Beautifully Briefed 25.1: A Different Year

This edition discusses new type, mergers and items set free, and visits with both some photo contest winners and winning poster designs. (And if you haven’t seen my annual Favorite Book Covers post, keep scrolling.) But first….

Former President Carter
Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, 2013. Photograph by Ed Ritger. (CC 2.0.)

One of the strongest voices of reason left us on December 29th, 2024: former President Jimmy Carter. He’s the first president I actually remember, and one of the things I’ve appreciated about recent years is the growth of his stature from undeserved fill-in-label-here to treasured humanitarian.

I’d like to share a couple of items that are meaningful to me. First is his commitment to Habitat for Humanity — and not only as a speaker and fundraiser, but someone who contributed by actually swinging a hammer:

Former President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter. Photo via Habitat for Humanity.

Into their 90s and still working. Take it from David Letterman:

While we’re on the subject of David Letterman, this September, 1993 appearance shows both humanity and humor:

Another quick item is this 60 Minutes tour of his office — something that always speaks volumes about a person:

Plains, Carter’s lifelong residence, is a frequent sojourn for me, and a recommended way to both experience rural Georgia and learn more about his roots. (I had always intended to attend one of his regular Sunday school lessons and regret not having made the time.) Visit when you have the opportunity.

Water Mill, Carter Farm, 2021. (Adobe Content Credentials applied.)

May your influence of peace continue for another lifetime, Mr. President.

New Type of Year

Creative Boom brings us their roundup of new typefaces for January, and a couple caught my attention:

Bergamot Grotesk.

SLTF Bergamot Grotesk, an Art Deco-style, all caps headline face is a striking new option from Silverstag. This is trendy, of course — Art Deco is in — but timeless at the same time, and something I hope I have an opportunity to use.

Another is a new version that’s instantly a beautiful classic, Milla, hand-developed and a joy to look at:

Hoping for the perfect book project for this one.

Mergers … and Freedom

If you’ve not heard, Getty and Shutterstock have proposed a merger. This is, put simply, both understandable and … not good.

PetaPixel covers both the announcement, with the usual words from the greedy types CEOs, and a history of both companies and their role in how we got here. This is perhaps the most relevant, however:

The rise of artificial intelligence has likely played a role in the merger; the combined assets of Shutterstock and Getty are a treasure trove of training data for AI companies. However, while AI licensing deals are an opportunity, it could also be an issue for stock photo companies as customers may decide to use AI image generators like Midjourney or DALL-E rather than pay for individual pictures.

— Matt Growcoot, PetaPixel

For the record, I completely agree with PetaPixel‘s Jason Schneider when he opines that it’s “yet another step in a race to the bottom.” The deal could possibly attract antitrust notice from the U.S. government; here’s hoping.

But it’s also hopeful — and slightly wonderful — that it’s new year, which means a new crop of items are now freed from the constraints of copyright. Kottke lists some of his favorites, and points us to a fantastic post from Duke University’s Center for the Public Domain, which has lists and links aplenty. (My favorite: Tintin.)

Image via This is Colossal.

But there’s more: This is Colossal points us to a new resource for items in the public domain: the Public Domain Image Archive, from the Public Domain Review, which hosts more than 10,000 images freely available to use, reuse, mix, or whatever. Awesome.

Couple of faves:

Lorena Stoer, Geometric Landscapes, from 1567. (Yes, you read that right.)
Apollo 11, 1969, from NASA.

Another NASA image is in the header, and we’ll see another from them in a minute.

Meanwhile, Public Domain Review also has a list of items copyright-free as of the new year; check both resources — and use some newly-available items to your heart’s content.

Special Bonus #1: This is Colossal, in 2016, also pointed us to another collection of freely-available items, this time from the New York Public Library. Great stuff.

Special Bonus #2: In a three-fer for This is Colossal, they also highlight a new campaign from the U.S. National Archives asking those who can read cursive — no longer a requirement in school, a completely daft decision we’ll leave for another time — to contribute some time translating historical items. (And that’s not all you can do.) Become a Citizen Archivist today.

Get Lectured

No, not me: Archinect (previously) highlights their favorite architecture school lecture posters from Fall ’24, which I somehow didn’t mention. A couple of favorites:

Florida Atlantic University.
University of Wisconsin at Madison.

The new year is off to a good start, too:

UCLA.
UPenn.

UPenn’s fall ’24 poster is in the same vein and also rocks. Check out all the winners — and watch this space for more.

Winning Photography

I’m threatening to get a Raspberry Pi — the ol’ fashioned ad-blocker route is less and less effective, and a more robust alternative may be added — and was interested in this PetaPixel story about the desktop photos the system uses as standard: “[w]alking through a train station in New Zealand, Greg Annandale looks up to see his photo on an information screen. The Raspberry Pi computer powering the board has gone back to the desktop wallpaper which Annandale shot of a road in Iceland.”

That would be this one:

Road, Sólheimasandur, Iceland. Photo by Greg Annandale.

Couple of others:

Pia Fjord, Patagonia. Photo by Greg Annandale.
Cordillera Darwin, Patagonia. Photo by Greg Annandale.

Good stuff. Check out his website for more, and see the whole Pi here.

Next, I promised NASA would put in another appearance. How’s this:

Photo by Don Petit/NASA.

In what Ars Technica senior space editor calls “the best picture ever taken from the International Space Station,” we have something special indeed. “In this image, one can see the core of the Milky Way galaxy, zodiacal light (sunlight diffused by interplanetary dust), streaks of SpaceX Starlink satellites, individual stars, an edge-on view of the atmosphere that appears in burnt umber due to hydroxide emissions, a near-sunrise just over the horizon, and nighttime cities appearing as streaks.”

Wow.

To round things out for January, we have a couple of photo contests whose winners caught my eye. We’ll start with The Society of Photographers and their photographer of the year 2024. My faves:

Architectural Photographer of the Year award. Photograph by Andre Boto.
Events Photographer of the Year award. Photograph by Mark Lynham.

While I wish their selections were more extensively labeled and/or titled, it’s still awesome to see the raw talent highlighted with well-deserved accolades. See the PetaPixel story or the contests’ website for more.

Lastly, some life in the wild, courtesy of the UK’s Natural History Museum People’s Choice Award:

Annoying Neighbour, Kiskunság National Park, Hungary. Photograph by Bence Máté.

“Eyeing one another” fails to do this one justice. And then there’s the Villarrica volcano:

Earth and Sky, Pucón, Chile. Photograph by Francisco Negroni.

But it’s the patience of this shot that wins it for me:

Edge of Night, near Vancouver, BC, Canada. Photograph by Jess Findley.

“Jess quietly watched the owl for several nights to understand its habits.

“He set up an invisible beam that would trigger a flash when the owl flew out of the barn. Simultaneously, a slow shutter speed gathered ambient light cast on the clouds and barn.

“On the tenth night, all the moving parts came together as the owl left to begin its hunt.”

The winner of this contest will be announced on February 5th. Check the website. (Via This is Colossal.)

See y’all in February.

Beautifully Briefed 24.12: New Year’s Eve Fireworks

Let’s continue a couple of discussions before closing out 2024, and send you into 2025 with some photographic and typographic goodness.

More AI Book Design

This was mentioned in another context in July, but is heading our way more aggressively as time goes by, with Microsoft and TikTok, among others, getting into the publishing arena.

Cover design: unknown. (Human or machine: unknown.)

While Microsoft’s new imprint, 8080 Books, plans “to test and experiment with the latest tech to accelerate and democratize book publishing.” They’re not entirely up-front about what that is — and might not know themselves yet, given the rapidly evolving tech and marketplace. That said, with the corporate giant’s name attached, we can be assured of some level of quality.

Yes, I just wrote a sentence suggesting that Microsoft is a guardian of quality. (“Books matter. In a deluge of data. In a bloat of blogs, a sea of social, and a maelstrom of email. Books will always matter,” they write.)

