overdue:
Could the good people at iStockphoto.com please stop saving the comp versions of their images at high resolutions?
Because this is just ridiculous. I am absolutely sick and tired of placing something in a layout and getting a teeny tiny little postage stamp image because someone decided to save it at 250, 300 or even 600 dpi! It’s a preview image primarily for on-screen use, to be replaced by an appropriately higher-resolution image when a design is approved! It should be low resolution so that it places in a document at something like the size it may actually be used at, i.e. somewhat larger than a g*dd**n thumbtack!
All of the workarounds available on my end are annoying. I can scale up the image in InDesign, of course, but because InDesign creates its own internal preview images based on a file’s saved resolution, some of these end up being about 12 pixels across. So when I scale them up they’re just a blocky unusable mess. I can instruct the program to preview them at full resolution, but this is yet another step, and it goes back to the default the next time I open that document. Usually, I end up just opening images in Photoshop, fixing the file resolution to what it should have been in the first place, and re-saving, but that’s also obviously a major PITA.
Whereas on their end it ought to be a relatively very minor change which could be implemented in their software once, and then done, forever. It would be great if it were!
Hello again, Citizens.
Have I mentioned (this is a rhetorical question; I know I haven’t) that I really enjoy the show BrewingTV these days? That’s where the “citizens” bit comes from. Anyway, very entertaining, and free. My favorite episode is “iSoloBrewmaster.”
Lot of change going on. I’ll be moving (again) through the next week. (Started hauling stuff today, and man, am I tired. Biggest downside of print, definitely: the mass.) Changes in work, changes going on with the rest of my family. I’m just trying to stay afloat amidst it all. Meanwhile, I should throw a few links up here.
First and probably most interesting, at least for me, is the announcement of change also taking place at the College of Design, back at dear auld ISU. It’s basically an organizational reshuffling, and probably won’t mean that much in terms of the student experience in the short term, at least. But Graphic Design is now becoming a full-fledged Department, rather than just a program within the Department of Art & Design. Got my attention.
Other stuff. Remember that new DC logo I posted about a while back? Bleeding Cool does a nice little assessment of it as part of a trend.
And speaking of trends, I learned a while back that I may be part of one. Specifically, “the “digitally dominant” (ooh, I like the sound of that) a “group of people who mainly communicate via text, email and video, and as a result can go ‘up to’ 48 hours without speaking to someone in person.” Yeah been there done that.
Loosely-related to this, I enjoyed this humorous flowchart from Slate, detailing all of the awkwardness which can accompany bumping into an acquaintance at the gym.
Finally, the Robot 6 blog amused me with this gag illustration by Stephen Collins, about the e-book reader of the future. It’s funny because it’s so true, you know it is.
Two of the students I spoke with at AIGA Cleveland’s portfolio review, last month, have since written back to express thanks. Words and phrases like “thank you,” “appreciate,” “really helpful,” etc., do make one feel like one’s efforts have not been wholly in vain. Very thoughtful of these young people.
Meanwhile, I am absolutely utterly exhausted just now. I think the cold April may simply have delayed pollen season, or at any rate the crawl-into-bed-and-die phase which I typically experience that month; in any event that’s about what it feels like the past few days. On top of a long-time client encountering serious problems (which means me encountering serious problems) and an unexpected and depressing road trip to attend some family matters, plus the anticipation of moving (yet again, about which I may have more to say later) in the next week or so.
Bllleaaaaahhhhhhhhh.
With the Avengers feature film showing up in local news (as well as international comics and movie news) headlines pretty much all week, and the associated controversy over the late Mr. Jack Kirby continuing to simmer alongside it, I’m going to take the occasion to offer one more thought on the matter. I hesitate at doing so, but I have what I like to think is actually a positive message, so it seems worth a shot. Here goes.
To all of the creators and fans who have spent years, perhaps decades, aspiring to get Jack’s back: consider taking a moment to step back and look at how much you’ve achieved. I think it’s something you can feel good about. It’s true that the world is still full of evil, and it’s true that many wrongs have not been righted and that many of them never will be. But when it comes to getting appropriate recognition for Jack Kirby, I submit that it’s time to hang up that “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” banner and enjoy a cigar.
I’ve been thinking along these lines for a while, and decided it was time to step up and actually say this (or post it) after Slatelantic published this essay by cartoonist James Sturm, about his decision to boycott the Avengers film. Because the subheading, frankly, just seems ridiculous: “Because Jack Kirby has never been given the credit he’s due.” Now in fairness, that may very well be something which an editor wrote and, not atypically, it doesn’t actually seem to match anything in the essay. On the other hand, the essay doesn’t seem to give any particular detailed explanation of a specific wrong for which Mr. Sturm has a specific remedy in mind; for the most part it just seems like a 101 intro course lament of the various ways that Mr. Kirby was treated badly (of which there were many). In any event, I’m guessing that Sturm would probably agree with the subheading and list “getting the credit he’s due” as part of any remedy which he would consider necessary before he could go see The Avengers in good conscience. And I don’t think he’s alone in that.
