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Bob Wertz

Type designer, researcher and Ph.D. student in Columbia, South Carolina

Long Posts

    ∞

    Then: 9.29.24

    Posts in the “Then” category were originally shared on my “Now” page.

    Hurricane Helene hit us in Columbia, South Carolina this week. Early Friday morning, we lost power with 60+ mph wind gusts. Trees down everywhere. In Columbia, we weren’t prepared for a storm of this magnitude. We got power back 12 hours later, but many people in the area are still without power.

    As bad as it was here, it was much, much worse two hours north in Asheville. Western North Carolina is devastated. Asheville is in many ways a second home and it’s heartbreaking to see the devastation and flooding.

    Feels

    • Grateful that our family is fine, our house is undamaged, and we have power.
    • Heartbroken for communities devastated by Hurricane Helene.
    • Thankful for the linemen who are working to restore power. (There were five trucks in the front of our neighborhood earlier.)

    Health

    • I wasn’t particularly rigid with my diet while we were navigating high winds and power outages, but I felt like given the situation, I was able to make healthy choices.

    Projects

    • Not a productive week from a project standpoint.

    Entertainment

    • Read Dan Moren’s “The Armageddon Protocol.” I’ve read all the other books in the series and this book was a fitting conclusion. Thoroughly enjoyed the series.
    • No Gamecock Football this week. No F1 this week. I did watch a little bit of NFL football, but it’s mostly on as background noise.
    ∞

    Then: 9.22.24

    Posts in the “Then” category were originally shared on my “Now” page.

    This week was a little more relaxed than the last few. I took Friday off and spent some time working on projects. The weeknights were busy, and our middle child had driving lessons on Saturday and Sunday. Next week looks to be reasonable.

    Humorously, I wrote, but forgot to upload, my Now page from last week. I’m trying to use this as a weekly journal. It’s more for me than anyone else, but if you missed my weekly update, I’m sorry.

    Feels

    • I remain impressed with the Harris/Walz campaign. They’ve just got to keep it going until November. (And honestly, beyond Election Day when the MAGA types refuse to accept the results of the election.)
    • I’m writing this from my back deck where I’m cooking out tonight. My wife is doing classwork out here with me. We’re a couple of geeks.
    • I do feel stretched thin, with being a parent, an employee and a student. The day off this week helped. I need to remember to take those occasional “mental health” days.

    Health

    • I ate well this week. I do feel that I need to make a couple of changes to my current routine. I’m getting hungry in the early afternoon and might need to add a planned snack.

    Projects

    • I got a lot of work done on my contract type design project. Really happy with where it is going.
    • I haven’t posted much on social media the past couple of weeks. Not sure why… just too busy, I guess.

    Entertainment

    • Haven’t had time to keep reading Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse. But it’s still by my nightstand.
    • McLaren had a great race at Singapore. Lando Norris with an incredible victory and they expand their team lead. Having fun watching this incredible season, but bummed that the next race is a month away.
    • Good win for my Gamecocks this week against an overmatched Akron squad. I’ve watched a few NFL games, but since I don’t really have a favorite NFL team, they are mostly background noise while I’m working on other projects.
    ∞

    Then: 9.15.24

    Posts in the “Then” category were originally shared on my “Now” page.

    A very busy week. I had a significant work event on Wednesday, and needed to help my daughter with some of her homework in the evenings during the week. Completely wrecked my sleep schedule. Need to be better about going to bed at a reasonable hour. I feel it when I don’t get enough sleep.

    The week ahead looks a little more typical… which is still relatively busy with classes, lacrosse and homework.

    Feels

    • I remain concerned about the upcoming election. Especially when one side is starting to resort to false and racist rhetoric to inspire their voters.
    • The weather continues to get better. We were supposed to have a bunch of rain this weekend, but we only had occasional sprinkles.
    • Made time for a much needed date night with Liz. Our schedules are busy with both of us in grad school. Enjoyed a nice impromptu dinner at one of our favorite fancy restaurants.

    Health

    • I continue to eat well and work on changing bad food habits. I’d been losing weight at a reasonable pace, and then plateaued this week. Which is frustrating, but I also know that factors like stress and lack of sleep can affect metabolism.
    • Getting a good night’s sleep is an important part of staying healthy. It’s also the first thing I neglect when I have stuff to do.
    • Going to try some approaches to getting some activity in this week. Nothing complicated. Walks and some body weight exercises.

    Projects

    • My contract type design project continues to soak up time and energy.
    • Need to make some time to do some projects around the house.

    Entertainment

    • Continuing to read Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse.
    • Football is back. Tough loss for my Gamecocks against LSU this week. I’ll probably watch Sunday night football tonight.
    • The Azerbaijan Grand Prix was crazy today. Big win for McLaren. Apparently, I picked the best possible season to get into F1.
    ∞

    Then: 9.8.24

    Posts in the “Then” category were originally shared on my “Now” page.

