Almost forgot to mention: I did an interview with LetterCult, the new website devoted to the art and culture of making letters. It just went up today. Link.
The site’s been up less than a week, but there’s already a ton of great stuff on it about lettering and type design.
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drawn.ca had an item the other day about a meme that’s going around: draw yourself as a teenager. I decided to cheat and post a drawing of myself as a teenager that I drew when I was a teenager. I’ve added explanatory notes.
At the time (about 1973) I had this idea to draw a comic that featured me and my friends and teachers. It never got beyond a few sketches.
Looking through the list where the meme started makes me feel very old. People in their early twenties laughing at how dumb they were as teenagers only a few years ago. A few years ago, I was pretty much the same as I am now, but I remember the feeling.
Would it surprise you to learn that I am a pack rat? When it comes to things like books and printed material about type, this can be a good thing, as it gives me a rich resource library I can tap whenever the need arises (and it frequently does). When it comes to other things, like old computer software, it is a complete waste of time and space.
It’s not hard to see how it happens. When it is new, software is not cheap (it didn’t used to be, anyway). So, even if you are not actively using it, it feels like it still has value. And how can you tell exactly when a piece of software is no longer useful and the chances of ever running it again are nil? It’s easier to just put it on a shelf and forget about it.
Well, time passes and it becomes much easier to see how little it’s worth to you. But then the question becomes: What to do with it all? I couldn’t bear to chuck it all in the trash (it’s a sickness, I know). Surely there must be somebody somewhere who would be happy to take it off my hands? And so there is: Dan’s 20th Century Abandonware (a.k.a., D2CA). Update: That site is gone now, but the collection can now be seen at Daniel’s Legacy Computer Collections. Same guy.
A few weeks ago, I shipped eight cartons of old Mac software to Dan as a donation. Some of it dates back to the first year of the Mac’s existence (Andrew Tobias’ Managing Your Money). Some of it I bought with high hopes, but never really used (Think Pascal). But most of it simply went obsolete (TOPS networking software).
As he promised, Dan posted a formal thank you on his home page—complete with photos and a listing of everything I sent. Now, if I ever feel a pang of regret, I can go to Dan’s site and still see all my old stuff, comforted that it has found a loving home, instead of an existence of guilty, dusty neglect in my basement. My hat (if I had one) is off to Dan for graciously and willingly accepting my donation.
Of course, this was just the stuff I don’t need any more.
Just for fun, I’ve decided to share my first published writing on the subject of typography. It appeared in the April 19, 1977, issue of Metropolis, the Weekly Newspaper of Minneapolis. Metropolis unfortunately folded about six months later, but it was an incredible place to work. I may write more about it sometime.
As its production manager, I didn’t get much chance to write, but this was one exception. After four months there, I had a reputation as someone who knew something about type. Metropolis had a page in the back called “Final Draft.” It was a page where anything might appear, from short stories to comics to photo essays. I can’t remember anymore if the editor, Scott Kaufer, asked me to write something or if I suggested it myself. Some of it makes me cringe to read again. Some of it is not quite correct. There are things in it that I wouldn’t necessarily agree with anymore, and I am surprised at how jaded I sound. Keep in mind, though, that I was only 21 years old when I wrote it, and, as everyone knows, a 21-year-old knows all there is to know.
(Originally published in Metropolis, the Weekly Newspaper of Minneapolis, April 19, 1977.)
So, there’s this thing going around blogs where you answer this list of questions, four answers each. I was tagged this morning by John Martz (a.k.a. Robot Johnny). It seems a bit like a chain letter, but I enjoyed reading other people’s answers, so I’ll play along:
Four jobs I’ve had:
- Bag boy, Penny’s Supermarket
- Art director, Minnesota Public Radio and several other places
- Freelance graphic designer and illustrator
- Type designer
Four movies I can watch over and over:
- Blade Runner
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- The Wrong Trousers
- Time Bandits
Four places I have lived:
- Beloit, Wisconsin
- Osseo, Minnesota
- Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Saint Paul, Minnesota
Four television shows I love to watch:
- Lost
- Monty Python’s Flying Circus
- Futurama
- Doctor Who
Four places I have been on vacation:
- Jamaica
- Montreal
- Lanesborough, Minnesota
- New York City
Four of my favorite dishes:
- Pizza
- Greek salad
- Aloo Mater Paneer
- Bowl of cereal
Four websites I visit daily:
- Typophile
- Typographica
- kottke.org
- Drawn!
Four places I would rather be right now:
- Asleep in bed (up too late last night)
- New York, 1930, with a camera
- Someplace warm
- A good bookstore or library
Four bloggers I am tagging:
Kristian Walker interviewed me last Friday for his blog. You can read it here.