Type Nerd App

Unless you're obsessed with type—or like to chide those who are—stop reading now.

Now you can think about type 24-7 via the iPhone app "KERN". The idea is to score points by inserting missing letters into design-related words while maintaining optimal letterspacing and avoiding unnecessary ligatures. (If you have no idea wtf this means, remember, you were warned.)

Since I haven't actually downloaded the app, below is a mix of user reviews and my own snarky commentary. Guess which is which:

A. "This app should come with its own black mock turtleneck!"

B. "What may be the first and only video game in history with the potential to get typographers all hot and bothered.”

C. "The iPhone's first design-nerd game."

D. "Better than a girlfriend."

The First Blog?

Duckpin Press' west coast correspondent brought to our attention a terrific collection of early 20th century photography. What's so special about it? It includes some of the only color photos of small-town, Depression-era America, courtesy of the Library of Congress' collection.

The photo above is from the collection. It features a commercial print shop housed above the offices of the town's newspaper, the Brockton (Mass.) Enterprise. Pasted in the windows are handwritten bills which tell the news of the day, including one with the headline, "Billy Hill is Dead, Aged 41." These posters are updated as news comes in, keeping the locals apprised of current events. Some 70 years later, the Enterprise is still doing exactly the same thing.

And wouldn't you know it, that print shop is still around, too.

Click on photo for larger view.


Headlines posted in street-corner window of newspaper office (Brockton Enterprise). Brockton, Massachusetts, December 1940. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Timewarp Design

In an earlier post, we showcased a book that extols modern design created with age-old technology. Now, from our West Coast correspondent, James, comes word of the Alt1977 project. Alex Varanese has done the opposite: he celebrates today's technology through the lens of yesterday's design. His ads, two of which appear above, tout the power of recent technology to the technophiles of the late 1970s. More spectacular images here.

Click on images to biggify

Obselete Professions

Over at NPR, they have a great little featurette on obsolete professions. In words and photos, the former occupations they explore include river driver, copy boy, and lector. Not surprisingly, the bygone jobs that resonate with us most are those of typesetter and pinsetter. You can even hear pingirl Nancy Richmond recall her days at the bowling alley, clearing deadwood and uprighting the pins.

As a kid, Duckpin's Pete and his brother James would frequent the basement duckpin alley at the local YMCA, where the pinsetting was manual. We each took our turns in the pit dodging the flying pins. Even more dangerous than the flying pins were our own friends. They liked to play chicken with us, intentionally hurling balls at us as we were setting up the pins. Let's just say bowling balls and shins don't mix. Not all the marks at that alley were on the score sheet.

DesignBot 3000

Whenever a new version of InDesign or Photoshop is released, it's the first thing I look for: the as-of-yet-invented AutoDesign tool. Just imagine: with one touch, your entire project could be designed. Touch the button again and -- whamo! -- it redesigns your project. Hit it again and get a third iteration. This button would revolutionize the industry.

And it would put me out of work.

For that, I fear the AutoDesign tool. In a heartbeat, it can eliminate a wide swath of skilled artisans, much like the Linotype did to typesetters. I often joke about my job being replaced by DesignBot 3000 -- the cute, electronic, alogarithmic version of me. That joke could be becoming more of a reality now, with the release of the addLib iPhone app. It takes any photo stored on your phone and -- whamo! -- creates a graphic image based on "educated theories". The above images are examples of addLib's work, and frankly, it looks better than a lot of stuff I've designed. So is this just another app... or my future replacement?

Thanks to Chippy for the tip.