With others, the for-profit nature — TikTok’s engagement-before-all-else approach speaks volumes (or writes volumes, as the case might be) — assures that quality might come behind, say, slop. Publisher’s Weekly reports that 320 publishing startups have emerged just in the last two years, most in the AI space, adding to the 1,300 noted as of 2022. (PW also notes, “It is widely believed that each of the Big Five publishers has internal AI projects discreetly hidden from view.”)

And then there’s this: introducing Spams Spines, your AI book design and book completion service: “[f]rom manuscript to book in your readers’ hands – a single platform to help any author proofread, cover design, format, print, and distribute over global channels — zero tech know-how required.” Prices start at $1500 and promise a finished product in less than 30 days.

Their goal is to release 8,000 books per year. AI is heavily involved:

There’s a Sherlocked joke here somewhere….

Because, yes, you want a machine to suggest that Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle needed assistance regarding a turn of phrase. (Never mind his expensive editor.)

The first and third are really “only” bad. However, Dr. Seuss would like a word with Spines’ AI training dataset, please, and the cover for “Stay Humble” defies words.

But it’s the book design that got my attention: these are apparently the good ones, the cited examples to which someone says, “Yes! Take my money!”

The sad thing is that people will say that. Have already said that. And there’s much, much on the publishing industry’s horizon. Our horizon.

Read more at The Conversation, “The tech world is ‘disrupting’ book publishing. But do we want its effortless art?” Shout out to the AV Club and the aforementioned PW article.

The Cat Leaps

Last month, we left off Jaguar’s continuing road trip with a teaser. Let’s get right to it. The car’s called the Type 00:

Some details:

The interior:

The internet, predictably, has lost its collective … um, mind. However, amongst the melee, there are a few items worth mentioning.

Creative Boom: “If the new logo seemed divisive in isolation, seeing it brought to life with Type 00’s design has brought much clarity. The flush surfaces, panoramic roof, and glassless tailgate – all adorned with the new Jaguar device mark and reimagined leaper – create a cohesive vision of modern luxury. Rawdon Glover, managing director of Jaguar, emphasised the importance of this shift: ‘We have forged a fearlessly creative new character for Jaguar that is true to the DNA of the brand but future-facing, relevant and one that really stands out.'”

The quote there is something to pay attention to. Read those words again, and think about the actual choice of language; it’s this, exactly, that has struck some. Armin at Brand New, for instance: “[W]hat I dislike the most about the new Jaguar brand: its tone of voice is INSUFFERABLE. Everything from the platitudes in the campaign to the script of McGovern’s presentation to the press releases is obnoxiously over-confident and self-congratulatory.” (Brand New, while excellent, is subscription-only — alas without a sample article. Here’s a link anyway.)

Meanwhile, Dezeen provides us some real-world images from the Miami launch:

Wai Shin Li, via Dezeen

But it’s The Autotopian that stands out. They have not one but two excellent articles by Adrian Clarke, an ex-JLR1That’s Jaguar Land Rover, before it was, um, initialized by owner Tata. designer, who has several important points to contribute:

A couple of weeks ago, the cancelled X351 Jaguar XJ leaked onto the internet. During my time at Land Rover, I saw this car back in 2018 and can confirm this is indeed, or rather was the EV XJ. Back when Mr. Tata was still alive every six months or so there would be a big board level presentation for him on upcoming products. […] I was privy to all the future production Jaguars and concepts. There was a J-Pace SUV to sit above the F-Pace (no problem in revealing this as it’s common knowledge) and everything else was as you’d expect. These cars were then cancelled as part of the revamp and one absolutely incredibly beautiful and exceptional proposal aside, nothing of value was lost.

It’s the first time I’d seen the cancelled-just-before-release XJ EV, and despite the incomplete body panels and obviously-on-the-sly phone shot, it’s incredibly disappointing. They made the right call.

Compare it next to a Rolls Royce Spectre, a car the production Type 00 will be a competitor for, and see how successfully it hides its bulk in profile. [I]n the side view, particularly in the bottom half, I’m seeing some Range Rover. The crisp shoulder line, the kick-up of the tail behind the rear wheel, and the feature line along the bottom of the bodyside all scream Range Rover. This is exacerbated by the verticality of the front and rear of the car – the new full-size Range Rover and Sport have sharply docked tails. I heard that the initial sketch of this car was done by Massimo Frascella before he departed for Audi. Frascella was McGovern’s right-hand man at Land Rover for decades before Ian Callum retired and McGovern used the opportunity to bring both the Jaguar and Land Rover studios together. So maybe that’s where this Range Rover influence comes from.

The Jaguar Type 00, top, and Rolls-Royce Spectre, bottom, courtesy of The Autopian.

We must remember this is only a concept. The actual production car will be a four-door GT. This is only a preview of the visual style of future Jaguar models. It’s certainly striking, but you’d struggle to call it beautiful. It’s also monolithic and slabby.

Let’s hope this brutal revamp is […] successful, because there are a lot of jobs depending on it.

— Adrian Clarke, ex-JLR designer

There’s much more from those two articles, too much to quote here, so please go read them — the initial report is more on the design, while the second delves into the why: “Why Jaguar Had To Blow Up Its Brand In Order To Save It.

Meanwhile, I’ll actually be rooting for JLR to pull this one off. I’m not in the target audience — at all — but Jaguar needed to do something radical and, by God, they did just that. The concept is interesting. Some of the details are fantastic. Here’s hoping, indeed.

Update, 15 Jan 2025: Turns out the Jaguar’s designers were a little worried about the outcome — or the outsourcing, in this case — and its effect on the brand. The Drive has the details.

Special Bonus #1: Motor1 has a feature on Ian Callum’s current whereabouts. There are too many hypercars these days, but the Skye looks cool:

The Callum Skye concept. (An island buggy?)
Some Extraordinary Items of “Normalcy”

To close out 2024, let’s take a break, pour a beverage, and enjoy some of what you read Foreword for: great photography, typography, and design.

Northern Lights

I didn’t know — or didn’t remember — that amongst the glut of photography contests is one dedicated to the phenomenon known as the Northern Lights.

Cosmic Explosion, Isteria, Croatia. Photograph by Uroš Fink.

PetaPixel reminds us that Capture the Atlas’ Northern Lights Photographer of the Year competition features some exceptional opportunities to make spectacular captures this year due to the solar maximum — the peak of its eleven-year cycle.

Celestial Reflection, Dartmoor National Park, UK. Photograph by Max Trafford.

The 2024 competition awards feature 25 winners, each with a narrative and each a striking example of the larger system we’re part of. Check it out. (Also via This is Colossal.)

Nature

PetaPixel is among several that point us to the Nature Photographer of the Year contest, with images both poignant and funny. Since it’s New Year, let’s go with the latter:

Besties, Washington State, US. Photograph by Marcia Walters.

Of course, there’s just “spectacular,” too:

Cross to Bear, Talek River, Kenya. Photograph by Paul Goldstein.

The contest’s winners page features many more, separated into categories; be sure to click on the individual photographs to get larger sizes and the story with each. Fantastic stuff.

Frozen Prairie Landscapes

Saskatchewan gets cold in the winter, but there’s a beauty to those temperatures, photographer Angela Boehm tells PetaPixel.

Image from Minus Thirty. Photograph by Angela Boehm.

“The frozen prairie landscapes, while a subject in their own right, serve as a powerful metaphor for the deeper themes the book explores: loss, memory, and resilience,” she says. […] “The loss is embodied in the emptiness and biting cold. The memory, or its gradual fading, is represented by the snow obscuring the horizon, softening and blurring the scenes. And the resilience is in the solitary tree — a steadfast survivor of countless storms in this unforgiving landscape.”

— Angela Boehm, Minus Thirty

Read more of PetaPixel‘s story of realization to publication or just check out the title.

