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.
Theo Inglis on Herb Lubalin breaking the fourth wall of book design
“It is fair to say that Lubalin played, but with purpose. His meticulously designed typographic illustrations often relied on embracing chance. Although describing his work as anarchic may be a step too far, he certainly had a mischievous streak and wasn’t afraid to defy perceived wisdom when he saw fit, but always with communication as his ultimate goal. Aesthetically Lubalin’s work doesn’t fit with the accepted vision of what Postmodern graphic design looks like, something which was only beginning to emerge at the time of his death in 1981. But his ability to defy the rules marks him out as distinctly not a Modernist, in the purist mold of say, Massimo Vignelli.”
Illustration Chronicles on the Ukiyo-e Prints of Utagawa Kuniyoshi
“The Reforms included a ban on representations of kabuki actors, courtesans and geisha … these professions represented luxuries society could not afford and by depicting them, artists were said to be purposely provoking society through subversive ideas. To get around this censorship Kuniyoshi would often illustrate famous kabuki actors in animal form; frequently hiding small clues that could hint at an actor's true identity.”
Jez Burrows and Tom Comitta discuss narrative collage and literary supercuts
“I was reading the dictionary on a Friday night (because that’s the sort of white-knuckle life I lead) and I found this example sentence for the word study in the New Oxford American Dictionary, which read ‘he perched on the edge of the bed, a study in confusion and misery.’ It was so melodramatic and unexpected, and it made me realize I’d never really given these sentences much thought before. I ended up just sat there reading the dictionary in a completely new way—which is to say completely disregarding the main attraction (the definitions) and instead focusing on these odd little pieces of fiction hanging out in a book of reference.”
The spectacular power of big lens – how one giant company will dominate the way the whole world sees
“The transformation of glasses from a medical device to a means of self-expression, like clothes or sneakers, has been a source of joy for millions of people. But it has also obscured their original purpose, and complicated efforts to distribute them as easily as, say, mosquito nets or aspirin. When I mentioned this to Mollo, he recalled a recent trip he had taken with Luxottica’s corporate social responsibility programme, conducting eye tests and distributing glasses in rural China. ‘They were so happy having the possibility to see. They were hugging us. It was really not for fashion,’ he said. ‘Then they started, you know, looking at themselves … and the fashion moment arrived.’”
Paul McAuley on how the act of naming a thing makes it more observable and consequently more real
“We need words to describe features peculiar to the urban landscape … words for the plastic bag caught in the branches of a tree (as opposed to the plastic bag caught on the razor-wire of a security fence), the ring of green algae that grows at the bases of street lights and traffic signs in winter, the water that lurks under a loose paving stone. The temporary freshet that wells from a broken water pipe. The weeds that crack through concrete. The weeds that grow at the seam between pavement and wall. The hump in tarmac raised by a tree root. The wind that skirls down the side of a skyscraper. The gleam of low winter sun on a glass curtain wall. Those things inhabitants of cities unsee every day, because as yet they lack the vocabulary to make them a permanent part of the urban experience.”
That is all.