IceCalibre has moved!

Well, it’s official: IceCalibre blog is being retired. It’s been a good run – just a few months shy of three years in total.

Time for not only an upgrade but a brand new everything. Ground up. Terra nova.

I’m excited, for this allows for some grand new options and ultimately what I feel to be a better reading experience in the end. It’s somewhat bizarre to see the blog reader statistics go from thousands back down to mere tens, but it’ll grow soon enough. I hope to foster more of a personal approach, actively answering people’s questions in the comments or on Twitter (and as always, feel free to send email) so definitely, do those things – it’s nearly always guaranteed to make you more attractive to the opposite gender / more successful in life.

Without further ado, welcome! Welcome, young and old, to the brand new chocolate factory. Welcome, to blog Acrylo.

*cheers*

Move = 50%

Update.

Both a physical move for me, back to my hometown for work while off of school and also a move from this blog to the new successor. It’s not IceCalibre 2.0 but beta-named Acrylo – subject to change.

It’s a physical move for that too, actually, I’m running it on my brennanletkeman.com server using the real WP platform so it can breathe easier and I’ll have more control. Excellent.

Check out the beta here, and from now on all content will be posted there instead of here. However, I’m keeping these and all previous posts alive and well to keep as archive.

Brennan Howl’s Moving Castle

Exciting news:

This blog is getting it’s well deserved upgrade to a luxurious private server and a real install of wordpress.

The new blog is still in rough stages but I started this morning, and if there aren’t any new posts coming here it’s because they’re being routed to the new address which will be unveiled soon.

Also, still accepting writers! If you like the things I’ve posted so far or want to add new areas of interest, please,  apply within.

Scrapbook 13

Neat, these ones actually have websites watermarked. That’s handy.

Mostly sourced from various Tumblrs, this scrapbook of inspiration is decidedly forest themed.

Credit and all copyright belongs to the original authors of the work, of course.

Bovino Lakto

Like the beer ad before it, it’s done with the classic advertiser’s style in mind. Big, bold typography that is there not to tell you how good the product is, not to tell you features or prices but rather just telling to you drink it. That’s all. Just drink the milk.

Originally it was a Kavalo product as well, but since Kavalo means horse the word ‘milk’ coming after it changes the meaning slightly for the hilarious.

You’ll notice too that ‘drinkajo’ inherently means refreshing-drink and so the ‘freshigar’ in front of it is redundant. Since most English people won’t understand this, it makes sense to use both words since we’re more familiar seeing “refreshing drink” or some derivative being two different words. I’m using Ido not as a language in itself but rather as an excuse to not use English – I don’t mind utterly destroying the rules. It’s Lorem Ipsum anyway.

MW: Logo

Morning warmup.

The background photo is from the Mt. Sulphur trip.

Trendy

Sometimes, if I’m really running low on other sources of inspiration I’ll look to websites that curate “inspiring design” which is rarely actual design and equally rarely actually inspiring. For some reason, the past six months have been filled with super fake vintage effects applied to boring photos and then covered in some sort of “design element” like transparent coloured circles or diagonal hairlines  and then something “inspiring” is written in Univers or Helvetica.

There should have to be a test you take in order to wield such fine typefaces all willy-nilly like that. You wouldn’t give these people a rifle, they can stick to the water guns: comic sans.

I jest.

But honestly, that’s not even real graphic design. Stop it.

Writing

!

This is going to be lengthy and probably poorly flowing, I understand if your attention span doesn’t make it past the end of the next sentence.

Ponies.

…that was a joke.

It’s interesting the thoughts people have on the new media. It’s also interesting they call it new media. Really, writing hasn’t changed all that much and Facebook and Twitter and all of these “new medias” are really just old media in a new medium and even then, not really. It’s still black text on a white page – although the white glows more nowadays.

