I always loved Craigslist’s Missed Connections section. Some of course are crass, but most are honest little haiku’s of fleeting emotions. Passing looks and wandering imaginations of what if.
Well, Sophie Blackwell has put her talent towards the admiral attempt of putting visuals to the most interesting of them. And she does so with great success. Learn more about her and this work at her blog.
Bravo Sophie! Bravo!
As Roger continues to win/almost win all the majors, he is showing signs that the ride is almost over. How can I tell? The decided up tick in the branding of Roger and his apparel.
Lacoste and Perry before him, Roger has learned that the branding is best started while you are on top. The ‘RF’ is huge on the clothing and why not his is by far the biggest thing to hit tennis since…since…Sampras. Pete didn’t really have a personality. Roger not so much either, but there is a certain coolness that comes across the court but now in his clothes.
The logo, I think is quite nice. It has an air of familiarity while staying modern. A modern traditionalist if you will. Almost as if he is trying to class up tennis after years of Agassi and over grunting teenage girl players. A sense of class and luxury/wealth. For the longest time tennis meant wealth. Gold trim and details being that sense of luxury to the clothes as well as signaling the gold standard of a true champion.
NYTimes has a good article on this topic here. Forgive me if my post sounds like the Times piece. I had actually thought about posting about it before the Times, but alas they are pretty savvy people there.
Consistently one of my favorite blogs and resources for all things design, is the Design Observer. They recently went through a redesign and for the most part I like it.
First, I would say they did a good job of adding more of an aesethetic to the site. Before it was really bare bones, which is usually fine for me. I like sites like Craigslist and Google. But now that the new design is here, I’m glad it is. It has enough design to feel still stripped down compared to other sites but a new flair that says “this is no longer the small time.”
Second, although the design/style is better, it is very hard to navigate. Partially in the sense as far as I can tell, because they are mixing old content with new. A lot of their articles are evergreen type stuff, so generally that’s ok. Its just that previously, the focus was on recently posted items. Now that they have a vast library of great articles I guess they are trying to showcase the breadth and depth. But as an avid online user, I feel a bit lost by not having that ‘date posted’ up front. I’m not sure if the content is relevant before I read it. I guess I just need to learn that all their content is relevant and not to sweat it. (I did learn since that the main article is new, but they neglect to post the date on the main page. I like seeing the date.)
Third, the observed link section on twitter. Ok, twitter is an interesting feature and a social organism, but frankly, I am too old and cranky to learn a different way to talk about the same stuff, just because the new way is new. I mean technology is going so fast we hardly have time to vet whether it was a good idea to begin with before it is superseded by a similarly useless medium.
Anyway, go here now.
Recently I became a Contributing Editor to a blog dedicated to cataloging the vernacular typography of NYC. The blog was started by Jason Powers and Matthew Anderson. I know Jason from working together at AOL.
I have to say it has been a real pleasure to have an outlet or those found moments of design glory. Silly type all over NYC that hasn’t really been appreciated now has a home. I am very glad to be apart of it and will do my best to contribute quality finds from around town.
I have pretty much depleted the blocks around work so soon I will have to branch out. Send me an email if you have any suggestions. Check out the blog here: nyctype.com