    A draining week and weekend. Not bad, but exhausting. I almost forgot to post my weekly update. We celebrated Jill’s 17th birthday this weekend. (Her actual birthday is next week.) It was wonderful, but involved getting the house ready for guests. Balancing that with classwork, work, lacrosse starting back up for Ryan. It’s Sunday afternoon and I feel like I am running out of time.

    Feels

    • The weather is improving. We actually haven’t spent much time on our back deck this summer because it was just too hot, but we did some work back there and I look forward to spending more time in the backyard as the weather cools.
    • Busy week at the office upcoming with some complicated tight deadlines. Will feel better after Wednesday morning.
    • Big win for my Gamecocks, defeating Kentucky soundly. Next week is LSU at home with College Gameday in Columbia. We’ll see how they do.
    • The Presidential debate is this week. Sigh. I’m not going to watch it because it just causes me anxiety. (And I know how I’m going to vote.)
    • Apple event this week. My four-year-old iPhone is due to be replaced. And honestly, so is my Apple Watch 4. So I’ll be paying attention to what they announce.

    Health

    • I’m still bringing my lunch every day, which I think is a good foundation for eating healthier. Bonus: It also saves a lot of money.
    • Went for a walk with Liz while Ryan was at lacrosse practice. I need to work more walks into my schedule.

    Projects

    • Lots of time on contract design and grad school. Not a lot of time for other projects.
    • I’ve got some ideas for some backyard projects this fall. We’ll see if I can find time.

    Entertainment

    • Continuing to read Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse.
    • Football is back. I watched the Chiefs win by a toe on Thursday night, watched some college football on Saturday and going to watch the Sunday night NFL game while I work on grad school stuff tonight.
    ∞

    Then: 9.1.24

    Posts in the “Then” category were originally shared on my “Now” page.

    I had an up and down week. Some good days, but I also had one of those days that was terrible from start to finish. Really thankful for the long Labor Day weekend. I’m going to start updating the Now page on Sunday.

    Feels

    • We had cooler weather last week, but then it’s hot again. Really, really reading for the cooler weather to return.
    • Busy. We are starting to balance all of the family commitments with Liz and I both taking classes, Jill and Ryan handling homework, new pick up routines… It’s tough to get back into a rhythm.
    • Thankful for the long weekend. I need the time to recharge.

    Health

    • This week was challenging, but I did a decent job sticking to healthier food choices.

    Projects

    • My contract type design consulting job is going well, but taking more time than I expected. Very happy with the results so far.
    • Grad school reading and projects are going well. Getting back in the rhythm of class and school.

    Entertainment

    • Continuing to read Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse. Going slow. It’s picking up pace, but I have less time to read.
    • Just watched the Italian Grand Prix. Disappointed that McLaren didn’t win the race, but LeClerc had a great race for Ferrari.
    ∞

    The Red Lobster near me has closed, and I’m kinda sad.

    Red Lobster has been struggling through financial troubles for a while and the chain is the process of being sold. Today, they announced that the location closest to me in Cayce, South Carolina has closed. I’ve eaten at that Red Lobster once in the last five years and it was an unmitigated disaster. We waited forever for a table and the food wasn’t great.

    But my grandparents and parents loved Red Lobster. There is a Red Lobster in Aiken that my grandparents always took us to. While I was in college, we had many family dinners at the Cayce Red Lobster. I think we went there after I graduated from college. When Liz and I got married, we lived in Cayce, and sometimes, you want some fried shrimp and Cheddar Bay Biscuits after church.

    Alas, I won’t miss my local Red Lobster, but I am sad to see it go.

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.

    ∞

    Papaya ≠ Orange?

    My daughter has gotten us all into F1. Jill’s become a hard core McLaren fan. My wife seems to have settled into cheering for George Russell and Mercedes. Ryan is a Max Verstappen fan.

    As for me, I tend to be pulling for McLaren. Which causes a problem. Their color is papaya… which is orange.

    I don’t do orange. As a South Carolina Gamecocks fan, orange is the color of all of our rivals… from in-state Clemson to SEC foes Florida and Tennessee. (And I’m not just a SC fan, I’m also manage the schools visual branding.)

    Jill’s convinced herself that papaya and Clemson orange are different colors. She’s decked out in papaya right now celebrating Lando’s Dutch Grand Prix victory. She’s right – the colors are different – but it’s still tough for me. We’ll see if I come around to McLaren papaya, or if I continue my orange ban.

    Looking forward to seeing how Lando and Oscar do in the Italy Grand Prix next weekend.

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.

    ∞

    Then: 8.24.24

    Posts in the “Then” category were originally shared on my “Now” page.

    The start to the school year continues. I had my first grad school class of the semester this week. Looking forward to learning more about qualitative methods. Liz starts her Ph.D. class this week and the kids' school is in full swing.

    Feels

    • Tired. After the summer, getting back into a routine has been tough. Waking up earlier. Going to bed earlier. Longer drive and more traffic. It’s exhausting, but I know it will get better.
    • Grateful for some cooler weather. Most summers in Columbia, South Carolina are hot, but this summer has been brutal. I’m looking forward to being able to comfortably hang out on our back deck and enjoy some cooler weather.
    • I’m pumped up about the Harris/Walz ticket. Let’s go.

