Typography

I absolutely love typography. Ever since I was little, I would use WordArt to create title pages for anything I could, and the best part was always picking the font and the colours. Thankfully I'm not still using the same fonts and colours (Comic Sans MS, red, was a personal favourite) but I still love it all the same.

Typography really makes or breaks a publication. A crisp, clear font used in a headline can add so much to the article. It sets the mood and without even reading the actual words, a reader can already tell if this piece is a feature or something more serious. A colourful headline hints toward a feature, a distinct font steers the story to something out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, page designers do a much better job than I do when it comes to typography, so I often spend my time salivating over their work rather than trying to make my own.

Typographica put together a list of their favourite typefaces of 2011 and I am in love with Alana (left) and Mija (right).

I'm also a big fan of Helvetica (surprise!). It's perfect, versatile, universal - it just works. Always. Period. Fact. I use it whenever I can, I abuse it, and so does about 85% of the worlds population (I made that up). I also used to really like Arial, but only on the computer screen. Printed, it doesn't look as nice as Helvetica. The two are actually fairly similar at first glance, and Ilovetypography.com put together a nice article comparing the two fonts. You can read it here.

In other news, The Hunger Games movie comes out this Friday and I can't wait! I'm absolutely in love with the books and hope the movie does them justice, which I know it won't but I'm excited anyway. May the odds be ever in your favour...

Grab an umbrella, I make it rain

You know how there's certain things you don't really bring up just for small talk? Religion, politics, money? It can get messy real quick because either the person you're talking to doesn't agree with your views and is going to try to suck you into their cult/tribe/political fundraiser, or they do agree with you and immediately sign you up for five years worth of weekly nude Buddhist meetings and schedule your house for the next Republican Club debate. Your landlord's a Democrat so he evicts you, leaving you homeless, but of course your teacher doesn't believe that's why you don't have your homework in, so you fail the class and  end up dropping out of college to work at McDonalds's until you get promoted to Zippy's, where you were doing great until Doomsville came to the island in the form of torrential downpour and your job is now a swimming pool and you don't have a lifeguard license. Back to the streets.

I put weather in that list of taboo topics as well. Not because any tragedy, failure, or homelessness has ever come from talking about the weather (to the best of my knowledge). But because once you start talking about the weather with someone, that's when you officially know one of you two fall into the category of "The Most Boring People on the Planet." And you probably don't think it's you. But it probably is. If the conversation carries on for more than ten seconds, it's a safe bet it's both of you.

So how great is it that everyone on Oahu (and by everyone, I mean the majority of my Oahu-living Facebook and Twitter friends) have been talking about the weather?

On the whole Facebook note, please don't be a creep and add these people. They have no idea I'm using their weather-related status' to indirectly label them as "The Most Boring People on the Planet."

By the way, I actually really like all those people. And only one of them is actually boring. Just kidding, just kidding. I'm going to get sued for libel.

I know, I know. Talk about calling the kettle black (whatever that actually means). It's been pouring rain for the past week. I mean seriously, what is up with this weather?

I haven't been able to work because Hard Rock doesn't think it's important to have a cover over the lanai and - surprise! - people don't like to eat while sitting under waterfalls. I have to wear my Uggs to school so I don't end up with frostbite toes and people make fun of me and my entire existence is being wasted away as I write hundreds of characters about the WEATHER! At least I know I'm not the only one.

I'm not going to tell you that the hail was caused by cold weather. I'll leave that to the professionals. I'm talking to you, Star-Advertiser (but +1 for the headline, very catchy).

 

Stay dry, and don't make fun of my Uggs. They're warm. 

And in other design/electronic journalism related news, I learned how to capture a screen shot on a Mac today. You'll also notice I abused that knowledge today (see above).

FLUX your innov8ation

A friend of mine is a distributor/promoter for innov8 magazine, so I came home from school today to find it on my coffee table. I skim through the occasional issue when I find it and I have to say, I really like this magazine. This is the March/April issue and the cover is a picture of the Haiku Stairs. This immediately caught my eye because it's one of my favourite hikes on the island: the combination of the rush of getting past security, scurrying up the stairs in near darkness and then the solitude at the top all make for a great morning - not to mention the killer views.

I was disappointed when I found out this issue didn't contain an article on this hike. It was simply a small, five sentence paragraph about the Haiku Stairs (Stairway to Heaven). Bummer.

I first compared innov8 to FLUX magazine, because they're both designed with that modern, simple, big-arsty-picture-small-text design that appeals to the hipster population. But once I read through both of them, I realize the articles in innov8 are about two (small) columns on average, while the FLUX articles are much longer and go more in depth.

Overall, both magazines are really well put together, especially in a city that seems to be struggling so much with journalism.

In other news, I'm going to First Thursday/Slam Poetry tonight, and by tonight I mean in 40 minutes and I'm really excited. All the artsy fartsy people gather together and show off how artsy fartsy they are, but it's actually really legit.