NASA’s Voyager 1 Resumes Sending Engineering Updates to Earth. It’s amazing how NASA has kept Voyager 1 and 2 operating. The probes were launched in 1977. 🪐
The last few weeks have been a blur… busy at work, wrapping up the semester as teacher and student, dealing with the aftermath of my wife’s car accident (she’s fine), buying a new car, my son’s lacrosse season… but I think I’m starting to round that corner back to some semblance of normalcy. 🤞
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Chocolate Cake for Breakfast, and Gill Sans: Separating work from their creator?
I watched a couple of my favorite episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer tonight. The show was once one of my favorites and creator Joss Whedon could do no wrong. I loved Buffy, Firefly, The Avengers and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. I even watched Agents of SHIELD. But eventually, it came to light that Joss wasn’t the feminist he claimed to be, repeatedly cheated on his wife, and verbally abused many of the people he worked with, especially Charisma Carpenter.
Chocolate Cake for Breakfast is one of my favorite stand up routines. Bill Cosby’s family-inspired standup — long before the Cosby Show — was hilarious. But later in life, he was credibly accused of drugging and sexually assaulting several women.
Gill Sans is a legendary typeface, created by author, artist and typographer Eric Gill. I’ve worked for several companies for which Gill Sans was a key element of their corporate visual identity. But Eric Gill noted in his diary that he had numerous affairs, sexually assaulted two of his daughters… and his dog.
These are three examples, but they are far from the only examples. Many works of art and entertainment have been created by people who turn out to be despicable. How do you separate the creator from their work? Can you?
For me, I can separate Joss Whedon from Buffy and his other creations. He didn’t write every word and the show isn’t just him. The actors, writers, and staff brought the show to life and crafted the characters who I loved so much. But I have to admit that I’m now less likely to watch old episodes of Buffy, and I no longer hold the show on the pedestal that I once did.
It’s different for Bill Cosby and Eric Gill, though. Their creations are sole creative endeavors. As much as I might like Cosby’s old standup routines or Gill Sans, I can’t separate the creation from the person who created it. I don’t listen to old Cosby standup, and I don’t share it with my kids. I don’t use Gill Sans (or any Eric Gill typefaces) if I can avoid it. If I cite some of Eric Gill’s writings on typography like I did a couple of months ago, I include a comment that he was a horrible human being.1
I’m not 100% sure this dichotomy makes sense, treating collaborative works differently than sole creations, but it’s where I am right now.
Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina.
-
I almost didn’t post the article referencing Gill’s quote, but his writings on the craftsmanship during the Industrial Revolution are incredibly relevant in today’s generative AI world. ↩︎
Turned in my final paper for the class I’m taking this semester. Not completely happy with it, but finished with it for now.
Finalizing a paper for grad school on a rainy Sunday. Soundtrack is the new Pearl Jam.
First Cybertruck sighting. Was attracting a ton of attention. People were taking pictures with it. #cybertruck
Dealing with replacing my wife’s totaled car is a full time job.
My wife and son were in a car accident last week and her car was pretty much destroyed. Liz and Ryan were fine, but a tree impaled their car, going through the headlight, engine and stopping between the headrests.
She just got a notification from her iPhone reminding her where she “parked” her car.
So even though I don’t work on the athletics side of things at the University of South Carolina, it’s going to be a fun couple of weeks celebrating Dawn Staley and these amazing Gamecocks.
What a great season. Undefeated. National champs.
National champs! Great game, Gamecocks!
📷 Micro.Blog April Photo Challenge #7: Wellbeing. A view from my back deck. Breeze blowing. Birds chirping. A little lizard running along the deck rail. Taking time to relax.
Anyone have recommendations for fountain pen friendly notecards?
📷 Micro.Blog April Photo Challenge #6: Windy. Steady breeze at Ryan’s lacrosse game this afternoon.
New women’s basketball fans who’ve been following Caitlin Clark are about to discover that undefeated, #1 South Carolina has flown under the radar this season because they don’t have one star player, they have nine. Will be a great game on Sunday. Looking forward to it. 🏀
📷 Micro.Blog April Photo Challenge #5: Serene. Calming green tea, after a Gamecock victory. On to the championship.
📷 Micro.Blog April Photo Challenge #4: Foliage. The Horseshoe at the University of South Carolina.
Remember when you had to manually set the RAM limits on old versions of the Mac? Microsoft may be bringing it back for Edge.
📷 Micro.Blog April Photo Challenge #3: Card. Ace of Spades.
Panera closed an old location near us and built a brand new building. We ate at the new location tonight. It’s nice, but is significantly smaller, has kiosks for ordering, a drive thru, pick up area and outdoor seating. It seems like a post-COVID design, with less emphasis on being a community space and more focus on ordering ahead and picking up to-go orders.