Make it big. Make it read., originally uploaded by tofu mugwump.

I know the type is bad. That's the point.

I have a deadjournal dating back to 2000 (high school, angst), a livejournal dating back to 2003 (freshman year of college, super angst), a myspace blog, a facebook account, this poor excuse for a blog, and who knows what else. As you can see, only one of those is really safe to link to though they can all be found easily enough.

I need to compile all the entries someday into a private file and then burn the computer it is stored on. And then make a machine to reburn those ashes. And then burn that machine.

Anywho, someday soon I need to consolidate/remove some of the ancient more embarrassing blogs and make the final blog look halfway decent. I also need to update my portfolio site very badly. At least my flickr page is pretty. My mnartists.org profile is also gaining in content, though currently out-dated.

I am officially done with undergrad two weeks from tomorrow. I plan to refine lots of my past life come then, as I'll have all the time in the world come then. Whee.

Week 8: Why is accessibility using css important or not important for your current web design project?
Annie and I are redesigning the Arrowhead Regional Art Council website, which provides numerous grants to artists and art organizations in the area. Accessibility is essential, because access to the grant applications and information must be universal to provide equal access. If the site is not accessible, disabled artists would be unable to use the provided services.

Postcards

I think this is a keeper. I'm okay with having an entirely different look from the posters, and the cut up look of the photograph with the fading typography conveys the disconnect of the Chris/Topher christopher idea. Now to figure out if handwritten type works on the back. Augh.

I was very pleased with myself when I decided to dot the "eye."

Eh. Not as strong I think.

11x17 Posters

Same concept as my other posters, only I finally drew my 9th grade hair (unifies the series). I switched back to a sans-serif typeface. The color adds a lot, but I'm still deciding between Avenir or Din Schrift. Both look a little friendlier than some sterile modernist thing.

I think the larger type will work better for screen printing. I have already screenprinted 10 or 12 posters of just hair. Now I just need to make screens for type and test it out.

8.5" x 11" Posters

Note the book's title: The Last Hurrah. This could double as a show title (since my name is the real title). Anyone paying attention would notice each poster has a different head of hair and a different page from the same book, which I think would be a cool postering exercise.

The hair isn't as effective in the 8.5" x 11" format.

The gallery guide has been nixed. There is no way I am going to finish any extra design material for my show. I still have 10 paintings to finish (17 days... Jesus), some photos to matte, all of my labels, printing of this material, and a printmaking portfolio due Tuesday. I need to find a couch and someone to commit to driving me. I need a few people. I will have a lot of shit to hang come March 20th.

Why am I going to Chicago for spring break? A brief bit of rest before my complete mental break maybe.

. .

Presentation? We don't need no stinkin' presentation! Web design is so much about boxes inside other boxes. No wonder everyone wants rounded corners and drop shadows. I'm excited to make the Tweed website look like every other site (content everywhere! the hobloginization of the web! boxes! columns! lists!). It should be exciting. I am leaning towards the design on the bottom left of the third set of thumbnails. Header with Tweed name/logo and a photograph of the interior, Sax Gallery icon to right, with a large "feature" image of a current exhibition flanked by thumbnails for other current exhibitions. The column on the right is for weekly events like speakers and student exhibitions. Below the feature current exhibition there's space for upcoming exhibitions and a "modular" space for store specials, featured work from the collection, announcements, etc.

Do you find the above image distracting? If it were on a billboard and you were driving, would you get into an accident? Duluth is seeking to restrict electronic billboards, which at this point is a little silly I think. The signs are not yet animated. They are static images, that maybe have one to three frames per advertisement. The motion is limited. LED signs have been in use for at least two decades I think. I don't know how many people crash their car looking what time it is on the bank sign. Who knows, the temperatures are surprising in Duluth, so perhaps someone has gotten distracted by a Walgreen's display.

If billboards become televisions, then yes, they need to be regulated. Otherwise, it's just a way to display information that doesn't require paper and paste, which seems like a positive change from decaying billboards.

What is a good font for web / interactive design?
For the past four-six years I would have said Verdana and nothing else. Before that I had an unfortunate courier phase. Now that I am trying to design websites instead of just making them, I am at a loss. There are very few useful articles on web typography because its a difficult field. There was a period where it looked like font on demand downloading would become a standard feature, but conflicting systems and licensing issues have more or less killed that technoloy. Research a few months ago revealed these as "universal" display fonts: times new roman, georgia, andale mono, arial, arial black, impact, trebuchet ms, verdana, comic sans ms, courier new

Naturally I don't recall my source. Of those, courier is awful for almost all circumstances, times new roman is overused, impact and arial black look terrible for body text, and don't get me started on comic sans.

That leaves Georgia (a handy serif), Andale Mono (not much better than Courier New), Arial (which I've been using more lately), Trebuchet MS (a refugee camp of recovering Verdanites), and our good friend Verdana.

Yikes.

Things to do:
Finalize gallery guide, postcard, poster by next Tuesday (must be approved)
Get estimates
Finish Screenprinting posters
Send to printer

Group members: Annie Haubenhofer, Laurie Lawrence, Topher McCulloch

Back:

It's designed to fold down into a map-like shape: 8 columns and 3 rows. I decided a simple accordian format would be too boring, and booklets folded down from 11x17 seemed too small. Folding down an 11x17 into this map format, however, makes the page seem much much bigger. I need to integrate the imagery better (I'd like to break the grid more instead of having a ton of equal sized rectangles), and the line through the white space on the bottom is space for a timeline of my life. The idea is that the gallery guide is literally a "guide" to my life, leading through all the development up to now. It's also a prototype for a "designer's memoir" which is told primarily through images and all that ephemeral crap kept around. Someone pointed out that that's the function of a scrapbook, but my approach is a little more abstract.

I have a prototype printed that I'm going to write all over and try to think of ways to enhance the design and content.