RobSog

This message has no content

Relax, everything is interconnected

Resize to 320 pixel width for iPhone wallpaper. Previous incarnation here.

Metal type makes an impression

Saw the trailer for Sherlock Holmes (directed by the mockney geezer himself Guy Ritchie) and liked what I saw; well the bit that I liked the most was seeing the title set in hot metal. As for ‘the action’, well... let’s just leave that aside for the moment.

Now Holmes himself would no doubt be the first to point out that the letters would actually be in reverse if they were seen as real metal type in situ. And some part of me thinks that it might have actually suited the film better to do just that – show them in reverse – and let the viewer do their own small bit of detective work to figure out what’s being shown to them. OK, OK. Impractical I know, and there’s no way the studio would let that happen. But still...

This reminded me of an exibition design OptaDesign was asked to put together for Cambridge University Library. We faced a similar ‘type of choice’ when we’d agreed on the concept to photograph the name of the exhibition set in a form that we’d use on the promotional material. In the end we decided that a ‘quick flip’ in Photoshop would allow us not to have to repeat the title.

Back to the movie. I can’t help but think it would have been super-cool to get Alan Kitching involved in the credits (and/or movie poster); using wood type with lots of overprints, rather than the fake metal Photoshop effect for the film – which looks way too clean for my liking. Just look at the atmospheric feel printing the furniture gives on many of Kitching’s works.

I think the studio missed a trick there. I’ve been in a poster buying mood recently, and a limited edition Holmes poster would certainly have been on my shopping list. Oh well. Perhaps not so ‘Elementary my dear Watson’; as Holmes (apparently) never said.

Jim Jarvis | Onwards

Smörgåsbord

Compass Brewery | Baltic Night Stout

Artisan brewer and whisky expert Mattias Sjöberg asked Opta to design the identity for his Oxfordshire based Compass Brewery; along with a series of bottle labels for the various beer styles he is planning to roll out this year. Here’s Baltic Night Stout. The tasting notes read:

Baltic Night is a stout, but not your average stout. Your first encounter will be its very black colour and whitish head: a promise of something tasty. Now gently position your nose at the centre of your glass, about one inch up, and let the floral notes of First Gold and Fuggle hops mixed with English barley tempt you. You can expect a well balanced roasted bitterness with hints of coffee, which gradually gives way to a long dry moreish cocoa finish. This is surely one night you will not forget. Ingredients: malted barley, wheat, hops and water. Brewed in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. Best served slightly chilled, 10–14 °c. Alc. 4.8%. 500ml.

Can’t wait to try it...

Lost in translation

A bit of pointless fun; Chinese whispers through your browser window.

1. Go to Bablefish.
2. Enter text from a work of literature (up to 150 words).
3. Translate from English to Chinese (trad).
4. Copy and paste the resulting text, then translate back into English.

I chose a couple of verses from John Betjeman’s A Subaltern’s Love Song. They came out like this:

Shearman waited for, light’s in the hall, Egypt’s picture is bright on the wall, my sweet snack, I nearby the oak stair stand, and there in landing’s in yours hair's light. By road ‘It is not adopted’ From the woodlanded way, she drives the club in the summer haze last stage, enters nine-o’ Times Camberley, heavy and bell and mushroomy, pine lignin, evergreen smell.

One wonders what a typical Nigerian 419 scam might turn out like. Maybe later...

Clear air turbulance

Things you don’t want to hear on inflight intercom #23

Set in ITC Black Tulip.

Infinite loop

The Lorenz attractor is a 3-dimensional structure corresponding to the long-term behavior of a chaotic flow; it’s figure-eight or ∞ shaped curves are also known as lemniscate. Apparently.