I also don’t imagine that there would not be other things on such a list, for either Sturm or others who have been vocal in condemning Marvel. But right now I’m not going to go into those other items, or their merits. Right now I just want to address the issue of Jack Kirby getting “the credit he’s due.” Because I think that one can now safely be checked off as “done.”
An exciting few days are beginning in this corner of the world!
First, in about two hours I will be heading out to coffee and record shop Loop in Tremont, and thereby either raising my own hipster quotient or else lowing that of both store and neighborhood… though the real reason for going is to attend AIGA Cleveland’s roundtable discussion this evening from 6 to 8. Probably have notes on the experience later.
Then, about two days seven hours from now (if I’ve done my math right) I will be getting in line for the annual midnight madness party to kick off Free Comic Book Day at Carol & John’s Comic Shop. (This is the store which also hands out those awesome Superman-site maps of Cleveland, every day of the year.) I probably shouldn’t even mention this because the line is sure to be long enough anyway, and I really want to be one of the lucky people who gets inside early enough to score a Cleveland Action Brewery FCBD 2012 Ale. How awesome is this store??
And on Saturday, whenever I finally get up, it will be the day of the 138th Kentucky Derby! Which I really have little direct interest in because I don’t follow horse racing; it’s mainly just an excuse to drink bourbon as well as use it to flavor chocolate-pecan pie. Still, it seems fun, and the different flags produced for each year are a nice little nod to design. There’s a house up the street from me which hangs up a dozen-or-so of the most recent flags on the porch every year, so that kind of makes the event feel somehow fun and festive even here in Lakewood.
Finally, looking further out, May 13 is Mother’s Day. Don’t forget Mom!
I have picked up a number of new books in the past few weeks and finally got around to taking photos plus, obviously, writing this blog post. First, three or four additions to my Sherlock Holmes collection:
This puts me up past 20 items now, I think
This morning I saw another item on this It’s Even Worse Than It Looks book which is making the publicity rounds, lately. The cover design instantly reminded me of another from right around this time, last year, and upon checking back the resemblance was indeed so uncanny that I thought I might as well do a little “Swipe File” post.
Not sure who designed either one
Not a lot needs to be added here, I think. Usual “Swipe File” disclaimers apply, of course. I might not have noticed this resemblance, even though one book followed the other within 11 months, except for the fact that I found the left design interesting and saved a picture of it in my personal design inspirations “swipe file.” Not entirely sure that its use for Mann & Ornstein’s book is nearly as conceptually clever as for Ronson’s; indeed it seems relatively arbitrary. Though given their thesis, there’s a bit of an amusing indirect, presumably unintentional, relevance through visually associating the book with a work about psychopaths.
The year is already nearly one-third gone. I feel like I’m just barely managing to make something of the months as they fly past, but I also feel like if I blink for even a moment I will suddenly find myself sitting here with the last leftover turkey and a Christmas Ale wondering where the time went.
Finished this book cover, the other day; I didn’t post the front when it was first approved but when I looked back I thought hey, this is kind of nice. Bright, colorful.
I think those things in the upper right are Chinchillas, fwiw
I’m also happy that I was able to wrap a continuous layout around the spine and back cover, rather than treating them more-or-less separately as often happens. In doing so I rearranged the order of the back cover copy from how it was provided. I used to do that some times and then kind of dropped it; since this was approved, I may need to begin trying that again. Frankly, there’s always a temptation to simply lay out the spine and back cover art as mechanically as possible. That part of the project doesn’t pay a lot, it’s relatively little-noticed compared with the front cover, no one is particularly demanding about the level of design, and I’m often dealing with a large amount of copy which limits the scope for anything clever, anyway. I try to avoid giving in to that temptation too often, for two reasons. One, a desire simply to do and remain associated with good work. Two, to some extent there is very much a self-interest issue even if it isn’t cash-based; the more uninspired shortcuts I take, the more I’m effectively training myself to do uninspired shortcut design work. You are what you do all day. In other notes…
For quite some while now I have been planning to write a few notes on discs. I have been collecting links for months now, in fact, and currently have about 18 browser tabs open with them all. One of them notes that this past Saturday, April 21, was Record Store Day, which occasion made this seem like a good weekend to finally sit down and do something with this mess.
The concept of Record Store Day is particularly interesting because, apparently, it might well be called “disc store day.” Per the more-or-less official site
This is the one day that all of the independently owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day…
So it is about vinyl records, but it’s also about CDs, which interests me because of the odd relationship between the two just now.