    Health

    • Did a great job eating healthier this week. Really proud of myself for planning ahead and bringing my lunch to work.

    Projects

    • SbB Diskette was approved by MyFonts.
    • My academic article is still officially under peer review.
    • I’ve got a contract type design consulting job that’s going to take a bunch of time over the next few weeks. I’m excited to continue working on it.
    • Lots of grad school reading is going to eat into my project time.

    Entertainment

    • Made progress on Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse.
    • I found a Spades iOS app on Apple Arcade. I’m addicted.
    • F1 is back. Watched qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix this morning. Looking forward to the race tomorrow.

    See previous “Now” pages in the “Then” category.

    ∞

    Then: 8.17.24

    Posts in the “Then” category were originally shared on my “Now” page.

    Liz and the kids are back in school. We moved our oldest into an off-campus apartment. Starting to figure out everyone’s schedules. It’s been a busy week.

    Feels

    • Our oldest, Norah, moved into her own apartment this week. And while she lived in the residence hall last year, she’s now really out on her own. Proud of her, but it’s always a little bittersweet to watch the kids grow up.
    • Back to heading to the coffee shop to work every weekend with my daughter. She has so much AP work to do, that she likes to go to Starbucks to study. I usually have work to do, too. So we go together. I don’t love the stress that comes with the work, but I adore having the time with Jill.
    • Continue to be both nervous and excited about the future of this country. I think the wild swings in the news cycle affect me more than I’d like to admit.
    • First day of class for me on Wednesday this week. Looking forward to taking something a little different.

    Health

    • Did a decent job trying to eat better this week. Need to plan ahead a little bit better when we have a busy schedule.
    • Didn’t really work out this week, but did move my daughter into a second floor apartment with no elevator. (And most of it was moved up from the lower parking level.) Lots of stair flights.

    Projects

    • I’ve got one font submitted to Monotype for approval to sell on their marketplace.
    • My academic article is officially under peer review.
    • I need to set up a new web site for my merchandise. Might work on that today.

    Entertainment

    ∞

    Then: 8.10.24

    Posts in the “Then” category were originally shared on my “Now” page.

    Reasonably good week. We’re getting our oldest ready to go back to college. I’ve started my plan to be healthier at 50 than I was a 40 — working out a little bit and eating better. Lifestyle change is hard.

    Feels

    • Had someone be incredibly rude to me at work this week. And it really bothered me for a day or two.
    • Tim Walz. My goodness. I didn’t know politicians like this get elected. What a breath of fresh air. I’m all in on bringing joy back. I’m tired of the doom and gloom.
    • Work on the Ph.D. will continue soon. A couple of weeks left until classes start. I’m taking one class this semester — a qualitative research class in the College of Education. Will be a bit of a change from my normal comms classwork.

    Health

    • Started this week trying to make better food choices. Was mostly successful. I do feel better when I eat better.
    • Rediscovered some old fitness apps that I’ve tried in the past. Dusted them off and trying to build a workout rhythm.

    Projects

    • I’ve decided to rename one of my new fonts because of a very minor possibility that the name infringes on an existing trademark. Naming fonts is harder than naming children.
    • I’ve got a few other fonts in the works, but I don’t know how much progress I’ll make when classes start back.

    Entertainment

    • More Olympics. Volleyball. Water Polo. Basketball. Some track and field.
    • Still reading Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse. I didn’t actually pick it up this week, but it’s still the book beside my bed.
    • F1 is still on summer break. ☹️
    ∞

    Then: 8.2.24

    Posts in the “Then” category were originally shared on my “Now” page.

    I celebrated my 49th birthday this week. My kids have an annual tradition where they bake a cake for me, usually with a high degree of difficulty. This year, they attempted to make a Borg Cube from Star Trek.

    As I turn 49, I’m looking ahead to 50 next year. I’ve decided that I want to be healthier at 50 than I was at 40. I need to loose weight, eat better and be more active. Basically a lifestyle change. I’m going to add a health category to my weekly Now page updates.

    Still wondering if I should post these on Sundays instead of Saturdays.

    Feels

    • Uncomfortable. The air conditioning went out in my office this week. That’s never something you want in Columbia in the summer.
    • One of my friends is leaving for a job at another school. I’m bummed, but it’s a great opportunity for her. Just a lot of changes at the office this summer.
    • I continue to be impressed with Kamala Harris’s campaign so far. I forgot what hope felt like.
    • Tired. My teacher wife reported to school this week, and the alarm started going off an hour earlier. Ugh. Need more sleep.

    Health

    • Laying the groundwork for my lifestyle change. Getting apps ready to track, planning diet and exercise changes. Trying not to over do it. I’m giving myself a year to make this change.
    • I’m starting on Monday, because there’s still cake and other goodies in the house from my birthday.

    Projects

    • SbB Danceflr is available on MyFonts now.
    • Continuing to work on some other font ideas. I have several designs that I never finished, so I’m working toward wrapping those up and submitting them to MyFonts for sale.
    • Heard back from the publication I submitted my journal article to and I need to make a couple of minor changes before it heads to peer review. So that’s promising.

