Interesting Typography examples

The subject of Typography has always captured my full, undivided attention. I suppose as someone who loves to write, I can appreciate the beauty of words, the flow and type for each character. So here I am, scurrying around the internet to look for some cool uses of Typo for you guys to see.

 I dig Kathy Reichs’ writing. Her crime novels possess a lot of depth and imagery, good traits a writer should have. I have no problem ‘viewing’ the story vividly in my head. Also, it’s a bonus when she’s actually a real anthropologist herself in Quebec! Stories get a boost when the writer incorporates his/her real life experiences in it. 

Her book, Fatal Voyage is about a flight that ended in death, destruction and murder. The background is greyscale with plane tags etc, but the author’s name and book title are set in uppercase, bold fonts. Further enhanced with red streaks across each word, the message is clear and precise. Ironically, red could also mean blood. Obviously, this is my favorite of her covers. 

  Eliza Dushku stars in this TV series that is entering its second season. DollHouse talks about a government-kind of project that involves people (who volunteered) that get their memories wiped and false ones planted in. They are prepped for missions and assignments, and when they are done, those memories are then erased. That’s the extent of my knowledge regarding this series, as the pilot episode was just this week. So, they are like dolls. Which is really creepy. Dolls (as indicated in Darker Than Black) are emotionless and are only designated to their own respective tasks, period. Thankfully the subjects in this show has a personality-at least temporary, if not false ones. 

The poster is funky and somehow doesn’t gel with the story, but maybe they are just aiming for creativity. Eliza seems to be one with the letters. I like the flow of the letters; their round silhouettes compliments her body in this arrangement. And it’s not too overly suffocating. 

What I like here is the Helvetica typeface. Needless to say, I’m a big fan of Helvetica, as well a few other typefaces. If I’m not mistaken, Helvetica was designed specially for Harper’s Bazaar Magazine. It’s easy to read, cute to look at. And it’s so simply, chic appearances makes it suiting for novels like these. 

 

Back when Twilight wasn’t all the rage yet, I saw the book in Kinokuniya. I saw the other cover, the one with the hands cradling an apple. So the next week I decided partially because of the interesting book art, I would want to get it. Only to find out the following week it was completely out of stock. Borders gave me the cover as shown above. It was… weird, but I wasn’t going to say it in front of the salesperson. 

But the logo, specially designed for the cover was cool, thankfully. I like it when authors go out of their way to get people to design a title logo for their books. It makes it more original. Yeah, the official logo is the one with the Zephyr typeface, but this one looks much better. 

 

Image from BleachAsylum.

Okay, don’t bash me up just yet. I really love that typeface for the logo on the far left. It’s actually not overly flowery (which can be annoying) and readable, if you know Chinese/Japanese. I like how the characters are linked through those fine lines. The words mean ‘Black Butler’, and in case you don’t know, he’s giving it to you.

Bwahaha. I’m such a moron. 

The typeface above is known as Toge. The designer has a website here.

Now, you can kill me.

 

Srs bznz

I’m writing this in McD because my (entire) house is undergoing a painting siege.

Potential LuLz?

 

It's from PostSecret.

Early wrap up of 2008 (part 1) and other misc. stuff

It’s that time of year again. If you are keen on finding out what exactly am I talking about exactly, this actually signifies a few things.

First would be semester break. After roughing our way through short-semester-hell, I think us ToA lags really deserve a break, regardless. Even robots need to rest to recharge their batteries. 

Next would be the arrival of Christmas, which in a mind map I will draw a few more arrows out from the sub-topic. Victoria comes to Malaysia again, and we finally get to talk to each other, face to face. It’s a great (and hilarious) experience, what not I only get it once a year. Would you believe it that we actually bonded over a comment one of us made over Ulquiorra (Bleach) on my friend’s chatbox? Totally out of character for me, but hey, this shows that you can make friends anywhere. I also received a fabulous early gift from Julian yesterday. Fabulous because Xmas is a month away, and fabulous because I know what is inside the box! (: Anyway, thanks man. Are you like the Santa Claus amongst your friends?

