bhavmistry.

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Uncanny – Websters Dictionary tells me ‘uncanny is suggesting the operation of supernatural influences’.

Something which is different, unusual not quite right. It leads me onto think what is canny? Dictionary says – having or showing shrewdness and good judgement. So, the different between real and surreal? Opposites? Deja vu can often leave you feeling uncanny. This common sudden and fleeting experience • which you imagine/see in such detail but at the same time it is difficult to recapture. Is this uncanny because you reconnected with something else in that precise time? But reality suggest that whatever happen prior to the deja vu, what just happened is an entirely new experience. This acts on the idea that something familiar can react with something foreign. We don’t live in the Matrix, but does it mean we can ever really announce that the supernatural isn’t real?

Development has shown that the uncanny, is always what is ahead and not in the past. If we’ve seen something, and figured it out its deemed as canny – but the second we can’t figure something out it deemed as uncanny. There are millions of cases of religious experiences • a sense that doesn’t fit in the morn of everyday activity and life experiences which cases believe that they have encountered God/other beliefs. This minority experienced something out-of-this-world, suggesting that the uncanny can very much still be here and around us ≥ just you haven’t experienced it yet.

What is reality? º It’s comfortable, reliable and it makes sense. However I feel I’m not moving, in bed – casually writing a response to the question of ‘what is uncanny?’. However I am actually speeding 67000 miles an hour around the Sun. This could suggest that time is just an illusion? If we are travelling so fast yet not moving to suggest any movement • it’s that another mysterious phenomenon. ¬ Uncanny?

Quantum reality, nothing is quite what is seems. Anton Zeilinger, a quantum physicist is famous for his experiments and revelations with single light photons particles. The experiment was shooting one a single particle to two slits on a board, giving the single particle two options. However using a camera which depicts single particle, it splits up in two and throughout bought slits. How can a single particle split? The first uncanny idea, however what remains even more uncanny is that results show after the photon moved through the slits they don’t create two projections, they create three. How can a single photon of light have two options, go through both slits and then in that process create third? This shows that something uncanny, is still very real. To further this unearthly idea, if Zeilinger puts detectors on the experiences, by the slits the photons miraculously start to behave and move accordingly, one by one, with no trace of a third reading. We can change the way reality behaves, just by looking at it. This shows to me that reality can the uncanny are not as opposing as they might seem. Seeing something uncanny, can the uncanny through the idea of being canny. ¬ Hmmmmm

Supernatural, the uncanny, I think is very much a real thing. This world, this solar system was created through a big bang. The universe can only been created through imperfections (something foreign/uncanny), if the big bang exploded in the canny fashion, this stars would not of causes any friction and through leaving no reactions with gases, which ultimately create stars and planet, which keep us alive. It may take time to see something truly uncanny, millions of years perhaps. Our solar system is a mere mist of what the what this bang caused. To suggest that there are no aliens out in this large cosmos would be an assumption. Just because the uncanny hasn’t been discovered yet doesn’t mean it’s not out there. If we see an alien now it  would be a very uncanny experience, but if its becomes a reality – this will then make this alien canny. The norm.

What is the uncanny? I think it’s just something that is unproven and that any notion of the sense can have an explanation over time.

¬

Understanding the uncanny, was something which took me longer then I thought, I watched a lecture from Rick Roynor on the uncanny, surrealism and graphic design.

Read about Anoton Zeilinger, a quantum physicist which I found on a BBC Horizon programme on Tuesday 18th called ‘What is reality?’

Download

Jan Tschichold.

I’ve never really cared for this whole advertisement game. It’s been a long long long time since I’ve seen an advert and gone ‘oh cool – thats actually pretty impressive’. Not since the original Cog advert for Honda in 2003.