Special Bonus #2: Another book on an interesting subject — Japan’s brutalist architecture, which somehow manages to bring an inherent quality to the cement:

Mixed-use complex, 1994, by Kuniyoshi Design. Photograph by Paul Tulett.

Dezeen has more.

Ukraine’s “Fight for Visual Identity”

This PRINT piece is excellent: “A cultural gap persists in how history is organized and interpreted. I left the library without my requested images but with a lingering realization that how we organize history, even within the hallowed walls of an institution like the New York Public Library, can reflect the biases and oversights of a collective cultural perspective,” writes El. Stern.

Home Soon, Dear. Image by Maria Kinovych, 2022.

“Today, Ukrainian graphic design is rooted in national identification, in search of future needs, and in understanding the cultural influence of a painful past on a, once again, painful present.”

Ukraine’s search for a future — and present, and past — in design. Great read.

“A must-have manual for hot metal enthusiasts and linotype lovers”

Type Archived, a new book whose fundraising campaign I didn’t see in time: a “stunning visual tour of traditional typefounding and offers a definitive account of London’s legendary Type Archive,” writes Wallpaper*.

Custom metal for the book project.

The book “traces the origins of typography through the physical tools, objects and machinery that made the printed word possible. Full of rich photography, [it’s] a visual journey through the punches, matrices, presses, type and paper which tell the story of the UK’s preeminent typefounding industry.”

Hopefully available at bookstores soon.

“The Arresting Typography of the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps”

Jason Kottke writes, “Several years ago, Brandon Silverman become obsessed with the lettering and typography on the fire insurance maps published by the Sanborn Map Company in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.”

Silverman’s launched an archive of the maps, an absolutely fantastic way to pass a few minutes hours.

Special Bonus #3: Nick Heer, at the always-excellent Pixel Envy, has an essay on the essentials: “[E]fficiency and clarity are necessary elements, but are not the goal. There needs to be space for how things feel.” Delicious Wabi-Sabi is worth a few moments.

Wishing you and yours a very happy New Year!

Beautifully Briefed 24.8: Picture This

A trio of miscellany, a trio of space photography, more than a trio of great black and white photography, and a single, very serious photography question for you this time — let’s get right into it.

Summer of Fun Miscellany
Intermezzo, Explained
The UK cover for Intermezzo. Book design by Kishan Rajani. (The US cover doesn’t compare.)

GQ UK has an interview with Kishan Rajani, a senior designer at Faber, and Pete Adlington, the publisher’s art director, “about how the Intermezzo design came together, the role of social media in modern book design, and how to make books ‘as pickupable as possible.'”

The endpapers for Intermezzo (UK). I really like that they’ve sweated the little details.

We can discuss “pickupable” as a word another time — your time is better spent, for now, reading the interview.

WeTransfer Sold

“Some of Bending Spoons’ most successful products are tools that serve creativity, therefore we are confident that this milestone will complement both businesses, supercharge our growth, and help us create even more value for creative industries at large,” says WeTransfer CEO Alexander Vassilev of the acquisition.

I like and appreciate WeTransfer — unlike the corporatespeak above (but hey, we’re inventing words today … right?) — and hope that despite being corporatized, nothing substantive will change.

PetaPixel: “The companies did not say whether or not all staff or leadership at WeTransfer would be maintained after the conclusion of the acquisition. That may come into question since Bending Spoons does have a track record of buying completed products, training its internal staff on their upkeep, and then releasing the original development team.”

Crap.

Update, 9 September, 2024: “Bending Spoons acquired file-sharing platform WeTransfer in July and has now laid off 75% of WeTransfer’s staff,” PetaPixel reports. “The Italian app company Bending Spoons has confirmed the layoffs to TechCrunch, which comprise at least 260 people based on WeTransfer’s employee headcount of around 350 people.”

Adobe, Again
The Adobe “World Headquarters” buildings in San Jose, California. Image via PetaPixel.

Adobe (previously) recently sat down with PetaPixel to discuss the shambles where things stand — clearly, an attempt at damage control. PP published it … and got some feedback:

Adobe couldn’t explain why it let its once excellent relationship with photographers and media lapse, only that it is sorry that happened. I do believe [their explanation], at least when I hear it from the people responsible for making the software. There is a big divide between the folks who code Photoshop and the C-level executives who are so out of touch with the end users. The thing is, it doesn’t matter what those people down in the trenches of development say or even how good Adobe’s software happens to be, some photographers just don’t like the feeling of giving money to the company because of the people at the helm.

Jaron Schneider, PetaPixel

The thing is: it’s less photography, really, than design. If you’re a photographer, how you get to the point of printing or publishing the photographs offers options in software — whether iPhoto, Affinity, Photoshop, or the Pixel 9 Magic Editor — Instagram doesn’t care, Zenfolio takes multiple file formats, and so on.

But in design — that is, desktop publishing or especially book design — Adobe has a monopoly over the software used by the industry, full stop. I used to love working with their software. Today, not so much. (And for the record, it’s more than their fees, it’s the quality of the software.) It’s extremely frustrating and, at the moment, there is no alternative even on the horizon.

Crap. (Again.)

Extraordinary Astrophotography

So, how many can place Kyrgyzstan on a map? It’s a former Soviet Republic in Central Asia, and, clearly, a great place to do some astrophotography.

Star Trails Above Tash Rabat by Soumyadeep Mukherjee.

PetaPixel highlights the work of Soumyadeep Mukherjee, who traveled there specifically for the purpose — and succeeded wildly. It’s awesome to see a country I’m not familiar with served so well. (My favorite, of course, is the short depth-of-field portrait — if you can call it that — of Yuri Gargarin, seen in the header image above.)

Alternatively, This is Colossal points us at “Bisected by the Milky Way, a Stellar Image Captures the Perseid Meteor Shower Raining Down on Stonehenge“:

Perseid Meteors over Stonehenge by Josh Dury.

“Josh Dury, aka ‘Starman,’ is an award-winning landscape astrophotographer, presenter, speaker and writer from The Mendip Hills ‘Super National Nature Reserve’ in Somerset, United Kingdom,” his web site trumpets.

The thing is … despite looking like he’s about 25, he’s earned it. Great stuff.

Meanwhile, back at PetaPixel, “Photographer Aaron Watson, who goes by Skies Alive Photography, has seen many incredible things in the night sky. His latest sighting is a rare double ‘moonbow,’ a rainbow created by bright moonlight in precise conditions.”

Double Moonbow by Aaron Watson.

All three of these folks need special thanks for their patience. I have trouble standing still long enough to set up a tripod, let alone do long exposures under rarely-encountered combinations of time, weather, equipment and location — plus lots of good luck — in the middle of the night. Well done, all.

“Majesty of Monochrome”

The winners of the third annual Black and White Photo Awards have been unveiled, showcasing the best in monochrome photography across multiple categories.

Monochrome Majesty: Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus, by Robert Fulop. Bronze Mention from the Black and White Photo Awards 2024.

Naturally, I gravitate towards architecture — and the winners (of the nearly 5000 entrants) demonstrate serious talent.

Bench, by Colin Page. Finalist from the Black and White Photo Awards 2024.
The Double Helix, by Md Tanveer Rohan. Finalist from the Black and White Photo Awards 2024.
Windows by Manfred Gruber. Finalist from the Black and White Photo Awards 2024.

See the winners — and especially, take in the finalists, many of which I’d personally judge to be winners in their own right — at the contest’s web site.

Special Bonus #1: It’s time once again for the annual iPhone Awards, “a powerful testament to the art of storytelling through photography.” I especially liked this one:

Bicycle Forest by James Kittendorf. 3rd place in the Cityscape category, 2024 IPPAwards.

It’s a great photograph, certainly, but it was taken by a now-quite-elderly iPhone X — proof, once again, that it’s the camera you have with you. See all the 2024 winning photographs, in multiple categories and taken worldwide, here. (Via PetaPixel.)

So … What’s Next for Photography?

