The end of the Bills-Ravens game was wild. What a comeback.
Scout Motors partnered with local coffee shops to buy coffee for Columbia today. Pretty cool event, and we are happy to have Scout in our community. Thanks for the free drink today! (And the stickers.)
I bought a wireless CarPlay adapter for my car and it’s awesome. I can’t believe I didn’t buy one earlier.
Some thoughts on the Cracker Barrel rebranding fiasco from a visual identity researcher
My Ph.D. research is focused on consumer response to logos and visual identity, so as you can imagine, I’ve talked about Cracker Barrel1 a lot over the last few weeks. Everyone has an opinion and is eager to share it. I held off writing this because the social media chatter was just chaotic, but now that things have calmed down, I wanted to share some quick thoughts based on my research.
Most of our neighbors have doorbell cameras and motion-activated cameras around their house. We don’t. This morning, one of our neighbors showed us a clip of a guy walking through our yard and trying our car door (which was locked). He then went to their house and tried to open their car doors. Now, I’m wondering if we should have security cameras, even though I think it’s a privacy nightmare…
I switched from the Tiny Theme to the Mythos Theme for my main blog. It’s really nice, but it’s going to take me a while to fully customize it.
I loved newspapers and magazines when I was young. My first job was delivering newspapers. Publication design led me into a design career. But times change, and I’m sad, but not surprised that the Atlanta Journal Constitution will stop printing physical papers.
I’m working in the School of Journalism’s grad student suite for the first time in a while. It’s so quiet up here. I’m going to try to work from here one night a week. It’s a nice change of pace from coffee shops or the kitchen table.
I really want to use Ulysses or Scrivener for my dissertation, but I’m hooked on Zotero’s citation management integration with Word. And the process of connecting Zotero with Scrivener seems… complicated.
I’ve been in two active shooter situations. One turned out to be a false alarm, but it caused a real stampede in a crowded mall. The other was a murder-suicide on campus that caused a lockdown. While I wasn’t really in danger in either situation, the feeling of panic sticks with you.
An active shooter on the University of South Carolina campus. I know my daughter is safe, but so incredibly terrifying.
According to Facebook, I started grad school seven years ago today. I finished my master’s degree in 2021, and have a single independent study and my dissertation left before I finish my PhD, hopefully in 2026. It’s been a long process – I feel like I’ve been a grad student forever – but I’m thankful for my wife, kids, friends and coworkers who have been incredibly patient with me on this seemingly endless journey.
My PhD research is on how people respond to logos. One factor for a successful rollout appears to be context. How will the logo be used? What’s the story behind the change? More context = better response. Neither Cracker Barrel nor MSNBC gave any real context. Here’s my published study on context.
Excited to see South Carolina switch from Under Armor to Nike next year.
Thanks Cracker Barrel and MSNBC! I needed some more recent logo backlashes for my dissertation.
My daughter and I are discussing the best fictional bands. And now, I’ve discovered Julie and the Phantoms and KPOP Demon Hunters. So what other fictional bands belong on my hypothetical list?
Working on a new typeface design that I started six years ago.
Modern cars have all the problems of a car, plus all the problems of a computer.
Digital permanence
A friend was digging through some college artifacts and found my 32-year-old business card from when I was an officer with Carolina Productions, the University of South Carolina student programming board. She sent me a picture and I noticed something funny: I still have the same email address. I came to USC as a student in 1993 and got my first email address. I used that email address with a command line system until I graduated in 1997.
I love these moments when Team Wertz is all together. Getting all three kids together at the same time is getting tougher and tougher.
