Meanwhile #065
Shorn of the distractions of its particular context.
This is an old edition of Meanwhile from an inferior, more simian newsletter platform that has unhelpfully severed all the hyperlinks. It’s included here in the archive simply for sake of completeness.
Here you go, another list of distractful, vaguely design-related hyperlinks to help you fend off all of that pesky productivity that's clogging up your day:
It’s Secret 7” time again! A simple, wonderful idea: you anonymously design a sleeve for one of this year’s chosen tracks (Jimi Hendrix, Eurythmics, Manic Street Preachers, etc.) and then it’ll be sold to raise money for mental health charity Mind.
Trees, DNA, smells, cholera, sitcoms and bombs – Mapping Londonfeatures all manner of cartographic perspectives on the capital.
“Is the essence of reality to be found in showing a subject shorn of the distractions of its particular context?” – Rick Poynor on Andreas Gursky’s photographic massiveness and manipulation. His new exhibition at the recently reopened Hayward Gallery appears to be equal parts fantastic and frustrating.
The best Star Wars games of the Atari generation. The Empire Strikes Back is still one of my all time favourite games.
Excellent long read on the history and future of the Oxford English Dictionary. Talk about Sisyphean – in the time it takes you to read the article, two new words will have popped into existence.
What colour is a tennis ball (or more importantly – because I see a LOT of them at the moment – what colour is a Minion)? The answer is surprisingly complicated.
I love Paula Clarke Bain’s regular look at the art of the comedy index. The latest, on Richard Ayoade’s The Grip of Film, is particularly good.
Creative Review’s humour issue is an absolute corker. Articles on Wes Anderson, Asterix, the DLR, Pet Shop Boys, Stephen Collins and John Stezaker. Plus I take a serious look at funny business on Twitter.
Pierrick Calvez’s five minutes guide to better typography is well worth a scroll. I like the idea of hyphenated words as “language Darwinism”.
Thomas Heatherwick: architecture’s showman. Opinion seems pretty split about The Vessel, his shiny, pointless lattice of stairs in New York, but I rather like it – although I fear it will soon become swamped by selfie-sticks and Fitbit masochists.
I found myself in Bookweek’s monthly cover design roundup, which is always nice.
Very excited about this: Dave Addey’s Typeset in the Future: Typography and Design in Science Fiction Movies, based on his blog of the same name, is available for preorder. Yes please.
Also landing right at the top of my wishlist: Jenny Hammerton’s Cooking With Columbo.
That is all.