If there’s one thing I love, it’s history. For me, understanding history helps me feel grounded in the present and part of the larger picture as a whole. Now,  I’ve also been known to stop by a bar now and again. Combine the two and it’s pretty hard for me to resist. Couple these two with a unique story of typography and I’m a moth to the flame.

In New York, there’s no shortage of history and as you might imagine, there’s no shortage of historic bars. Some I’ve been to, some are still on my list. This is about one historic bar that also has a little typographic novelty.

New Yorker’s are resilient (as you might imagine) and have always been that way. The Ear Inn was built in 1817. The long and sordid tale of it’s decades as an unnamed sailor’s haunt perched on the edge of the Hudson River are better left for other times and better historians, but I do want to talk about it’s sign.

It’s sign, you see, is magnificent. It exemplifies both the resilient nature of New Yorkers and a wonderful grasp of typography.

In 1977 when new owners took over the bar, they were faced with two problems. The first? They had to actually name the bar. You see, it had mostly just been known as “bar” or “the Green Door” by the old sailors. And the second? The Landmark Commission. That’s one of the downsides of being historic. You’re protected from the vagaries of progress and as part of the deal you have to remain, well, historic. The Ear Inn had for many many years simply had a neon sign out front stating plainly, “bar”.  Removing or replacing the sign would mean going before the Landmark Commission which in it’s infinite wisdom works at a glacial pace.

As for the name, they decided to name it after the music magazine that inhabited the second floor. As for the sign, this is where the story gets creative. The solution? Just paint over the parts of the “B” in bar to create a sign that reads, “Ear”. True inspiration. Not many folks (outside of those who love typography) would look at the letter “B” and see the “E” hiding inside.

Of course, the Ear Inn can’t avoid progress completely – last time I visited, I spoke with a couple of old timers over some whiskey who were lamenting the fact that many of the regulars were dying off. They were worried not only about their friends and their own future, but what would become of the Ear Inn. A new condo has been built next door (which might help keep the Ear Inn standing upright) and the neighborhood is being gentrified.

One of the earliest forms of graphic design in my mind is cartography. An elegant production of visual communication that has been refining itself since the dawn of man. Yeah, I like maps.

This past spring here in New York City, the MTA unveiled a new subway map, the first update of the map since 1998. And while the map has been reviewed in the press, as a designer, map lover and most importantly as a rider, I wanted to give my thoughts.

The old subway map suffered from an overwhelming amount of information some of which was really unnecessary for most riders. For example, the bus information always was an annoyance to me. It’s always just served as clutter the map.

One striking thing about the new map is the decision to reduce the size of Staten Island in relation to the other boroughs. This allows the other boroughs — where most of the trains (and people) are — to be enlarged. Apparently, there was some uproar about this decision, but personally, I’m fine with it. Guess what? I’ve lived here six years and never met anyone from Staten Island. All the other boroughs? Yep, lots of people, lots of times. In fact, I’ve never even been out to Staten Island. Maybe someday I’ll go, but I’ll probably take the ferry. Reducing it’s prominence on the map — even if the geographic proportions are not accurate — is a good design decision.

A large portion of the distracting bus route information has also been removed which I whole-heartedly approve of. It allows the map to focus on it’s main goal — the subway system.

One thing I don’t like about the new map is the color change for the parks. They’re no longer a true green and are much more subtle than in the previous map. The colors of the parks and the surrounding city are so similar as to make the parks almost unnoticeable. While I like maps, I also like parks and since many of the viewers of this map are tourists, I would think the city would want to highlight the green spaces.

——————–
Update: I’ve noticed that the version of the new map that actually is posted in subway cars contains even less of the pop out bus information boxes making for a cleaner (and clearer) presentation.

The gaming site Kotaku has posted the entire Sony Move brochure I designed — every page. Maybe it’s some attempt to one-up IGN who posted just the comparison chart page last week. You can view the post here.

Again — they seem unable to work the scanner/copier as the pages aren’t even straight. Sigh. At least the comments are funny this time around.

In terms of the design — I wanted to create a new cover (like I did for the holiday brochure), but Sony ran out of time/budget and so we went with one based on another marketing brochure that Sony had developed internally. And although I did illustrate some of the elements (such as the line drawing of the Move controller), the action photos generating comments were provided as is by Sony.

A page from another Sony Move brochure I designed got picked up and posted online fueling a ton of comments from gamers on the Move motion controller. Over 600 comments and counting at this point. You can view the chart and join the fray here.

