My son was happy that his first JV lacrosse season was over and he could take a little bit of a break.
He’s currently playing a lacrosse VR game on his Meta Quest.
Blade Wing
For one year, I wrote a blog post about a random topic and designed a shirt inspired by the blog post.1 Lately, I’m giving myself some projects so I can learn to be more proficient in Canva Affinity and decided to design a t-shirt about my favorite Star Wars spaceship.
I was the perfect age when Return of the Jedi came out. And while I know that the Empire Strikes Back is the better movie, I have fond memories of seeing Return of the Jedi in theaters. And that’s probably why the B-Wing fighter is my favorite Star Wars ship.
If you haven’t seen a B-Wing, it’s a strange vehicle. It has a pilot capsule, and then the rest of the ship consists of one long wing, with a cross-shaped pair of wings that fold out. The whole ship spins around the pilot capsule like a gyroscope. When it lands, the wings fold up and it lays on its side. The B-Wing looked completely different than the other fighters… the X-Wing, the Y-Wing and the A-Wing. Plus it looked nothing like the letter B.
The B-Wing gets very little screen time in Return of the Jedi. Apparently, the wings of the ship were too thin with the special effects of the early 1980s and they would just disappear against the blue screen. But the B-Wing toy was amazing and I’ve long held a place in my heart for this odd little ship.
Since the original series, the B-Wing shows up in a few places. Star Wars Rebels gives the B-Wing an origin story in S2 E7 Wings of the Master. Designed in secret by a Mon Calamari ship designer, Quarrie, Hera convinces him to let the Rebel Alliance develop his “Blade Wing” fighter. The Alphabet Squadron book series includes a B-Wing. The B-Wing shows up a little in the Rise of Skywalker, but every ship shows up in the Rise of Skywalker.
At the end of Skeleton Crew, a couple of B-Wings show up in the final battle over At Attin and deliver the final blow to destroy the pirate mothership. Notably, this was the first time a B-Wing has been shown firing its main weapon in live action.
I decided that I needed some B-Wing merch so I created a new shirt on Cotton Bureau — Blade Wing. It features an abstract illustration of the B-wing in its landed configuration. You can get it in a couple of different colors. If you are also a fan of the most distinct fighter in the Star Wars universe, head on over to Cotton Bureau and grab a shirt.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
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My 52 Shirts project is over at Sketchbook B. I haven’t had a chance to move them all here yet. ↩︎
Avett Brothers at the Township Auditorium.
Graphic design schools are teaching tech, but are they teaching taste? Kathy Pham discusses the current state of design education. Really solid essay on a topic I’ve been thinking about recently.
I’ve been listening to the Vergecast lately and this Tuesday’s episode is outstanding. Ben McKenzie talks about crypto and his new documentary. Victoria Song discusses the pros and (very serious) cons of health tracking. A thoughtful discussion on two very complicated tech topics.
SbB Powertrain in use: Eurobasket
Being a type designer can be weird. You create your design. Share it with the world. And then someday, unexpectedly, it shows up again.
I designed SbB Powertrain over a decade ago and I was very surprised to see it pop up in a clip of Gamecock Women’s Basketball player Ali Tournebize dunking in the 2024 Eurobasket U18 bronze medal game. Turns out that FIBA uses Powertrain as part of the identity for their Eurobasket tournament. It was used heavily for the 2024 and it looks like they are still using it in some places. Here are a couple of examples that I stumbled across.
If you look closely to the videos, Powertrain is used for the 2024 at center court and on some of the courtside screens. So much fun to see my type design in use, especially in a global context. Learn more about SbB Powertrain and my other fonts at sbbfonts.com.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
This academic study in Visual Communication analyzing G.I. Joe “Knowing is half the battle” PSAs from the early 1980s is amazing. Sadly not open access, but you should read it if you are Gen X and have access through your university library.
I’m fascinated by the minimalist approach that Slate is taking with their EV pickup. I see opportunity for customization, but others see a small truck without a built-in sound system. This article does a good job of summing up the challenges Slate faces in taking a radically different approach.
Witnessed a drone delivery yesterday for the first time when shopping in southern Charlotte. Apparently, it’s a partnership beween Doordash and Wing, and only available in a four mile radius of the shopping center we were in. Strange to see a drone lower a package to the ground, and then fly off.
Happy Easter from Team Wertz. Always wonderful to worship at St. Paul Aiken when we are in town.
Go Gamecocks!!!! 🏀
Spring is here. I looked up while grilling and noticed our backyard trees are finally all green again. 🍃🍃🍃
Ryan got his first high school start tonight when the starting goalie injured his hand in warm ups. He got the win and a shut out.
Bored, while sitting in a very long middle school car line. (I’m near the front.)
The South Carolina Women’s Basketball team is so impressive. Strong win against Oklahoma today. Ta’Niya, Raven and Tessa shot the lights out, scoring 60 of the team’s 94. Looking forward to the next game against TCU or Virginia. Go Gamecocks. 🐓🏀
More examples of Apple’s non-traditional approach to visual brand management
Apple seems to be one of the most tightly managed brands in the world, but they actually use their logo much more whimsically than any other big brands. I’ve written in the past about logo usage that runs against typical brand management best practices. On the eve of their 50th anniversary, I’ve come across two more examples. I wanted to share them as a way to continue to document Apple’s approach to visual identity:
The 50th Anniversary “Logo”
Apple has artwork that essentially serves as an alternate logo for their anniversary. It’s a stylized treatment of their logo (below), which includes a rainbow of colors that harkens back to their old six color rainbow logo.
The Apple Hello Instagram post
Apple shared an Instagram post with a series of animated takes on the Apple logo, but the sequence starts with the old six color logo.
Both examples take the Apple logo shape and use it as a structure for artwork. You typically don’t see large companies allowing or promoting this kind of variability with their logo. And you rarely see an old logo pop up, even during an anniversary. The artwork feels true to the Apple brand, but runs counter to what other brands do. In brand management, rigid consistency is king. As designers, it’s worth noting that Apple of all companies allows such flexibility within their visual identity guidelines, and maybe we can learn something from how they use their logo and brand creatively.
Bob Wertz is a type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.
The parking garage is so eerily empty when I get in early.
I’ve been impressed by Kagi News. A nice AI-curated summary of important news stories, updated once a day. Provides links to a spectrum of sources, and the site has an RSS feed, so I can easily add it to Feedbin.
Coffee shops should all have a rack of reading glasses for sale. I occasionally forget mine when I go to write or study, and I would completely pay an inflated price for a pair of reading glasses in the moment. I can’t be the only one. I think they’d make a nice profit.
Working at the Starbucks at I-26 and Broad River in Irmo tonight while Ryan is at lacrosse practice. I studied here all the time when I first started grad school. Happy to report that almost a decade after I nicknamed it “Grad School Starbucks” that it is still full of grad students.