    Entertainment

    • Lots of Olympics. Surfing. Basketball. Gymnastics. Swimming. Handball. Beach Volleyball. Regular Volleyball. I think I’ve watched at least some coverage every day this week.
    • Still reading Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse. Slowly. I’m struggling to get into it, even though I loved the first two books.
    • F1 is on summer break. ☹️
    ∞

    Then: 7.27.2024

    Posts in the “Then” category were originally shared on my “Now” page.

    Just had a relaxing week of vacation with just my wife and me. The kids were at summer camp for the week so we decided to celebrate our 25th anniversary early up near Asheville. We had a great time, but it’s going to be hard going back to reality on Monday.

    Feels

    • I feel refreshed. I really needed to take some time off from work and reset. With the leadership change at work, I think I needed the break more than I realized.
    • I’m worried about the state of our nation, but I’m energized by the change in the presidential race. Biden stepping down, and Harris consolidating support has me encouraged.
    • Being open to changes. The camp our kids went to is also the camp that I attended and worked at. They changed pick up this year, ending on Friday instead of Saturday morning. I wasn’t sure about the change, but we attended a new final ceremony and it was great. I probably need to make this a full post, but we all need to accept that sometimes, change is needed.

    Projects

    • SbB Departure Mono is now live on MyFonts. I’ve got two other fonts that I will submit today or tomorrow.
    • I sketched out a couple of new font ideas while we were at the cabin in North Carolina. Was nice to have some time to sketch.

    Entertainment

    • We were in a cabin without our normal streaming setup. They had a Samsung TV service that had a bunch of ad-supported channels with random reality shows, so we watched some American Ninja Warrior and Ice Road Truckers.
    • I started reading Mirrored Heavens by Rebecca Roanhorse. Enjoying it, but having trouble remembering all the things that happened in the second book of the series.
    • F1 this weekend.
    • Will probably watch some of the Olympics.
    ∞

    Then: 7.20.24

    Posts in the “Then” category were originally shared on my “Now” page.

    Weird week. I got randomly sick for an evening. I woke up at 2 AM with a fever that only lasted a couple of hours and no other symptoms. So strange. Whenever I get sick now, I worry about COVID and getting others sick, but I’m pretty sure this was just a random virus.

    Feels

    • I’m excited about upcoming vacation. It’s been too long since I took a significant amount of time off.
    • I’m worried about the state of our nation.
    • Grateful for some rain. (We needed it.)

    Projects

    • I published two longer blog posts this week. One about the Star Trek episodes I tend to play in the background, and a second post about the whole Sticker Mule debacle.
    • More progress on fonts. I inched closer to releasing my new typefaces. Just some refinements to make sure everything passes the quality assurance checks.
    • Submitted an article to a journal to review. Woke up in the middle of the night and decided to be productive. Finished the query letter and hit the submit button. We’ll see what happens.

    Entertainment

    • Finished Star Wars: The Acolyte. I enjoyed the show and am interested to see if they give it a season two to finish the story.
    • I’ve been playing Pokemon Go with my son who just got a new phone.
    • F1 this weekend with the Hungarian Grand Prix.
    ∞

    Comfort Star Trek

    I’m home sick today and was thinking about shows I watch when I’m just killing time. Episodes I love to just put on in the background when I’m working (or sick). Most of the time, I open Paramount+ and play Star Trek. I figured I’d share my favorite “comfort” episodes. Warning: A couple of mild spoilers below for really old episodes.1

    Mariner and Boimler on the USS Enterprise.

    Star Trek: The Original Series

    • S1 E15 Balance of Terror. A “submarine” battle between Kirk and the Romulan commander.
    • S2 E6 The Doomsday Machine. The race to stop a machine before it destroys more planets.
    • S2 E15 The Trouble with Tribbles. My parents loved this episode when I was growing up and it’s one of my favorites. Sometimes, I pair it with DS9’s Trials and Tribble-Ations.

    Star Trek: The Next Generation

    • S2 E10 The Defector. More Romulan manipulation.
    • S4 E26 and E27 Redemption, Part 1 and 2. The Romulans try to destabilize the Klingon Empire.
    • S6 E4 Relics. A Dyson Sphere, and a somewhat believable way to resurrect an old character.

    Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

    • S5 E6 Trials and Tribble-Ations. The DS9 crew goes back in time to the middle of The Trouble with Tribbles.
    • S6 E6 Sacrifice of Angels. I love the action and pacing of this episode. The end of one of the arcs that dominate DS9.

    Star Trek: Voyager

    • S4 E14 Message in a Bottle. The Doctor is transmitted back into the Alpha Quadrant, and works with another Emergency Medical Hologram to liberate a Federation ship.
    • S7 E25 Endgame Parts 1 and 2. The series finale. The Voyager makes it home… twice.