The end of 2008. 2009 is just peeking over the horizon, which a boost of new things to come. But the main highlight for me are the movies. The great ones this year are all at the beginning to the middle of 2008. Lets hope that next year will be evenly spread out. But there’s this thing about trailers that I must say. Had it occurred to you that trailers actually rock the film? And sometimes they bore true to their word. Trailers are not just a tease to fill you in and max your anticipation and excitement for the movie but it also (in a way) gives you an insight into how good this movie may be and does it uphold your expectations. Book-to-film trailers always rock. Of course, it’s their obligation to do so. And then the movie sucked so bad, you would wonder what was the director thinking at all in the first place. Trailers lull you into a false sense of security. They make you feel like you are in this posh, suburban residential neighborhood with the freshly kept lawns and the bleached garden fences, etc. And then reality comes crashing in on you with the vulgarities of the truth. So if you wish to see a Harry Potter movie (not like anyone hasn’t yet) or perhaps the upcoming one next year, you may as well satisfy your inner fandom by watching the thrilling 2 minute full trailer and be done with it. You might even be more appeased with the trailer.

If you ask, how do I even know all this? It’s common sense. And experienced movie-goers will know. Not me, but I happen to know someone who is so seasoned, so weather-beaten that he is familiar with all the tricks of the trade. He even taught me some, but sadly I don’t think my brain held them all. He is the kind of person who know if a movie is good simply by looking at trailers (unlike me) and whose standard of “awesome” is way above ordinary bars set by ordinary people (like me). In fact, his standard is so incredibly high, 90% of the movies shown in theaters (yes I mean all the movies at the cinema) doesn’t meet his specs. In fact, he has reached the status of movie-reviewer although he doesn’t blog like yours truly. He is more content with narrating them face to face, so I suggested that he pick up video blogging. It suits him. 

And since the webmaster of Stephenie Meyer’s site confessed that the movie is not as good as the book… you know what I’m trying to say. 

I had to confront my personal demon today again. Not in a literal sense; you would wonder why am I still alive and well today if I did it again. That in my world, means having to rely on public transport to go to and fro to campus. Actually my personal vendetta against public transport doesn’t spread all the way to cabbies, trishaws, the works. It’s just one particular bus that annoys the life out of me, and I’m sure everyone else who takes it daily. It’s more of the driver actually. Already famous for making the headlines in the Metro section of theStar, this particular bus driver decides that he should make some more. Sometimes stuff go on Metro if people start complaining; this is just the reason. You know at the Asia Jaya LRT station, buses stop there to drop off passengers, take a break and then pick up more people and get on their way. This dude takes loooooooooooooooooooooong breaks. Just how slow do you eat? Surely not 1 hour or more? Are you powered by the slowest internet connection in existence? Or are you a robot so old that your battery power is reduced by 99.9%? Today was one of those really hot and unlucky days. I waited so long that my stomach was rumbling in protest, the sun was baking the road that I could almost see some kind of weird oasis, and my patience is running thin. Heck, it always runs thin when I’m waiting for this bus. When he finally drives the bus around the corner, I was ready to nuke the thing Jack Bauer style. I was prepared to pit James Bond, the ultimate human wrecking ball of all things valuable and expensive against his lousy, scrap metal bus and see what could he make of it. I was ready to set our awesome lecturer Mark Teh against him and let him do all the talking on behalf of everyone. I was totally ready to walk home. Except that I’d die of heatstroke. Now you know why I hate going home. Rephrase: going home by bus. That bus.

Aha, my perspective assignment is complete! I’m doing a crazy jig-in my mind that is. Upon looking at my classmates’ work today, I realized that I’ve been a complete nut. I shouldn’t have wasted so much time on sweating out over this homework, but then something in me replied that since I had free time at my disposal (this time), I might as well make the best out of it. And yes, the human in the background who is pulling back the curtains. There’s a long story to that. Because he didn’t look like that originally. I wanted to draw Victor, after all, I did take the room from Corpse Bride’s concept art. But a few minutes into his hair and gesture occurred to me that Victor is either going to look gay or not resemble Victor at all. What would you have done? I sprang into impromptu emergency correction mode. And simply drew him into another non human who happened to share the same coat and pants. Woopdeedoo. Sebastian is going to ask questions indeed. Even Timothy knows all about Sebastian now. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Consider it neutral. My persevering, do-it-all, know-it-all, able to put James Bond out of business, and eye-scorching husband who really does know that I like to read and likes Italian food. To top it off, we hate children together. I know, I should be feeling absolutely blessed. 

