Helvetica the Film

I want to own it, Helvetica the Film. A couple of weeks ago I watched it with some people from the AIGA student group at Ferris and now I want it!

This may sound silly, but I never knew that some people hate Helvetica. Maybe I’m blinded by love or maybe I’m just ignorant. Either way I thought the interviews in the movie really shed a lot of light on the typeface and how it has became so well known. I really enjoyed Micheal Bierut and Erik Spiekermann’s commentary through out the film, they made me chuckle. But I also like what Lar Muller had to say about Helvetica.

“And I think I’m right calling Helvetica the perfume of the city. It is just something we don’t notice usually but we would miss very much if it wouldn’t be there.” –Lars Müller

It’s so true! We would miss Helvetica if it just one day disappeared, its EVERYWHERE!!

Pantone Inspired

If you share a love for Pantone colors you should check out this blog entry. It has some pretty cool examples of products that are inspired by Pantone colors. I think that is so cool that there are Pantone paints now. But my personal favorite is the coffee mugs, I want them really bad!

Collaboration.

Tonight I became an Aunt! But, while I was sitting here on my couch waiting to hear if I was going to have a niece or nephew, I stumbled across this interview with Ned Cannon, creative director at Cypress Consulting. His advice to designers just entering the design profession, “No matter how talented you are, if you can’t collaborate you’re on your own.” resonated with me because I’m seeing it being applied in my interactive design class. The class is set up like a design studio, so we are constantly collaborating. Personally, I love the atmosphere, and it makes me excited to hear from so many places, professors, speakers at conferences, interviews, and articles I’ve read, that collaboration really is such a huge part of our profession. Collaboration is great, two heads are better than one, and one person’s weaknesses are another person’s strengths.

The Apple Evolution.

As I was logging into my blog, I stumbled upon this pictorial of an Apple store front in another blog. And I just wanted to share it. I think that it’s cool to see the evolution that the Apple brand has undergone.

Web Presence.

Online communities like, Facebook, Myspace, Typepad, and Twitter are attracting more people than ever. Now days there is a need to establish a web presence whether is be creating your own site or becoming a member of one of the many social communities that the web has to offer. Having a web presence creates so many opportunities especially for young designers to network and become aware of the latest and greatest technologies and trends.

As I thought about my personal web presence, I found that what little presence I had did not really mean anything. I have a Facebook account, and that is about it. Although, Facebook is good for keeping in touch with friends, what purpose does it serve other than self promotion? The truth is it has no other purpose, it is “look at me” or “look at what I did this weekend”. I’m not on there talking about issues that matter or that will help become a better designer. I login out of vanity, to see how many people wrote on my wall or how many new friend requests I have. This is why I am excited to now have a blog, that will be professional, meaningful, and will open windows to things I may have never found otherwise.