    Star Trek: Discovery

    • S1 E7 Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad. A great time loop episode, with some great performances.
    • S2 E2 New Eden. Captain Pike. Mysterious Earth colony. Prime directive debates. Love it all.

    Star Trek: Lower Decks

    • S2 E7 Where Pleasant Fountains Lie. All about evil AI, but in the funniest possible way.
    • S3 E5 Reflections. Starfleet Recruiting Booth. Rutherford’s implant malfunctions.
    • S3 E6 Heal All, Trust Nothing. A visit to DS9, and Tendi goes full Orion to save the day.
    • S4 E4 Something Borrowed, Something Green. Tendi goes home for her sister’s wedding, and chaos ensues.

    Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

    • S1 E2 Children of the Comet. A comet that’s worshipped as a live bringing god. Such an old school Star Trek story.
    • S2 E7 Those Old Scientists. A Lower Decks/Strange New World crossover that works far better than it should.
    • S2 E9 Subspace Rhapsody. The musical episode, that also works far better than it should.

    Star Trek: Picard

    • S3 E10 The Last Generation. A fan-service finale that’s full of fun.

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina.

    1. Or Star Wars: Rebels, but that’s a post for another day. ↩︎

    ∞

    Then: 7.13.24

    Posts titled “Then” were originally shared on my “Now” page.

    Good week, although still way too hot in Columbia, South Carolina. To be fair, it’s too hot pretty much everywhere, it seems. I’ve stolen a brilliant idea from Sven Dahlstrand (@sod on Micro.Blog) and I’m going to archive my previous “Now” pages on blog in a category called “Then.” I like to have an archive of everything and it always bothered me that my Now page implementation didn’t have a history.

    Feels

    • I’m tired. It’s been a long week for some reason.
    • Looking forward to an upcoming vacation.
    • Sad that summer is coming to an end. Kids start school in less than a month. The excessive heat has been brutal this year. We are fortunate to have shelter and air conditioning so we can manage, but I haven’t felt like leaving the house. Ready for cooler weather.

    Projects

    • I’m getting closer to finishing a couple of new fonts to make available on MyFonts. Just need to put the finishing touches on the files and marketing images.
    • I spent time this week editing my paper on consumer attitudes toward logos. Happy with the edits. Time to submit it to a journal. We’ll see what happens.

    Entertainment

    • Star Trek: Prodigy on Netflix. Finished watching the series this week. Liked where the story landed and was genuinely surprised by some of the callbacks and references to previous Trek franchises.
    • Star Wars: The Acolyte. Finale this week. I’ve enjoyed the show, and like the idea that they are telling the story in an earlier time period. I’ll probably post longer thoughts on the blog after the finale.
    • Looking for books for vacation and realized the last book in Rebecca Roanhorse’s Between Earth and Sky series is out. I thought I’d preordered it, but apparently not. Need to go back and reread the last book to remember where they left things. Looking forward to reading the final book of the trilogy on vacation.
    • No F1 this week.
    ∞

    Then: 7.6.24

    I’m giving the “Now” page concept another go. I love the idea, but I just haven’t figured out how to make it work for me. For now, I’ve settled on an opening paragraph and three category prompts: feels, projects and entertainment. Should capture a nice snapshot of what I’m focused on and how I’m feeling. When I update these, I’m going to copy them over to Notion so I have a weekly journal.

    Feels

    • Looking forward to an upcoming vacation.
    • Leadership changes at work are never easy to navigate.
    • Anxious about the state of our country.
    • My sore foot is feeling better, but that means I need to turn my focus back to getting healthy.

    Projects

    • I’ve decided to give this “Now” page a try again.
    • Finishing up a couple of fonts that I want to release soon. You can see previews at SbB Fonts.
    • I’ve got a paper that I need to update and submit to for publication. I’d really like to get it wrapped up this summer before the new semester starts.

    Entertainment

    • Star Trek: Prodigy on Netflix. Working through the episodes slowly. I suck at binge watching.
    • F1, because my daugther got interested and now I’m hooked.

    Posts in the “Then” category are archives of my “Now” pages.

    ∞

    Dead Mall Memories

    I know that enclosed shopping malls have fallen out of fashion, but I’m of an age where malls played a major role in my childhood. An abandoned mall in Columbia is being torn down and I was thinking today about all the malls that have played a role in my life. I figured I’d share a couple of memories of malls that are no more…

    • Richland Fashion Mall. The mall that’s being torn down is in Forest Acres, South Carolina. I drove past it today so I’ll start with this one. Being close to the University of South Carolina campus and my first apartment, I took a bunch of trips to Richland Fashion Mall.1 We occasionally visited the movie theater on the rooftop before nicer theaters came to Columbia. Liz and I frequented the Barnes and Noble when we were dating and registered for our china at the Dillards when we got engaged. Liz even got her hair done at the Belk’s salon for a few years. Lots of good memories, but the mall had been pretty much abandoned for years and it’s good to see the redevelopment finally starting with the demolition of the old structure.