The Verge: “Anyone who buys a Pixel 9 — the latest model of Google’s flagship phone, available starting this week — will have access to the easiest, breeziest user interface for top-tier lies, built right into their mobile device.”

A montage from The Verge, thankfully clearly labeled.

Life-changing moments have long been captured using photography, from Moonrise to George Floyd. But, generally, fakes were the exception, not the rule. We’re, unfortunately, arming the folks who cry foul.

Another montage from The Verge. Note the woods filled in behind the helicopter less convincingly than the accident, above — but how many are going to notice?

It does this article disrespect to summarize. Just go read: “No one’s ready for this.”

Special Bonus #2: Nick Heer, at Pixel Envy, articulates what needs to be said: “anyone can now radically and realistically alter an entire scene within minutes of taking a photo. [O]ur expectations need to change.”

Beautifully Briefed 24.7: Generated

This time, another automaker logo, some automotive and architecture photography, and the special bonuses that have all become a regular part of the Beautifully Briefed standard. But we’re going to start with some generated content.

AI Book “Design”

From the “We knew this was going to happen” category, we have the first — that I’ve seen, anyway — “let AI do the work” research paper suggesting that book design is something that can be automated.

We have presented a novel approach to computationally design books. The presented system implements a generative design process which takes advantage of the scripting capabilities of Adobe InDesign to procedurally typeset books from content provided by the user. We have shown the ability of the system to (i) create book designs that consistently comply with a series of typographic rules, styles and principles identified in the literature; (ii) produce visually diversified books from the same input content; and (iii) produce visually coherent books with different contents.

Design by “AI.”

Let’s please remember that “AI” as the term is currently used is actually “applied machine learning;” in this case, specific rules within specific containers in a specific application. It’s a first step towards something, as most “AI” is in 2024.

But it’s absolutely not the only step. It’s inevitable that the necessary subsequent steps will be taken, probably sooner than later.

As usual where someone is seriously discussing replacing a human worker with a computer, there’s a pitch for the upside:

The work presented in the paper may challenge the typical roles of both the tool and the designer. First, by automatically creating and suggesting design alternatives, the tool ends up playing a more active role in the design process. Then, by modifying and developing custom tools, the designer is no longer a mere tool user and becomes the author of tools tailored to specific needs. We believe this shift can be fruitful since it enables the exploration and discovery of new technical and creative possibilities.

In other words, the designer is now responsible for creatively writing the rules then policing the output — like so many things in the machine-learning, or “AI” space — rather than the actual drudgery of directly designing the output. “Design great rules, get great design.”

And there is room for this. Amazon, especially, is going to jump on book design generated this way; never mind those folks in China or India earning (a paltry few) dollars a day, the computer can do it better for less . . . . Poof! With no human interaction whatsoever, your book is ready to publish. Indeed, for some, the bar to publish has just been lowered made easier. Perhaps even Adobe, who trumpets “AI” at every turn these days, they may choose to take this up. (Probably for a surcharge to the already-high subscription pricing.)

Let’s not even speculate about the major publishing houses for now.

But like AI-generated anything, getting actual art requires hand-tuning the input by an artist. For what amounts to “slop” — see this fantastic PixelEnvy discussion — the generated approach to book design might even be appropriate. But for book design that’s artistic, cared-for, or even “just” thoughtful, you’re going to need a human for a long time yet to come.

The paper is available on Cornell University’s arxiv under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 DEED license. (Via Hackernoon.)

The excellent Odd Apples, which I’m sure I’ve highlighted before — but in a very human way, can’t find.

Special Bonus #1: I had the occasion to recently flip through Pentagram’s book design section. Some seriously interesting, seriously artistic work. (See the Odd Apples listing specifically.)

It could probably be argued that computers took book design jobs away, but….

Special Bonus #2: CreativeBoom links to three free archives on Victorian illustration to inspire — or perhaps use creatively in a book.

Untitled (Fiddleheads), 1928. Photo by Karl Blossfeldt.

Special Bonus #3: The ever-great Kottke.org. points us at Public Work, “an image search engine that boasts 100,000 “copyright-free” images from institutions like the NYPL, the Met, etc. It’s fast with a relatively simple interface and uses AI to auto-categorize and suggest possibly related images (both visually and content-wise).” As Jason Kottke points out, not great in the attribution department, but good stuff nonetheless.

Mazda’s New Logo
Mazda’s logo as of 2023, seen on one of its cars.

From the automotive logo thread (previously), we have to note Mazda’s new look, reduced from the current 3D-style grayscale to flat and black and white. This one gets some criticism from me: it lacks grace, pace, or space. (Hmph. That might be someone else.)

Angry Bird, anyone? (Pardon the artifacts — this image is enlarged from a Japanese trademark post.)

Then again, Mazda has not always been successful with logos. Anyone remember the 1991–1997 version?

Mazda’s complete logo history.

The 1931–1934 version lays the name over Mitsubishi’s logo, which was responsible for sales. The 1975–1991 version is the one I remember best, but that’s likely a youth/rose-colored glasses sort of thing. See Wiki for more information.

Meanwhile, Mazda is trying to move upmarket right now, and the new “look” isn’t really in keeping with that. Curious to see where this goes. (Via The Autopian.)

Mazda’s new electric concept, the Errata, sporting an interim, flattened version of the current logo. Wait, might have gotten something wrong there, too….

Special Bonus #3: BrandNew points us at the 2024 Logo Trends report, the annual fun item from Logo Lounge that looks at what’s hot in this year’s crop of — you guessed it!

Freely (Smiley category) and Droplet (Elliptic category), left, and Olá and Backcountry Wanderer, right, from the Sticker category. (Olá could be in the Smiley category, too.)

Some of my favorites are above, but the whole report is worth a look. (Spoiler: more than flattening is on trend.)

Auto, Auto+Arch, Arch
Auto Photo Manual

Via Wallpaper*, we have Auto Photo Manual, a new monograph from Benedict Redgrove that “explores the art and science of photographing the world’s most striking cars:”

A very orange Lambo. Photo by Benedict Redgrove.

Always a sucker for a Saab, especially this concept:

The 2006 Saab Aero-X concept. Photo by Benedict Redgrove.

Auto Photo Manual is a Kickstarter item that could use some love — stop by if you can. Wallpaper* has the full story.

A Time • A Place (Vol. 1)

Also via Wallpaper*, we have a “celebration of the European Car of the Year and changing perceptions of modern design, pairing the best buildings of the age with their automotive contemporaries:”

London’s Camberwell Subamarine and the Mercedes W116. Photo by Daniel Hopkinson.

“Through the lens of time, both [cars and buildings] have become highly symbolic of their eras and hindsight will allow us to trace the roots of each design to determine how it is viewed from a 21st century perspective,” says Holroyd, noting that over this period architecture underwent a stylistic retreat, just as car design became emboldened and more avant-garde.

Great stuff in this new title, available now from The Modernist. Read more at Wallpaper*.

World Architecture Festival 2024 Shortlist

Via The Guardian, we have The World Architecture Festival’s 2024 shortlist, revealing projects from around the world spanning categories such as childcare, energy, transport and science. A couple of faves:

The Chodge by DCA Architects of Transformation — interesting name(s), surely — in Whakamaru, New Zealand. Photograph by Simon Devitt.

The live awards event will take place in Singapore from November 6-8. This year’s finalists represent 71 countries.

Woven Passage to Cloudy Peaks by line+ studio in Shaoxing, China. Photograph by line+studio.

See more at The Guardian, or the complete shortlist at The World Architect Festival.

Special Bonus #4: This is Colossal brings us the drone photography of Eric Waider, shot in Iceland:

As glaciers expand and recede, they have the capacity to grind rock so fine that geologists refer to the pulverized material as glacial flour. It slips down rivers and into lakes, carrying the otherworldly turquoise hue through a unique and resilient ecosystem. In Iceland, the blue-green color is complemented by rivers that flow yellow, thanks to sulfur from nearby volcanoes, or red from dissolved ferrous iron—also known as bog iron. Coursing over rock and black sand, the streams take on dazzling, rhythmic patterns.

