Noisy Decent Graphics

I got ninety nine problems but I chose this one

"We can’t not have problems, we can only choose which problems we have."

From Russell.

24 hour London time lapse

Bizarrely this from the Savoy Hotel, and I don't know why they call it "360°" but it's still a cool video. 

Free business quotes

This is not the point of the article but I couldn't help noticing it's full of wonderful, cynical quotes applicable to almost any business. Easy to reuse. Here's just a few.

"The New York Times is the most important newspaper in the world. But Wall Street, the family that owns it..."

"The Times, they say, is a great place to have worked."

"I also thrived in part because I heeded a colleague’s warning before I started: “Do not, under any circumstances, try to change anything.”"

Inside the identity crisis at The New York Times

 

Not moving the goalposts but making them smaller

Always good to see business jargon made real.

Hull v Birmingham has been delayed because the goals are too big and are being “sawed shorter”.

No, really…

pic.twitter.com/S1dU1Xt1yZ

— HLTCO (@HLTCO) October 16, 2022

You wonder whether some of these signs are art projects

A few of the Dan Wieden tributes

I worked at w+k London for about 4 years. This is a collection of tributes by people I know. Storing them here for myself but I thought you might enjoy them. Trigger warning some of them are on LinkedIn.

Simon McCrudden, former Planner in w+k London
He tells a tale about the Nokia pitch "On Saturday afternoon Dan sat in silence staring at me as I presented him my terrible strategy."

Iain Tait, ECD in w+k Portland and London
"His brilliance was precisely because he was an introvert, not in spite of it." Dan. The quiet titan.

Michael Russoff, creative director working at w+k London during the Guardian and Honda days.
"I never met Dan. I was in rooms where he was. But I never met/met him."

Michael Wolff, designer and founder of Wolff Olins. It's on FaceBook so I'm not sure if you can read this.
"Like Bill Bernbach who, in his leadership of Doyle Dane Berbach, transformed advertising in his day, Dan Weiden took the baton and, with Wieden and Kennedy, continued to lead."

Creative Review
"If you talk to anyone who has passed through a W+K office, you will likely hear mention of the network’s commitment to the ‘work’ coming above all else."

Interview with the brilliant Marina Hyde

"Favourite Newspaper (apart from The Guardian and Observer)?

“Oh, God, it’s hard… I’m never off Mail Online – put that. I bet people don’t admit to it, but I love it. Never off it. And I love the commenters. I read more Mail Online commenters than I read actual newspapers. That’s another bad thing to admit.”"

Full interview 'Marina Hyde on the art of writing a column: ‘It’s a trade. You just have to fill the space’'

What is design? 100 definitions curated by John Sorrell.

In 1994, when he was Chair of the Design Council, John Sorrell was asked what design was. He published several definitions in a book released in 1995 to celebrate the Design Council's 50th anniversary. Now, over 25 years later, he has asked 100 people the same question and has published the answers in this book.

This book is a limited edition for the 100 contributors, of which I was one. Pictured below are just some of the definitions of design, including mine. It's a tough question and the answers are very varied, some quite of the moment. (I nearly wrote modish there but I don't mean it in a negative way.)

I've always really liked Ellen Lupton's 'design is art that people use'. I can't better that so I quoted it as my answer.

You can buy the book here.

Willian Kentridge typography

This isn't the main point about Willian Kentridge or the main point about the wonderful exhibition at the Royal Academy; but the way he uses type is great.

The new D&AD Annual is out

Online only, take a look here dandad.org/annual/2022

 

"Struggling with the pressures of the modern internet"

Aren't we all mate, aren't we all.

Psychic time

Many questions, but the first one is when did 1pm – 4pm become evening?

Exciting new blog

I mean my blog is an anagram so it only took him 17 years to catch up. aaiiintt.xyz

The opposite of clarity

The first sentence is always the most important sentence. This is a good example of why. You have absolutely no idea who it is or what they do.

I'm still none the wiser. 

The state of things

This shop could be closed for building work.

Or it could be open and trading round the clock. Might be a pop up shop for a limited drop. Might be a Christo.

Anyway.

A royally good list

Every London building the Queen opened.

Pub quizzes and technology evolution

Occasionally I'm forced to go to a pub quiz.

I've noticed how they've adapted to the rise of the smartphone and people googling the answers. In the early days of the Pub Quiz Technology Wars they used to ask you to turn your phone off. That worked as well as it always does. So instead they designed new questions that couldn't be googled. Or, at least, couldn't be googled quickly.

'Who was the second man on the moon?' is easy to google. A question where they play the instrumental of a popular song and ask you to guess exactly what time the singing starts isn't.

Technology makes the incumbent adapt. See Impressionism and photography and countless other examples. Related this from Brian and Kevin's subsequent comment. 

The prompt for the picture above was 'The great pub quiz technology war of the 21st century'. From Dreamstudio via SimonW. Am I a Prompt Designer now?

Good signs

Reminded me of Alex May Hughes, except she's better.

Sunrise

I went up a mountain, very early. It was dark when I set off and remained so until about 10 minutes from my destination. As I got closer I thought there was an unusually high number of cars. Turns out I'd accidentally timed my trip perfectly with sunrise.

I don't think I'd ever seen a full sunrise before. The full from 0-100 sunrise. It was an incredible sight. And full of Instgrammers obvs. 

And I mean Instagrammers, not photographers. The poses, the change of outfits, the camera stands etc. At 6am. Maybe these are my people.

 

Update. It was a bit like this Wish you weren’t here: the photos that show an hour in the life of ‘quiet’ tourist hotspots.

Goals

I've just been on holiday. It was rubbish, for reasons I won't go into. Whenever I need cheering up I get up early. Earlier than usual. The worse I feel the earlier I get up.

About 7:30 in the morning I found this little cafe in a picturesque town square. There was no complicated ordering, a nod and a few mumbled words procured a coffee and a croissant.

Just me and these fellas. Drinking coffee, smoking, reading the newspapers, chatting.

I didn't join in with the smoking and the newspapers, but otherwise we were in sync. Perfect.