One of my favorite parts of gearing up for a new semester of classes was going to the bookstores at Texas Tech to buy my textbooks and supplies. If you’ve ever done this (or attended SXSW or waited for a Ride on Space Mountain in the summer) you know what a horde of people looks like. When I was buying textbooks as an undergraduate I was using someone else’s money, which probably added to the joy of the exercise, but even when it’s my turn to pay for the whole enchilada I still feel that excitement… with special thanks to a promotion at amazon.com called Amazon Student.

Let it be known: I am an amazon.com junkie and have been an Amazon Prime subscriber for about three years. Here in Texas there’s no sales tax on amazon.com purchases and they always arrive on time. Amazon Prime is a service where you pay $79 once and you get free 2-day shipping on anything Amazon sells for a year. For example, I’ve bought a cooler, a hedge trimmer, tea bags, an Iron Man 2 Turbo Racer, Chanel Perfume, and a shop vac (these last two were both gifts for my wife) all shipped without additional cost. Add textbooks to that list. Brilliant!

My, how things have changed. Seventeen years ago I would be hiking to the bookstore to get my overpriced books and supplies but now it’s as easy as ordering online and having them shipped. I may miss the smell of the bookstores on and off campus at UNT but I don’t miss the prices. I’ve been able to buy all of my books at a significantly reduced price and some of them in perfect, used condition. In every case, the new book online was less expensive than a used book from the bookstores. But bookstores, do not cry. I have visited you already and I have purchased a shirt or two. You are not forsaken.

In an e-mail today from Woot, I learned that the venerable pushers of plastic have been acquired by Amazon (another plastic pushing company, but one that actually has stuff you’d want). A post on their site today is an excellent specimen of their quirky culture and deep inkwells – the excerpt below:

Nevertheless, don’t worry that our culture will suddenly take a leap forward and become cutting-edge. We’re still going to be the same old bottom-feeders our customers and readers have come to know and love, and each and every one of their pre-written insult macros will still be just as valid in a week, two weeks, or even next year. For Woot, our vision remains the same: somehow earning a living on snarky commentary and junk.

Congrats to Woot – long may you, er, whatever you do. Ahh – the merging of one beautiful company and another company, one with a great personality.

Read the full (very funny) post at woot.com titled Amazon, Woot, and You: But Mostly Woot.

Yesterday I received an unlikely update e-mail from Elgato, makers of the innovative product eyetv hybrid) among others. The software allows you to view television on your Mac, but also acts as a digital video recorder (DVR) and can shift your video to devices like iPad and iPhone. Neat stuff.

The “Special Edition” update has a singular purpose: dampen the buzz of vuvuzela horns heard in the stadiums where the 2010 FIFA World Cup is being played. Here’s the text of their e-mail:

A special edition of EyeTV 3.4 software is available during the 2010 FIFA World Cup that offers a new feature called the “Vuvuzela Filter”. This filter gives you the option to dampen the buzz of vuvuzela horns in the stadium during live TV broadcasts; it can be quickly switched on and off at any time during the game. To use the filter, control click to bring up the contextual menu in EyeTV.

Click here for a quick demonstration of the Vuvuzela Filter in action.

The Vuvuzela Filter is available in EyeTV for a limited time only, and will disappear with the next software update – after the 2010 FIFA World Cup is over.

I’ve only watched the World Cup on the internet, and only for small stretches so I haven’t suffered the buzz of the horns like many fans around the world have. But Elgato’s update tells me three things:

The timing of my return to school is uncanny. Within two week’s time, my son will be starting kindergarden and I’ll be attending my first class in twelve years. He will begin his educational career and I will begin graduate school. He’ll start learning how to read, how to keep quiet in the classroom and how to tell time, and I’ll lead off with a semester of History of Communication Design, Process and Methodology for Innovation, and Design Research Methods.

For the record, we’re both very, very excited.

This August I will begin work toward a Master of Fine Arts in Design-Innovation Studies at the University of North Texas. In doing so, I’m chasing my long standing dream of becoming a design educator. As I work my way through the next three years I’ll share my observations, experiences, and discoveries here as a record for myself and a report for others who may have the same aspirations.

A Foreword

My dream of becoming an educator surfaced when I was doing my undergraduate work at Texas Tech University in the late 1990s. My mentor at Tech, Frank Cheatham was firm, clear, and unswerving in how he felt design should communicate and look. He also had an encouraging spirit and he genuinely cared about the success of his students, which is probably why he pushed his students so much. He wasn’t ok with letting me be just a designer who made pretty things, he wanted me to think. The time he took with me, the effort he put into challenging me to be a better communicator, and the care he used when doing it inspired me.

