Online news portal MSNBC recently launched Spectra Visual News Reader; an interesting and fun way to explore the latest news headlines. The simple interface lets you choose the news categories you’re interested in and then displays them in three dimensions.

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An interesting, if slightly bizarre concept, the Literary Doener Kebab lets you explore German book publisher Reclam’s catalogue in an easily digestible manner.

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Isn’t it about time that something was done about the Google logo? My apologies to Ruth Kedar, but I think it’s a shocking piece of design. Ruth may have won several design awards and worked as a consultant art professor but that doesn’t mean that everything she produces is a work of art.

Google is one of the largest and most powerful companies in the world and yet the logo looks like it was created by a 10 year old. It’s not just the primary colour palette which offends me, however it is slightly improved when reversed out, such as in iGoogle. But for me it will take more than well designed backgrounds (or poorly as the case may be) to make the Google logo worthy of any awards.

Of course it’s recognisable around the world but I doubt very much that Google’s success has anything to do with the design of it’s logo. I know many of us are subjected to looking at this logo everyday, so please Google, consider a re-design, rather than erasing us from your search engine for writing this article!

Here’s a little game for all your budding typographers out; can you identify the font from the list - that’s without using any books or websites to help you! And for web designers it’s also a good example of how to effectively use AJAX to create a seamless experience.

Play the game

At approximately 08.30 this morning the lovable rebel of the design world passed away. Mr Sans, a well known graphic comedian has been in poor health in recent years, media exclusion and a mass designer repulsion had seen his worldwide popularity dwindle.

Online petitions from websites such as bancomicsans.com to completely eradicate the font helped to make him one of graphic designs most famous typographic recluse’s. Last month, issues about of his weight and size appeared in alot of the celeb gossip magazines. Then his disappearance from many of the latest Marvel and DC kids comic issues alerted his type family members to suspect the worst.

He was found hung by his own question mark in the early hours of this morning in his $35million Hollywood mansion. He will be missed by all. His contribution to lettering will always be remembered.
A representative from Microsoft gave this short statement.

Comic Sans, the man who brought a smile to everyones typeface.

Comic Sans
1995 - 2008

Well, I’m back from holiday to San Serriff, a beautiful, if little known about island in the Indian Ocean. I highly recommend it as a destination for it’s unspoilt, well kerned beauty!

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Whilst at the Bristol Artists Book Event in 2007 at the Arnolfini I stumbled (not literally) across a very nice lady and her very nice typewriter. This was the illustrator Nadine Faye James, She was creating these amazing typed portraits. No photo was required, I sat for a couple of minutes and my letter-head was created.

I am incredibly happy with my portrait and its surprisingly cheap cost, a fantastic £1. It came in a little brown envelope which, also included a card with the text ‘Available for Weddings and Bar Mitzvahs’. So if you would like to add a bit of illustration and fun to your big day get in contact with Nadine Faye James.

Nadine is working as an illustrator and her clients include Random House, Bloomsbury and The Guardian. I recently saw a write up on her in Januarys Grafik magazine which was the review of the year issue, so I’m sure she is doing all the right things.

Whilst at university in Bristol I stumbled across a little art and design shop called Soma. It had a wonderful range of books, magazine and design trinkets. But what caught my eye most was the wide selection of prints, my personal favourites were by designer Anthony Burrill.

These two are made using woodblock lettering which gives them a unique quality to each edition. The poster statements themselves are taken from conversations he has overheard. They both provoke totally different idea of the people who have said them.

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Popstar Britney Spears, the once clean cut girl turned toxic rehab publicity mother has taken the design industry by storm. An actual storm I hear you ask, no a logo fuelled storm. Her new perfume ‘I Believe’ by Elizabeth Arden has been accused of shamlessly plundering another brand for its logo. The organization in question is Canadian charity Mondonation, at the moment they are selling t-shirts with a portion of the money going to a charity of your choice. On the t-shirt a slogan of your choice is written, this is meant to be something you believe in hence their ‘Believe’ logo.The two logos have a striking similarity, first with the pink letter ‘i’ closely followed by the green colour, weight, and lowercase nature. These of course may all be coincidental elements, but on the other hand they may not. To have so many design aspects mirrored seems highly improbable. Will she do it again? If she does I’m sure everyone involved will want to hit her one more time.

This wonderful font explosion is from designer Sebastian Wrong and manufacturer Established & Sons. It is a time and date flip clock that uses twelve very distinct typefaces in its display. It comes in three different sizes, the smallest only including the time section. Unfortunatly at a little over £800 I can’t afford one at the moment.

If you would like to know more about Sebastian Wrong and other designers at Established & Sons visit their site.

The essence of the idea is the twelve fonts, all chosen for their design strength and individuality and all of which are twentieth century apart from one, an English 18th century script. In theory, at given points within the annual time cycle, all the fonts will run together for five minutes.

Sebastian Wrong