Norah: (Refers to my bedroom drawing) So which side do you sleep on?

Me: Bullshit! DX

Which is entirely true. After all, I’m having no desires to share my bed with anyone. My sister used to kick the neighboring person in her sleep. Jason and I discovered that during Chinese New Year-many years ago. But you can say that she kicked us into a state where we have gone cautious and more wary. Enough to make oaths that no one shall share our beds next time. And very mature as it sounds, but technically Sebastian can’t ever sleep with me. Bonus point!

So hot the day was that while walking home I simply couldn’t resist stopping by 7-11 to get myself a Slurpee. Only heaven knows why this name was bestowed upon this drink. But even if I see Starbucks, I would willingly dish out the cash to get my hands on the sacred drink-anything to make the heat evaporate, or at least dissipate a little. Back to Slurpee. I realized that the cups made for the Slurpee drink is gone, replaced by the Big Gulp cups. But that’s not the point. I spotted a pile of cups that were pretty minuscule if you compare it to the other cups. Turns out that it was some new “mini Slurpee” that costs RM1. Are you serious? The normal sized ones cost me RM1.50! So which do you think people will choose? Best part was that it was only “available in Malaysia”. Why of course. Only Malaysia is nutty enough to go for such hare-brained marketing ideas. And if you buy this, and if you are Malaysian, you really are nutty. Go buy the big Slurpee lah. 

I know the night is still early, but I feel worn. As if I’ve ran the marathon. So allow me to go and breeze around some more, peaceful stuff. No, I’m not with Sebastian.

This side up

I completed one Figure for this week’s assignment only to discover that we don’t need to hand in any. Shucks. Ah, oh well. If we’re not handing this up, I’ll try to think of what am I going to do with this. Give it away? Sell it? I’ll be flattered, if it even gets a bid for RM2. 

Argh, Figures in Perspective. The thing is our subjects keep moving. The horror. Norah and I were continuously telling Wen Juinn to stop moving and just sit still! I had a bit of problem with drawing Timothy. Maybe it’s drawing smaller than usual. And of course, we were discussing our, er, husbands. Hei, with his total electrifying glory and also his amazing cooking skills, and Sebastian, in utter perfection as usual complete with one hell of a killer look and style. Take that quite literally, because it’s true. (: And lets not forget Zhi’s Dante, with her idea of “washboard abs”. 

Sheryn asked me what do I fangirl about. Frankly, I find it hard to fangirl about guys. Not that I don’t discuss guys, but then to squeal about a guy like Sylar for instance, it’s a bit weird for me. But I do fangirl about animals! Yeah, there’s the usual squealing and fawning-but it’s over animals, i.e., fishes, sharks, snakes, iguanas, tuataras, you name it. I once wanted a job as a herpetologist. Even to work with horses. And I was also told that if I ever appear on TV, it would be on National Geographic or Animal Planet. Actually, not bad. 

Woohoo, I’m going to watch Quantum of Solace with Andrew and Tai Hong! I’m not that hyping over the movie, but then to get to watch something since August is awesome. And I can also criticize the finer points of the film. Like Daniel Craig’s many gay poses.

Beautiful Disaster

I had a very weird night. I dreamt that Lisa Cuddy fell to her death (apparently she was the antagonist) and I was crying myself hysterically over her dead body. Oh no. And Cameron was trying to calm me down as I was shouting for House (?) and he was coming up the stairs. (The setting seems to be this ornate, not-so-brightly-lit place with huge staircases) And then I was crying against him. I remembered that he was wearing grey. In other words, it felt so real. When I woke up, I was feeling confused and I thought I was actually still back there. 

Okay, allow me to breathe…

I shouldn’t go into detail before I terrify my DA friends (: so now, on to those short stories! I may just continue one of them if you have a preference. If you want to have a dream discussion, we should do it… at college or anywhere but here? Or maybe here is okay too. Haha.

