Bodonation

Yesterday my daughter turned 2.
She is obsessed with drawing.
I don’t know whether is it normal for 2-year-old to draw things like these?
She will be learning helvetica and bodoni very very soon.

How to start a story?
Read these books many years ago and I could never get these openings out of my head.

Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from the underground.

I AM A SICK MAN…. I am a spiteful man. I am an unattractive man.

Karl Marx, Communist Manifesto.

A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies.

Kafka, Metamorphosis

One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug. 

Serving the serifs:

Enigma, Jeremy Tankard.
DTL Paradox, Gerard Unger.
Collis, Christoph Noordzij.
FF Quadraat, Fred Smeijers.
FB Proforma, Petr van Blokland.

(My idols)

Mel Gibson and Lian Lunson are currently producing a movie on Leonard Cohen and I am excited about it. (Lian Lunson also maintains a blog charting the progress of this film; watch the trailer at apple.com/quicktime)

I never knew Leonard Cohen until I went over to Canada in 1990. My exposure to western music prior to that was probably limited to whatever Casey Kasem presented on his American Top 40 show, and whatever Smash Hits featured for that month, ie. Kylie and Jason and Bananarama.

Then came Leonard Cohen. I remember flicking through MuchMusic (Canada’s MTV) and being totally mesmerized by this man. In his monotonous delivery he was rambling:

Ah you loved me as a loser, but now you’re worried that I just might win
You know the way to stop me, but you don’t have the discipline
How many nights I prayed for this, to let my work begin
First we take manhattan, then we take berlin

That was taken from the song First we take manhattan.

I later found out that he was a well acclaimed Montreal poet and novelist who only started recording music in his mid-30s, despite being born a decade earlier than The Beatles or The Rolling Stones.

Being a reclusive and depressive person, Leonard never achieved the status of his contemporaries (ie. Bob Dylan), but nonetheless, influenced a legion of musicians that were to come. Sting, REM, Pixies, Nick Cave, Joan Baez, U2, Jeff Buckley, Joe Cocker and many more have confessed to be his fans and had covered and interpreted his songs.

But there will only be one Cohen. His pessimist’s humour and his haunting melancholic detached voice makes him one of my favourite artiste.

I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch,
He said to me, you must not ask for so much.
And a pretty woman leaning in her darkened door,
She cried to me, hey, why not ask for more?
- Bird on the Wire

Here are some MP3s if you want to check him out.

Download First we take manhattan
Download Bird on a wire
Download Everybody knows
Download Famous blue raincoat

Once upon a time there was a little bird who lived in a cage that was never locked.

The little bird was always depressed and frustrated. It was always gazing at the world outside, wishing to fly in the blue blue sky.

"O how I wish to be out there exploring the exciting world. It is so fun out there, it is so depressing in here."

"Life is such a disappointment. Life is so unfair."

The bird never knew all it had to do to gain that freedom it longed for was to give the door a gentle nudge. It assumed the cage is locked.

Bad assumption that costs the opportunity of a lifetime.

(Guest blogging on my friend’s blog)

April 15, 1912, Titanic sank.
April 17, 1970. Apollo 13 landed safely.

The unsinkable Titanic sank but some survived the icebergs.
The lost Apollo returned and the astronauts miraculously survived.
I wonder what gave them the power to conjure up extra strength and determination to fight on. Maybe the basic instincts to live? Maybe the thoughts of deserting their love ones? Or maybe God is at work?

Easter is celebrated during this period. Jesus was crucified on a Friday, on the third day he was resurrected, conquering death. This effectively dispels rumours of him being a mere lunatic claiming to be God and confirms that he ain’t a living joke.

Entering a city on a donkey. Dying on a cross. Buried behind stones. Resurrected. Ascending to heavens. It takes a whole-lotta imagination to write a story like this: complicated plot twists, volience and betrayals, in-depth character studies, fast-paced actions and emotions and a sweeping ending. Many claimed that this is the greatest story ever told. Somehow, I agree.

People often describe me as being too skeptical, critical and opinionated, always on the look for angles to disagree or needing reasons to believe. Maybe I am. Maybe I do use my head too much. Maybe I think too much.

However I don’t harbour doubts nor skepticism over the Easter story. I have found my reasons to believe the Easter story to be true, so true that I have to believe Jesus is true.

Faith has its reasons. The leap of faith is never to meant to be blind.

(A reflection on the meaning of Easter)

This is an otherwise ordinary 1000 Lire banknote until one starts observing the sketches and writing. On the right says Santa Croce, dated October 3, 1950. The note is vandalised by sketches of a typeface which would later change the world of typography. According to legend, the designer claimed that he had no paper with him when he saw the lettering on the gravestones from the floor of Santa Croce church. The two 1,000 Lire note became his sketch pad for inspiration. Here’s the other one:

The typeface was eventually released as Optima in 1958. It changed type history by blurring the boundaries of sans serif and serif form. It became one of the standard typefaces residing on desktop computers during the digital awakening. Unanticipated by Herman Zapf, the creator, optima has been also been adopted as THE FONT for cosmetics branding.