While working as a designer and art director, my dream of becoming an educator was put away, seemingly in my shirt pocket because it never wandered far from my heart. I set to the task of learning my craft by doing. While my schooling had built an immeasurable foundation for my career, I quickly learned that there was so much more to learn in the workplace. Like I tell others, the real education begins with your first job.

While working, “professor” wasn’t on my business card but I still taught when I had a chance (and without the consent of my co-workers at times). Whether it was speaking to First Graders about art, reading student writing as a judge for competitions, or meeting with new designers to offer my experience, the high was the same each time I got to educate or encourage. Interacting with students as well as those who were more experienced than I was as exhilirating as creating the artifacts of design and solving problems visually and verbally.

I was gabbing last year with a few other designers and art directors who do volunteer design work with our group at Flipbook Co. We started talking about what our dream design job would be. We talked around the circle on what that dream project or job would look like. When it was my turn I talked about how I had always wanted to teach but also how it was too good to be true and how the picture of being a design educator was probably a lot rosier in my mind than its reality. At that point, a designer and recent graduate called me on the carpet:

“But you’re good at it and you obviously love teaching just from how you talk around here.” He went for the jugular. “Why don’t you just go for it?”

I couldn’t hide. From that moment, the reality of going back to school and becoming an educator rattled around in my head. I thought of it when I went to sleep and it was waiting for me when I woke. I dreamt it. There was no escaping.

Moving Forward

The next few weeks were spent talking with professors, talking with other art directors, reading articles, scouring the web for information on MFA programs, and even looking up salary surveys. I needed to know if a career as a design educator would be anything like what I imagined or if I was dreaming the whole thing up. After all, it sounded like too much fun to be real. My research pointed to the same conclusion, which was summed up beautifully near the conclusion of a two hour talk with Michael Gibson, an Associate Professor and the Graduate Programs Coordinator for Innovation Studies at The University of North Texas College of Visual Arts and Design. The answer to my “is being a design educator a worthwhile endeavor” question was addressed up clearly and succinctly.

“It’s a great reason to get up every morning.”

Since that talk and after learning everything I could about the MFA in Design-Innovation Studies program at UNT, I applied. And this August I will be setting out on one of the most exciting and opportunity-opening experiences I’ve ever faced. I have a feeling my kindergardener and I will have a lot of stories to share.

I was not disappointed, but my weekend and my trip took turns I had never expected (it’s a good thing).

On Friday I visited the Chinati Foundation to see some modern, minimalist art – most of the pieces were large installations that would never find their ways into city museums because they’d be far to expensive per square foot. The collection was diverse, challenging, and at times, unexpected. From Donald Judd’s aluminum works to Dan Flavin’s fluorescent pieces (and all of the high desert views in between) the tour was enlightening and made me feel as if I was discovering something rare. I won’t go into all of the details but I will leave it at the statement that you should go.

And you should go to the Chinati because it’s a big part of the fabric of the town of Marfa. It’s a strange balance of West Texas and of artist community, and that makes Marfa an out of the way oasis. I had eaten in Marfa before and was prepared to be surprised. My only “must eat” was Food Shark, which brought a falafel (that’s Marfalafel, to you) that had spunk. The food carried a depth of flavor from a falafel I hadn’t experienced before. Topped with yogurt and seasoned so waves of spices trounced my tongue as I bit into and chewed the thing. Oh, and this was prepared in a food truck  (you must see their commercial). But as good and as unexpected as the Mediteranean menu was, the real surprises were sitting across from me at the Judd-like communal table.

While I sat at the table jotting down thoughts and ideas I stopped and, in true west Texas form, a Marfan named Jim started up a conversation with me. We talked about design, the community, the food, and I asked what someone who’s new in Marfa shouldn’t miss. Having learned I am a writer, Jim invited me to a poetry reading by well-known poet in residence Kevin Prufer at the local bookstore, Marfa Book Company. While the Chinati Foundation offers artist fellowships, the Lannan Foundation also has a residency program in Marfa, but this one’s for writers.