    • Dutch Square Mall. We lived in Illinois when I was in elementary school, but our family was still in South Carolina so we’d travel down twice a year to see everyone. One reliable stop was always Dutch Square Mall in Columbia, South Carolina near the intersection of I-26 and I-20. Back when Chick-fi-A was only in the South and only in mall food courts, this was an easy option for some delicious chicken sandwiches. Cromer’s Peanuts had a location in the mall where we could buy bags of boiled peanuts and see some monkeys.2 (I’m pretty sure my parents wanted to wear us out before we got to my grandparent’s house about an hour away.) Much later, the mall was renovated to have a 14-theater movie theater and the Dutch Square Theater became our go-to theater. I saw countless movies there including a midnight showing of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. With the opening of nearby Columbiana Mall, shoppers and retailers moved to the trendy new spot. Years later, I worked at an insurance company nearby and would occasionally run over to the Chick-fil-A, but it was clear by then that the mall was slowly dying and AMC closed the theater. The mall is actually still open and the movie theater is operated by a small chain now, but there’s not much out there any more. A nearby church is in the process of purchasing it and has plans to completely redevelop it.

    Shoppers at the Aiken Mall
    Shoppers at the Aiken Mall. Photo by Tim Dominick accessed via the Walker Local and Family History site at Richland Library.
    • Aiken Mall. This mall in Aiken, SC opened right as I started high school. For a small town, it was a big deal. It had a bunch of undersized anchor stores, but it also had everything a teenage me needed: an arcade, a Babbage’s video game store, a B. Dalton bookstore and a music store. My mom had us get family portraits taken at the Sears Portrait Studio many, many times. My car broke down in the parking lot at least once. As anchor stores JC Penny, Sears and Phar-Mor started to close, they tried to reconfigure it a couple of times, but the mall was already in a death spiral. At some point, they added a Books-a-Million and my in-laws would take our children there when they were babysitting. Redevelopment was promised for years, but they’ve finally torn most of it down and have started building a mixed-use development. Apparently, a Chicken Salad Chick will be opening soon in the new development.

    All three of these locations are finally being redeveloped and I’m really happy about that, but as a kid that grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, these old hangouts will always hold a special place in my heart.

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina.

    1. Originally, there was an open air mall on this spot called Richland Mall. Then it was redeveloped and the name was changed to Richland Fashion Mall. Eventually its name was changed back to Richland Mall. ↩︎

    2. Seriously! The store had a display high in the back with several monkeys. ↩︎

    ∞

    Micro.Blog as my home base

    I was thinking this week about how Micro.Blog has become the home base for all of my online activity. I’ve had an account since I backed the Kickstarter in 2017, but recently, I’ve started slowly moving everything from my old Squarespace1 site:

    • Blog Hosting. This blog is hosted on Micro.Blog. I’m in the process of migrating my favorite old posts from Sketchbook B here so everything is in one place. At the $10/month premium subscription level, I can even add a few more blogs if I want to.

    • Site Hosting. SbBFonts.com is a static site hosted on Micro.Blog that features my typeface designs. I’ve got other ideas for simple sites I want to build. These “single page sites” are completely underrated feature of Micro.Blog and included with the premium plan. I love the flexibility of adding these kind of sites quickly and easily.

    • Social timeline. I use Micro.Blog’s timeline to interact with other Micro.Blog users and to follow Mastodon and other Fediverse accounts. It’s not the most active timeline because there is no algorithm pushing content at you. I consider that a feature, not a drawback. It’s not a replacement for other social sites like Mastodon, Threads or Bluesky, but it is a nice alternative.

    • Crossposting. Social media is fragmenting. When I post to Micro.Blog, I have it configured to automatically crosspost to Bluesky and Threads. I could also crosspost to LinkedIn, but I don’t want everything I post copied over there. People on Mastodon can follow my Micro.Blog posts at bobwertz@bobwertz.com. And the service keeps evolving. Micro.Blog founder Manton Reese is great about adding features as new APIs are released or updated.

    • My Tweet Archive. Just because I left Twitter didn’t mean I wanted to lose all my tweets. Manton built a way to import my tweets and I now have a searchable archive of 15 years of Twitter posts on my own site.

    • Third-party Tools. The web interface for Micro.Blog is fine, but I like using different apps, too. I can post directly to Micro.Blog from Ulysses and MarsEdit. Feedbin has a nice little integration, too, but I don’t use it much. It’s nice to have options, something that Squarespace doesn’t offer.2

    There are other features that I don’t take advantage of yet like email newsletters, podcasts and narrated posts. All of these are included with my plan, I just haven’t gotten around to using them yet.

    I know that Micro.Blog isn’t for everyone. It’s easy to get started, but to get maximum customization, you need to be comfortable with tinkering. The text editor uses Markdown, which I like, but many people have never heard of. It’s worth noting that Micro.Blog has no built in metrics. This is by design and I think it’s a good thing, but if you are the type of person who wants to dig into the metrics of every post, this probably isn’t the service for you.3

    Micro.Blog is exactly what I want in a service. A home for all of my random thoughts, projects and experiments. The service provides an incredible amount of value for $5 or $10 a month and it feels like the web I fell in love with. If it aligns with your needs, there really isn’t a better service.