Photograph by Erik Waider.

Brilliant. See his website (“Abstract Landscapes of the distant North”) and enjoy that series and more — including faves such as Ocean Blues and Glacial Macro.

Beautifully Briefed 24.6: Summer of Win (Mostly)

In this installment of Beautifully Briefed, let’s take a look at some great posters, great print items, and great photography. Plus, an update from Adobe’s continued campaign to lose friends and attract government attention. Fun stuff!

GET LECTURED (ON ARCHITECTURE)

Back in September, I mentioned Archinect’s Get Lectured poster series. They’re back with the Spring 2024 winners, including these two faves:

ELAC lecture poster design by Tashfiah Ahmed.
Lecture poster from the University of British Columbia; designer not listed.

Great examples of design in a often difficult category. See the rest.

Architecture Photographs by Hélène Binet

While we’re discussing architecture, let’s talk about a Dezeen post that caught my eye: photographer Hélène Binet has a new book out, adding to her long career capturing the old-school way — using film.

“A Sentimental Topography by Dimitris Pikionis, landscaping of the Acropolis, Athens, Greece.”

This series captures shadows and light with exceptional talent, including the above, where she’s praised for “captur[ing] in a single image the tactile and textured presence of tectonic form, both in built and natural environments.”

“Staircases in Sperlonga, Latina, Italy.”

I love the softer shades of gray than shown in the previous image, and both this and the image below demonstrate a deep understanding of architectural expression.

“Kolumba Museum, Cologne, Germany, by Peter Zumthor.”

Read the post from Dezeen, see more examples of outstanding work on her website, or buy the book with 170 photographs, essays, and more.

2024 Audubon Photography Winners

This is Colossal posted about this a day before my Audubon magazine showed up with these prominently featured, and they’re all winners.

Wild Turkey, Female Bird Prize Winner, by Travis Potter.

Bird photography is a difficult skill requiring patience, perseverance, and specialized gear; those who excel at it deserve recognition. Plus, there’s this:

Audubon’s climate science report Survival by Degrees reveals that two-thirds of North American birds are threatened by extinction from climate change, including species featured in this year’s Audubon Photography Awards like the Blackburnian Warbler, California Quail, and Sedge Wren.

Forster’s Tern, Professional Honorable Mention, by Kevin Lohman.

Check out the Colossal post, or see the full story at the Audubon website.

Special Bonus #1: Kottke points us towards the Siena 2024 Drone Photography Awards. “Look! Up in the sky! It’s … another contest!” Good stuff nonetheless:

“Jiashao Bridge” by Sheng Jiang, China.
PRINT 2024 Awards

The annual PRINT awards are out, featuring — natch — great items in print, including items like the Smithsonian’s annual report and a Naked Trails brochure. Here are a couple of items from the book design category:

Jacket design by Robin Bilardello.

Author sketch and lettering by the author. Also, let’s get the . . . :

Cover design by Milan Bozic, with illustration and typography by Lauren Tamaki.

Fantastic.

Special Bonus #2: Hoefler & Co. brings us Typographic Doubletakes: “While good typefaces have prodigious families of carefully related styles, some of the best typography builds unexpected relationships between unrelated fonts.”

Left: Chronicle Hairline + Landmark. Right: Vitesse + Gotham.

Their blog refreshes as you scroll in more ways than one — enjoy.

Left: Mercury Text + Ideal Sans SSm. Right: Whitney + Operator and Operator Mono.

Special Bonus #3: Kottke points us to a LitHub post arguing for adding full credit pages to books acknowledging everyone who worked on them. “How lovely it is to be seen and appreciated.”

Adobe “Too Easy to Hate,” Say Users, Employees

Adobe continues to score big with the public — in the best Boeing style, a formerly-great company has put profits before users and employees. While successful from the shareholders’ point of view (record profits, again), some are . . . upset. PetaPixel:

Just over a month ago, an Adobe exec called AI the “new digital camera.” Simultaneously, an Adobe marketing campaign chucked photographers under the bus, and not for the first time, which caught the attention of the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP). At the very top of Adobe, there is a concerning and frustrating lack of understanding about art and the people who make it.

Even “exasperated employees implored leadership to not let it be the “evil” company customers think it is;” while that might be a stretch — “ignorant greed” is a better description — either is not a winning look.

The latest was a terms-of-service update that many saw as a rights grab, allowing the company to use users’ work to train its AI services. While those have been amended, the seemingly clear language — “We’ve never trained generative AI on customer content, taken ownership of a customer’s work, or allowed access to customer content beyond legal requirements” — comes from a company that has lost the trust of users, making those words just that — words. Time will tell if they are truth.

But there’s more: Adobe’s just been sued by the FTC (via PetaPixel, Pixel Envy) for hidden fees and difficult cancellations:

“For years, Adobe has harmed consumers by enrolling them in its default, most lucrative subscription plan without clearly disclosing important plan terms,” the lawsuit alleges. “Adobe fails to adequately disclose to consumers that by signing up for the ‘Annual, Paid Monthly’ subscription plan, they are agreeing to a yearlong commitment and a hefty early termination fee that can amount to hundreds of dollars. Adobe clearly discloses the early termination fee only when subscribers attempt to cancel, turning the stealth early termination fee into a powerful retention too that [redacted] by trapping consumers in subscriptions they no longer want.”

I’m actually glad for this, as I wasn’t aware that my $60+ monthly fee is a payment on an annual plan. (Ug.) Not too big an issue — I actually feel like there’s decent value in the plan and will continue to subscribe for the foreseeable future.

But I’d also be lying if I said I’m completely satisfied with our business arrangement: alternatives are few and far between. While Adobe does not have a monopoly legally or technically, in the publishing industry at least, they are, for all intents and purposes, the only game in town. It would be nice if they would at least demonstrate a modicum of respect for their users.

Update, 25 July 2024: “Adobe Exec Says Early Termination Fees Are ‘Like Heroin’ for the Company,” according to PetaPixel. Hmph.

Beautifully Briefed 24.3: Bloomin’ Breadth

The end of March here in Middle Georgia means flowers aplenty, and usually with that, some photography — but I’ve not yet had a chance. (Stay tuned.) I have, however, been saving up links o’ interest: fonts, books, photography, and new(ish) car logos. Let’s go!

Kottke Meets 2024

Starting with one of the very few places that is still around from Foreword’s old days, the always-interesting Jason Kottke:

2024 marks Kottke.org’s 26th year on the ’net.

Great new looks for great content, with better Quick Links — the previews are ace — and incredibly-appreciated gift links to places like The New York Times and The Atlantic. If you haven’t been in a while, click and enjoy.

Fab Spring Type

With “a plethora of captivating new typefaces,” CreativeBoom celebrates spring with 11 new faces to tempt, inspire, and bring joy:

Arillatype.Studio brings us a thousand glyphs of greatness.

Zanco, with its bell-bottom style; Seabirds, inspired by 1930s book covers; Module, a “fluke side hustle;” and Graffeur, improvised from gaffer tape and glimpsed in this post’s header image, are all great. My far-and-away favorite, though, is At Briega, “inspired by the concept of hybridisation” and shown above.

See ’em all here.

Literary Three-Fer
M.C. Escher’s Lesser-Known Works
“The Drowned Cathedral,” a 1929 woodcut.

“Unique perspective” never does justice to someone whose name defines the term. See some never-before-seen images alongside old favorites in a new Escher book highlighted at Hyperallergic.

Multidimensional Libri

“Experimental books are flourishing, [a]nd the evidence is seen” in this Daily Heller from PRINT: a traveling exhibition on three-dimensional books, all published titles.

Oh, those Italians. Read on.

Book Design Snobbery
Hoover vs. Atwood — no joke.