The poetry reading was excellent. As a poet, I love the chance to read my own poems because when I write them I’m always hearing them in my head so it’s an opportunity to read them the way I would have intended. Hearing Kevin read his poems and talk about his process was enlightening and made me want to leave the store and grab my Moleskine to jot down my next batch of poems. But looking around the room I saw a diverse “be who you are” room of people. You know how your high school counselor (and Genie from the Disney movie Aladdin) told you to “be yourself’?” Well, these people actually did it. They were themselves, and I felt like I could truly be myself as well. In a big city like Dallas, that’s a rare thing.

Following the reading I attended a reception where I met more Marfans, artists, visitors, and big-city escapees like myself. I was elated that it was catered by Food Shark (The spread on Flickr, as well as the menu). The residence was a charming house – a place where I could imagine spending time writing and creating things only possible if you have a lot of time to “waste.” But it’s no coincidence that the program is located in Marfa: there is a magic about that high desert town.

The people are excited about their creative work, their town, and how Marfa can be a welcoming place for those who wish to create. I’ve visited places like this before, but not so small a town that the strengths of the community aren’t watered down by other agendas and motives. As a whole, the people I encountered cared about what is happening in Marfa and they’re proud to share it. I was disappointed that the night had to end. I was inspired by the creatives I met and their passions to excel in their work. When someone loves what they do, and they do what they’re made to do, it can’t help but show.

About a year ago I saw a short film by You and Yours Productions on Vimeo called West Texas. It was a simple film capturing the sounds and impressions of Marfa and surrounding ares. It made a huge impression on me and I return to it to remember the area and to escape to the minimalism. While in Fort Davis, driving the scenic loop I had a hunkering to make my own if only so I could make something to return to when I needed to get back to the mountains and my time to escape. I only had my point-and-shoot with HD video capability butI figured I’d try it anyway. Next time I’ll bring a proper mic and pop filter.

Capturing one of my favorite places on the planet was a lot of fun. It challenged me to think visually in a way I miss out on when doing design every day. Of course, I took a lot of stills as well.

The entire weekend was a reminder that, as a creative, I must work to maintain the wide-open, still spirit of Marfa when things get so hectic and overwhelming. My craft, sanity, and family will benefit. Quite simply, discovering Marfa was a rediscovery of myself.

So, when are you headed west?

Their story on Chiune Sugihara was fascinating and moving and is well worth a read. One part of the story that moved me were the “Lessons in Manliness from Chiune Sugihara.”

1. Do not be a burden to others
2. Take care of others
3. Do not expect rewards for your goodness

These were part of the code that was taught at Sugihara’s school. They are hauntingly accurate and are a reminder of the power of selflessness and are hallmarks of honor.

Check out the entire story at The Art of Manliness.

Have a seat and listen to my story of a man who had too many typefaces.

It began when he was a young design student and he purchased a copy of Photoshop 3 and a copy of Illustrator 5 and to his delight, they both came with fonts. A lot of fonts. And this began his hunger for typefaces, cramming his Power Macintosh 7200 full with as many freeware and shareware fonts he could find. He was so excited because he had seemingly limitless access to typefaces for just about any kind of design job.

As the years passed he carried these typefaces with him to different employers, used them for freelance design work, and was able to afford a few expensive typefaces that he really liked. The typefaces lived on floppy disks, zip disks, CDs, firewire hard drives, USB hard drives, firewire 800 hard drives, and internal storage devices of all kinds. So many Arks carried the mass of type he had collected.

But the truth was, he only used a small fraction of the full collection of type. While he knew he had several versions of the typeface Hobo, as well as a few knockoffs: he couldn’t bring himself to use it because it was hideous. He found himself with a pile of type that he could no longer wade through. The good typefaces were buried in a mass of over 11,000 duplicates, knock-offs, missing files, and altogether sucky excuses for typography.

So our now middle-aged designer spent two weeks sorting, trashing, weeding through and condensing the heap that he had carried for so long. He tossed copies of Lullaby, Pinwheel, Kool Ding, and Lord Haw Haw. Waded through duplicates of Helvetica Neue, Helvetica New, Helvetica New New, and New Helvetica. When he came to an Open Type Font he kissed it and patted it on the head, and he cursed True Types and archaic fonts that no longer worked and deposited them in File 13.

It was an arduous process, but he had so much type that he could no longer find what he wanted. And when the job was complete, he was exhausted, pleased, and bewildered that he had so many typefaces that were crap. He was finally free, and his hard drive felt lighter. The burden was lifted, and when he went to design a poster for an event that needed a modern feeling typeface that was friendly but hearkened of the 1930′s, he knew where to find it.

