Interface Fail

This is a parking garage kiosk that clearly has issues. The interface needs multiple handwritten helpers to guide the user. The large number of interventions has begun to create its own difficulties by confusing the operator with too many extra clarifying messages.

Signs of a Different Kind

Bear as sign, Amersham, UK


Vernacular signage. Amersham, UK


Italian restaurant. Battersea, UK

Crispy Duck Dinner. Amersham, UK

I don't have anything in particular to say about these images. I just found them interesting in the way the various owners have found to communicate what they are 'selling'.
Posted by Teal

No Parking, Please

A nice way of asking. Amersham, UK

I know it is cliche as someone interested in typography to go around and take photos of 'no parking' signs. But, hey, ho. I just couldn't resist adding these signs to the collection.

Most 'no parking' signs attempt to warn us off from parking somewhere, but the owner of this one found in Amersham, UK, took a different tactic. As my mother used to say "it never hurts to say please."

I just had to include this second image of a  'no parking' sign as a lesson to those of us who thrive on experimental typography and letterspacing. Yeah, I know....get a life!

If you want to see some really humorous 'no parking' signs, then take a look at this site.

The art of letterspacing. Amersham, UK.


Posted by Teal

Space Trek

A Tumblr blog of images from the original Star Trek series showing "the quiet despair of the Starship Enterprise." An interesting collection of mostly uninhabited scenes (some with people unengaged with the viewer) that include many portals that connect to an unseen, inaccessible, or perhaps dangerous space beyond the confines of a space inhabited by us the viewers. Some of the despair comes from this lack of mobility, some from loneliness, and perhaps some from the sharp lighting on hard surfaces.

Something about the lack of detail in the ship makes the outer space it moves through seem more vast and the crew more vulnerable and alone. Is the craft defined by the territory it moves through, or does the territory define how we understand the ship?

Inhabiting 'Ma'

Nice project that allows inhabitation of a space inbetween territories under highway overpasses.
-Riley

Signs of Hope

Just sometimes when you think the world has gone mad, a few small signs restore faith in our society.

I live in one of the neighbourhoods of London which was hit hard by riots earlier this week. The area saw substantial damage to local shops which were looted and in some cases, torched. A reporter for Sky News, who also lives in the neighborhood, managed to capture on his iPhone, video footage of some of the frenzied attacks on the local betting shop - it went viral.

But in the immediate aftermath, as MDF boards were put up where glass fronts of shops had been, graffiti began to emerge. But not in the sense of spray can vandalism. Rather this was hand-rendered messages which made visible the feelings of a community defiant against such attacks and wanting to show support for local retailers and residents whose shops and homes had been destroyed. Soon, the shop owners themselves showed their gratitude by hanging signs alongside saying 'thanks' to the community.

So for the next few days at least I'll be looking at a situation where the shop fronts are message boards. People are still visiting the hoardings with their felt tip pens and spray can paints to leave their mark. This is vernacular communication at its most spontaneous and most inspiring.

Local cooking school and food shop.
Shop front as message board.
Message from one community to another.
Message of 'thanks'. Posted by Teal

Wind powered information

A great example by Ned Kahn on how to display information on a building that communicates realtime information about the conditions of a place. Powered by the subject of the information it is communicating. Very nice.
Riley