It's weird, the more I write to more views I get and I'm not sure I'm writing much that would be read. I've gotten multiple hits from each habited continent. So now I think I should start posting some more quality stuff. What should it be? Oh wait I guess I have some Journal entries to do jeebus how do I forget them so quickly.

Finding the Duplicates

Okay I've found the function to find duplicates in Font Explorer, on the sidebar there is a little icon that says "Conflicts" click on that and you should see the main window repopulate and the lower half of that window you can select your option and then hit scan. But it hasn't worked for me so far. Maybe I'll try yet another import and see if I can get rid of all these extra entries. Suitcase Fusion I miss you, but I do like how Font Explorer pops up when I load an InDesign document that I haven't loaded the fonts for.

The Saga Continues

So yeah I thought the import went too smoothly, I took all the font folders put them into a single directory and then told Font Explorer to snag them and organize them. When it wild was create some 324 entries for Helvetica Neue WTF. And I missed one of the settings where I say don't move the file but just copy it so now my fonts are rather hither dither all over the place. Font Explorer you are pissing me off and the only duplicate checking function is in the import and that failed in a most epic way. So I'm going to try and clean this up again I haven't even checked the rest of my library to see what it toasted along the way.

Okay so I figured I'd check another and Caslon is a shambles. So now I've corrected the settings and I'm trying again, this time it should not screw this up much more.

Organizing Fonts

Okay so first off you can use Fontbook on Macs and it will work alright, except if you are trying to ad some where in the neighborhood of 6k fonts. Then it just throws it's hand up and cries. And mind you I wasn't trying to activate any fonts I was just adding them to the database. Here is what I want:

1. an easy database of my fonts

2. quick previews that are accurate

3. quick and dirty activation with the option of permanent and temporary activation

4. a way to make sets for projects I'm working on

5. a way to get rid of duplicate fonts

6. a way to compile my font folders into one like I do with music.

So then there is Suitcase Fusion And this works much better than Fontbook but it can cause a crash or two but it has overall been a good choice. There is a new version that I'm about to give a try, so hopefully it is improved. So you can make sets and activate temporary or permanently, the previews are quick and haven't let me down yet. I haven't found a way to get rid of duplicate fonts, Fontbook has this feature but as I have said before it chokes on the shear volume of what I'm trying to do. You can drag font folders into Suitcase Fusion and it will keep them as that set and it's pretty alright and you can make a new set inside the program for your projects without making duplicates of your existing fonts, I would compare it to making playlists. It however does at times require you to tweak settings on your system and in program so that it loads when you first log in.

Now I'm trying Font Explorer Pro X or X Pro this is from Linotype one of the main font producers, so it should be the best. This isn't the case I find it in between Fontbook and suitcase fusion and it's ugly it looks like something I would get in Windows 95. So you can import all the fonts to an organized folder(I didn't get it to work without mashing them in with system fonts and then it auto activated all of them). I've read that is can sort fonts as well but I've really only encountered this function when activating fonts it will prompt you that a font is already active and gives you a few options on how to handle it. This is where the real pain in the ass is, I'm just trying to activate Helvetica Neue and it is identifying conflicts between an 85 and a 55 and it is also reading 4 instances of it. I went and checked and there is only one instance of it and there shouldn't be a conflict between those two styles.

So I'm going to try Suitcase Fusion 3 and I will also try to get Font Explorer Pro X to reload and organize my fonts with out corrupting my system fonts. Wish me luck.

The Cyclotrope from tim Wheatley on Vimeo.

Productivity

So now once again I have the internet at home and I can't say it has helped me yet to improve my productivity. But I can't really say I've tried to utilize it to the fullest. For now I am content at having my Netflix Streaming through my AppleTV2(I still haven't rooted it yet) that has been performing well beyond my expectations even if I haven't used it for much more than Netflix.

I've been thinking a lot about my poster project an still haven't been able to get in contact with the Cycling club so I'm just going to make an outline my self. So lets start with a mission statement and some core values.

KU Cycling Club: To promote Cycling, awareness and a healthy social atmosphere for those that are interested in the sport of cycling. These goals will be accomplished through social rides, educational seminars and participation in local and regional races.

Activities:

Bi-weekly social rides beginning at Strong Hall on Fridays at 5:30pm(baring weather)(10 miles)

Weekly training rides for the more competitive on Sundays at 10am starting at the Ambler Recreation center(20 miles)

Monthly maintenance and informational meetings 2nd Fridays at the Ambler Recreation Center Bike Shop at 4:30pm.


Associated word list:

Healthy, Competitive, Social, Fit, Bikes, Roads, Races, Friends, Sunshine, The Hill, KU, Jayhawk, Groups, Parts, Eduction, Chains, Gears, Spandex, Locks, Maintenance, New Friends, Sunshine, Stronger, Miles, Tires, Spokes, Tools, Boys, Girls, Helmets, Pumps

Lulu.com - How much will my printed book cost? - Connect

Just in case any of you wanted to know the pricing for this lulu business here it is. You might need to create and account to see this page --> Lulu.com - How much will my printed book cost? - Connect

Thats a Biggie

Whew I feel like I need to take a deep breath before I begin this one.

