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Quipsologies
~ Vol. 41 ~

A small edition, this edition of Quipsologies.

~ ARMIN ~

The Fulton Street Trade Card Collection: “Business Cards” from the late 19th and early 20th century, courtesy of the Brooklyn Public Library. [Via Gothamist]

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Copyediting Hollywood: Steve Carrell’s 40-Year-Old Virgin gets hyphenated (correctly) for its DVD release. For web banners however, a whole other story.

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Ryan Carson of BD4D fame is writing small articles on starting and maintaining a web design business. How to Get Started and Cash Flow are currently on view at Signal vs. Noise.

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Hipsters in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg are well served by a decently typeset plea against Subway. Dig the open tracking in the first sentence.

~ M. KINGSLEY ~

Steve Heller’s recent critique of the current Art Directors Club call for entries takes notice of yet another questionable, laddish, piece from the venerable institution. But hey, at least it wasn’t a dildo!

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Jean Prouvé’s 1949 pre-fab Tropical House prototype has been on display at the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center in Los Angeles since the beginning of October. The ingeniously-engineered and lightweight structure will be slowly dismantled over two weeks — to give repeat visitors a better sense of its construction — beginning in January.

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Bruce Gain writes: “Electronics maker Siemens is readying a paper-thin electronic-display technology so cheap it could replace conventional labels on disposable packaging, from milk cartons to boxes of Cheerios.”

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Perhaps it’s because I’m a Mac fanatic. If I can maintain a no-liquid-zone above and near my computer equipment; you would think an international agency engaged in the fight against UFO incursion on Earth soil could do the same.

~

Good architects borrow; great architects steal.
Pritzker Architecture Prize laureates steal with impunity.

~

Oh, this is going to be dangerous for the checking account… Domeau & Pér�s are introducing furniture from the Jacques Tati film Mon Oncle. (via MoCo Loco)

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ENTRY DETAILS
ARCHIVE ID 2495 FILED UNDER Miscellaneous
PUBLISHED ON Dec.19.2005 BY The Speak Up Authors
WITH COMMENTS
Comments
Su’s comment is:

Satire, if that's what the ADC poster is supposed to be, usually has to masquerade as something real in order to actually work. The sad thing is that my reaction is that it's pretty bad, beyond Heller's point of it being offensive.

If the designer was going for the bling look, they might be interested to know that bling refers to the diamonds in jewelry, not the gold, which is pretty much just a substrate. Or rather the "sound" of light reflecting off them; think of the *ting* sound when someone smiles in a corny movie and you see that little gleam.

What are those metallic polyp things all over the place, and what's with the deco-swirly background?

You've all seen the album art this is supposedly like; it's just wrong. There's plenty of prior art for referencing. There's really no excuse for this being so off.

On Dec.19.2005 at 02:21 PM
Derrick Schultz’s comment is:

Su, there is an excuse. its called insensitivity — to cultures, to details, and to ownership. its not reallly a worthwhile one, but I think we can all imagine how this came into being.

I would add this piece to Tan's post about emotional design, but it certainly wouldnt bring me to tears. Something more akin to anger.

On Dec.19.2005 at 03:23 PM
Tan’s comment is:

Re: the ADC poster—how amateurish of them.

It's offensive alright, but in an embarrassing, trying-to-be-street-but-missed-the-mark kind of way. God, I'd be embarrassed if I was the CD.

On Dec.19.2005 at 06:02 PM
Darrel’s comment is:

What bothers me most about the ADC article is how the comments are in reverse chronological order.

On Dec.20.2005 at 04:30 PM
Pesky Illustrator’s comment is:

THIS IS SO UNCOOL!

What's appalling about the ADC poster is that it seems to be a only another example of a trend for deliberate racism masquerading as a post-PC concept. I see it popping up among specifically young, white art directors/designers who don't know what to find edgy anymore. It's the Cult of the Fugly. While this type used to be too embarrassed to show their ignorant ideas in all but a few places, now they think it's bold and challenging enough to mainstream it. The problem is that they get away with it. Easy to shrug and say "Lighten up, it was a joke." But every time it gets out there it smears people who have no recourse to contradict it. Pimps are predators not heroes.

On Dec.20.2005 at 07:10 PM