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina.

    1. Squarespace seems to be trying to serve a business audience with a ton of features that I really don’t need. Plus, they recently announced they are going private again with the help of private equity. This makes me nervous. ↩︎

    2. When I first started using Squarespace, there was an API, but they phased out support for that a long time ago. ↩︎

    3. You can add metrics through some other third party services, but I personally want to remain blissfully ignorant. Maybe I’ll write a post about that some day. ↩︎

    ∞

    SbB Fonts: My new two-color type design site hosted on Micro.Blog

    I decided a while back that I wanted to separate my typeface designs onto their own site. They’ve always lived alongside my blog and other creative projects, but they needed a home of their own, especially since I plan to expand the offerings in the near future. I’ve been noodling around with options, but today, I’m finally ready to release SbBFonts.com out into the world with a design inspired by two-color printing.

    screenshot of sbbfonts.com

    The Inspiration

    When I became a designer in the mid-1990s, the web was just becoming a thing, and printed documents were the primary job of a designer. Two-color projects used only two spot ink colors — say green and black — for the entire job. (You also had a “third” color with the paper, which was usually just white.) Four-color printing or full-color printing was reserved for only the most important pieces with the largest budgets. For young designers in a pre-web world, two-color work paid the bills. Two-color printing presented challenges, but the process had a particular look. Designers who knew what they were doing could use duotones for images or print on colored paper to get a different look.

    Two-color printing isn’t dead. Screen printing and letterpress still use spot colors, but full color printing has gotten cheaper and as a society, we don’t print nearly as many marketing materials as we used to. The craft of designing has moved past the lowly two-color press run.

    I guess that’s why when I started to design a home for my typeface designs, I knew I wanted the site to resemble a two-color print job. Much of the inspiration for my type designs comes from my nostalgia for old tech. Two-color printing seemed like the perfect inspiration.

    The Execution

    The first question was what two “ink” colors to use? Since I wanted to use a dark background, I chose white and the bright green since I use that color for all of my Sketchbook B projects. I picked two dark greens to be backgrounds — essentially a dark mode and a darker mode.1 Accommodating the two background colors meant that I also needed to use transparency on all of my example graphics, including my fake “duotones” and my animated GIFs. You can see the example below of one of the images I used placed over white, dark green and darker green backgrounds. I’m happy with the result, even if there are far easier ways to accomplish this look.2

    three examples of the duotone approach using an image with shipping containers and a crane

    This site is hosted as a “single page” on Micro.Blog. This might be the worst named feature on Micro.Blog since you can absolutely have more than one page. It’s simply a static Hugo site that doesn’t include a blog. I built everything on the Tiny theme by Matt Langford — the same version that I use for bobwertz.com. This feature is included in my Micro.Blog subscription, so my additional cost is essentially nothing.3

    To get the look I wanted, I had to write a bunch of HTML and CSS. My old site was on Squarespace, so it has been a while since I worked so closely with markup. I spent a good bit of time digging through reference guides to make sure I was doing everything correctly. But honestly, if you look under the hood, it’s probably a mess. Just a warning.4

    I still have a little refinement left, but I’m happy with where the site is. I need to finish proofreading and rework some of the copy. I’m thinking about future development… I’ve got a plan on how to change the home page when I add a few more typefaces. Right now, I think the five fonts currently presented in this way is about the maximum.

    Head over to SbB Fonts and let me know what you think.

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina.

    1. The print designer in me would like to acknowledge that I’d likely need to use two hits of white on dark paper to get this effect. Meaning that it would likely need to be a three-color job. I’m ignoring that inconvenient truth. ↩︎

    2. Or, you know, not having a “light mode” version… ↩︎

    3. I did choose to buy a domain name. ↩︎

    4. The last time I built a site by hand, tables were an acceptable construction method. ↩︎

    ∞

    15 years of Fontstruct

    I realized this morning that I’ve been using Fontstruct for 15 years. Fontstruct is an online tool for building modular typefaces. My first typeface design — Big Thursday — debuted on May 26, 2009. Since then, I’ve publicly released 49 fonts on Fontstruct and 19 have been selected as “Staff Picks.”

    The original version didn’t have a lot of flexibility,1 but over time developer Rob Meek has added new brick types, construction methods, kerning, support for color fonts and other features to Fontstruct to make it more powerful. My work tends to be a little brutalist, but if you want to understand the flexibility of the tool, check out the gallery to see what amazing creations people can craft with this online tool.

    I don’t use the most complicated features, but I sometimes use Fontstruct to prototype an idea for a new typeface. One of Fontstruct’s best integrations is that I can download a file that I can open and refine in Glyphs.2 I recently created a design, moved it to Glyphs and built a variable font out of it.

    Balancing work, family, grad school and other obligations, I don’t have a ton of time to spend in Fontstruct. But when they rolled out the Patron level of support for 5 euro a month, I subscribed immediately. I’m happy to support independent tools that are constantly improving.

