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Quipsologies
~ Vol. 39 ~

A bevy of goodies in this edition of Quipsologies.

~ M. KINGSLEY ~

FontLab has just released Fontographer 4.7 for Max OS X (10.2, with 10.3 recommended) — which is basically a port of Fontographer 4.1 to OS X plus bug fixes. (Via the type design list: bringing you advanced typography in 7-bit ASCII)

~

I don’t have that many living personal heroes, but I do have Gerhard Richter. His first American exhibition since a 2002 Museum of Modern Art retrospective is currently at The Marian Goodman Gallery in New York — through January 14.

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Back in February, the Swiss National Bank announced a design competition for future banknotes. The Bank is not currently planning to issue new designs, but it is compelled to follow precautionary anti-counterfeiting measures.

Under the theme of “Switzerland open to the world” (La Suisse ouverte au Monde), designers had until the end of October to submit proposals. Three finalists (Manuel Krebs, Manuela Pfrunder and Martin Woodtli) plus eight runners up were announced on November 24. Clicking on each person’s name links to their proposals.

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Eye Level is a new visual art blog from the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

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Marvin White invented … the Yellow First-Down Line.

Rob Janoff invented … the Apple Logo. (via kottke)
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The President’s Evolving Vision

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The next time you’re stuck for inspiration, why not give the Brian Eno Oblique Strategy Generator a try.

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The person who runs Happy Palace has quite a good eye.

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I don’t speak Portuguese, but this looks like a fantastic Brazilian pattern blog. Remember: no stealing. (via Drawn!)

~ ARMIN ~

From the Department of If They had Only Hired a Designer: “In small type,” reads the article in The New York Times, “were the words, ‘It All Started on a Bus’.” This past December 1st, in honor of Rosa Parks, the Metropolitan Transportation�Authority of New York posted signs on the seats behind the driver in every bus. To the city and public’s dismay, few people noticed the signs.

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A 1920s original (one of four exist) movie poster for the movie Metropolis by designer Heinz Schulz-Neudamm — a quintessential piece of graphic design — sold for a record $690,000. [Via Posterwire]

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Abbott Miller and Ellen Lupton curate the exhibition Swarm, which opened this weekend (running through March 18) at The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, PA.

~

Macromedia finally bites the bullet, homepage now branded as Adobe.

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ENTRY DETAILS
ARCHIVE ID 2489 FILED UNDER Miscellaneous
PUBLISHED ON Dec.05.2005 BY The Speak Up Authors
WITH COMMENTS
Comments
Darrel’s comment is:

They even kept the Fontography box art. Awww...

On Dec.05.2005 at 10:56 AM
Tyson Tate’s comment is:

I'm amazed how they can treat these $350 - $500 font programs like afterthoughts. The UI's are AWFUl and haven't changed from the 80s, if I'm correct. Atrocious. What's the name of the program that throws a thousand stupid little "effects" sounds at you whenever you do something, like KidPix?

Are there any *good* cross-platform font programs these days?

On Dec.06.2005 at 03:42 AM
m. kingsley’s comment is:

For a company that acquired Fontographer from Macromedia in May of this year, you have to give FontLab a lot of credit for their quick turnaround. Porting to OS X, bug fixes, beta testing, and preparation for the market could easily have taken much longer than six months.

If you follow the link to the 'Fontographer Support and Future' section, you will find a section that reads:

New features? After the release of Fontographer 4.7, we intend to embark on a major features upgrade. Give us your ideas. Fontographer is aimed at the desktop publishing and graphic design market. We want to make it the best tool possible for designers and publishers who are on deadlines and need to get typographical tasks done in a hurry. If you have thoughts about how to improve the interface, new tools, simpler processes, etc. then send us an email to fogideas@fontlab.com. We welcome all suggestions.

Since feature upgrades take a bit longer we expect that this next version done will get done sometime in 2006.

When FontLab was released, company employees often answered user questions on the type design list. That, plus the quick turnaround of Fontographer, suggest to me that the interface is more a starting point than an afterthought. Tyson, if you have any items that you want to see in Fontographer; please pass them along to the folks at FontLab.

Personally, as a type-design dabbler, I'm happy to see my 9-year-old copy of software — which I have on floppy discs — reintroduced with an upgrade price available.

On Dec.06.2005 at 05:09 AM
jb’s comment is:

the fabric workshop is actually located in philadelphia, pa.

On Dec.06.2005 at 03:33 PM