-

Music: Stacks, Bon Iver

She didn’t need anyone to tell her the truth. It was so obvious. The heart monitor beeped monotonously, rhythmically, indicating the steady beats of her weakening heart. Every beat sent a spasm of pain coursing down her spine. She was consciously aware of the breathing apparatus that was inserted down her throat. It’s rough texture only rubbed her trachea sore. 

Take it off, she thought dully, just take it off and let me die. 

The room was dimly lit by the thin line of sunlight that peek through the edges of the curtains. The light didn’t bother her, in fact, she was yearning to let go. Anyway, she can’t ask for anything more than light. It was what she wanted.

Death is coming for me, she thought drowsily against her pillow. He will lift me up in his arms and take me away, hopefully to a much better place where I can exist from where I am now. 

As if her words were a herald by itself, she could make out a figure beneath her eyelids. She struggled to lift them, but to no avail. The silhouette was shrouded by the poor lighting of the room, and it aggravated her not knowing, yet she was oddly intrigued. 

The figure approached her sick bed. She opened her mouth to speak, only to realize that the wretched breathing pipe was blocking her larynx. But remove it, and she will die quicker than she could string a complete sentence together. Pathetic, she thought angrily to herself. You are, that’s what. 

Whoever the person was, there was no conversation, no question. As the shadow glided further into the line of light, she could make out a male form.

It was Death. He came for her. It struck her now, but then, you can’t regret when you’re dying. You’d die anyway. Death moved swiftly, gracefully to the curtains and pulled them apart ever so slightly. A generous amount of sunlight-but not harsh to be glaring-cast the room in a much healthier, happy glow. Maybe he wanted to have a more optimistic approach while taking her soul. Or perhaps, she thought, he wanted to look into the eyes of the dying before he did it. 

What was left of her breath caught in her raw throat when Death walked slowly over to her, and seated by her bedside. Her heart attempted what would have been a wild beating, but only managed faint, erratic beeping on the monitor. 

“I’m offering you a permanent solution to your problems.” His voice was soft, barely a whisper, but she caught every word. His speech was oddly enthralling, musical; it didn’t suit the whole black, Death image. It sounded like the music she wanted to hear. How stupid. She was probably dreaming, indeed. 

Death lowered his head, and his face was visible. Her heart jumped; so did the monitor. This couldn’t be Death. He was probably an angel. Such beauty only existed in fairy tales, legends and myths. His heavenliness struck her as a painful chord. Her eyes ached with the intensity of it. Either way, he was too winsome to be human. The Angel of Death smiled, and it was perfection in his features. She couldn’t move, which was a good thing. 

He reached towards her face, and laid a hand on her cheek. His skin was porcelain, as pale as an albino. It felt so smooth that she wanted it to remain in that position forever. Was Death making her feel comfortable before he carried out his duty? His other hand switched off the machine, and closed around the breathing tube and gently, expertly, withdrew it from her throat. She felt no pain. She was probably paper thin, anyway. He could break her if he want to.

Her mouth felt free from the plastic taste of the tube. But her eyes-with the last ounce of her strength-was drawn to his face, the face of an Angel, but with the mission of Death. Again he smiled his beatific smile, crooked this time. And he lowered his face to hers.

She was too drained to speak, to even respond. His features were highlighted in its own perfection up close. His sweeping eyelashes, his glossy, luscious black hair. So glorious. 

“I’m your solution,” he whispered, and she caught sight of his eyes for the first time. From far, they appear black, but now, they glistened a crimson red. Blood red. Vampire. Death. She was transfixed, if she wasn’t immobile already.

The stunning Angel dipped down, his flawless lips meeting hers.

-

Whew. First story down! (:

Huh

Am I suppose to gawk at Robert Pattinson now? It’s a real poster and you can purchase it here.

Woes

Can someone please enlighten me why (why) is Avril Lavigne’s concert banned in Malaysia? I’m absolutely confounded. I feel your pain, Hwee Lynn and Lara. Geez, I feel frustrated. 