“Don’t get held back from the simple pleasures of reading,” argues Natalie Fear at CreativeBloq, “not everything needs to be minimalist.” Justification for commercialism or a common-sense explanation for the bookshelves’ current look? You decide.

Photography Three-Fer
Winners of Monochromatic Minimalism
“Black Pearl” by Sascha Kohne. An honorable mention for the magazine, but a winner for me.

Some incredibly good stuff here — but perhaps more importantly, did you know of Black & White Minimalism Magazine? There’s no end to today’s continued diversification, methinks.

“Traveling through Costa da Morte, Galicia. 600m above sea level where the mountains separate the Cantabria sea from the Atlantic Ocean,” explains third-place winner Alexandre Caetano.
Aging Facades of France

“Shuttered blinds, peeling paint, and aging doors don’t usually indicate an invitation, but for French photographer Thibaut Derien, the fading facades of long-closed shops are well worth a stop,” This is Colossal says.

Sony Photography Awards: Architecture
The Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (City of Arts and Sciences) in Valencia, Spain: “Hemispheric,” by Eng Tong Tan, Malaysia.

ArchDaily‘s coverage of the annual Sony awards shortlist announcement was an insta-click.

New Bull: Now Flat. (And a BMW.)

Lamborghini practically defines flamboyant. So it’s worth a link when their logo gets less interesting:

Old logo, left, new, right.

Late at following the industry trend of flat-is-better, because, well, Volkswagen. (Okay, I undersell. Perhaps.) Read the lack of news at Motor11Motor1 also has a decent roundup of new car logos, from 2016-present, which underscores the “flatness” trend. or The Drive, where they manage to convey the brand’s use of the phrase “digital touchpoints.”

I don’t know whether this will make any more sense in a few or even many months — which is relevant because of BMW. Four years ago, one of the industry’s design leaders expressed strong this new style, and I didn’t get it. But it’s worn better than most, and superlatively on occasion — check out the logo’s use on the Vision Neue Klasse X:

Rather than a standalone, plastic part sitting on the paint, it’s etched into the finish. Man, I hope that makes it into production.

Neue Klasse: do like. Bull? No so much.

Update, 2 April: BrandNew, itself sporting a new look, has weighed in on the new Lambo style, calling it “not good.” (FYI, BrandNew is a subscription, quite possibly the best $20/year someone interested in design can spend.)

  • 1
    Motor1 also has a decent roundup of new car logos, from 2016-present, which underscores the “flatness” trend.

New Gallery Bonus: Deepstep, Georgia. (Also, a New Georgia Gallery Setup.)

A while back, on the road from Milledgeville to Sandersville, I spied a sign:

Giles Cross Roads, 11917 Deepstep Rd.

That little town — more a hamlet, really — is called Deepstep, and I’ve marked it for a stop since. On the way home from Augusta (part 1, part 2), I finally had the opportunity.

Alonzo G. Veal & Son (What We Don’t Have, We Can Get), 9665 Deepstep Rd.
Veal & Son Building Detail #1, 9665 Deepstep Rd.

What a great little spot.

Gate and Field, 9665 Deepstep Rd.
Outbuilding and Pine, 9731 Deepstep Rd.

The gallery’s only eighteen photographs, but absolutely a worthy addition to the newly revised Middle Georgia group. Those galleries cover everything from Pine Mountain in the west to Sandersville in the east, Madison in the north to Dublin in the south.

Indeed, I’ve rearranged pretty much all of the Georgia galleries:

The new Georgia gallery group: five items instead of three, all featuring rearranged contents.

Atlanta gets its own (to be expanded soon, I hope); the cities of Augusta, Columbus and Savannah another; Macon, my home base, a third; the aforementioned Middle Georgia, a fourth; and finally North and South Georgia (Helen, St. Simon’s, etc.).

As always, thanks for taking the time to stop by.

New Gallery: Augusta, Georgia (Part Two)

As mentioned yesterday, I’ve been meaning to get to downtown Augusta with a camera for years. Actually, that not correct: I’ve been meaning to get to downtown Augusta . . . period. I’d never been there, despite living 130 miles away for almost two decades, despite having been nearby, despite — well, you get the idea.

Statue at James Brown Plaza, Broad St. and Augusta Common

So it was a pleasure to get to the home of Woodrow Wilson, James Brown, Jessye Norman, and countless others — and see a city a lot like so many others in the American South, a city that’s struggling with identity, history, vacancy, gentrification, and so many other issues prevalent in the 2020s.

The Confederates and the Albion, Broad St.

One of them is the continued presence of a huge Confederate memorial, a shame in a majority-Black city — and just in front of the Lamar Building, soon to be luxury apartments. What message are Augusta, and its new luxury residents, sending?

Miller and Lamar, Broad St.

Nonetheless, the day’s efforts resulted in some satisfying images, from architecture to neat details:

Augusta Cotton Exchange Building #1, 32 8th St.
Miller Theater (Entry Detail), 708 Broad St.
Edgar’s Above Broad (Logo) Sign, 699 Broad St.

Augusta is a riverfront city I’m looking forward to returning to. In the meantime, please enjoy a total of 128 photographs in the newly-posted gallery.

Augusta Riverwalk Marina (with Freedom Bridge)

New Gallery: Augusta, Georgia (Part One)

Together with Columbus and Macon, Augusta is one of Georgia’s “Fall Line” cities, and is home to more than 200,000 people. Located on the eastern edge of the state on the Savannah River, it was founded by James Oglethorpe in 1736 on the site of a Native American river crossing.

Augusta has long been on the to-photograph list, but it’s just far enough away from Macon to make a quick, unplanned trip difficult — so this past weekend, when another trip was cancelled, I took advantage of the available time and made it happen.

Blue Against Blue Against Blue, 943 Ellis St.

Of course, rather than a quiet Sunday downtown, I ran headlong — no pun intended — into the Augusta Ironman marathon. There were crowded street corners, intersections closed aplenty, and a combination of competitors and supporters everywhere.

Boll Weevil Cafe and Sweetery, 10 James Brown Blvd.

Nonetheless, it was a beautiful early-fall day in Georgia, and over the course of several hours, I really enjoyed photography in downtown Augusta — as usual, without people in the shots.

Decorative Facade, 103 Macartan St.

Excepting, of course, The Godfather of Soul:

Spirit of Funk Mural, 190 James Brown Blvd.

The photostroll also included the Riverwalk, a stretch both at water level and atop the levee — doing my best to stay out of the runners’ way, moving around to the chants of “water!” and “ice!”

Fountain at Riverwalk Enterance (#1), James Brown Blvd.
Savannah River at Augusta, Georgia

The first 64 photographs — part one of two — have been posted to the new Augusta gallery. Stay tuned for the second part, along with a bonus gallery and some housekeeping news, tomorrow.

Slice of Primary Colors, 1102 Broad St.

Beautifully Briefed 23.9: Falling into Brilliance

As summer turns to fall, let’s take a look at Type 1 fonts, a library index, revolutionary posters, posters for “get lectured,” and two different photography contests. Let’s get right into it.

Adobe discontinues a standard: The Type 1 font

Back in the early days of desktop publishing — up to about the turn of the century, give or take — everything typographic used PostScript, a programming language by Adobe. (Other stuff, too, like Adobe’s vector program, Illustrator.) PostScript fonts were the so-called “Type 1” variety, made up of a bitmapped “suitcase” that housed the standard display sizes and an outline file used by the output device to print clean, what-you-see-is-what-you-get beauty.

The Apple LaserWriter Plus and some vintage Macs: nostalgia! (Note the book — heh.) Image: YouTube.

Companies from Apple to Microsoft didn’t want Adobe to hold a monopoly on output tech, so later fonts evolved into TrueType and then OpenType, the latter of which is the standard today.

So much so that Adobe has now discontinued Type 1, and they, along with Microsoft, have stopped being supported. Which is understandable and yet a shame: some of us still have hundreds of them.

Ars Technica has the best roundup.