As a side note, it’s a little disappointing that IGN couldn’t be bothered to get a clean scan of the page. It looks like they used it as a napkin before scanning and posting it. It’s not a big deal for me (I know how the page should look), but as a “publisher” it shows a real lack of concern for quality (and therefore a disdain for their viewers).

For a long time now, I’ve been quietly working to bring more space into the world. Specifically to typography and the em dash in particular. The en dash (–) and to a lesser degree it’s cousin the em dash (—) are some of the most misunderstood pieces of punctuation in the English language. Being a designer, I’m intimately concerned with the visual aspects of text and seeing an en dash crammed in between two words just screams, “HELP!” I find myself adding a single space on either side of the en dash consistently and repeatedly in my work. Using the em dash to separate phrases in a sentence has always seemed jarring and then to use it without any space on either side causes it to act as a hard stop on the eye of the reader. Not very pretty and not very functional.

And I’ve always thought it was just my quirky pursuit of a certain visual aesthetic. One of those quiet tasks a designer faces. A task that at first, you try to turf onto the writers through education (along with many of the other of the finer points of digital typography) but eventually resign yourself to as just part of the job.

Recently though, I came across some typography tips which expressed and reaffirmed my beliefs regarding the en and em dash. And from none other than famed typographer Erik Spiekermann in the FontShop publication, “Erik Spiekermann’s Typo Tips.” Right there in Tip #2, he summarizes the proper use of both the en and em dash and (thankfully) helps to justify all the quiet work us designers do to improve the visual appeal of the written word.

It’s nice to be in good company (and to have a resource for explanation when the curious ask why there’s a little breathing room around an en dash).

It’s an old motto that, the more information you can give a designer, the better the final design will be. This is especially true in the case of the audience. One of our key audiences, which is near and dear to my heart, is the video game community. I’m of the generation that came of age with the Atari 2600 and hung out in dark arcades dropping quarters, so it’s an audience of which I’m a member. Designing for yourself is always fun and whenever I get a project targeting at gamers I dive right in.

There are a few things that will always peak the interest of a gamer and at the top of my list is robots (others include ninjas and monkeys — both completely viable options). Access Communications hosts an annual party at the gaming industry’s biggest trade show E3 and I was tasked with developing some email invitations for the event. Naturally, I developed, designed and wrote the copy for the invites using a robot theme. The key concept of the 2009 invite was that the event would feature alcohol dispensing robot. After a hard day trudging around the trade show, everyone’s ready for a drink and it seemed natural to combine the two ideas. Of course, the whole idea is meant to be taken as tongue in cheek humor — there would be no actual alcohol dispensing robots at the event (but we can dream). The invite was met with success and even got picked up and posted by the online gamer press which is always a good sign.

When this year’s event rolled around, the team and I brainstormed and narrowed it down to two themes: pirates (another gamer fave) and a continuation of the previous year’s robot concept. The pirate theme centered around a skull and crossbones logo I developed (more on that at another time), but it didn’t have a story behind it. Crafting a compelling story is another key to getting the audience to engage and without a story (or time to develop one), the pirate concept got shelved.

I was also completely intrigued with the idea of continuing the robot story from the previous year. It’s rare that we get the opportunity to tell long arc stories and to continue the conversation with the audience. So many projects are just one time affairs soon to be forgotten. For the follow up invite, I wrote copy that directly referenced the previous year’s invite and moved the story forward. The invite was met with a ton of positive feedback and although it did not get picked up by the gamer press, it had a more substantial impact — Access had to increase the budget for food and booze to accommodate the increase in RSVPs.

Here’s sample screens from the two invites and each links to the full invitation:

E3 2009 Invitation

E3 2010 Invitation

Here’s a few of the comments the team received on this year’s invitation:

• “I will try to make it unless the robots get me first”
• “FINALLY, ROBOTIC BEINGS RULE THE WORLD”
• “Please RSVP me for this event, even though I will have to order drinks from a filthy human and not from a precision calibrated robot”
• “It just won’t be the same without the drunk robots, but I’ll still be there!”

Coming in Part Two: What I designed for the events themselves.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever get used to it. Every summer I end up working on projects that are promoting something for the winter holidays. The old phrase is “Christmas in July” and I never cease to find it weird. It may be 90+ degrees outside, but I find myself drawing snow.

Here’s some samples from this summer’s big winter project. They’re from a Sony PlayStation fourteen page booklet I designed and illustrated. I really like the way the cover came out and no one can resist Sackboy.

For an added bonus, one of the pages of the booklet got picked up in the gaming press and posted online — starting a huge debate (i.e., flame war) regarding Sony’s new motion controller.