It seems the raw ideas have lose a lot of creativity, something interesting, some-kinda-spark. Where have all these ideas gone? Absolut tried this whole Sagmeister-esque thing. Well… it looked okay. But, because you know it’s not Sagmeister. your left feeling a bit cheated. Ultimately – saying it’s shit, even though it probably doesn’t deserve it. (hmmm…)

Luckily. Sagmeister is back with another masterclass of how typographical messages should be done. Let’s be honest… Banks need some lifting. Gradually on-the-up they are desperate to show the world ‘you can trust us’. A brand new (April 2010) campaign from Standard Chartered hired Sagmeister.inc to produce this beautiful and refreshing take on something conceptual type. This makes Absolut’s ‘absolutely’ feeble attempt to do what should be left with the real pioneers of conceptual type.

Bad Type project. Make a campaign to celebrate/embrace Bad Typography. This is one of the weirdest outcomes to a project – however one my my favourites of all time. I came into the project quite late and was pretty much allowed to join any group I wanted. Groups making sisters, signs, interactive games and all sorts of nice graphics things. Which usually I’d be all for and doing that direction. HOWEVER. I heard this group were thinking about doing a musical of something of that nature. So, I thought why not?! My group consist of Dan Cooper, Olivia Tytherleigh, Emma Noble & Sophia Ray. The idea was to sing a Bad Type related song in a Fried Chicken shop… Every time you are wasted, and you have this urge of Chicken or some kind of greasy food. We wrote a song which had a few Typography puns and a few pun. The melody was to the classic ‘Good Morning, Good Morning’ from Singin’ in the Rain.

We got permission to sing and dance at his Chicken Shop in the late night on a monday night. It was hilarious. So much fun. I doubt I’ll do anything like that every again but it was fun whilst it lasted. I then went about to editing to the video on (my first time on Final Cut). We chose to make it quite a funny video with bad (intentional) dubbing and general scrappy cuts. It worked with the kind style we were aiming for. We were all pretty happy with the end result – as well as going down a treat on Crit day.

Also a return of the white suit worn in MJ shoot.

Here are the lyrics for the song if you fancy a sing-a-long…

It’s 4 in the morning
We’ve searched the whole night through
It’s late any chip shop will do.

The kerning’s appalling
But you’re the one we want
The lights over shine your crap font.

Blue and red and yellow and white
We don’t care if it looks shite
Let’s feed our drunken appetite
And round off this great night.

(man) The pictures don’t please me
But they make our lives so easy.
Type’s tricky when picking your food.

(all point) you and you and you
and you and you and you and you

The shop next door looks classy,
(man) “Aren’t the waiters really arsey?”
Chick’n Lick’n
Our heart lies with you.

(man spoken) The lame abbreviation only works in this situation.

It’s 5 in the morning
We’ve sung the whole night through
Chick’n Lick’n
We fucking love you.

(might of been edited…)

Beware. This might just be one of the sadest, most lame, uncool, geeky blog post since Christmas Helvetica.

Most people, bar those with blackberries, have access to an iPhone or iPod Touch. The App Store has always had awesome apps but now I’ve discovered Type related apps.

The Font Game

Cheese Or Font

Kern

Eye vs Eye

Oh Em Gee – best commuting games ever. I found this pretty awesome App called Helvetication (it even sounds awesome). The aim of the game is to correctly guess which word is either Helvetica or Arial. SO ADDICTIVE. I must say I was playing for ages… (I say ages, I mean the time it takes to go to college). Admittedly – I have mastered the game. I think everyone should play this game. There is a similar online game called Ironic Sans – which is 20 questions (100%), still good. Helvetication bought this lame game to a newwwww levels being all portable and having a variety of questions.

I thought I’d teach everyone (those sad enough to get this far) the main differences between Helvetica and Arial. I made this simple ‘see the difference diagram’ (below). The main ones to look out for are the a’s and the t’s, they have the most distinctive features. And then there’s the c’s, r’s, s’s and j’s. EASY.  Some characters are genuinely really hard to tell apart The p and the o can be difficult – lowercase L’s are virtually the same, as are VWXYZ. Well, Yes. Download the App. Enjoy. And beat my 100% 3200 (Above).