    I pulled together a sample of some of the designs I’ve created over the years on Fontstruct. Feel free to head over to my page and download anything you like. Or better yet, sign up for an account and start experimenting.

    Examples of typefaces designed with Fontstruct

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina.

    1. And was built in Flash! ↩︎

    2. Glyphs is my type design software of choice. I love it. ↩︎

    ∞

    Project Repost: Moving select posts from Squarespace to Micro.Blog

    I started a blog in early 2008. Over the years, I wrote hundreds of posts and articles. Some of it good. Much of it forgettable. I authored a bunch of InDesign tips that generated search traffic, but over time, I became less interested in writing about Adobe Creative Cloud and design issues. A few years ago, I moved all my writing over to this site. As part of some work I’m doing this summer to clean up my various sites, I wanted to figure out how to save the posts from this old Squarespace site.

    I tried to export the entire archive, but had limited success. The Squarespace export uses the Wordpress export format. And the export kinda works, but Squarespace’s software has inserted random code blocks throughout that would have to be removed manually. I thought about just shutting down the whole blog, but changed my mind. As I scanned over the list of articles, there were too many posts that I didn’t want to lose.

    As I mentioned in the earlier post, a friend of mine (who also happened to have an old Squarespace site) mentioned that he moved selected posts manually to a new site, and let go of the stuff he no longer focused on. The more I looked at my old writing, the more this seemed like the logical path forward.

    I’ve decided that I’m going to slowly move selected posts to bobwertz.com. Several of them were written at a particular time, about specific events so I’ve decided to post them on the new site with the original date. I’ve added a sentence at the top, to explain that the post has been moved. I’ll make minor grammar or spelling corrections, but otherwise I plan to leave the posts as they are now.

    As a test, I’ve moved two posts already: B.A.R.E. (Bad Acronyms aRe Everywhere) from 2015 and I made a red velvet cake from 2018. I’ve got about 70 posts that I want to move, and I plan to move a couple of posts each week.

    I think it’s worth noting that one of the reasons I feel comfortable moving everything to Micro.Blog is Manton’s commitment to ensuring the content you create can easily be moved, archived or backed up. I’ve turned on Micro.Blog’s Github backup feature, and I know I can export my content in a number of formats if I need to, including the blog archive format that Manton proposed. I wish more services realized the value of allowing easy export of content, and I’m appreciative of Micro.Blog’s commitment to portability and interoperability.

    I’m happy with this solution and even though it will take time to move the posts manually, I truly believe it’s the best option for this situation.

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.

    ∞

    Reading back over 14 years of blog posts... and deciding what to do with them.

    Several years ago, I moved all of my blog posting from my Squarespace-hosted sketchbookb.com to my Micro.Blog-hosted bobwertz.com. I’ve been happy with the move. My plan was to switch my Squarespace blog over to more professional posts, but that never really happened — and I don’t really feel like posting more InDesign and Creative Cloud tips. Last week, I decided that I need to do something with the old site and I’m working through my options.

    One of the options was just to bring the site down and redirect sketchbookb.com to a new site. I’ve got over 600 posts, though, and while most of them don’t see any traffic, I’d hate to see them all disappear. I started to go back through the site to see what I’d lose.

    My first post is in 2008 and my last post was at the end of 2021. There are many tips and tricks for InDesign that generate significant traffic even though they are very old. I also have a large number of reviews for iPhone apps that no longer exist. I wouldn’t miss those posts, but reading back through my writing, there is much that I do not want to part with. A reflection about being on a beach on a moonless night. My series of Twitterless posts and a handful of somewhat prescient rants about social media. My 52 Shirts project. New typeface introductions. Writing about our COVID reality. My original attempt at hosting my microblogging on Sketchbook B. My successful attempt to bake my mom’s red velvet cake recipe.1

    So what should I do? I’m not going to delete Sketchbook B without saving the posts somehow. I have first drafts of most of the writing in Ulysses, the app where I’ve done most of my writing for almost a decade.2 But the final posts often have custom illustrations or additional copy edits, so the Ulysses version is somewhat incomplete. I’ve experimented with trying to export and move the posts from Squarespace, but that hasn’t gone well. One of my friends recommended saving the posts that matter to me and moving them manually to bobwertz.com. That would work for some of the posts, but it would be a tedious process. A couple of them — like my examination on viewscreens and interfaces in Star Trek — really could be updated. I may start updating and reposting select articles to bobwertz.com and just add a note to the beginning about when and where they were originally posted. We’ll see how that goes.

    I will still try to move them to another site. I have a full backup of my tweets, and I’d love to have Sketchbook B as well. The problem is that Squarespace exports using the Wordpress format, but they have some extra code in the export that causes problems.

    Finally, the print designer part of me wants to pull together all the posts that matter and make a physical book. Place a copy on my bookshelf. It seems appropriate as a way to close an old chapter and start a new one.

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.

    1. I’d link to them, but I may be moving them somewhere else. ↩︎

    2. I know because there’s a post on Sketchbook B from 2015 about starting to use Ulysses. ↩︎

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