Dry the River

I just saw these paper horses over at Uppercase.

Homako

When not watching online videos on how to tie elaborate knots, I've been a bit preoccupied with origami lately. So I was totally enthralled when I saw Homako mentioned over at Uppercase. She's created necklaces featuring fabric origami in great colors.

I think this qualifies as "need". And if you're not already charmed by her jewelry, take a look at her flickr account. Anyone that spends her birthday taking photos of balloons (rabbit mask optional), has my vote.

photo by Homako

Belle and Sebastian

Just for fun, and because this is a short work week for me. (Thank you, Utah pioneers.)

Mainstream Wood Type

I originally heard about Hamilton Wood Type when the Typeface movie came out. Now they're partnering with Target to make some tshirts.

I love having another glimpse inside this wood type museum, but honestly, I'm a little torn on this one. On one hand, I'm thrilled that Hamilton is getting attention (and presumably compensation) by a big name like Target. It will help to ensure their long-term survival, and that's important to me. And then there's the other hand:

Though it's not all clearly detailed in the video, it looks like they found some images they liked, printed them, and then will scan and resize/recolor the images and laying out the design electronically. Don't get me wrong, that method absolutely makes sense for large scale production.

But in case you're not as obsessed with wood type and letterpress printing as I am, let me explain a bit more: the texture of the wood type and the fact that it's old isn't the only thing that's interesting.

Before modern conveniences like digital printing and incredibly helpful design programs, you had two options for producing printed materials: either choose the typeface and font size that a printer had on hand, or have your own specially made. If you can just resize and tweak the image on your computer, are you missing the point of working within the confines of available type?

The person manning a letterpress printing press was (and is today) mixing and applying the inks by hand. So if you ordered a print one day and the ink looked bright and lemony one day, but the next day it looked like old mustard, instead of saying "wow, what charming handcrafted variation," you'd probably be saying "this isn't my brand color, what am I paying you for?" (Were there sticklers for brand consistency many years ago? I'm not sure, but we'll roll with it.)

So if someone can just change colors and adjust textures on their computer, then why start with wood type in the first place? I enjoy the potential for imperfection and variation that comes with letterpress printing, but why did Target go to Hamilton if their project wouldn't really be using letterpress or the wood type in a meaningful way?

I suppose my complaint (if there is a complaint worth making) is that these tshirts are portrayed as having the authenticity of a handcrafted object, but are as mass-produced as any other clothing item in a big box store.

What do you think? Am I way off base here?

Welcome Home

Something you may not know about me: I love embarrassing people at the airport. That means that if you ask me to pick you up (or even if you don't, but accidentally let slip your arrival date and time), I will try my hardest to show up, holding a large sign and jumping up and down excitedly. I like to think that despite your so-called evidence to the contrary my friends and family secretly enjoy it.

While my favorite sign just said "You Are Our Mom" (Mom laughed, sort of), I started making this sign last night, about 5 minutes after I should have been leaving my house.

My condolences, you've just discovered that this post was only created to show you that I'm getting better at spacing out words on posters. Bright side: I've also basically volunteered to pick you up from the airport.

It really should say "Fancy Babysitter," since that's what my niece, Nora calls our beautiful nanny friend Jillian.

Though I should note that, after Nora saw me with more makeup on than usual (read: any makeup at all) it came out that she may think that "nanny" is actually the word for Woman Who Likes Kids and Wears Eyeliner.

I'll take it.

Visual Diary

My Visual Diary from joehollier on Vimeo.

Admittedly, I'm a little over stop motion photography at the moment, because I think it's been overused. But I liked this video. And it makes me want to get my scissors out of whichever box in my basement they're hiding in. And that is progress.