Many years later (year 2002), at the age of 82, the legendary Herman Zapf would revisit his old design to refresh and update it, together with Akira Kobayashi. Released as Optima Nova, it is updated with new weights, italics, titling caps and special ligatures. (In fact, every re-released typeface under Linotype Platinum is technically amazing while retaining the aesthetics of what made the original typefaces famous).

I have been reading creative type. I have been looking at all the great typefaces ever produced, wondering how much time and dedication went into drawing and creating them. I have also always wondered how could a person like Kobayashi, with his roots in Japan - probably denied of any real contact with historical western type in his early years - come up with a brilliant type family like FF Clifford? After reading the account of how Zapf worked with Kobayashi, I could almost visualise this passionate old man enthusiastically sketching his next typeface in some open air cafe.

That passion is contagious.

Maybe, to find inspiration, I should revisit old churches in Malacca.

By the way, Santa Croce Church at Florence happens to be the burial ground of Galileo, Machiavelli and Michelangelo. The dead had continued to inspire the living. (Well, certainly inspired one famous Dan Brown in his Angels and Demons).

A little dog barks
at a roaring waterfall
that swallows his voice

I saw this on Cahan & Associates website. Damn.
Another nice piece of work executed in their typical witty manner.

I always wanted to do a series of copy-driven bags for how&why. Looks like I have to work harder now.

I like the works from Cahan & Associates. Many years ago I was on a frenzy to collect Cahan’s annual reports. They were truly inspiring to me - for opening up the possibilities of what could be achieved in a typical annual report. In the hands of Cahan, what is perceived as a mundane task of presenting operational reviews and financial figures to shareholders, becomes an impactful (and in some cases, entertainting) tool of storytelling.

I remember the first time I held an annual report in my hands that carried the title "Today I’m supposed to die." That was the defining moment in my designer’s life. That was THE moment of revelation of how important proper structuring of narration could bring so much impact into an otherwise boring subject. Cahan’s classic moments include photos of old folks doing water surfing, ballet and karate (annual report for Geron, a pharmaceutical company); lovey-dovey couple kissing over a bbq pit (annual report for a ECRM company); a dark-blue felt-cover with silver stamping title that says "feels different, doesn’t it?" (annual report for Cadence) and many more.

These are works that compel me to see graphic design beyond the arty tool to decorate pages. I can’t relate to the current trends
of vector graphics and the almost compulsory floral and leaves
patterns, circles, birds and butterflies and that oh-so-cutesy deer.
Any given time, i rather have something that communicates.

Here’s a moment of Cahan’s storytelling magic:

Mexico is not just nachos, burritos and Frida.
Static Discos is a record label from Mexico, with some really happening electronica (think zero 7, fourtet, stina nordenstam etc). If you are bored with mainstream crap and want to experience something different, hop over to that website and download the free MP3s there.

If you are in a downloading mood, here are more free music available on the net:

• pitchforkmedia.
• saddlecreek.
• signature sounds.

KCRW is possibly the coolest radio station. Based in Los Angeles, its popular "Morning Becomes
Eclectic" show has hosted many artists in the past. Recent shows included Magic Numbers (Feb 5), My Morning Jacket (Feb 12), The Editors (March 26)  and The Elected (April 2). Hop over to the website to listen to these bands performing live in KCRW’s studio.

I guess, for a self-confessed junkie, happy moments come when something on the wishlist appears out of nowhere. Last week I found Bello Opentype on one of those newsgroups unexpectedly. That made a very uplifting end to an otherwise depressing week.

Bello is by Underware, a remarkably young dutch design team that has created a number of beautiful typefaces, including one of my favourite serif - dolly. Bello is amazing for not only reflecting hand-sketching and lettering (tried by many, including the well-known House Industries), but also showing the capabilities of Opentype technology.

I have been known to be notoriously selfish when it comes to typefaces. Sitting on my hard-drive is a huge treasure chest of typefaces. Not the typefaces from 5000-freefonts.com, but a collection of really amazing stuff from the list of who’s who in type business. Many had tried to get typefaces from me, and most of the time I would politely declined. I won’t care if it is from Adobe Font Folio, since it is available at RM5.00 anyways, but anything other than that - oh, sorry, no.

I once "shared" my precious Linotype Frutiger with a friend, whom I assumed had the same passion over fine typography. Later I discovered a press ad in Star for a direct selling company, using a bastardized version (horizontally compressed!) of that typeface. I was upset - very upset. I queried.

"No, we didn’t do the ad, another agency got it from our color separator."
"But in the very first place, it shouldn’t even be spec’ed in the corporate Identity…"
"Oh, I am sorry. The designer working on it didn’t know."

That was the very last time I shared a typeface with another designer.

I get upset when beautiful type gets used and abused. 95% of my collection will remain in the harddrive, used only occasionally for self-indulging projects and never used for any commercial jobs. I reckoned Bello would be one of them - to be loaded occasionally to type a few sentences for fun, then control-w-close-window. For commercial jobs I will stick to the normal typefaces - garamond caslon helvetica universe frutiger etc etc.

A little sidenote on typography: over the years I have done many sketches for different typefaces. I would like to translate these ideas to real digital type but I know I will never have the time for doing this. Anyone out there interested in working with me on this?