Disqus - Latest Comments for cmoorehead

Re: The Ashton Kutcher Effect: a rant about typefaces that look incredible but just can’t act

cmoorehead — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 21:23:37 -0000

It has been said that Paul Renner spent 10 years designing Futura. In my opinion, he should have spent another 10 years. It is completely and utterly awful. I spend countless hours attempting to convince my students (yours, too) never to use this vile monstrosity of a typeface.

The only thing I can say in its defence is...at least it's not Gill Sans.

Re: OCAD University campus has peeling paint, out-of-service bathrooms as student group ‘running out of patience’

cmoorehead — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 12:56:59 -0000

I guess I need to add the irony emoticon. If even a normally anti-arts publication like the Toronto Sun is reporting that 7.4% of Canada's GDP comes from the culture sector, the value of an arts education should not be taken lightly.

Re: OCAD University campus has peeling paint, out-of-service bathrooms as student group ‘running out of patience’

cmoorehead — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 11:04:42 -0000

There you go...quoting that extreme left-wing rag, the Toronto Sun. Are you some kind of Communist?

Re: How long is a piece of string? – the trials of teaching Expressive Typography

cmoorehead — Sat, 01 Mar 2014 13:19:09 -0000

I am always my own worst critic.

Re: How long is a piece of string? – the trials of teaching Expressive Typography

cmoorehead — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 12:14:37 -0000

That "student work" attached to the end of the article is a monstrosity. The designer should be institutionalized...or, worse, be forced to teach at OCAD.

Re: The Anatomy of a Parking Sign That Actually Makes Sense

cmoorehead — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 15:25:37 -0000

I'm assuming that the "Highway" typeface mentioned in the article is the FHWA Series typeface from 1949, which was updated by Tobias Frere-Jones in the late 1990s under the name Interstate. Or is there an actual typeface called "Highway"?

Re: Pablo Funcia MA Final Assignment Book

cmoorehead — Fri, 04 May 2012 10:28:58 -0000

This is beautiful. You must be very skilled indeed if you managed to put together a Japanese stab-bound book with no blood! Every time I do this my studio ends up looking like an abattoir.

Re: The Surprisingly Complex Art of Urban Wayfinding - Design - The Atlantic Cities

cmoorehead — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:54:31 -0000

Boston is one of the cities studied in Kevin Lynch's 1960 work The Image of the City, which is the single most important book ever written on the topic of wayfinding, and in fact coined the term. Although short, it's not an easy read (Lynch was a professor at MIT, and it shows), but well worth the effort. He compares Boston, Jersey City, & Los Angeles in terms of what he calls their "imageability" -- that is, the ability of its inhabitants to retain directional information based on how memorable the built environment is to them. A must for any aspiring environmental graphic designer!

Re: The Coolest Subway Maps in the World - Design - The Atlantic Cities

cmoorehead — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 13:28:32 -0000

I apologize if my initial comment came off sounding rude...it was not intended. I have never heard Johnston referred to as "Johnston Sans" in either Canada or the UK...however, I am not very familiar with US use. In Canada, Gill Sans is often simply called "Gill", though I always call it Gill Sans because that was Eric Gill's terminology.

I find Johnston & Gill Sans to be very different, but that might just be a quirk on my part.

Re: The Coolest Subway Maps in the World - Design - The Atlantic Cities

cmoorehead — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 12:50:07 -0000

Specifically, the face used by Transport for London is a proprietary variant called New Johnston, which is very similar but not completely identical to the original Johnston. Since there is no serif Johnston face, referring to it as "Johnston Sans" is as illogical as referring to "Helvetica Sans" or "Univers Sans".

Re: The Coolest Subway Maps in the World - Design - The Atlantic Cities

cmoorehead — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 11:34:28 -0000

No offence, but any reasonably competent graphic designer should be able to differentiate beween Johnston (there is no such thing as "Johnston Sans") & Gill Sans. The latter is a but an inferior copy of the former.

Re: Facebook Will Make You Stupid and Narcissistic, But Still Nice

cmoorehead — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 10:00:03 -0000

"But at least we’ll all be narcissistic enough to bathe."
I take it you guys haven't been to art school.

Re: Casimir Pulaski is an International Badass

cmoorehead — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 14:41:38 -0000

I'll stick with Big Black's "Kasimir S. Pulaski Day", if you don't mind.

Re: Talking to folks in line at a Sarah Palin book signing

cmoorehead — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:08:46 -0000

I kept waiting for Sacha Baron Cohen to appear...

Re: The Durutti Column: The Return of The Durutti Column

cmoorehead — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:52:58 -0000

Take good care of it...I expect that it's worth a lot of money.

In 'Factory: Manchester from Joy Division to Happy Mondays', Steve Morris claims that he's considered using the cover of his copy of FACT 14 as actual sandpaper on his next home renovation project, but has refrained thus far.

