When I left the house this evening, I didn’t plan on making my Friday night in Manhattan all about people watching. I’d hoped, rather, to be able to meet up with the latest girl that I’d been deluding myself about. But rather, in tune with the last few weeks of trying to see her, we never ended up together. In my head, I composed the perfect email to let her know we’re through, but delivery will wait until tomorrow morning (when I’m clear-headed). You lucky readers won’t get such a reprieve, but rather the unfiltered stream of consciousness that was my evening. Read more
nyc
The Future of New York
As imagined by an unknown artist (c. 1910), the future of New York is filled with low-flying bi- and tri-planes and train trestles that run through skyscrapers. The above postcard is part of the Walker Evans collection of 10,000 currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art here in NYC. I recommend visiting by tri-plane as the elevated trestle is normally congested.
Doesn’t this sorta remind you of GM’s Futurama from the 1939 World’s Fair?
AIGA New York – ERA404 gets a new barker!
Fig. 01: AIGA barker on the ERA404 site
A little while back, Tina Roth-Eisenberg (known far and wide under the blog moniker “SwissMiss”) tweeted about an extra ticket to see the AIGA NY event with Ji Lee speaking about inspiration and the nexxus between gratification from work and gratification from personal projects. For those that don’t know, Ji is one of a dozen or so creative directors at Google Creative Labs and the father of The Bubble Project.
The ticket, provided by the generous and inimitable Cameron Koczon, of Fictive Kin, opened up a world of creative thinkers, social drinkers and networking opportunities for design and development. We’ve had the honor of working with Ms. Roth-Eisenberg on various projects, including the MoMA staff site and I’ve followed SwissMiss‘s career for a half decade now, as well as the guest speaker and other participants in the event. And while many in the audience appeared to be students or those embarking on new careers, it was refreshing to see so many people passionate about design. Working in the vacuum that is ERA404 can sometimes feel devoid of creative ideas, especially when members of a project are on the other side of the globe.
So, part of this year’s resolution was to create a stronger bond with members of the creative community in NYC and, with four days to spare, we joined the AIGA. The last professional organization I’ve been a part of was back in college (the American Center for Design‘s “Students in Design” and our chapter’s “Design Works” student organization) as well as participating in the Grand Rapids Area Advertising Foundation (GRAAF)’s annual “Addy Awards“, in which a colleague and I won a Citation of Excellence.
It is my secondary hope that, just as being members of NYPHP as brought us design opportunities among the developer network, being a member of the AIGA will bring us development opportunities among the designer network. First and foremost, however, we’re glad to be part of such a prestigious and reputable organization that shares membership with some of my greatest heroes in the design world: Paula Scher, Michael Beirut, Stefan Sagmeister, to name a few.
What are your experiences with the AIGA, or other professional organizations? I’d love to hear your thoughts as well!
[d]online Up[d]ates
Two quick things in reference to my new [d]online typeface.
1. American Typographers: According to this site, put together by Luc Devroye, of the School of Computer Science at the esteemed McGill University in Montreal, I’m part of the American Type Scene and featured (less than prominently) on his New York City page:
(by the way, the French example translates to “On the lap of the sorceress”)
2. MyFonts: I’m now listed on myfonts.com:
ERA404 Relaunches BroadwayVideo.com
In 2005, Sharon Haskell contacted ERA404 to work with her on developing the portfolio site for Lorne Michaels‘ production company, Broadway Video. ERA404 previously worked with Ms. Haskell on the site for her motion, still-life and collage work, sharonhaskell.com. The site enjoyed four years of steady traffic until Broadway Video updated their branding and marketing campaign.
This is when Creative Director, Katherine Burke, returned to ERA404 to develop a new site that was in-line with the production facility’s new image. This morning, nearly four years to the day, the new site launched.
The site incorporates 80+ streaming videos in entirely dynamically loaded content, deep-linking through SWFAddress, daily news/press updates with advanced searching and RSS feeds, archival footage and information about the production facility’s legacy over the last 35 years.
No Sleep til Breuckelen?
Someone recently laminated over “Brooklyn” on the 23rd St A/C/E Subway station entrance with the original name. An over-zealous Peter Stuyvesant fan? A shareholder in the Dutch West Indies Company? An Old Amsterdamian? Dunno. But what I love is that this “street art” actually prompts us to wiki. Now if that isn’t clever, ik weet niet wat er zou zijn.
tweet//404
I know how excited you have been to read my sparse @citarella twitter tweets. AND how you’ve reveled in finding ERA404’s quarterly newsletter in your inbox, too. So have I got a surprise for all the [d]online readers. Now you can get ERA404 news, product and project information served directly to your browser and mobile devices more than four times a year. That’s right! ERA404 is now on twitter (as if you couldn’t tell by the post title.
Add us here: http://www.twitter.com/era404