Category: Observed.
Speak Up (part of the Under Consideration network) has a nice round up of what they call The New(er) Typography of 2007 and conclude that it is Counterless, Bold and mostly Geometric. Nice to see that the Worry Doll cover made their list!
Technorati Tags: speak up, typography, under consideration, worry doll
“Everything is a design solution!”
– Liz Lee
Comics collection A, originally uploaded by helloMuller.
Every couple of years I get in the mood to sort through all of my comics.
When I was a teenager I’d be doing it constantly and had every series I collected in its own dedicated box, bagged and boarded.
Then as I got older reading them became more important than bagging and I started dumping them in longboxes to keep them safe. Of course this meant that rather quickly complete chaos would ensue and I’d never find a complete run of something.
So now I’m doing it all over again - hoping to do it properly this time (at least for the next 4-5 years or so), and along the way rediscovering old favourites, that 1 issue I thought I dreamt up having, and lots of crap (U.S War Machine, Elektra?!) and too much X-Men comics.
I love it. Really.
What you’re seeing on the photo is roughly spanning the last 8-10 years of hoarding.
top-mouton logo, designed by Herman Muller, circa 1969-1970?
As far as I know, this is the only other logo my dad designed, apart from his own logo before he became a self-employed interior designer. Back then he worked at top-mouton, a interior design studio in Belgium in the late 60s and early 70s.
During his employment there, he designed the company logo, which has been in use ever since. I remember he had a pin badge of the logomark and I always wondered what it meant (aside from being intrigued by the shape).
The orange shapes obviously point upwards, playing on the “top” of top-mouton, and the forward-thinking attitude of the company. Its as simple as that.
French speaking readers will obviously know that “mouton” means sheep. I have no idea what the relevance in the naming of the company is, only that their headquarters is in the very rural countryside of Flanders (the region of Belgium where I’m from)…
One thing that struck me is that I can’t place the typeface used in the logo. Obviously Arial is used in the current incarnation, but obviously Arial wasn’t around when the logo was designed. It might’ve been Helvetica or even Universe…
My bet is on the former.
Logo designed by my dad in 1972-73 for his design practise. Custom type with Helvetica
A short follow up post to my Helvetica one… Just remembered I had this on my drive: the logo my dad designed for his design practise, again proving a point also made by Massimo Vignelli (maybe he was inspired by him), that design is one.
As an interior designer is he was as much obsessed about how a chair was manufactured right down to the patterns on the coffeemugs in the kitchen cabinet.
I love how his hM initials form a chair and table, echoing elements of his furniture designs in the 70s.
Yes, my dad was a Modernist in heart and soul.
Yes. Like every other designer I went to see Helvetica, Gary Hustwit’s documentary on the titular typeface featuring a Who’s Who of designers who, in one way or another were and are linked with the typeface.
The interesting parts, for me, was to see each designer interviewed talk about the impact Helvetica had on them - going from unadulterated praise (Vignelli), to lametation (Spiekerman) - and I couldn’t help but think about my own experiences with the iconic typeface.
I consider myself firmly in the Modernist school of thought. I don’t think you need a million typefaces, I like structure, and if something isn’t neccessary I don’t use it. Yes, I love Helvetica for all those things… but personally, I’m more of an Akzidenz Grotesk man.
Wasn’t always the case though.
Continue reading…
Annie Lennox Concert for BBC Radio 2, originally uploaded by helloMuller.
Technorati Tags: Annie Lennox, BBC, BBC Orchestra, BBC Radio 2, Live
Everywhere I look there seems to be this thing between designers and their gadgets, especially when it comes to mobile / cell / gsm phones*. Whenever the subject is brought up it often results in a “mine is bigger than yours” debate. Its not just a phone anymore: its your whole life crammed into a little plastic object. Calling and texting isn’t enough either - if you can’t take a crap photo or shoot a bad video, email your friends and post on your favourite forum from your phone you’re lost.
Sure, as a web designer I can see the need for people in this line of work to stay up to date with current and new technologies, after all the mobile phone has become a content carrier and more and more people want to do more stuff on their phone. But do we really need camera’s and MP3 players on a phone? In my immediate surroundings that only results in sitting on a bus with some dimwit kid blasting the latest R&B crap out to everyone. Here’s the deal: if you want to listen to music, get a pair of headphones OK? The crappy loudspeaker on your phone makes it sound like crackling shit and sooner or later someone is just going to walk up to you and stuff it down your throat.
But I’m getting side-tracked now.
Anyway. Designers. Mobile Phones. The whole reason I’m writing this is because last weekend I finally caved in and bought a new one. “So?” I hear you say. “Everyone has a mobile these days, whats so special about getting one?”. Most people that know me, know that I’ve never had a mobile. Whenever we would meet up I’d call them from home to see where’d they be and then I’d come along. I’m lying. I used to have a mobile (although I got into it quite late) from 1999 until 2001. I got it when I was still in Belgium. Great thing it was, a little blue Nokia.
Then I moved to London and kept using it (yeah, that was smart) on my Belgian network: Hello ridiculous roaming charges. I can’t remember when, but I just stopped paying the bills. Phone got disconnected, and that was that. By that time I was more active on email and IM - and if people really wanted to hear my voice they could call me at work or at home. I started to make a point out of it too. If you want to talk to me, especially in a professional context, you can call me at work, or email me and I’ll be more than happy to reply. After 7PM its “me” time. Doesn’t mean I’m not working then, but during my evenings I don’t want to get bothered (unless of course, the client is in another time-zone, but thats something completely different).
Then 2 years ago I followed my now fiancée to Berlin for a month and needed a phone again. Just as I was going to get a cheap basic one, one of my friends offered an old Motorola Timeport in exchange for a packet of his favourite cigarettes.
Done deal.
So since the last 2 years I was back in the mobile world. Friends thought it incredibly funny that a) I had one and b) it was a relic. No MMS, no camera, just plain calling and texting. I liked that. Thats all I need a phone for anyway. I have a decent camera as it is, and having a camera phone only ends in you boring your friends with sending inane low quality images and racking up a sizeable phone-bill.
But then last weekend I had enough of it. Although the phone did what I needed it weighted a ton, and I never could work out how to call up missed calls and texting a message took ages (not helped by the fact that my years as a mobile free person made me the world’s slowest texter no doubt). So I got me a new basic Nokia phone that can call and send texts. Yes, it has a crappy camera and yes, I can surf the web with it (I think). I don’t need it - but thats the only thing that was available in the price range I wanted to spend that also was a tri-band phone.
In another 7 years or so and this blog still lives you can read about my third new phone.
* whichever name works for you.
Ashley Wood sent me this yesterday from an email he received:
“Also, maybe some stuff about how you and Muller work together, you’re the Lennon/McCartney of Design.”
Thank you Mr. Anonymous Fan Jeff!