Who said typography had to be stiff and boring?

cover of the book, as it appears on thier website

came across this book recently (thanks to Shreyas for sharing the link)

All of 196 pages, in a hardbound edition, Don’t go by the size of 16×21 cms! the inside pages share tons of information in a very elegant and interactive (rather addictive) manner.

Hyperactivitypography from A to Z is an activity book for typographers illustrated in a nostalgic vintage style to give it a sweet and childlike look.
The book is packed with activities, ranging from silly to hard core nerdiness. It’s great to test your skills on and to learn new things while having fun.
Who said typography had to be stiff and boring?

Done by a team of young designers under the leadership of  Paul van Brunschot, Studio 3, based in Oslo, Norway.

click here to flip through the book.

It is a must ‘own’ for anyone even remotely related with anything to do with typography

Unfortunately at the moment it is sold out. I am sure Paul and his team is working on a reprint 🙂

the verdict

the vacation is coming to an end…

time to move on to new matters, new verticals and newer horizons

“If it feels easy, you’re probably not pushing the limits of what’s possible”

(Work in Progress) RTI logo featured in local media

Just a quick update.

Ahmedabad Mirror 10.05.2010. // by Shraddha Singh

Thanks to Shraddha for covering this story.

you can read the online version here

new rapidographs and inks

. . . after a long time, I got the time to pull out my old rapidographs.

and yes, the handlebar moustache is growing 🙂

It was a pleasure to open them completely, leave them soaked overnight in diluted soap water and clean them up the next morning. Opening a rapidograph does not require to be a rocket scientist, but putting it back in the right order, without damaging the slender nib is a challenge.

I bought an orange and a brown ink. excited to use them frequently now that the vacations have set in 🙂

Logo for Right to Information: alternative ideas

I have been wanting to share these for quite sometime now, especially since we made the presentation to the honorable Minister, in early april.

Thanks are due to each one of you who took out time to give feedback to the initial work which was shared on this blog earlier.

Four ideas were presented to the Government of India –

the hand raised to ask a question, the answers leading to empowerment

empowered hand holding the piece of information. two way process of sharing the information

open file so typical of government, information being shared between the govt. and citizens

sharing of information portraying the two key stakeholders, dispelling darkness through information

Well, it was a good meeting, and for obvious reasons, the government representatives (both the executives and the people’s representatives) decided to avoid any imagery dealing with ‘hands’ or ‘fists’. There were two ideas, which were shortlisted to be worked upon furhter.

As a designer, I was dealing with this issue of designing symbols/logos for the masses, where due to linguistic and literacy aspects, one can not take the path of designing a logotype.

While designing for the urban, english reading audience, several options open up where one can use typography and create wordmarks. On the other hand, when we look at developing logo for the industry, often concrete visuals of the end product are easily incorporated to establish the connection. Here I was dealing with a very complex matrix of messages to be achieved – that of the Act itself, the semiotics and simplicity of the intended image. Simplicity and directness, not only in terms of a visual composition (which is to be read) but also in terms of reproduction at the basic grass root level (here I mean, it should be so uncomplicated that a village painter could replicate it on the wall with least amount of distortion).

To tell a long story in short, we are back to the drawing board, exploring metaphors of ‘give and take’ and the ‘open lock’.

more on that soon.

the oranges of summer

I was confined to indoors most of the time in the last three weeks with the semester ending juries followed by back to back admissions interviews of the undergrad and postgrads at NID. I went to the maingate for the customary cup of tea in the evening. It was a delightful experience to witness the gulmohar in full bloom.

🙂

the luminescence orange flowers set against the fresh greens of the new leaves are just amazing. A breather in the hot 42+ summers at NID.