There are many reasons. I was talking with one of my friends on Facebook this morning. She wants to get into teaching what she knows. She asked my opinion, and I went into my standard long lament about the state of graphic design and typography education in America. It’s bad, and it has been bad for years. I first learned this as an art director for one of the largest printing companies in town. One of our … Continue reading →
A journey with an experienced font designer through the creation of a new OpenType font developed for release. This is also part of the training materials for the apprentices of the Hackberry Font Foundry. That’s the blurb on Lulu. This is the first limited release on my Practical Font Design book. It is limited because it’s done on FontLab 4.6 and FontLab 5 has been out for quite a while. As you know, Hackberry Fonts is a … Continue reading →
For some reason, I’ve gotten on mailing lists to look over books for publishers with the hope, on their part, that I’ll blog on their books. One of the books I received recently is another one from Princeton Architectural Press. At first glance it seems to have little to do with what we do here at Radiqx. But I think I should mention it, because I enjoyed reading it, and because you may need it at some … Continue reading →
I was sent David Barringer’s book There’s Nothing Funny About Design to review. It was an interesting read. First, let me say that if I hadn’t been asked to read it, I never would have done so. It’s for a world I do not inhabit. This is an intellectually stimulating, very entertaining read Of course it is. It won the 2008 Winterhouse Award for Design Writing. This is an award out of AIGA for writers about design … Continue reading →
So, why do we do the things we do? I certainly hope that your answer is not “because I want to”. It would be nice to be able to assume that we are all doing what we do because of a higher level of motivation than that. But Solomon had it right… Again I am reminded of Oswald Chamber’s statement that you can always tell who the true believers are by the fact that they are sitting … Continue reading →
Fred Showker in his latest monthly DT&G newsletter has an excellent article on internet ownership that we all need to read. Internet anarchy threatens civilization — and no I do not think this is an overstatement. Now as a believer, I concede that this might be necessary to enable the Antichrist to take control. But, even though I long for that day [so I can go home], that is not a reason to allow internet anarchy and … Continue reading →
The basic question is simple: Why is so much so-called christian product so bad, boring, trite, brain-dead, and so on? I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I believe I understand the basics problems. This so-called Christian stuff comes under several categories that believers need to be aware of. Let’s mention a few off the top of my head: Large companies covering their bases: Often these are so-called Christian companies who have left the realm … Continue reading →
This is an old draft I forgot to publish. I’m not sure the link even works. There is an excellent article by Dr. Joe Webb today in What They Think. It’s an analysis of the printing industry and the changes it faces. It a point of view that we as designers need to be aware of as we change from traditional printing to the on-demand model with research and fulfillment happening online. We need to be aware that many … Continue reading →
One of the real surprises when we moved back here to Minnesota after 25 years in New Mexico was Summer. I had grown accustomed to the eight month summers of mid-New Mexico on the high plains south of Albuquerque. March to October I could expect heat and sun. I came to hate the sun. It made it impossible to work outside, and on & on. I was really looking forward to summers in Minnesota. I knew about … Continue reading →
It is interesting to try and put this out there in words. First of all, what is a Christian designer? I am not talking about a decoupaged copy of Durer’s praying hands. In fact, I am not talking about so-called “Christian art” at all. What we are concerned with here are Christians whose calling is design or art. In other words, believers in Jesus who are convinced that their place in the world is a designer or artist. So, what does … Continue reading →