Download Helvetication for your iPhone/iPod Touch

(Click to view larger image)

Marshall Mcluhan

2428.

Hardly graphic design or anything of that nature. I felt this needed to blogged about as I’ve recently finished all series and quite frankly it was fucking awesome. I was pretty late with The Wire, having only starting watching it this year. But fuck me it’s been the best 5 series I have ever seen on TV, or on a screen or anything really. Okay, to be fair all I watch is Family Guy and Curb your Enthusiasm. So, I don’t know about shows like 24 or Band of brother or Gossip girl (ha) etc.  I’ve just been inspired by the whole journey from series to series. It’s made me realise that CSI and all them kinda shows wants to be what the Wire is. REAL. I mean it’s even Obama‘s favourite show.

My favourite character is (like most) Omar Little. This man is everything a gangster wishes to be. He’s oozes confidence and he’s so god-damn ‘Arddd. He’s been quoted to be Baltimore’s Robin Hood of the west side project, something I couldn’t agree more with. If you haven’t already check out Young Omar, in 1985. Omar’s first hold up is with two older kids.  They rob a man who waits at a bus stop on his way home from work.  When Omar finds that the man only had sixteen dollars on him, he points his gun at one of the older kids and demands that they give the man his money back.  He’s even got the signature scar on his face! Something we never find out about but he must of been even younger when he got it. Ahh…Omar is the best.

Favourite series list…

1# Series 3 2# Series 4  3# Series 5 4# Series 1 5# Series 2

(Not to say series 2 is rubbish at all – I really enjoyed them all.)

This is one of my favourite scenes from season 2 where Omar testifies against Bird for the murder of a witness who testified against D’Angelo Barksdale. Next one is Omar with a pretty awesome confrontation with Brother Mouzone.

PS: If you haven’t seen The Wire yet, don’t complain if I’ve giving much away. You don’t have to watch the youtube clips. If you wish to watch them when you get to them in whichever series you’re on. then do that. dur.

But one of my favourite of the whole series is one I luckily found on YouTube from the first series.

If you haven’t seen it yet. Then, DO SO. you can buy all the series at HMV for £60! Thats £1 per episode. BARGAIN.

Don’t judge me. ha. GCD1 all got set this project to re-enact an iconic photograph. This project was strictly in a photography studio – we all had to bring in all our costumes to our appointment in this fantastic studio.

With the expertise of Alex Madjitey (photography technician at Chelsesa) to use the correct studio lighting and framing with minimal photoshop to re-enact the Thriller album cover by Michael Jackson. Yes, I own a white suit. Not so proudly these days – but back in the pre-teen days I thought I was one fly mofo. The only part photoshopped was the glow and the mj logo.

Waiting for my favourites to post theres to reference there!… Some AWESOME iconic photos this year.

Checccckkkk Ouutt…. Olivia Tytherleigh’s Vogue; Joshua Stocker’s London Calling; Christian Jeffery’s 1966 England Team, Joel Baker’s Jimi Hendrix.. more to come… (hopefully)

Continuing from my earlier post of Burn Comic Sans Burn. I went out to Greenwich pier and started to have a play around with my alginate model and my clay model of my letter ‘I’. I wanted to burn the shit of the letter but with it being in water too. So, with successful photo of the the letter in the bath tub I NEEDED TO TRY IT IN THE THAMES. So, I did. Thanks Joel Baker.

My alginate model had trouble standing so I let it placed in the water, at the time it the tides were low. Then, I applied the bbq lighters and started with the lighter fluid. I intended the background to have all the thames but I now think it worked better without canary wharf etc in the background. But yes. FIREE. After this I was well up for more and more and more FIREE!…

I found a pier which was very wet and had a good enough dampness to the surface. So, using my clay model with bbq lighters in inside – this time I wanted to go full out and test how big of a flame I can get. With the wind against me it took a long time to get it alight but once I had it alight… OH MY. The flames began. TOO MUCH FUN. BURN FUCKING COMIC SANS BUUUUUURRRRRRN!

