Our Mini Heatwave

19.04.15 — Burnley

Over the past few days the sun over Burnley has done the unthinkable, and emerged from its hideout above the dark valley clouds to bless us with a few days of weather which is good enough that we may emerge from our homes and breathe some actual fresh air.

Dramatic as this statement may seem, it belies not the sentiment of us Burnley folk, for it is rare that such days occur. Anyway, making the most of this temporarily lapse in the usually constant downpour, I decided to go on a few little trips…

The first was not all that adventurous, I merely stepped out of my house and took an hour’s walk around my local reservoir, but it was nice enough. I took my new camera out and snapped what I could along the way, including the looming electrical lines and a funky looking tree that my mother clambered into.

Today the weather was even so nice as to warrant a trip to my favourite ice cream parlour, Slater’s Ices in Nelson, and so my dad bravely let me drive there. I ordered my favourite bubblegum ice cream, and somehow managed to get the majority of it in my hair. I really have no idea how.

Hell yeah bubblegum and hundreds & thousands

On the drive back my dad suggested that we make a quick detour and stop off at Reedley Marina, a local marina sitting on the Leeds Liverpool canal which runs through Burnley. Camera still in tow, I took the opportunity to take even more photos. I have never been down on such a nice day, and it was very nice to be able to sit by the waterside for a while and enjoy the views of Pendle Hill, for once not shrouded in a grey fog.

On the way out I found this strange mirror just left perched up against a fence, so I went in and snapped a photo. It reminded me of my friend Hannah Whitlow‘s artwork which uses mirrors and other media to explore spaces. You should go check it out.

In other news I once again plundered Lush for more bath bombs and other goodies, and finally picked up a “Granny Takes A Dip” bath bomb – and what fabulous colours it made! I ran to grab my camera and take some snaps.

And so I end my colourful blog post looking forward to my return to Leeds tomorrow. It’ll be a busy final run up to summer, with internship applications and project deadlines looming, but it should be lots of fun. Seeing as I’m looking forward to summer, you should check out my friend Emma’s blog, “The Simplest of Things”. She posts a beautiful mix of recipes, stunning photos and uplifting playlists which are sure to bring a smile to your face. Do check it out.

Working With Sky Sports

11.04.15 — Leeds

It’s the weekend, and I’ve just finished my internship with Sky Sports, and what a busy time it has been! Upon my arrival I was presented with a brief, and then for the duration of my stay I was labelled as the ‘internet of things’ intern.

I started by researching what the new trend of the ‘internet of things’ may have in store for us consumers over the next few years, exploring devices which are just entering the market such as the Apple Watch and connected home appliances (see Amazon’s recent announcement of the Amazon Dash).

The ‘internet of things’, for those who may be unfamiliar with the term, describes the recent trend of having everyday appliances and electronics connected to the internet in order to imbue them with more functionality: think a fridge that could text you to say you’re running out of milk or a plant pot which will email you to water the plants. It sounds like science fiction, but those familiar will be well aware that the internet of things and home automation are rapidly taking off. Just this morning I ordered the Apple Watch, a device which will tap me on my wrist to let me know when there’s something that needs my attention.

Over the week I wound up designing a whole new live sports experience, integrating with a range of Sky’s existing products and services. I have to digress now, however, as I am bound to secrecy – but some of the work will make its way on to my portfolio once I have collated it and it has been green-lit by the Sky Sports team.

And so in other news I am writing this as I sit on a (very delayed) train back to the green land that is Worsthorne, where I captured this adorable little lamb on my new camera as I went a-wandering a few days ago.

Over the coming week, before I return back to Leeds, I shall be completing my latest brief: designing a cookbook for an undisclosed client…

I apologise that this post doesn’t say all that much about anything, but I wanted to keep you as up to date as I could whilst sinking ever deeper into pool of non-disclosure agreements. Ahh – the joys of work!

A Camera in Liverpool

03.04.15 — Liverpool

So after years of being possibly the only graphic designer in the world ever who operates without owning an actual camera, I took the plunge the other day and ordered myself a DSLR, which promptly arrived on my doorstep with a user manual as thick as a bible. Defiant in my ability to work it out as I go, I joined my parents and sister on a trip to Liverpool the very next day…

We visited many of the same places as the last time I visited the city, which you can read about here, but I was sure to explore Bold Street (an independent district) much more thoroughly this time!

For those interested, I got myself a Canon 700D, and all the photos in this post were taken with it.

We ventured around Wellington Column and St. George’s Hall before heading down to St. John’s Garden, and then we headed into the city centre for a spot of shopping. I found a little art shop and had a field day in their bountiful pen section, spending £20+ on some new white finalisers and calligraphy pens for some hand type experimentation. I also picked up a few lovely prints, including a card that I have posted off to somebody…

Me and my dad then headed for a spot of lunch in the lovely little Falafel & Cocktail shop, Malay. Ordering four small dishes between the two of us, we enjoyed a section of vegetarian and meat dishes, which were delicious!

We then left Bold Street, headed for The Bluecoat for a nosey round their photography exhibitions and a coffee break. It was a welcome break from the rain that had begun to dampen my exploratory spirit, and – rather worryingly – my camera, and provided an opportunity to import my photos via SD Card on to my iPad. This gave me the chance to edit some of my favourites so far, just using iOS’s inbuilt photos app, which I used to quickly edit down all the photos in this post.

