Popular Science has made their entire archive available for browsing. That’s more than a hundred years of the magazine, visible in its original format, advertising and all.
Tag: culture
Oh no, words!
Nation Shudders At Large Block Of Uninterrupted Text. The Onion, spot on as usual.
Unable to rest their eyes on a colorful photograph or boldface heading that could be easily skimmed and forgotten about, Americans collectively recoiled Monday when confronted with a solid block of uninterrupted text.
Dumbfounded citizens from Maine to California gazed helplessly at the frightening chunk of print, unsure of what to do next. Without an illustration, chart, or embedded YouTube video to ease them in, millions were frozen in place, terrified by the sight of one long, unbroken string of English words.
Bookstore stupidity
Stupid Quotes from BookMine. You can only wonder what goes on in the heads of some people.
On opium dens
Confessions of an Opium-Seeker chronicles Nick Tosches’ attempt to find an opium den in the age of quick-fixes and connoisseur culture. I need to read some more of his work, the writing style sucked me into the article.
Stereotypes
Paul Shaw looks at the use of “ethnic typography” for Print Magazine, and finds that it serves its own purpose.
They are shortcuts, visual mnemonic devices. There is no room for cultural nuance or academic accuracy in a shop’s fascia. Restaurant owners want passersby (often in cars rather than on foot) to know immediately that they serve Chinese (or Greek, or Jewish) food.
His article also examines the background behind a few of the more popular typefaces. I understand that these typefaces serve a purpose, but I still balk at the use of Papyrus as an “Irish” font.