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Oh Me, it's the end of Q3!
02012-Q3 Reykjavik, ICELAND: It is week 40. Only 3 months until the end of the year, then it is that weird transition to having to write '13 at the end of every year. Q3 is over, time for an exciting recap and look ahead.
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Creating Symbol Fonts
I can happily announce, that I am working on a new short book for Five Simple Steps entitled A Pocket Guide: Creating Symbol Fonts. Available January 02013.
With the introduction of retina displays, the way we think about small icons, logos and images on our websites need to change. Just like when we moved non-content images into CSS backgrounds and into sprites, we are now at a new epoch where vectors will rule the day. Font embedding allows anyone to embed a vector image which scales and prints beautifully.
If you are a web developer, this is a craft that you must learn. How to create your own symbol font in such a way so that it is small, semantic and maintainable, will be in high demand. You will be the hero of your office when you create a custom font with your logo simply a few key strokes away.
Pocket Guides Series
My short book isn't the only one in the series. There are other great authors writing on exciting topics such as; layout, typography, psychology and more. The idea is that the pocket guides will be only a few thousand words and cost about the same as a cup of coffee.
Five Simple Steps: Pocket Guides
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Contest Winner
Q3's Iceland Illustrated Map Poser winner was Steve from Cape Town, South Africa. The randomly chosen co-ordinates where Lat: -45.525 Lon: -89.688.
Q4 will continue the map series with a new hand drawn map of San Francisco. The map took several months to draw and water color. You can see a version online at The Open Company.
Remember, You can't win, if you don't enter! So be sure to add your submission.
Miura Fold
The San Francisco map is printed on Tyvek, which is water proof, but more interestingly, the folding technique is something called Miura Fold. The result is something that pops open and closed with a slight tug.
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Torg í Biðstöðu
As part of a Reykjavik beautification project, we formed a small team called Bæjarhliðið Hlemmur and worked on improving the downtown city bus station. There were many aspects to the project, including bunting flags, a navigational and historic map, but the two biggest parts were the outdoor seating and life-sized stencils of Icelandic animals.
The life-sized animals include polar bears, sharks, seals, killer whales and much more. It was great to see people sizing themselves up to these beasts of land, sea and air. I hope that what we've built makes everyone's commute a little more comfortable, enjoyable and fun.
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Long-Form Writing
This quarter is pretty short on the long, partly due to writing elsewhere, but also plenty of un-finished ideas in draft stage.
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