We then, of course, headed further down to the docks, where I got a bit shutter happy, but also found a lovely book entitled “Read This Book If You Want To Take Great Photographs” which I promptly purchased.

Upon my return to good ol’Burnley, I emptied my bag and set about editing the camera photos (the fruits of which you have just been scrolling through) and also my very first attempt at some hand typography, which I shall post soon as a separate post!

Now I’m gearing up for my week working with Sky Sports, whilst organising my laptop and pulling together some more blog posts for you all. I haven’t forgot about my Paul Rand post, I shall be hopefully posting that later today! Until then…

Can’t Leave Home Without

31.03.15 — Leeds

Now that I’ve finally bought myself a proper camera, I thought I’d try out some photography whilst listing a few of the items that I just cannot leave home without. And so, without further ado, on with my list…

iPad Mini

My trusty companion for when my laptop is just too much bulk to lug around. Mainly used for Spotify, catch-up TV on the go, and the occasional doodle on 53’s Paper app.

53 Pencil

Wherever my iPad goes, so does this little beauty. Paired with the companion Paper app, offers a hi-tech replacement for my standard notebook. Speak of my notebook…

Waldo Pancake Notebook

Not only are these notebooks quirky and fun, the double spreads including both plain and ruled decent weighted paper make for a lovely day-in, day-out working notebook.

Lush Lip Service

Especially relevant with the current winter winds, I am always sure to carry a pot of this in my left pocket to keep on top of my terrible skin.

iPhone 6

My trusty phone, kept in sync with my iPad and MacBook with the beautiful service that is iCloud. Most frequently used for photography on-the-go and enjoying my latest Spotify playlists.

Bento Box

For lunching in style and keeping portion sizes down, my newly acquired Bento Box from MoMA is perfect. Usually found thrown in the bottom of my bag holding mackerel salad or tuna sandwiches.

Water

I drink a lot of water, so you’ll always catch me in a bottle. I don’t know what else to say about this one.

Apple Keyboard

A perfect companion for my iPad for on-the-go working, I chose this over any iPad case as it’s the same size as the keyboard I am used to on my Mac.

Lush Dream Cream

A lovely moisturiser for my uncooperative skin, which I tend to decant into smaller containers for portability. I am not afraid to smother my lips in this stuff too should I lose my Lip Service.

Mifa Bluetooth Speaker

Small but powerful, this is useful for broadcasting my Spotify playlists as loud as possible to anyone in the vicinity. Being a thoughtful person, however, this is mainly reserved for car and private use.

Comb

Cheaper than getting my hair cut as often as I probably should.

Words As Images

29.03.15 — Leeds

During my traversing of the internet in search of the latest in design research and semiotics, I stumbled across a recently published finding by the Georgetown University Medical Centre in the Journal of Neuroscience, whose principal discovery was that the brain recognises whole words as images rather than processing each individual letter.

For me, this latest discovery challenges many areas within graphic design and typography. Erik Spiekermann recently very publicly denounced Apple’s decision to switch OSX’s system font from Lucida Grande to Helvetica, however with Helvetica’s widespread popularity, maybe this change is actually a move in the right direction? For if our brain is used to processing words as particular forms (arguably most likely set in Helvetica with it’s adoption for iOS), surely it makes sense for other systems to copy the style, so that our brains may quicker recognise a given word in Helvetica’s distinctive form?

I do understand that the above hypothesis completely disregards typographic considerations such as distinguishability between different glyphs (see Spiekermann’s analysis using the word “millimetre” here) and issues regarding the reproduction of lighter fonts on lower screen resolutions, but it’s just a suggestion.

It also pulls Microsoft’s choice of all-uppercase and all-lowercase typesetting for it’s latest office products and Windows Phone OS (respectively) into question. If our minds are accustomed to recognising text set with standard English capitalisation, it makes little sense to make them work harder, especially when we are subconsciously trying to select menu items such as is the case with the menu bar in Microsoft Office 2013…

All-caps menu bar in Office 2013 — The all-caps menu bar in Office 2013

The recent trend of bloating the screen sizes and pixel densities of devices also presents interesting arguments for and against the avoidance of older typefaces which have not been designed for screen use. With screen resolutions edging ever closer to the point by which pixel screens are undistinguishable from printed material, is (or will) the production of typefaces constructed specifically for on-screen use even be necessitated any more?

Here I am reminded of Susan Kare’s “Graphical User Interface Icons”, completed for Apple in 1982, which I saw at MoMA in New York last week, and am hence reminded how far we have come since the boxy restrictions of the low-resolution screens of yore. Will modern day pixel-fitting, an art reserved for perfectionist designers such as myself, be necessary for much longer in a world of HiDPI (high pixel density) displays?

And then, with the ever-expending screen sizes of both portable devices (see: mobiles) and fixed devices (see: TVs/desktop PCs), must we worry anymore about typefaces having to work at such small sizes? Some of the most beautiful examples of typesetting I have stumbled across on the web, such as Medium, embrace much larger font sizes, in the case of Medium’s Article Pages (example here) almost doubling from the standard paragraph font size of 12pt (unformatted HTML) up to 22pt.

And so as years pass and larger, HiDPI displays become the norm, will we be waving goodbye to the need for screen optimised typefaces? And with this latest discovery questioning what we know about semiotics and typography, will it even matter? Can Apple be justified in it’s thorough and liberal implementation of Helvetica everywhere, and can we all now be justified in using our favourite print typefaces on screen?

We will see.