wordmark

This is so cool. Wordmark is a website that allows you to enter in text and it will generate a preview of it using every font that you have on your computer. It's also a great way to see that some spring cleaning is in order. There's a whole lot of ugly living in my font folder.

[ via How ]

ampersand + the art of penmanship

Don't ask me why but every now and then my friends and I partake in a "game" of show me your handwriting. We really know how to have a good time... or maybe I should say I do, because I think I'm the weirdo that always starts this. It only makes sense that I would like this old series of exercises from a penmanship course, which is currently being sold at Ampersand.

spirograph

Ah simpler instructions from a simpler time for a simpler toy. The good old days. I wish I still had a spirograph. It's a good gadget for the only child.

P.S. Lesley always finds the coolest stuff. 

[ via My Green Screen ]

weekly prescription

Hey, it's been a while. Figured I'd give this idea another go but try it out on Mondays.

HELPFUL WAYS TO GET THERE:
Read -- [ Hyperactivity Typography preview ]
Watch -- [ The Horse Boy ]
Listen -- [ Aquarium Drunkard ]
Do -- [ Photojojo ]
Austin Event -- [ Party Ends ]

well chop me up and call me suey

My vocabulary is sorely lacking some pizazz. Maybe with a look to the past and a handy edition of "The Slanguage Dictionary" I can remedy that. I can already imagine how I will weave in "dig me drip?", "now you're flying with Doolittle", and "you melt me" into daily conversation. Watch out world, everything old is new again. Thanks to the allows amazing Boat Lullabies/Square America for the find.

austin kleon

Austin Kleon is awesome. So awesome that I'm not sure why it has taken me so long to write about him. He is an Austin based artist/web designer that writes poetry by blacking out words in New York Time's articles, leaving only select phrases/prose. Lately I have been seeing his work everywhere... yay him! Seems like a really nice guy... poems about his wife AND he has a dachshund (which is not the sole criteria for being deemed nice, but it don't hurt). He also just came out with a book that you can purchase here.

ALL AUSTIN LINKS:
[ Flickr ]
[ Official Site ]
[ Twitter ]
[ Newspaper Blackout Book ]

mod & witty

I would formally like to add this to the list of stuff and things I don't need but would love very much to have... if only to find out what the rest says.

[ High Steel Heels via fletter's Tumblr ]

dirty words

Made in England just published this awesome post which they called "Pornographics", which ends up being in the same vein (dirty?) as site favorite The Art of the Title. The accompanying video can be seen here.

plush motivation

I like felt and I like clever motivational signs so this pillow by Alexandra Ferguson is a win/win. I am worried however that I might be tempted to lay down on it, and then game over. If you have more will power you can purchase it on her Etsy site.

[ via Miss Moss ]

discarded

What a great idea for a project! Julie Shiels stencils text on found objects for a series called Discarded. See more of the images on her blog. Original link via The Lulu Bird.

the visual dictionary

Today is becoming website day. The Post Family turned me on to this site. It's reminiscent of The Photographic Dictionary which I mentioned a ways back. In this case the photos are literally the words rather than photographs representing the feel or imagery associated with a word. You can view alphabetically or enter a search word. Looks like contributions are welcome as well, so if you have a picture of a word and it's not already there, fire away.

romance isn't dead

It's in the bathroom.

mankind is no island

Jason van Genderen, winner of the 2008 of Tropfest New York for his video Mankind is No Island, uses a mixture of found type and street photography to create a stirring and emotional portrayal of the homeless in New York and Sydney. In his examination the question is asked, when we say "I ♥ New York" or proclaim it on a 1,000 different souvenirs, do we love the city or do we love the people, and does that include ALL people. The video speaks better than I do. One extraordinary bonus, the film was shot exclusively with cell phones.



Thanks for sending me this clip Mom!

Shaun Sundholm

Shaun Sundholm is another really, really nice Flickr pal and extremely talented. He has a great series which he has grouped into a set called "You Probably Came Here to See This" (which alludes to the popularity) but also has great work outside of these. Check him out.

subliminal messages

Jesse Wright, a really talented (and very nice) photographer that I have written about before, has created a cool series called Subliminal which I like a lot.

type wonderland

Here is a new website I heard about on Ilovetypography.com and I believe it is created in part by the same folks behind the aforementioned site. It is called welovetypography.com and is as they best put it "ffffound for all things type". You can read more about it here.

nobody forever

I like these handmade sweaters by Nobody Forever. I think you have to e-mail them to get pricing/ordering info.

speaking my language

I have found a photographer that likes words as much as I do (there are actually probably quite a few out there). Check out Erin Jane Nelson's series "Words as Objects" here.

tee time: sxsw

SXSW is finally over and I have to say that I'm pretty glad. It was a lot of fun from a patron point of view, and educational from a volunteer point of view, but was also exhausting, dirty, and tested my threshold for invaded personal space and crazy strangers. I am certain I could not keep up with the pace if this lasted more than a week and a half.

I am slowly but surely uploading the photos I took and am beginning the laborious task of editing and converting. It's not something I relish so has been easy to drag my feet. I also plan to comment on a few of the amazing things that I saw and enjoyed. The lazy person that I sometimes I am, I am falling back on the organizing my thoughts excuse.

Here is a halfhearted attempt at a side project as I needed a break from my dictated assignments. There were so many folks that passed my line of vision. No doubt, festivals are a great place for people watching. One thing there was no shortage of were t-shirts, namely typographic t's. Everyone has a message, accidentally or intentionally... ironically or literally. In this endeavor to be a word collector I failed with my follow through but learned that another word for thesaurus is lexicon.


P.S. One guy is clearly not wearing a type tee but he REALLY wanted to show me his tattoo and i figured it's type, why not.

last reminders

I have officially exhausted this series. Even though there are a few more that I did not post and still even more ideas I think it's time to say enough. So enough. You can see the last of the new ones here.