Sunday
Tuesday
Saturday
Thursday
Tuesday
Life without rulers and string
Mr Jones, our esteemed Chairman, had recent recourse to a dying art, namely: signwriting. Most things these days are computer generated, enlarged, laser cut and stuck on. But Mr Jones wanted it right, wanted it done proper, wanted it done, in fact, like these things used to be done. So a Signwriter was called in.
Now you’d expect all manner of strings and levels and marking devices, tracings, letter-shapes, layouts and the like. But there was none. Your man took Mr Jones’ business card, business card mind – not renown for their largeness it has to be said, put up two ladders, drew out the first letter and started in on the painting.
Ok, so the e is dropped a gnat’s gnidget, but, Hey! this guy did it all by eye, in about 2 hours.
Your present interlocutor has done his share of signwriting, oh yes, I’m not a stranger to Keep’s Enamel, nor Hamilton’s brushes, nor, indeed, the mahl stick.
It was the winter of ’81, if I remember, in the South of France, signage for a series of campsites, and I admit it, I used a ruler.
Now you’d expect all manner of strings and levels and marking devices, tracings, letter-shapes, layouts and the like. But there was none. Your man took Mr Jones’ business card, business card mind – not renown for their largeness it has to be said, put up two ladders, drew out the first letter and started in on the painting.
Ok, so the e is dropped a gnat’s gnidget, but, Hey! this guy did it all by eye, in about 2 hours.
Your present interlocutor has done his share of signwriting, oh yes, I’m not a stranger to Keep’s Enamel, nor Hamilton’s brushes, nor, indeed, the mahl stick.
It was the winter of ’81, if I remember, in the South of France, signage for a series of campsites, and I admit it, I used a ruler.
Saturday
Tunnel Boys
In Olden Days, before digital watches, when tunnels were low and dark, and before we knew better, not far from the Tunnel Men working in coal mines you’d find the Tunnel Boys.
They’d be working a 12 hours day, in the dark, from the age of 7 or 8 years.
A Trapper, sitting in the dark for ten hours at a time opening and closing a gate, or trap, every hour or so as a train of coal came through.
“The motorman would blink his light at me, and I’d throw the switch and open the door for him. Then, I’d jump into the manway until he was past, and run out and close the door. A trip would come along about every hour. Was I bored or lonely? Well, it was my job.”
A Greaser, clambering amongst the loaded tubs in the mine, greasing the axles, covered in oil and coal dust.
A Breaker- sitting astride a conveyor belt as the coal left the mine, sorting out the slate from the anthracite.
thanks to Shorpy for the photographs here.
They’d be working a 12 hours day, in the dark, from the age of 7 or 8 years.
A Trapper, sitting in the dark for ten hours at a time opening and closing a gate, or trap, every hour or so as a train of coal came through.
“The motorman would blink his light at me, and I’d throw the switch and open the door for him. Then, I’d jump into the manway until he was past, and run out and close the door. A trip would come along about every hour. Was I bored or lonely? Well, it was my job.”
A Greaser, clambering amongst the loaded tubs in the mine, greasing the axles, covered in oil and coal dust.
A Breaker- sitting astride a conveyor belt as the coal left the mine, sorting out the slate from the anthracite.
thanks to Shorpy for the photographs here.
Friday
That Helvetica Thing
Helvetica is the only typeface to have a feature documentary made about it. Developed in 1957 by Max Miedinger, at the Hass type foundry in Münchenstein, Switzerland, Helvetica was key in the paradigm shift that occurred to graphic design in the sixties. It was orignally called:
But this was changed to Helvetica [Helvetica being part of the Latin name for Switzerland] to make it more appealing outside, German speaking, Switzerland.
Two years later Letraset was founded in London and by 1960 it was producing the dry transfer lettering, with which is name is synonymous, and which allowed designers to break the shackles of cold metal type, shake off the chains of hot metal type and go round corners with relative ease. Helvetica together with Letraset was a powerful tool in the shaping of new typographic thinking.
In the early eighties when Microsoft wanted a typeface for it’s word processing software they approached Hass for the Helvetica typeface but Hass weren’t interested. Microsoft sulked, and threw a few toys out the pram before going round to Monotype where together they developed Arial. Arial to most people is indistinguishable from Helvetica, which is a shame because Helvetica is fonts ahead of Arial.
There was a lot of angry mutterings in the graphic studios of the Western World, the graphics studios in the Eastern World couldn’t give a fuck, they were too busy trying to get a typewriter that could operate with their complicated pictographic system:
Designers felt Microsoft and Monotype had just ripped off Helvetica, what with Arial’s glyph widths being almost identical to Helvetica’s and the fact that, to most people, they were indistinguishable.
How to tell the difference between Helvetica and Arial:
But this was changed to Helvetica [Helvetica being part of the Latin name for Switzerland] to make it more appealing outside, German speaking, Switzerland.
Two years later Letraset was founded in London and by 1960 it was producing the dry transfer lettering, with which is name is synonymous, and which allowed designers to break the shackles of cold metal type, shake off the chains of hot metal type and go round corners with relative ease. Helvetica together with Letraset was a powerful tool in the shaping of new typographic thinking.
In the early eighties when Microsoft wanted a typeface for it’s word processing software they approached Hass for the Helvetica typeface but Hass weren’t interested. Microsoft sulked, and threw a few toys out the pram before going round to Monotype where together they developed Arial. Arial to most people is indistinguishable from Helvetica, which is a shame because Helvetica is fonts ahead of Arial.
There was a lot of angry mutterings in the graphic studios of the Western World, the graphics studios in the Eastern World couldn’t give a fuck, they were too busy trying to get a typewriter that could operate with their complicated pictographic system:
Designers felt Microsoft and Monotype had just ripped off Helvetica, what with Arial’s glyph widths being almost identical to Helvetica’s and the fact that, to most people, they were indistinguishable.
How to tell the difference between Helvetica and Arial:
Sunday
Gotthard Base Tunnel - UPDATE
As of the 1st of October, the tunnel is 68% complete. Tunnel men have so far dug out 105.1km of tunnels out of the 153.5 km planned. In September they drove a total of 480m of tunnel, hard going at times clearly, in the Sedrun subsection, driving east, they are advancing 1.4 meters a day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
