McSweeney’s with a gem: The EM dash responds to the AI allegations
An insightful read from the Nieman Lab on NY Times v Sullivan, the 1960s Supreme Court decision that is the foundation of modern American press freedom. Worth a read to understand how lawsuits were weaponized by politicians, and how NYT v Sullivan changed that.
This blog post about additive and extractive technologies by Cal Newport makes me think about the different tools I use daily. I specifically thought of @manton and some of the choices he’s made with Micro.Blog to be less extractive.
Really enjoyed the Fantastic Four. Fun story with great art direction. I adore anything retro futuristic.
Two new typefaces for my 50th birthday
Two new typefaces: SbB Nineteen 75 is a free download and SbB Certiphica will be available soon at MyFonts
In honor of my 50th birthday today, I decided to release a free font: SbB Nineteen 75.
Fell asleep after working on a paper for grad school. Just woke up to a nightmare that I’d actually turned it in… And it is NOT ready to be turned in yet. So rough. Anyway, been a while since I had a grad school nightmare. 🤣 I’m going back to sleep.
This paper for my independent study is a mess. I’ve read a lot, and I like where it’s going, but combining everything isn’t going well.
Scenes from a roadtrip
When Liz asked me what I wanted to do to celebrate my 50th birthday, I told her that I wanted to go to a Cubs game in Wrigley. I hadn’t been to Wrigley since 1988 when we moved back to South Carolina. Liz and I decided to make it happen, albeit a week before my birthday. Instead of dropping one image at a time, I figured I’d take more of a photo essay approach.
We dropped our kids off at Lutheridge in Arden, North Carolina. Our oldest is a counselor there and the kids have always been Christmas week campers. Once they were settled, Liz and I hit the road.
On the way up, we visited Buc-ee’s for the first time and eventually stopped for the night in Indiana. Liz had never seen Batavia, Illinois where I grew up, so that was our first stop. The next day, we got to Batavia around lunchtime and ate in a pub where the grocery store used to be. Spent some time driving around town and got to see our old house and the church that my dad was pastor. Crazy to see how much has changed and how much is still the same.
In retrospect, this workroom in the church was a great influence for me, filled with copiers, paper, folding machines. Everything a someday graphic designer might love. The door was exactly the same as I remember it.
We found the old windmill by the Fox River where we used to go sledding…
…and even paid a visit to the coolest school field trip location in the world, Fermilab.
Once we got to Chicago, we walked over to Lake Michigan and Navy Pier.
We walked along the Chicago River. And the John Hancock building was a couple of blocks from our hotel. We tried to walk as much as possible, but the heat was pretty bad the last day we were there.
We met a few dinosaurs at the Field Museum. I wanted to visit Sue, the T-Rex. But Liz loved Maximo, the Titanosaurus.
We made it to Wrigley for the Cubs game. I got to see the Cubs beat the Royals 6-0 in a game that included a little bit of everything including Suzuki stealing home.
To break up the trip on the way back, we stopped in Lexington, Kentucky and had an amazing dinner at Dudley’s on Short. I’ve never been to Lexington before and it was great.
We had a wonderful time, even if road construction threw us a couple of curveballs. Really thankful for Apple Maps, which made some time-saving route recommendations. The kids had a great time at camp. And we’re finally back home.
Next week, we celebrate my 50th birthday for real, but this experience was exactly what I wanted.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
I really do think there is something to this: How TV Trained Us to Be Conspiracy Theorists.
We got some breakfast Hot Pockets and they no longer ship with a paper “crisper” sleeve, instead recommending an air fryer for a crispier crust.
- A hot pocket fresh out of the air fryer is indeed crispy, but;
- It takes 15 minutes! Not exactly a quick breakfast anymore.
Excited that Cotton Bureau has finally added custom stickers. I added a few sticker designs, including my old film camera stickers.
Me: I really need to wrap up this paper on deprofessionization in the design industry so I can move on to working on my dissertation.
Also me: Digging FOUR papers out from past classes that I never did anything with and revisiting them.
Waking up to big F1 news. Christian Horner out at Red Bull. I guess losing to Nico Hulkenberg at Silverstone was the last straw. Is Max now more likely to leave for Mercedes? Less likely?
SbB Emote: A colorful faux emoji set built in Fontstruct
I built a set of adorable icons on Fontstruct.
Adobe's Project Indigo a home run in tough lighting
A quick comparison of two shots at a baseball game show the promise of Adobe’s computational camera app.
Fireflies baseball. A beautiful night to catch a minor league game.
My dad randomly asked me if I wanted the typewriter my grandparents bought him when he graduated college. He used it in seminary and his first call. Uh, YES! So I now have a Royal Safari manual typewriter. Seems to work well. Just need a new ribbon.
Watched the entire Cubs game today… 8 home runs. This team is fun to watch. Can’t wait to see them in person later this month.
Watching Cubs v. Cardinals on Apple’s Friday Night Baseball, which is actually on Friday afternoon for July 4. PCA with a great diving catch in the first inning. ⚾️
We’ve reached the part of summer break where one of my kids has decided they want to learn how to make bread.
Embracing old tools in new ways + two new Fontstruct designs
Experimenting with new features in Fontstruct, Photoshop, and Glyphs has inspired the creation of two new font designs, SbB Vertica and SbB Roundabout.
Happy Bobby Bonilla Day! Yep, the Mets are still paying him and will be until 2035.
Enjoyed this beautifully art directed and illustrated meditation on AI and art. Take a few minutes and spend some time with it.