Every so often, this Japanese men’s magazine, Free & Easy, seems to pop up in my inspiration research. I still can’t get the full story on it, but it’s like 30% archive, 30% style guide, 30% catalog and 100% awesome. It’s sort of an homage to classic American men’s style, cataloging everything from pea coats to class rings to canvas bags and even dog breeds (see the image of the Bernese Mountain Dog in the full post).
BLDG BLOG
California-based writer and blogger Geoff Manaugh writes on “architectural conjecture, urban speculation and landscape futures” on his blog-spot. Frequently updated, incredibly informative and wildly imaginative musings on what-is-now, what-never-was and what-could-be. It’s a mix of cultural and architectural fact, futurism, anthropology and architecture. It’s about how humans live with one another, the spaces we share and how we share it, with any single entry a jumping off point for scores of storylines and settings.
Geoff Manaugh’s BLDG BLOG Book comes out Spring 2009.
So you may have gathered from previous posts that we’re doing some pretty exciting stuff in collaboration with the City of Boston and Mayor Thomas Menino in coming up with a strategy to revitalize their downtown, which has been known for generations as Downtown Crossing.
A little less than two years ago, we teamed up with some very talented urban planners, a retail specialist, traffic experts, and pedestrian specialists to study the area and come up with a long term plan to turn Downtown Crossing into a true, vibrant urban neighborhood. Well, last week, the City revealed the summary of our 300-page technical report entitled “A Crossroads for a Crossing,” and I don’t mind saying that it’s a much different take on the bland executive summaries most municipal organizations publish. Thanks to the Boston Redevelopment Authority for having the vision to put this out, and let’s hope this leads to greater things for Boston. (And look for more to come.)
You can download the whole thing as a PDF (or just view it online) here.
Kudos to designers Adam Flanagan and Jenn Miller, copywriter Brendan Quinn, account manager Dan Giroux, photographer Joshua Dalsimer, and illustrator Ytje.
Type design is like one of those alleyways between Brandywine and Green that you can hop over with a quick pace and and lofty launch. While sometimes smelling like Saturday night’s trash, most reveal a subtle beauty so intrinsic to the city’s allure.
Ever wonder whether the handwriting of your favorite type designers encodes some sort of influence on their designs? Australian Web technologist Cameron Adams did, and asked a few for samples. Check out the article here:
http://www.themaninblue.com/articles/handwritten_typographers
—————————–
John Grider/Broken Crow
Imagine you’re walking through an abandoned parking lot at 10:30 at night. Rusting, twisted shopping carts and dead lamps surround you, part of the landscape, archaelogical. The terrain is muted. Buffmarks, dull-dusty concrete, cracked tar, peeling paint falling off the wall in cloud-colored flakes. And in the center of this scene, towering above two, three stories tall, is a neon-green baby lamb gazing down from above. Disbelief is suspended. John Grider was here.
More of his work can be found at BrokenCrow.com and his Flickr page.
Functional, stylish, a little on the heavy side, but nice.
Other interesting options here