So friends, please learn from this designer that because you can get the typeface, doesn’t mean you should. Ponder your future and how heavy a pack you wish to carry on the journey ahead before you go to dafont.com and download a butt load of handwriting fonts just because you can. Consider how many times you’ll use that condensed, rounded, extra light, extra wide, oblique, small caps, expert version of Helvetica Neue before you buy. Saying “no” today will save you from hours of wasted time sorting through the heap of a collection gone mad.

There’s always been a debate over how to correctly choose type for a particular design job. There’s the school of thought that there are just a few decent typefaces and you should use those because they’re clear, legible, and bulletproof. Then there are those who feel that the typeface should “color” the words with its style. These designers argue that the typeface’s look helps communicate the message that its carrying. Recently I was talking to my dog and to my baby daughter and in doing so, the arguement that how you say something is as important as what you’re saying, supporting the “choose the typeface that looks like the communication” side.

Obviously, neither dogs nor one year-olds understand much vocabulary. They have no idea what you’re saying so tone is all you’ve got. More often that I’d like, my dachshund will get into my trash can and will dump a bunch of trash everywhere in the process. My tone alone is enough for him to know how I feel about seeing gum wrappers, used tissues and Netflix adhesive strips all over the studio. Heck, I could recite Shakespearean sonnets and use a disappointed tone and he’d know how I felt. What I say isn’t as important as how I say it. He gets the message… my tone is enough.

It goes the same way with people (and most notably babies), they can tell if you’re happy or not. As a child develops vocabulary their understanding of the nuances of the words and the shades of meaning develops, but early on you really don’t have much to work with. As a parent you communicate in megathemes: what you did makes me happy, what you did makes me sad, what you’re doing makes me wish I had never procreated (okay, a bit harsh). The tone you use is key in communicating these things. I’m curious if the teenage years will bring back these “I’m not listening to what you’re saying but I get the gist” days. I hope not.

Thinking about these instances reminded me of the typography debate and shed some light on my own thoughts about type selection. I’ve always been one to choose type that I feel is clear and legible but also feels like the content that’s being communicated. If it’s western, I choose western. If it’s modern, I choose modern. At the core of it all, the words may be the content of what you’re saying but the typeface you choose is the tone. As a communicator I feel it’s important to use impactful imagery and verbiage to share a message in the most successful way possible. Paying attention to the “tone” of that message via apporpriate typography choices is a big part of it. And by placing importance on choosing the right type, the message will be communicated more clearly.

My dogs and my kids said so.

In 1984 we took a family vacation to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. I was nine and hadn’t even dreamt of a career in design nor was I aware that it even existed. But looking back now, I recognize that the symbols and branding at EPCOT Center were the beginning of my design education and my love of simple, elegant, and visually appropriate design.

EPCOT Center opened in 1982 and was a theme park composed of two different sections. Future World consisted of eight or so pavilions that each highlighted a major, global social issue or research area. There was a pavilion about communication, one about imagination, and one on agriculture to list a few. World Showcase was the second section of EPCOT Center where nearly a dozen national pavilions were built to showcase the accomplishments and cultural diversity of different nations. Countries like Mexico, Norway, Japan, and the United States were represented.

I write all of this in the past tense because I’m writing about the original EPCOT Center. In 1994 Disney renamed it to Epcot and its focus has changed a great deal since, but many of the original atractions are still there and I’ve visited three times in the last ten years. Also since 1994, the original pavilion logos in Future World have been removed, one by one. While I recognize the original marks look a bit dated (a difficult thing for me to admit, as nostalgic as I am) I feel that an update would have been preferred to a complete removal. Nevertheless, what’s done is done. It doesn’t change the fact that these original marks had a huge impact on my design sensibility and my later decision to become one who enjoys using visual language to communicate larger concepts.

All of the EPCOT Center logos were built off of the circle shape. The EPCOT Center logo itself was a collection of circles containing a globe with styled longitude and latitude lines. The main icon resembled shapes echoed in science: a pentagon implied around the outer perimeter of the mark, the interlocking circles resembling helixes, and ensuing diamond and triangle shapes. Even some of the lines connect and flourish to resemble lines found in biology in cellular structure. Overall, its radial nature makes it feel like a place where many objects converge into one.

My parents bought me an EPCOT Center shirt which I wore proudly for years until I couldn’t fit in it any longer. Here I am at a birthday party in 1985.