But it’s interesting for me as someone who has grown up on the wave of all of this. I wasn’t quite young enough to grow up beside it, but I’m not old enough to remember times before it. I didn’t have a cell phone until a few years ago, and now you see pre-teens texting so I am older than that generation (not in the offspring sense as much as the 2.0 sense) of people. It’s funny that I watch old movies and see the typical teenage girl laying on her bed with her own phone talking for hours while not moving at all. As far as I’m concerned, I’d say mobile inter-connectivity is better for us. This past week I’ve logged at very least 50 km  walking / longboarding and enjoyed hours of beautiful spring-summer sun and fresh air, while never missing a beat with my friends if I was so inclined to include them in my adventure. I spent several hours in solitude, both physically and electronically as well, because that’s why I go out and explore; I really enjoy solitude.

I think people have it wrong, overall. I think they see the medium as the solution, be it good or bad, and I’m not sure any of that school of thought is correct. The stereotypical old people see it as this looming evil, standing over the world like a physical monster, devouring children. The stereotypical child is a happy king, seeing a world of information brought to them at the swipe of a finger. The stereotypical school board sees it as this overwhelming distraction and problem, and instead of admitting that the entire recorded history of the entire planet can be browsed within milliseconds they want to steamroll the same old same old lecturing techniques and call the students the problem.

I would suggest contrary. I would suggest that in fact it is a tool. Facebook is a tool, Twitter is a tool. They can be time sinks, perhaps, but so is sharpening a saw. In the end, they do a particular job that not much else in the world can. I won’t say it’s good or evil, I’m not fighting for the kids or the seniors because honestly, I don’t believe there deserves a fight at all. To do so would be like fighting over said saw: perhaps people have been killed by them. True. Perhaps they’ve done an excellent job cutting down trees to build houses. True. Perhaps cutting down trees with your bare hands is a ridiculous waste of time and needs to be updated. Humans need tools. Ultimately, it’s a little part of why we’re human in the first place.

This relates directly to brands:

Apple vs. Microsoft.

I say: Who cares?

They too are tools. They do different things. You can fight saw vs. axe all day (I guess the metaphor is sticking) but ultimately they’re just tools designed to do slightly different things. There is no right or wrong, there is no winner or loser or better or worse. Pick the one that does the job you need to do best. Duh!

Also: Sports teams. An even more useless battle because they don’t even accomplish anything.

Moral of the story, before this turns into a grand mal rant: Everything is a tool, stop fighting over trivialities and use the one that makes sense. Don’t judge others for the tool they use, natural selection should take care of that.

We live in a new world that’s sparkling and awesome. Don’t be stupid.

Benage!

I’m the weird designer type who obsesses over the menu design and the posters they hang on the walls in restaurants – this should come as no surprise. If you aren’t that type, next time you’re eating at Earl’s take a look around. You might find posters resembling the above; vintage, alcoholic and usually in Italian.

Mine is not Italian. In fact, most of them aren’t even real words. “Rejala” actually means “royal” in Ido, so it could be translated as “Royal Royale” which is just silly. Benage doesn’t exist at all, although I took “Benege” which means “Fine” and changed the middle vowel for flow. I like the improved ‘ah’ sound – really punches out the word better and sounds vaguely French. It doesn’t have any context in the poster, so it’s an exclamation that probably implies “Drink!” or “Enjoy!” or “Cheers!” or something.

I spend a lot of time making up words. It’s surprisingly hard, actually.

The lack of grid bothered me, since I observed that the real posters from the era past didn’t line anything up like I obsessively do. To make my name under the other text not justify to common lines really, really tweaked my grid OCD.  But! Authenticity, however fake, is what’s required here.

Looking at it now, I’m not sure I like the ‘o’ at the end of “drinkajo” – I think it could do without. Although, these fictional people probably thought the rhyming ends were clever for their slogan and chose that purposefully. That’s the other thing, when making pieces like this, I try to make the whole back story. Why are these lines here or there? Why would they, in the 20′s or whenever, probably pressed or hand painted, do certain things. I try to imagine who’s making the work in what kind of environment for what kind of purpose. I’m not sure if it helps or not, but I think it’s valuable insight at some level of artistic decision making.

So, that’s the verbose description of the piece. People keep asking for more behind-the-scenes (which I do enjoy of other creators as well) so I’m happy to oblige. I hope it’s helpful!

Good Design is Invisible

I’ve never been much for staged photography, but I had an idea.