We were set this a brief to design two manifesto. One to be a personal one and the other to redesign an existing manifesto from 1890 – 1920 (I think)…  My personal one was about Envy. I would like to explain it, but I think it will be easier to just to post it…

Envy.

Everyone in the world has shown envy to another person, but why is being envious the solution? Surely being envious helps no-one. How does it improve what you do? We are constantly in denial about whether we are envious of the next person. End of the day being envious is pointless.

These are the four moments when realise you are being envious…

#1. The Stare.

This is one of the most obvious of reactions to being envious toward someone.  Your telling yourself that what you’ve done is just not good enough, this provokes an element of embarrassment. The Stare is notorious for making you less confident, treat this reaction with a lot of self belief, tell yourself that ‘It’s not the end of the world”. As long as you know you gave it your all – the envious nature of the stare proves there is nothing you can do there and then.

#2. Negativity.

You under-sell what your offering. Somehow you suddenly believe that what you have produced is utter shit. Negativity shows weakness from what you are presenting – something you never want anyone to see. If you are being very pessimistic because you are being envious you should realise that you need pride with what you are presenting and trust your ability.

#3. Those Excuses.

“Oh I only spent two minutes on this last night that’s why it looks like crap”. Somehow you know haven’t produced the what you are capable of due to being irresponsible. If you really want something bad enough you need to show how badly you want it. Making excuses shows a lack of confidence with how well you cope with under pressure.

#4. Trying Too Hard.

You see something you wish you done, and you bend over backwards to try and make your work as effective. The intention is to try so hard that you can come up with this idea which is ‘perfectly formed’ but ends up being over-complicated. By all means you need your ideas to stand out and show your style. What is the point of being so driven that you end up losing the plot. Don’t get too carried away, pretend to be the one looking at your work then simplify.

Envy is a complex and quite baffling emotion, one you are not entirely sure you can control. When you come across any of these moments just stop. There is nothing being envious does, apart from cause stress. It doesn’t do anything – so just get on with your life.

If you’ve made it this far… thanks for reading! What did you make of it? Felt it was bullshit? maybe you did? Well cool. The other manifesto I chose to do was ‘What did Expressionism want?‘ A manifesto from DADA in 1918. I had so much fun with playing with this – at the time I thought I went rather overboard with the designs but I eventually found myself really liking what I’ve done – which is rare as I never really like work I’ve done. Some great manifesto from GDC this, some not so great. My favourites were Joshua Stocker’s ‘leaving it to the last minute’, Jon Endres ‘How to be Miserable, Simon French’s Nerdism, Danny Wheeler & Daniel Cooper.

Me and Tom Brushwood were paired for our Shrine project. The brief was to make a Shrine which consisted of our passions. My passion is (of course) paper… I love a fresh new book. I’ve got books at home which have a much better smell then they do content! ha well, I know I’m slightly weird. Anywho, we were to make a Shrine with someone else… Mr Nigel Bents & Paul Oakley put me with Tom who loves… Beer making, singing and neighbours?… And somehow we are meant to combine our passions. We’ve gone with the idea of having various beer bottles with paper coming out. Simple. Well, this is a mere mock up, we’re thinking a MUCH BIGGER SCALE. I’ll keep you posted…

A short badges project. I don’t feel they’re the strongest ideas in the world for a badges. Something I want to continue experimenting with them – just thought I’d keep updating this blog with more and more things. Some great badge designs going around the GDC1 group… My favourites so far are Simon French’s boobs.

Photo I took for Matt Flynn/Sduk (stək) for his new website. www.mflynn.co.uk/. Recently signed by Starkey on his record label Slit Jockey. Check out his myspace.