Random Notes from a Crank

A couple of summers ago, the Nasty family took a trip to Des Moines to play at Adventureland. A good portion of our time was spent at the water park. My memory got jogged about that experience because I just saw this article on the world's tallest waterslide under construction in Kansas City. It's call Verruckt, German for "insane." 

As I've written about before on this forum, or maybe I haven't, I'm a geek about typefaces. Recently, I decided to use Avenir Heavy typeface for headings in a document, and my mind started wandering. Who invented Avenir, and why call one version "Heavy"? I imagined a bunch of stoned graphic designers playing with the typeface one night, and then one of them adjusts the typeface so it's so thick and bold that boldface is not needed. Then one of his pot-smoking designers says, "Wow, that's heavy, man." And there you go: Avenir Heavy was born. Unfortunately, that narrative is improbable since Avenir was created in 1988 when the word "heavy" was not in mass use for that kind of meaning like in previous decades. 

And if you care about typefaces, here's "Best Practices of Combining Typefaces", "Typographical Twins: 20 Perfect Font Pairings,"  and "19 Top Fonts in 19 Top Combinations."  

A comic of note:

I started reading Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware the other day. It's one of those adult comic books, one in which the main character deals with finally meeting his father he never knew. It's semi-autobiographical, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I think Ware wrote the tale for cathartic reasons, but it seems a bit too confessional for my blood. I'm usually not a fan of confessional stuff, and I guess I'm used to comic books graphic novels that have more action to them, such as the outstanding series Mind MGMT by Matt Kindt. Do yourself a favor and read that series, people. It's worth your time, money, and mental energy. 

Evaluating the Design of the Wrigley Field Turns 100 Logos

I remember reading an article years ago, probably back in the 90s, when some big document design expert evaluated all of the MLB teams' logos at the time. The team that got the highest honor was the Milwaukee Brewers because of its logo below.

If I remember correctly, the expert lauded the Brewers' simple design that worked in a glove for its logo while succinctly representing M for Milwaukee and B for Brewers. It's always been one of my favorite sports team logos, but then again, I like the Brewers. If I weren't a Cubs fan, the Brew Crew would be my number one National League team. 

But speaking of the Cubs, and design, the Northside ball club recently revealed the top four designs for the "Wrigley Field Turns 100 Contest." You can vote for your favorite on the site, but I thought I'd provide my so-called thoughts about these designs. 

Design 1

For me, I see this logo as a strong contender. It used the signature dark green of the Friendly Confines, integrates the famous red sign, and provides a simple message, "Celebrating 100 Years." 

Design 2

This design is similar to Design 1, but there's the obvious switch to Cubs blue. It's the same concept of having the ball park on top, the name in the middle, and the Cubs logo at the bottom. It is a nice touch to provide the dates here, "1914-2014," but the V-like structure of the design is the structural difference between Design 1. I don't like the funnel-shaped structure though because, for me, it doesn't provide a strong foundation -- the logo is top-heavy to me, like it's going to fall over.

Design 3

This design is a solid curveball in the competition. Unlike the other offerings, the structure has a 20/30s feel with the type face used and jagged edges at the top coupled with a jagged scroll featuring a  simple message, "100 Years." The dates are there, but they aren't a major part of the message, and this is the only logo that incorporates the famous "The Friendly Confines" name. The only one. Opposed to the other designs, we get Wrigley from the side and not presented in full. For me, a presentation of Wrigley in full is simplistic. Also, the red scroll also pops off of the Cubbie blue background whereas the red of the Wrigley sign seems faded when contrasting to the forest green in Design 1.  

Design 4

  
I get the home plate concept. But that's about all I can say positive this logo. The blue is bland. I do like the little Cub log right below "100 Years," but this design is uninspiring. 


Which One Should Win?

From my perspective, the choice comes down to Design 1 vs. Design 3. I like the use of the famous red sign in 1 and the green color scheme harkens to reality, but Design 3 is the one that should garner the most acclaim for the reasons I detailed above. 

If I had to bet on which one wins in the voting, I'd wager on Design 1. 

Design Matters

As I'm sure you've noticed if you've been reading my blog for a while, the design changed recently. PlannedOb is now ensconced in milk chocolate brown.

Mmmmmm ........ chocolate. [In my best Homer Simpson voice]

For some time I've been fighting with myself about changing the blog's template to something more current than the crude design I used from years ago. Heck, now the blog even has sans serif font throughout, which is commonsense for the Web, but I still cherish the little feet on Georgia typeface from before. And Garamond and Baskerville, I love those bastards.

I like the new design. Don't get me wrong.

But I kind of like the idea of having an old-school, rudimentary design for blogs and websites like the one purposively done as a throwback for the band Deer Tick. The lead singer, as the interview recounts on website, "isn't a fan of flashy websites," which sounds exactly like something Mr. MaCauley would say. He's a wiseacre. He's trying to be funny.

But I've settled on brown, a color that invites yawns to most people, coupled with blue.

Wallow in PlannedOb's chocolate love, people.