What are the advantages of a multiple column grid.? It gives you the freedom to use a variety of type and typographic color in an organized and easy to follow rhythm. I would compare it to the use of a modular grid in that it helps establish a system of organization that is implicit with out having to be explicit.
How many characters is optimal for a line length? words per line? 40-50 characters
Why is the baseline grid used in design? The baseline grid establishes an ordered system that is uniform though out the layout unifying multiple sizes of type.
What is a typographic river? The gaps that are formed when you set your paragraphs to justify. The program is trying to uniformly space the words and in doing so will create larger gaps at time and on consecutive like of text. So a river would be the negative space created when justifying text.
From the readings what does clothesline or flow line mean? The line across that defines where the text(paragraphs) will hang.
How can you incorporate white space into your designs? Connecting the text together, varying alignment and adjusting column and type size also utilizing the grid.
What is type color/texture mean? Bold, weight, size, tracking leading or just about any other modification to the spacing or density of the type.
What is x-height, how does it effect type color? X height is the maximum medium height of lowercase characters in a font. The shorter the x height the stockier the look of the type and the taller is more condensed.
In justification or H&J terms what do the numbers: minimum, optimum, maximum mean?
What are some ways to indicate a new paragraph. Are there any rules? Size of the indent, don't indent after spacing
What are some things to look out for when hyphenating text. Have more than 2 letter before or after the hyphen, or words that are too short or peoples names or places.
What is a ligature? An abbreviation of letter forms that improves the readability of the text such as fi.
What does CMYK and RGB mean? First is process or subtractive colors and the second and the second are screen or additive colors.
What does hanging punctuation mean? The punctuation is outside the area of the type suche as quotation marks, using this ensures all the type lines up without interruption.
What is the difference between a foot mark and an apostrophe? A foot mark indicates measurement and apostrophe indicates contractions of plurals.
What is the difference between an inch mark and a quote mark (smart quote)? Similar to the difference between the foot mark and the apostrophe visually only double.
What is a hyphen, en dash and em dashes, what are the differences and when are they used. hyphens are used for hyphenation, en dashes are longer and used for between dates and breaks of train of thought in place of parenthesis ,em dashes are the same width as the capital M and denote a long pause or quote.

Hmm so I might be stupid

I just posted 3 entries to GD 1 blog and I didn't mean to but hey thats not a big deal copy and paste and delete and it's all better right? Yeah for the most part it is. Now one of the things that worries me is that is says VISC 314 and I thought it was 304 and as minor of an issue that might be it is a sign of my own trouble reading numbers and I'm not keen on that getting in my way right now.

I still have not gotten the internet at my home yet and I feel as though I never will and I don't see there being time to even pick out a cat until spring break. I've got plenty of time for the cat thing since I spend so much of my free time there working I just can't justify the time to go look and it's hard to choose. Why am I looking forward to spring break as a chance to organize things and work more and not a break? And on top of it all I now have the money to print my process book for the Summerfest project and I've gone and gotten better ideas so I have to see if I can get those all sorted out tomorrow in time to print the damn thing tomorrow.

But at least all my bitching and rambling is helping me fight back towards my blog post a day for the year, now I'm only 2 weeks behind I think LOL.

Bruce Mau Design

the Incomplete Manifesto

So reading this for me was pretty awesome maybe more because I do a lot of these things already and it's gratifying to know some one else does the same thing. Mau seems to be a pretty colorful guy, leaving school early to design and then working for Pentagram in London and then starting his own design firm and during all of this he helped develop and define a modern form of design. I'd have a drink with hm.

I think I want to make mistakes faster and I'm not going to enter any Design competitions, yeah I know thats 2 things but I figure I owe a second one on account I should have had this up last week(I think). These last 2 projects I've worked on this semester felt kinda stagnant and I feel like I need to be producing more shit. I need to just turn things out even if they aren't good just to see what I can milk out of my head. All of that kinda related to other things Mau said as well.

Typotheque: How Good is Good? by Stefan Sagmeister

Typotheque: How Good is Good? by Stefan Sagmeister

Stefan Sagemeister has done a great job defining and then redefining some of these terms and ideas. I enjoyed the section on Bad design + good cause = good sometimes we want to avoid cliche even if it is the best decision if it helps the viewer.

He also quotes from one of Chip Kidd's books calling Uncle Sam commercial art and the flag as graphic design, clarifying that comercial art sells you something and graphic design gives you ideas.

The more I read the mor eI recognized names.

Don Norman on 3 ways good design makes you happy | Video on TED.com

Don Norman on 3 ways good design makes you happy | Video on TED.com

Don Norman is a well known design critic and author on the subject of design. I've enjoyed reading his work before. His thoughts on design and emotion makes sense and I can agree with what he says wholeheartedly. The environment and objects in the environment effect us emotionally and it does a feedback loop and in turn effects the usability for us the users.

In one of his books(I can't remember what one) he brings up a study that a Japanese University did about usability and design with atms. One set of ATMs had a UI that was designed and the other set was undesigned. And weirdly enough the designed ones worked better even though they were both running the same system. So when the university released it's results and Israeli school though this can be and conducted the same experiment in Israel thinking that the more practical Israelis would find no difference and the researchers were shocked to have repeated the Japanese results.

Happiness and our relation to the way things are designed are stronger than most would think or want to admit but they are there and the link should be respected. These are more examples of the visceral, but behavioral relates to our physical interactions. Integration of behavioral elements into design improves our emotional connections with the objects. Our reflective elements is usually the key motivation in most forms of design though. We often design to evoke a desire of the possible market. But I would wonder if it would be better if we ignore the last and focus on the visceral and behavioral elements our designs evoke?