Remember I told you I'd timed a post to remind you to back Matt's AI poem clock? This is that post, that reminder and here is a link to that cute clock on Kickstarter.
Remember I told you I'd timed a post to remind you to back Matt's AI poem clock? This is that post, that reminder and here is a link to that cute clock on Kickstarter.
"Someone at the train company is gaslighting commuters. Before Christmas the departure time was 7:28am. After Christmas it changed to 7:31am. Now it’s 7:30am. Minutes to you my friend, but to anyone who thought they had an extra three minutes to run for it, the world."
A reminder to subscribe to Denise's beautiful writing.
One of the Matts has made a clock that tells the time in AI poems. Hallelujah, they even rhyme.
It's cute and funny and beautiful and you should take a look on Kickstarter. I've backed it.
You probably know this already because it's been featured in loads of places (yay!) so I've timed another post to remind you to take a look just before the deadline on 29th February.
Looking for somewhere in Manchester I stumbled upon what looks like a massive Christo and Jeanne-Claude in central Manchester.
It's not, obvs, but it still looks incredibly dramatic. It's just scaffolding and renovations and the Manchester Evening News covered it a year ago. As you'd expect, our good friends at Scaff Mag have the juicy details; a bespoke and highly technical 90m high clock tower scaffold, 450m of staircases (enough to reach the summit of the Empire State Building) and "10,000m2 of the most complex temporary weather protection roofs the industry has ever seen".
Stunning.
Remember when Russell used to do that ☝️ all the time?
A bit of work for a change. Here's a link to the Public Digital newsletter, we do one every month but this is a special edition on the Post Office scandal. It's a round up of the best articles and commentary on this issue with some extra insights from PD people that have worked on large public sector IT projects.
Public Digital newsletter: Post Office Special Edition
Here you can sign up to our regular newsletter.
I must have cycled past this building hundreds of times and yet only today in the year of 2024 did I notice this magnificent (yet obvious) sign.
We must take this as a good omen.
Although it was dark when this photo was taken the building is black in the daylight too. The office houses the Licensed Taxi Drivers' Association.
For my listeners not familiar with London taxis here is a photo of one with the distinctive yellow sign on the roof, it lights up when the cab is available. This one was designed by Kenneth Grange, more on him in this old blog post Kenneth Grange - Making Britain Modern.
Someone told me this recently. I think it was said by John Bartle of BBH fame. Saving here.
And spelling? I'd love to know.
Like blog posts from the olden days it starts off being about nothing. It meanders around a bit and has real photos of real things in real life. Then just as you finish it you realise it was actually quite profound in the way normal everyday life is.
But read it for the story about the "baffling “Buy Two, Get Two Free” promotion".
102. This analysis by the FT of central bank logos is incredible 'A comprehensive taxonomy of central bank logos, with jokes'
But this article 'sellside research notes ranked by aesthetics, not content' by the same crew is more important. Central bank logos are a bit irrelevant to be honest but research is designed to be read. If you can't read it, that's a problem. See also 'The solutions to all our problems may be buried in PDFs that nobody reads' a recent report by the World Bank.
103. Norman Foster has a new monograph published by Taschen. It's gorgeous. It's also £350. The limited edition, numbered, signed one is £3,000.
104. Neville Brody has a new book out, the Graphic Language of Neville Brody 3. That's £35. The Graphic Language 1 (1988) and 2 (1996) were hugely influential to designers of my age. Fond memories.
105. Es has a new book out, An Atlas of Es Devlin. That's £85 and has the most interesting paper engineering of the lot.
Monographs, eh? All are RDIs, Foster, Brody, Devlin.
106. The world’s largest stadiums – in pictures.
107. An AI Johnny Cash sings Taylor Swift on TikTok. Perfect.