Typography

Most of my interests are linked into each other; one of the most obvious is the correlation between typography, packaging, advertising, corporate design and branding. I've focused on the first of these aspects here- typography. This is rightly seen as anal by a lot of people, but I link it very much to my interest in corporate identity- the typeface is the 'handwriting' of the company, if you like.

• Typeright
  
• Font Diner Great 50's Americana fonts - you might recognise a few...
  
• What the Font? Upload a font and they'll identify it for you
  
• Free Chank Fonts
  
• Linotype - Features
  
• Microsoft typography Links and suggestions
  
• Linotype - Fonts in Use Examples of specific fonts in the real world - on ads and the like
  
• Typographic Signage Project
  
• NoRelevence: Handpainted Signs
  

Gill

All of this has a slightly disturbing side-note. When finding out more about my favourite typeface, Johnston (The Tube's font) I discovered that Johnston's prodigy was a man named Eric Gill - that's why Gill Sans is so similar to Johnston. Anyway, Gill Sans is a favourite font of many designers - see Font.com's views on why Gill Sans is great - and as such there is a great deal of profiling on the man on the web. For the last years of his life, he was a local- he lived near High Wycombe and died in Uxbridge.
That's not all though; he actually set up 3 religious self-contained communities, opting out of mainstream life, denouncing industrialisation and so on. His final community was called Pigotts on what we now call Pigotts Hill. I had no idea he was so strange; it's made me worry about other 'incidental heros' thoughout life. Is this the effect a lifetime of worrying about the x-height of the letter 'a' has on a man?

• Eric Gill - Profile
  
• Gill's artistic work
  
• Eric Gill - Biography
  
• Utopian Buckinghamshire
  

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Paper Planes

Looking at some old links I've yet to organise in my bookmark folder, I realised I went though a 'paper plane' fascination a while back. This is what I'd found.

• JLine- ridiculously hard designs
  
• 36 fold plane Got a few hours spare? Try this one [few of these via Signal + Noise]
  
• Ken Blackburn, the world champion, shares his designs for all
  
• Paperairplanes.co.uk
  
• Best Paper Airplanes have some that can be made (I promise)
  

Finally, this isn't strictly a paper plane but until I put up an Origami fascination, I'll link it here simply because it's great: Paper CD Case

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Atlantis

So did it exist or didn't it? Every time a lost city or some ruins turn up, they're usually suggested to be Atlantis. But did it really exist? I'm pretty sure it's a myth, and almost certain that the ancients of the middle east and America never met, but the story lives on. The Horizon programme-makers seem obsessed with it; some of the most informative (and ludicrous) documentaries I've seen about the legend were on that show.

• Echoes of Atlantis This one has a broad overview of the myth, but;


• Atlantis Uncovered This one attempts to show the sheer lack of evidence to link the cultures that are meant to be descended from the Atlanteans.

Two more controversial episodes showed that;

• Atlantis must be in Japan,


• or failing that, actually inland in Helike in Greece.

More reading:

• Atlantis Discovered


• Active Mind- Atlantis


• Underwater Archaeology


• Atlantis and the Earth's Shifting Crust


• NOVA Online Treasures of the Sunken City


• Ask Yahoo | Has any proof of the existence of Atlantis been found?

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Proverbs

I've been having a look at the different proverbs around the world. The most interesting thing I've noticed is that a lot of proverbs are geographical, rather than language-deliniated; The best example is the French, where expressions I would recognise are 'translated' for the North American audience. Anyway, have a look at some common sense in:

• French, Old French, Dutch, Maltese, Sicilian, more generally Italian, Finnish and Russian.

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Mesoamerica / Mysterious Cities of Gold

Cities of Gold Main Map This guy's much more into the Cities of Gold than I... But it does give me a deeper understanding of why my interests now include Japanese animation and Mesoamerican cultures. Photographs of the real places the show visited and stills from episodes show that this was quite a detailed study.

Mysterious Cities of Gold

• MCoG Deleted Scenes


• Les Mystérieuses Cités d'Or - Buy the DVDs in (the original) French.


• Bernhards Mysterious Cities of Gold

Mesoamerica

...and as for the real place:

• Ancient Mexico


• Human Origins This site looks at Mesoamerica as a whole in much more detail.


• National Geographic: Inca


• The Art & Culture of The Incas


• Mayan Epigraphic Database Project

Update: I have the full series in DIVX format. Give me a shout if you'd like a look.

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Maltesers

• The Ovaltineys


• Maltesers Drink ...So much potential, wasted! This stuff's bad...


• Horlicks Dreams Horlicks Attempt to prove you sleep better after a mug. Limits the market appeal, in my mind...


• Guardian | How are Maltesers made? The Guardian's readers attempt to solve the age-old question


• Malted Barley Appreciation Society Home Page Malty Goodness.

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Kawaii

  

  'Kawaii' is Japanese for cute. Well, more accurately it's a cry uttered by teenage (and wannabe-teenage) girls in a squeal, so it translates usually to "aw, so cute!". Those guys down there induce this cry. Kawaii culture is omnipresent in Japan, and it's slowly leaking its way into the rest of the world.
This site will offer everything you will ever need to know, from why cute is appealing to what this means for our culture, but for what it's worth I'm backing this guy to be the Next Big Thing® - Hamtaro.

• Hamtaro


• All Things Kawaii


• In-Duce; Kawaii References

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