And when my wife and I returned to Walt Disney World in 2007, I discovered that they had reissued my favorite shirt. I couldn’t help myself.

The cornerstone of EPCOT Center was the attraction Spaceship Earth. If you’re familiar with EPCOT Center you know it as the huge “ball” at the front of the park. The logo for this attraction doesn’t say as much about the focus of the attraction which is human communication, but it depicts its “spaceship” aspect well. There’s a nice use of positive and negative space here as the globe streams from left to right and leaves open trails behind it.

Universe of Energy was a pavilion dedicated innovation in energy technology. The logo generates its own movement and energy through the use of increasingly thinner lines as they move away from the center. Energy is kinetic, and this mark does an excellent job of capturing its radiant nature while remaining visually interesting. Notice how the mark “vibrates” as your eye moves over it. This is a symptom of the moire pattern created by the radial lines.

The next pavilion, moving clockwise, was called Horizons. This pavilion was dedicated to the general idea of living in a future inspired by innovation. The mark mimics Universe of Energy’s logo in its use of thin and thick lines to create movement. The open half-circle “horizon” suggests light, and the concept of a bright future, highlighted by the use of a thick half circle line to show contrast and to call attention to the open area it contains. The viewer’s eye easily moves toward the horizon and the open space created as a result of the use of line and contrast.

World of Motion was a pavilion dedicated to the concept of transportation. Of all of the EPCOT Center logos, this one uses negative space the best. The mark is not “closed” like the other logos, but allows the open space to flow throughout. The mark shows movement with elegance, with the object at the center of the icon pushing through the lines and causing them to cup around it and stream away in aerodynamic trails. While the circle is at the center of the icon it still feels like it’s moving, thanks to the streaming lines.

At the center of EPCOT Center was CommuniCore. These semi-circled buildings housed exhibits that addressed a variety of future-looking topics and technologies. This logo actually looks like the rounded CommuniCore buildings themselves. Because these buildings were multi-function, it was uneccesary for the logo to suggest a certain technology, rather highlighting the “core” aspect and the building shape was a far better direction. The use of negative space here highlights the open circle at the middle, revealing the core.

The next pavilion, moving clockwise was Journey Into Imagination. This pavilion addressed the topic of imagination and creativity. The mark uses a thick circle line and thinner radiating lines to create a whirling pinwheel image. This combination creates movement wheeling away from the center circle but also remains somewhat whimsical thanks to the half-moon pinwheel shapes. Of all of the topics addressed at EPCOT Center, Imagination is the most abstract and I feel the designer succeeded in capturing the concept of the genesis of creativity through the use of spiraling shapes.

The next pavilion was called The Land and it addressed issues of agriculture, food production, and land management. As one of the more literal concepts at EPCOT Center, the logo for The Land simply takes the globe shape and bends longitude and latitude lines to show a plant. It’s not the most innovative mark of the bunch, but does communicate global agriculture easily and it matches the other marks in style. Still, the mark is pleasing to look at as you examine the intersections of the lines as they combine to create the plant image.

The Living Seas was the final pavilion moving clockwise around the circle of Future World. When it was built, it housed the largest aquarium in the world. The Living Seas addressed the exploration, preservation, and management of the oceans. The mark is reminiscent of The Land logo in its literal handling of the subject matter but is still successful in communicating the ocean in a simple way.

Overall, the suite of EPCOT Center logos is successful in working as a family of marks while communicating a variety of topics. I’ve not been able to track these down to a single designer or a design team, so I will have to credit them to Walt Disney Imagineering. It’s a shame their work is no longer seen at Epcot but it has not been forgotten by Disney enthusiasts and designers like me.

The Twitter Novel Experiment has begun.

The premise of the project is that I will write a “novel” over a period of time, one tweet at a time. I have no idea where the story is going and nothing has been planned. Also, I will not write posts ahead of time to be posted later: everything will written as if it were a free writing exercise. Each day, I will read what I wrote the day before and will write a post that continues the story. As best I can, I will not think about the novel through the day, but will return to it “fresh” so it can be an authentic, winding road of a written piece.

As a poet, I am one who focuses closely on word choices, imagery, condensed language, and word economy. Twitter is a perfect venue because I’ll be limited to 140 characters at a time, much like a poem. But with the added feature of creating a much longer narrative.

You can follow the experiment by following @onjejank on twitter. Also, I will have the posts updated here on this page.

Here’s to the journey!