Because she isn’t sexy. (How is she sexy?) She isn’t… what else is there against her exactly? She’s a million light years away from The Pussycat Dolls, yet somehow they’re allowed instead. I don’t know what is going on in our government, except maybe hypocrisy? Avril is actually what teenage girls should see as a role model, so if you want girls these days to stop fawning over fake spoilt celebs or underfed models, why not start by making Avril available to music enthusiasts and Malaysians all over.

I was listening to Mix.fm while driving. So suave. Not. Just messing around at the training ground. But then Pietro and Serena C were discussing about the fact that women argue over little things because they just want to vent. So listeners start calling in to give their views. And one of them was a woman who says that she picks arguments with her friends just for fun. Like a fun, temporary debate. And then there was also Phua Chu Kang, who said that the statement is true. He recounts this moment where he and his wife was heading out, and his wife suddenly looks at him and says: 

(In Singaporean Chinese slang) “Why you wear this shirt?” 

Oho, that’s the joke of the week! (:

It’s very close to sem. break

To present our t-shirts, I really thought we’re just going to uh, stand in front of the class and start talking from there. I actually think it’s better that way. Only when I came to class did I notice the awkward table arrangements-the tables were all shifted to the walls and four corners of the room, and chairs were positioned in two to three lines on each side, leaving some kind of walkway in the middle. And someone said to me: “Oh I think we’ve to model our designs.” And Siew Cheng exclaimed: “Blame Joseph!”

Joseph: O_o

Me: ._. 

And later Joseph said that it was him. Arranging the tables as in. 

At first I was downright freaked out. I mean, hello, I have to walk down the class’ imaginary runway? Heck, I don’t even know how to pull it off without making a complete nut out of myself!

By the way, I didn’t walk down the runway in the end. I just scooted to the back and started to present. (:

Truth be told, I wasn’t really nervous this time. It got off to a bumpy start, but as I progress I was pretty sure of what I was going to say. Maybe it’s because that I really want to tell people about the issue I’m highlighting. I wish to spread the word, and yeah, it’s even more cool to do so via your own t-shirt design. Once we get our t-shirts back, I’m going to post the photos up here. The hassle of getting the designs printed on the shirts was just plain crazy. The iron on wasn’t as satisfying as the digital print.

Jason’s coming back this weekend. (:

And I had this super weird dream, about three things that aren’t exactly related in any way, but they appeared in the same dream, and I don’t know how to explain that.

I was worrying about my Design 2 project, so in my dream, Joseph, Norah and Ilina (where’s Pei Siu? D:) were kind of there. And best part was we’re in this really strange mall (must be my funny thoughts about Subang Parade) but with really chic architecture. There was also this swimming pool-like place and it was going to rain. Somehow Ethan was swimming there and then he got out from the pool and told everyone to get out because he saw thunder. But they couldn’t enter the so-called-mall because uh…. they don’t allow wet people? And there was also Robert Downey Jr., and please don’t ask how did he happen to be there… he just was. Not going to specify his part here, but I’ll tell you in person, haha.

Why does art colleges make me dream funny stuff?

Subang Parade’s MPH has sinned. They hadn’t stocked Breaking Dawn yet. How is that possible?

Missed

If you’re leading the way to the finish line, the last thing you don’t need is your car breaking down.

I simply cannot imagine, but it happened last night anyway. And yes, I do watch Formula 1. It was held in Hungary yesterday and it was broad daylight; how cool is that?

Massa completely blew it. Or at least, his car did. It just slowed down. And oh, the disappointment, the sense of loss when all your competitors overtake you! It’s terrible. Andrew’s reaction to that was so priceless! I should’ve gotten a photo of that. So the winner this time was a totally unknown guy. He never won a race before. Hey, sheer luck, dude. And he’s Finnish and I can’t pronounce his name. Or even spell it.

After that, I choose to uh, chill a bit by watching Naruto (of all things) with Andrew and Tai Hoong. There was a scene where a guy and Naruto were on top of each other, I mean – D: What is that? Do the animators have any idea what that means? You can’t just pass it off as fighting, because that doesn’t happen. And there was this total stranger with long white hair.

Me: (points at long hair guy) Long hair. Gay.

Tai Hoong & Andrew: (stares at each other)

Tai Hoong: Me?

Me: What, no no, I mean the guy.

-

See? We’re chilling.