Meanwhile, I’m going to investigate a conversion utility. Will report back.

All the Libraries in London

It’s Nice That has a post that reminds us of a library’s central purpose: to leave knowing more than you did when you entered. “The library, in our shared public imagination, is a special place,” the author argues — reminding us of what libraries were established to do, often distinctly different from the modern reality (especially in the United States).

In the library you begin to be convinced that language matters, that words have the power to clarify, to rouse, to make us feel something, to help us understand the political and cultural features of historical and contemporary moments.

Lola Olufemi, It’s Nice That
All the Libraries in London. Cover design: unknown. Image via It’s Nice That.

All the Libraries in London does something artistic with a simple listing, elevating it, reminding us how compelling the ideal that libraries represent really is:

This is a political and artistic listing, one that invites the reader to rediscover their own memories of their local library as a site of discovery. The book’s authors invite us to reflect on our personal relationship to libraries as well as the necessity of collectively securing their future existence.

Lola Olufemi, It’s Nice That
Alan Kitching, Durning Library. Image via It’s Nice That.

We need more of this everywhere, but especially here in the States. Meanwhile, check out this great item at It’s Nice That.

Special Bonus #1: Another British treasure, via the very British Antiques Roadshow (a British original, natch): this incredible poster by Ralph Steadman.

Ralph Steadman’s Where the Buffalo Roam (1980) poster. Image via Wikipedia.

Special Bonus #2: British book designer Steve Leard has launched a new book design podcast, Cover Meeting, featuring interviews between Leard and fellow book designers on the work, the industry, and more. The Bookseller has more.

Cuban Movie Posters. No, Really.

While we’re on the subject of great posters — and It’s Nice That — let’s talk about how Cuba’s revolution-era political posters transformed their poster design for films. Appropriately enough, a new film, El Cartel Cubano, highlights these amazing (and, likely, never seen before) items.

Besos Robados, ICAIC, by Sotolongo & Carole Goodman. Image via It’s Nice That.

How come our posters in the US aren’t this beautiful? What did this say about the priorities of the revolution? What did the medium or choices in the scarcity of materials used say about the economic situation in Cuba?” It’s these questions which form the bedrock of El Cartel Cubano, a fascinating and tender tribute to the artists on the island.

Adrienne Hall, co-director, El Cartel Cubano
Sur, by Michael Myiares Holland. Image via It’s Nice That.

I have to admit: this isn’t a subject I would have leapt at, but It’s Nice That sold it. Awesome.

Get Lectured (on Architecture)

Closing out our trifecta of great posters, Archinect‘s Get Lectured series brings us these fantastic items from their Fall 2023 series:

Woodbury University School of Architecture’s Fall 2023 lecture series.
The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture’s Fall 2023 lecture series

Some real gems: see more.

Finalists of the 2023 Urban Photography Awards

Going to soapbox a little here: pay-to-enter photo contests aren’t usually something I want to spread the word about. So ArchDaily‘s basically-a-press-release, “URBAN Photo Awards 2023 has announced its list of Finalist Photographers, marking the penultimate stage of the international contest,” was guaranteed a pass.

But there’s a problem: some of the photographs are really compelling.

Untitled, by Claudia Costantino

This one’s my fave:

Back to the 70s, by Stephane Navailles

See the contest website, or ArchDaily‘s post.

Winners of the 2023 Black and White Photography Awards

Another contest, yes. They’re everywhere. But … wow.

Street Lights – Ottawa, by Gareth Jones, category winner, architecture
Another mushroom? By Hector Ballester Ballester. Silver mention, architecture.
Alamillo bridge, by Manuel Ponce Luque. Finalist.
The concert, by Helena García Huertas. Finalist.
Reflections on the stairwell, by Max Dobens. Finalist.

And that’s just the buildings/architecture — there are portraits, street photography, landscapes, and more. A reminder to aspire, every day, with every image.

The Black and White Photo Awards (2023). (Via PetaPixel.)

Beautifully Briefed 23.8: Summer Stew

The August heat is met with some refreshingly cool items for you this time: beloved movies reimagined as vintage paperbacks, graphic design on the Internet Archive, and winners of the 2023 iPhone photography awards. Plus, a bit on social media that hopefully won’t leave an aftertaste. Let’s dig in.

“Good Movies as Old Books”

This is Colossal points us to an extraordinary personal project by graphic designer Matt Stevens: classic, acclaimed movies visualized as vintage paperback books. Everything about these spells “win.”

From the aged look, illustration choices, and director-as-author to the logo and occasional price, these are all … perfect.

Volume One is 100 titles, and while that book is sold out, prints are available at his website. The items in Volume Two, due this month, are guaranteed to be awesome.

Graphic Design on the Internet Archive
Emigre #20 – Expatriates. Courtesy of the Internet Archive via archive.digital.

Another treasure via Jason Kottke:

archives.design is a labor of love site run by Valery Marier where she collects graphic design related materials that are available to freely borrow, stream, or download from the Internet Archive. I’ve only scratched the surface in poking around, but so far I’ve found Olivetti brochures, a collection of theater programs from the 19th and early 20th centuries, several Apple thingsThe Vignelli Canona specimen book of wood type from the 1880s, and many issues of Emigre. What a resource!

Jason Kottke, kottke.org
An advertising brochure for the Olivetti Tetractys, circa 1956.

Some of these are fantastic — set aside some time to explore and enjoy.

2023 iPhone Photography Winners

I don’t always link to these contests — it often seems like the publicity (and rights!) are all about the folks holding the contest rather than the people entering them — but I often look, and am always impressed with the quality coming out of a “simple” iPhone.

Long Nguyen, France – 1st Place, Travel – “Last Night before Xmas”
Scott Galloway, United States – 1st Place, Nature – “Wonder Wheel”

And while both of the above are (relatively) recent phones, in the latter case showing the macro capabilities of an iPhone 12 Pro Max, even older phones can highlight the talent of the person using it:

Derek Hager, United States – 3rd Place, Photographer of the Year – “Tucson Morning”

Shot on a 2017 iPhone X. Nice.

See all the winners, for 2023 and years past, at IPPAwards.com. (Via PetaPixel.)

A Moment Regarding Social Media

I’m not going to spend much time on this; I eschewed pretty much all forms of social media years ago now, and don’t regret it. That said, I do keep up with social media in the meta sense (a word that’s been stolen, as far as I’m concerned, by — wait for it — a social media company), and have noted the pain and concern associated with the implosion of Twitter.

While this conversation started with Nick Heer and the always-excellent Pixel Envy, it’s obviously evolved as the year has seen one extraordinary cage fight event after another.

Threads on Apple’s App Store, via the BBC.

For the past decade, It’s been all but required for serious brands to maintain a social media presence […] yet instead of scrambling to claim digital real estate across all these newly emerging platforms, some companies are choosing to be more judicious about which platforms they choose to join. In some cases, they’re learning from brands who jumped the social media ship years ago.

Chris Stokel-Walker, BBC

The quote above, from the BBC, attempts to answer the question, “Why your favourite brand may be taking a social media break.” Short answer: it’s complicated. I’d argue there’s an even shorter answer — it’s smart! — but for people and brands that aren’t yet established, social media is often key to discoverability.

This may be especially true for artists, designers, photographers, and others in the self- and small-business-employed creative field. Indeed, let’s go to a great source for those in the arena, Creative Boom, who recently spent a minute asking, “Creatives are saying social media is over… so what next?”

Like any new craze, it was fun for a while. But there’s certainly nothing new about it any more. Facebook’s now been around for almost two decades. Twitter’s 17 years old. Even Instagram has reached its teens. And while many of us joined these platforms during their fun, “anything goes” eras, when everything was about the users, now it’s all about the algorithms and their use to make venture capitalists vast amounts of money.

Tom May, Creative Boom

While I agree that social media is a mess and has been for a while, I’m absolutely not going to tell you to give it up — only to remind you that I have given it up and continue to be completely okay with the decision.

