Typography nerdery

For all you designers out there, or all you general typography nerds, this New York Times piece is just great.

“I think sometimes that being overly type-sensitive is like an allergy,” said Michael Bierut, a partner in the Pentagram design group in New York. “My font nerdiness makes me have bad reactions to things that spoil otherwise pleasant moments.”

One of my favorite proofreading marks is "wf" for "wrong font." You'd be surprised how many times a little something ends up in the wrong font. Usually this happens with quotation marks, and it's easy to tell because some are curvy and some are not. (Once, I proofed something for Chris and he read the "wf" mark as "wtf." I told my boss that we should introduce that mark ASAP.) Now I feel like re-watching Helvetica!

image via Flikr

Happy birthday, Sesame Street!

Yesterday, I was present at this temporary street naming ceremony. Yup, in honor of Sesame Street's 40th anniversary, New York temporarily has an actual Sesame Street. And the City of New York has declared today Sesame Street Day.

The best thing about yesterday was seeing Big Bird in person for the first time. I was face-to-face with the puppeteer, and later saw the Muppet itself. My heart stopped. I wanted to throw my arms around him and couldn't look at anything else. (Well, that's why kids like him so much. You can't look away from an 8-foot-2 bright yellow bird with those wide, curious eyes!) Fun Big Bird fact: His feathers are double-dyed to achieve the correct rich yellow. Anyway, the NYPD stopped traffic on Broadway so Big Bird (and us Sesame employees) could cross the street to stand on the steps of Lincoln Center and sing "Sunny Days" and "Sing" for all the news crews.

I also LOVED that Fran Brill, the woman who puppeteers Zoe, heard a little girl in the crowd cry "Zoe! Zoe!" and brought the puppet over to give the girl a kiss.

Yeah, that was a cool Monday at work!

Unexpected wedding perk

Well, it's hard to believe, but we're one month into our marriage! Way back at the beginning of our engagement, I couldn't fathom how we were going to plan and pull off a wedding. I'd heard so many horror stories about how it becomes a full-time job ("Say what? I already have one of those!").

So we left ourselves a year and a half. That worked for us, because up until the end, we were able to work on one. thing. at. a. time. And we definitely did a lot! I'm realizing 2 important things now in the aftermath of wedding planning:

1) I can jam way more productive stuff into my days than I previously thought I could.

2) Doing all of the creative projects for the wedding felt great.

Yes, I'm loving being married to my best friend, but there's an unexpected perk: I'm experiencing a post-wedding creative high. I'm making sure that I keep devoting ample time to creative projects, now that I've realized how much I can handle at once. I've already got a list!

Image: Chris working with the homemade letterpress. Awesome creative project that unfortunately was not efficient enough to create all of our invites.

Friday dorkdom

I get so much satisfaction from Clorox-wiping my desk, phone, mouse, and keyboard on Fridays. So much.

One month

The "one-month-til-the-wedding" card I got from Jenn. A nutter-butter day on the work front. A kind of stressful day on the wedding front, too, when I got sticker shock looking at our revised caterer contract. (But Chris did the math and we figured out that there is still extra stuff factored in and that it is fine in reality). Just looked back at this card and I cracked up!

Story webs

I just read a great piece in the educational journal Young Children about teaching the writing process to first graders. I started thinking about my own early writing education. I think it was truly great for the most part. My classrooms were print-rich and all of my teachers encouraged my writing. I hated getting my yearly dose of grammar from our public school’s standard-issue texts, but I guess it served me well in the end. The one thing I hated and still hate to this day?

Story webs. Did you ever have to use these doodads?

I believe that they quell creativity. I always felt they were a terrible chore. I say if you must use these godawful things in school, wait to introduce them until kids are older, like around the time they have to learn the evil, rubric-graded, formulaic 5-paragraph essay structure for their state standardized tests.

The piece in Young Children talks about how first graders often defeat themselves before they start to write because they feel they must spell everything correctly. If a child does not know how to spell a word, he will refrain from using it. (In the article, the children’s wonderful teacher encouraged them to make mistakes and mark things they weren’t sure about so they could come back to them later.)

To me, introducing story webs in first grade supports that instinct to avoid beginning for fear of failure. If a child thinks he has to plan perfectly and execute his story perfectly, that could be discouraging. Maybe more kids don’t keep writing or see it as a useful mode of self-expression because they’re given these evil boxes and circles to cram their thoughts into. If it doesn’t fit in the box, how will it ever get on the page?

The teacher in the YC article introduces story webs, but also allows children to organize ideas by talking with a peer or by drawing pictures of details they want to include in their stories. Neat alternatives.

What do you think? Do we need to beat the ability to construct a linear narrative into our young ones? Is social conditioning (telling stories to friends, listening to stories told by grown-ups or older kids) enough? Does insisting upon the use of these devices crush creativity?

I am back, and Elisabeth

Hey, lovely readers! I know I've been absent, but I have not abandoned you. I was just off gallivanting around sunny Florida, acting like a 5-year-old, eating cotton candy and watching fireworks. I shall regale you with photos and tales of time-share presentations and Mickey Mouse's house soon enough, but until then, please enjoy this beautiful illustration by my talented friend Elisabeth Timpone.

Whenever I'm feeling low on creative energy, I listen to my playlist of music by friends and family. I draw a lot of inspiration from those I know, but this morning I realized one flaw in the playlist: No visuals. So I had to cure that by browsing Lis's site. She shows from time to time at Giant Robot here in NYC and has designed e-mailable valentines for Kate Spade for 2 years running. The intricate lines in her illustrations always hypnotize me; they're so full of movement and life.

Slay On, Slayer

I just began watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer from the beginning, and I am completely hooked. I never watched this show when it was on TV because a) I never watched much TV in those years, and b) the show is called Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Really, now?

However, Chris is in love with the writings of one Joss Whedon and has always assured me that I'd love this show. On his recommendation, I finally got around to giving it a shot. Maybe it's the sweet '90s outfits, or the major girl-power factor, or the sexy vampire love interest (Robert Pattinson, eat your heart out). Who knows. Now, this blog is in immediate danger of becoming a Buffy tribute site, full of creepy fan-fic and what have you. But let's stop short of THAT. The servers are down at work today, so this is what you get:

Gym-going

Since the layoffs at work, I've been a bit lax about hitting the gym. I've just had a hard time motivating myself to go. Felt a little too heavy, a little too low. But I'm back in the saddle this week because...

1) There's nothing like getting the heart pumping and inhaling the vaguely antiseptic scent particular to gymnasiums and the Blockbuster Video shop at the Cross County Mall.

2) There's nothing as refreshing as a midday shower with L'Occitane Milk Soap.3) And mostly, there is nothing like a discounted membership to the Upper West Side Y to guilt me into getting my ass over there.