Category: Design

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Unrequired Reading: Jan. 11, 2008

It’s my birthday, dear readers! So I’m taking today off to celebrate!

Still, you deserve some Unrequired Reading, so here’s a neat article detailing the history of the development of the iPhone, because

a) it’s a really neat story about how the wireless industry works and how Apple has tried to shake it up with this device, and

b) my wife just got me one for my birthday!

Thanks for enabling my geekiness, darling! (more Unrequired Reading after the break)

Continue reading “Unrequired Reading: Jan. 11, 2008”

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Hero with a Thousand Typefaces

A book that didn’t make my “best/worst/weirdest” list from 2007 was Michael Bierut’s 79 Short Essays on Design. I adored it but couldn’t come up with a decent joke award for it. Looking back, I should’ve gone with “Most fonts used in a good cause,” since every essay is set in a different font, to great effect.

Virginia Postrel writes about the profusion of fonts and includes a neat 8-minute video interview with Mr. Bierut.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to laying out my magazine. Which uses Palatino for body copy, Helvetica Black for headlines, Gill Sans for author/contributor copy, and Univers 55 for sidebars.

(Oh, and Mr. Bierut has a new essay up on Design Observer, but I haven’t read it yet.)