I do want to ask you, though, to choose wisely:

Facebook’s “Threads (an Instagram app),” their answer to the Twitter/X debacle, as shown via Apple’s iOS App Store privacy report.
Tapbot’s “Ivory,” available in Apple’s iOS App Store and showing that app’s privacy report, for the Mastodon social platform.

Enough said. Turn off the computer, go forth, and enjoy a beautiful summer’s day.

Updated Gallery: Columbus, Georgia

Gerald and I were in Georgia’s lower Chattahoochee River valley yesterday, visiting the city of Columbus — and ran across a couple of treasures. Naturally, there was a camera handy.

The first is the best restaurant I’ve enjoyed in a long while: The Animal Farm.

The Animal Farm, 105 W. 12th St.

If you’re in or going to be going to Columbus anytime soon, I cannot recommend it highly enough. The food was superlative, the service excellent, and the ambiance simultaneously upscale, casual, and fresh.

The second — and no less tasty — stop was the Ma Rainey Museum of the Blues. This period house downtown is small but demonstrates a remarkable comeback from the (literal) wreckage they started with in the ’90s. I’d originally wanted to return to the Columbus Museum, but it’s being renovated; Gerald’s suggestion here was pitch-perfect.

Ma Rainey House, 805 5th Ave.
Ma Rainey House Marker, 805 5th Ave.
Bust and Albums, Ma Rainey House, 805 5th Ave.
Record Player Detail, Ma Rainey House, 805 5th Ave.

Inside, Gerald and I enjoyed a lengthy conversation with Xavier, a guide who was knowledgeable and enthusiastic; he absolutely made us want to explore more blues history. (I’m also going to be listening to some Ma Rainey on Tidal.)

Meanwhile, gallery of Columbus photographs is deep and varied, spanning almost fifteen years and 180 items — check it out.

As always, thanks for visiting.

Update: Gerald’s take on the day.

Updated Gallery: Downtown Macon

As is typical in July in Georgia, it was hot yesterday — but not so much that I didn’t spend a few minutes wandering around with the camera and superb 90mm. Especially since I was down on MLK, an area of downtown Macon I don’t frequent as much as, say, 2nd St.

Macon Rocks Mural (401 Cherry St.)
Music Marker (MLK and Mulberry)

Some detail shots (as usual):

Studio Door, Serenity Entertainment, Cherry St. Ln.
Visit Macon’s Keyboard Building Detail, 450 MLK Blvd.
Decorated Transit, MLK and Cherry

Side note: I was completely unaware that Steve Martin and Edie Brickell had teamed up for Bright Star, a musical set in the Appalachians. (I presume, unfortunately, that the 2020 season at Theatre Macon might not have shown.) It probably won’t surprise that I enjoy a musical now and than — and am a big fan of both Martin and Brickell — so was glad to find it on Tidal.

Bright Star (Painted) Poster, Theatre Macon, 3rd St. Ln.

In any case, 23 new photographs have been posted to the Downtown Macon (2022-2023) gallery. Peruse and enjoy — and thanks for visiting.

Beautifully Briefed 23.6: Welcome to Summer

This time, several items related to books and bookstores; two more — possibly the last two — from the automotive logo category; and PRINT Magazine’s 2023 roundup of great design.

Book Four-For
AI book covers? Here, now.

Creative Bloq, which I wasn’t familiar with, has a post up that’s only here because it’s the first I’ve seen of what is sure to be a trend: AI imagery on a book cover.

Image: Bloomsbury UK (Also: Where’s the body to go with the head?)

“Causing controversy,” they say, in that…:

[F]or a while now, with concerns over copyright and ethics plaguing text-to-image generators. Perhaps the most existential worry of all is the idea that AI could put human artists out of work – and while many still find the idea fanciful, we’re already seeing examples of AI-generated art being used commercially.

— Daniel Piper, Creative Bloq

The article itself has a hint of click-bait about it, what with Twitter users spotting a NY Times bestseller but complaining about the UK version of the cover design . . . but the larger question of AI coming for the book designers everywhere is valid.

Then again, AI imagery has the potential to reshape much of the creative landscape. Let’s hope — hope! — that it’s deployed ethically.

B&N’s Market Repositioning
Image: NYTimes (modified)

BookRiot asks whether Barnes & Noble’s new presentation as “a local bookstore” — something that’s part of the community in a way that Amazon can never be —is genuine, let alone successful. (We have a B&N here in Macon, which I visit infrequently, and which doesn’t feel “local.”)

Background: The BookRiot article (and the image) above ultimately stem, I believe, from a NY Times option piece from 2018.

Temples of Books

As regular readers know, I’m a huge fan of combining books and photography. Naturally, great photographs of great libraries strike just the right chord:

Cuypersbibliotheek, Amsterdam, Netherlands

As This is Colossal puts it, “Written by Marianne Julia StraussTemples of Books: Magnificent Libraries Around the World celebrates the stunning architecture and quietude associated with wandering the stacks.”

Phillips Exeter Academy Library, Exeter, New Hampshire

Positioning these spaces as intellectual havens, Temples of Books highlights their wide array of offerings, including botanic gardens, archival repositories, and of course, room to read. “As an institution that can curate knowledge, scrutinize the status quo, and encourage education, the library is more important today than ever,” a statement says. “This responsibility is only growing as the freedom to publish on all manner of channels increases.”

— Grace Ebert, This is Colossal

Instant wishlist item!

Take Action for Libraries
Image: everylibrary.org

Simple brilliance: a handy step-by-step guide on what to do if you don’t like a book at your local library.

Carmaker Logo Updates: Porsche and JLR
Jaguar Land Rover > JLR
No, that’s really it.

Formerly Jaguar Land Rover, but generally known in the industry as JLR, the British company1Technically, it’s an Indian company, as JLR is a subsidiary of the TATA conglomerate. decided to have a FedEx moment and rebranded. Alas, Paul Rand was unavailable, so there’s no brilliance in the execution. (We’ll absolutely leave whether walking away from Land Rover as a brand is a smart move for another, longer discussion.) Motor1 has the details.

Porsche > Almost all other mainstream car brands

There’s a new Porsche logo!

The new 2023 version of the Porsche logo. (Image: Porsche)

That’s right: it’s a very subtle change. But it’s a significant one, perhaps because it’s only the fifth in the company’s 75-year history:

All five Porsche badges. (Image: Porsche)

The biggest changes are the backgrounds and the prancing horse in the middle, which is completely redrawn. (And, yes, has more than a passing — heh — resemblance to Ferrari’s.)

Not-at-all-staged photograph by Porsche.

Wallpaper* has the best coverage I’ve seen.

Bonus: Motor1 has a roundup of every recent (2015+) automotive change in branding. Of course, I’ve covered most of ’em here, too.

Update: Nissan, already on the updated list above, might be up to something.

PRINT‘s Best of 2023

PRINT reminds us that not everything is digital these days — so much of the work still goes on paper or packaging — in their 2023 roundup of great stuff:

The 2023 PRINT Awards celebrated outstanding design in every shape and form, from the delicate texture and exquisite form of print to digital design that married technical skill with precise craftsmanship.

— PRINT Magazine

The best in show is a brilliant environmental design, the annual reports category is oddly satisfying (I didn’t know that Land O’ Lakes is a cooperative that owns Purina, for instance), the editorial category contains brilliance, and many, many more worthy of a design lover’s attention.

Sadly, their book design category is a bust. I like “The Every,” but pretty much any of my Best of 2022 picks run circles around it (and the other two choices):

The Every as photographed by PRINT.

But there are gems. I really like Bakemono, for instance, a winner in the fonts category and the best monospaced font I’ve seen:

Italian foundry Zetafonts brings us Bake Mono.

It’s a long article (they call it a 74-minute read!), but when you have a moment, grab a drink and an iPad and enjoy — hopefully as much as I did.

And that’s it! Settle into summer, and stay tuned for more soon.