I only wish I still had a functioning turntable...right now I'm only able to play the FACD releases. I should remedy this ASAP, since London Records appears to be re-releasing the more iconic parts of the Factory catalogue on vinyl (so far, I've seen Unknown Pleasures & Closer), so I won't have to risk damaging the originals.

Re: A right-wing rapper raps about teabagging. It's bad.

cmoorehead — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:43:58 -0000

A number of UK punk bands (Sex Pistols, Siouxie, London SS) flirted with Nazi iconography during the early days of the movement, but most of them later distanced themselves from it.

Apparently, Joy Division's Ian Curtis was a committed Conservative supporter...probably the most depressing revelation in Touching From A Distance, the memoir by his widow, Deborah.

Re: The Durutti Column: The Return of The Durutti Column

cmoorehead — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:52:10 -0000

I was watching the extras included with Grant Gee's "Joy Division" documentary the other day, and there is one interview in which Tony Wilson mentions Rowbotham, and claims that he was murdered by his "junkie prostitute wife". I have no idea if this is the truth, since I believe that, officially, the murder is still unsolved. But Tony seems to have been convinced that this was the case.

Re: British House of Lords is useful on occasion

cmoorehead — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 08:59:38 -0000

The one good thing about having hereditary peers in the upper chamber was that, since they didn't owe anyone any political favours, there was always a chance that they would simply vote to do the right thing. Unfortunately, Blair's stripping the hereditary peers of the right to vote have put all power in the hands of the so-called "life peers", who are for the most part political hacks who have been given peerages as a form of patronage. In this sense, the Lords are really no different than the Canadian Senate now.

It is an interesting state of political affairs right now in the UK...the Conservatives are ahead in the polls due to David Cameron's outflanking Labour on the LEFT. The Conservatives are now seen as the pro-civil liberties, anti-war party. Blair did a great job of destroying the Labour Party on his way out...

Re: Just like old times - boot lickers and buffoons

cmoorehead — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 10:39:46 -0000

Note that GWB is only giving these awards to "retired" (unfortunately not in the Blade Runner sense) or defeated leaders. It would be the kiss of death for a currently serving Prime Minister. I suspect that this is the real reason that Stephen Harper didn't get one...

Re: The Durutti Column: The Return of The Durutti Column

cmoorehead — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:30:03 -0000

I'm still looking for the DVD, but you can watch the documentary online at:

http://quicksilverscreen.co...

The official BBC site for the documentary, which includes a guide to the fim, directors notes, the soundtrack listing, etc, can be found at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/musict...

Some of this material is also covered in last year's documentary 'Joy Division', directed by Grant Gee, which IS available on DVD. Also highly recommended is James Nice's 2006 documentary 'Shadowplayers: Factory Records & Manchester Post-Punk 1978-81', also available on DVD.

Re: The Durutti Column: The Return of The Durutti Column

cmoorehead — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:19:27 -0000

In the BBC documentary 'Factory: Manchester from Joy Division to Happy Mondays', Steve Morris talks about being drafted to assist in the assembly of FACT 14. He mentions that the glue used to adhere the sandpaper to the cover caused the cover to warp, along with the record inside. An original pressing is therefore probably worth a lot of money, but completely unplayable.

In the same documentary, Peter Hook jokes that Vini couldn't help with the cover assembly because it would have ruined his nails. Vini denies this, calling Hooky "a cheeky bugger"...

Re: RNC Chair Candidate Blackwell: "Homosexuality is a compulsion that can be contained, repressed or changed."

cmoorehead — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:06:43 -0000

Actually, it's Ken Blackwell...Chris Blackwell is the CEO of Island Records. (Although Peter Tosh had an equally low an opinion of Chris B, whom he referred to as "WhiteWorst") And, yes, it's the same Ken Blackwell...

Re: Mugabe: “Zimbabwe is mine”

cmoorehead — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 16:37:24 -0000

If Zimbabwe had been a former French colony, the Legion would have already removed Mugabe, like they did with Bokassa. Maybe the British can now do something constructive with the units that they're withdrawing from Iraq...

Re: Pro-torture museum opens in Chile

cmoorehead — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 02:23:21 -0000

It's too bad Pinochet didn't get the opportunity to leave this world in the manner of his friend Anastasio Somoza...

Re: The Durutti Column: The Return of The Durutti Column

cmoorehead — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:02:15 -0000

Here's a final, final useless fact: the band name was actually taken from a Situationist comic strip, also called "Return of the Durutti Column", by Andre Bertrand, who himself took the name from Buenaventura Durruti's anarchist military unit. It was Bertrand who was responsible for the mis-spelling.

Factory boss Anthony H Wilson was obsessed with this particular comic strip, which featured a detourned photo of two cowboys discussing reification. An image of the strip appears inside Factory's first release, A Factory Sampler (FAC 2).