Be sure to check out Stefanie Posavec’s beautiful and exhaustively documented data graphics of the patterns of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road. The data graphics mimic complex natural objects like tree rings and flowers in order to show the rhythm and grammar of Keruoac’s novel. The maps look remarkably like a literary DNA of the book (via daring fireball).
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Nerds. (Helveticafilm.com)
For a moment there, I thought typography might actually become really popular. I had just dragged several of my friends to a movie theater in San Francisco to see Gary Hustwit’s Helvetica. They had initially been skeptical of the entertainment value of a film about a single typeface, even after I told them that it was “the most popular typography documentary of all time.” But after seeing the film, they seemed transformed. One friend, Erik, whose e-mail signature was long set in the ignoble Comic Sans, claimed after seeing the film that he would “begin looking at letters in a new way.” And then there was the Double Jeopardy round of November 7, 2007, which included a category called “Knowledge of Fonts.”
My mind raced. Perhaps we were entering a new era of typographic understanding, one in which the typography of cell phone contracts, dry cleaning storefronts, and office PowerPoint presentations would matter. Perhaps the forms of the lowercase g would become a suitable subject for casual dinner conversation. Perhaps the makers of computer monitors, taking pity on graphic designers, would redesign their products to display at magnificently high resolutions.
A few weeks ago, I got an e-mail from Erik. His signature was still in Comic Sans.
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“Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.”
Engineers are people with a special set of skills in a domain that enables them to effectively solve problems. If they have the proper skill set, they are hired to satisfy a set of specifications, at which point the problem is solved, and everybody goes home happy.
Scientists can also be engineers, because the only real prerequisite is possession of a certain specialized skill set. However, the methods of a scientist acting as an engineer can differ from those of an engineer. A scientist does not just try to find a solution to a problem, but attempts to postulate and implement the best solution. This is accomplished by rigorously searching for a deeper understanding of the domain and creating layers of abstraction to describe the domain’s elements and their relationships.
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Welcome to the new kellerandfaber.com. For those of you who don’t know us, David Faber and I have been designing and building websites and web applications together for several years, and we’re proud to launch our permanent online home. We hope you like it around here.
We have big plans for the site. On this blog, we’ll regularly be posting targeted ramblings on graphic art, science, and computers, with an eye towards highlighting and discussing the most interesting work on the internet. (David’s first post talks about the role of creativity in finding the best solution to a scientific problem). You can take a look at our previous work in the Portfolio section and find more about our backgrounds in the About section. In the portfolio, you can also preview Cashflow, a open-source web application that will help small businesses keep track of their financial records.
If you have any questions or comments about the new site, or to submit a work inquiry, you can reach us at info@kellerandfaber.com. We’d love to hear from you.
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Writing is the collected thoughts of Josh Keller & David Faber on graphic art, science, the internet, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Keller & Faber is a website design and development company based in Berkeley, Calif.
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