Keith Martin presents Fun with Flags: the evolution of the Catalan Estelada

Keith Martin presents Fun with Flags: the evolution of the Catalan Estelada

“Hello. I’m Keith Martin, and welcome to Keith Martin presents: Fun with Flags”. No, hang on, I promise this won’t be like Sheldon’s infamous vexillology video podcasts… even though one or two of my students have compared me to Sheldon. I’ve always found national flags fascinating from a graphic design sense. They are meant to…

Helvetica: still pulling its weights
|

Helvetica: still pulling its weights

Helvetica is the world’s most popular typeface. Not everyone likes it, often precisely because of this, but it’s everywhere you look: shop signs, clothing labels, corporate logos, packaging of all kinds, the iOS interface – and now of course Mac OS X itself. One of Yosemite’s many changes was the booting out of Lucida Grande…

Presentations, the art of knocking ’em dead

Presentations, the art of knocking ’em dead

“Are we sitting comfortably? Is this thing on? Friends, Romans, countrymen! Oi, you in the back!” The odds are that, sooner or later, you’re going to have to stand up in front of a group of people and talk about something. Practically everyone hates doing this kind of thing, especially the first few times. As we’re…

Zapfino, the typeface with built-in magic

Zapfino, the typeface with built-in magic

Zapfino is one of the most spectacular typefaces you’ll ever get to use. It’s a calligraphic tour de force, a typeface designed by the prolific Hermann Zapf, the man responsible for Optima, Palatino and a great many other well-known fonts. Zapfino is specialit’s a swash-rich design with a range of styles and options beyond almost…