Spencer E Holtaway

Spam yesterday

2011-06-02T15:03:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone,

Apologies if you got a spam message from me yesterday. I am aware that it happened, and have changed my e-mail password in the hope that will stop it happening again.

Thanks to those of you who let me know it happened so quickly.

Spencer

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Spencer E Holtaway

San Francisco, CA

2011-06-02T00:00:00.000+01:00

http://niyanoro.t35.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOn6tZZZc3o

--
Spencer E Holtaway
San Francisco, CA

THIS BLOG HAS MOVED

2009-06-18T14:51:00.002+01:00

In an effort to consolidate all of my online stuff, a bit, I have moved this blog to spencereholtaway on wordpress

I'll be transferring all of these posts over there once I figure it out.

Cheers blogspot, you're pretty sweet.

London could use these.

2009-06-18T14:37:00.007+01:00

Photo: MTR Arrows, Hong Kong | Stefan Schäfer (flickr)

A friend of mine went to visit my brother in Hong Kong. This is one of his holiday snaps. This would be fantastic on the London Underground as you could point at them while you get off the train, barging through a pile of morons pushing to get on the train.

Update

2009-05-20T14:14:00.003+01:00

It's been a while. Mostly because most of the bloggy thinking I do these days gets pointed towards contributions to the wonderful www.interestment.co.uk

I've also been working on www.dotdotdotspot.com which is going quite well, despite some redneck shithead schoolboy who spammed the site consistantly for about 5 days back in March. Wonderful, lovely boy. Charmed.

In other news, I got some of those 'best product design items I've seen in a long time'. I thought they were concept-only , but turns out they're REAL and CHEAP.

FANTASTIC

INQ1: Tricky switch

2009-02-05T10:46:00.008Z

I've had the INQ1 for about 24 hours now. The handset is quite nice. I never had a slider before and it's ok, I guess.

It feels solid-ish, but not like an iPhone or my previous K800i, but that's probably because of the slider mechanism. The brushed aluminium-effect finish is quite nice, and the numeric keypad is quite responsive.

3G is fast, but I work in a basement and get no 3 network reception at all during the day. Product tester FAIL.

I'm really impressed that it can run skype and msn messenger in the background at all times. That's cool- receiving skype calls and msn IMs is just like receiving calls and texts. Actual seamless integration. Makes me look forward to the rumoured background processing update on iPhone.

The widgets are pretty sweet, too (widgets? where'd they get that name from?). They sit on the 'home screen' and you can press the up button to get to them and click on them for online info. I'm using the weather and BBC News RSS widget. Apparently Britain needs more nannys. I wouldn't mind seeing this kind of thing on the iPhone, over your wallpaper before you unlock it or something.

What's not cool is trying to chat on a numeric keypad. This thing should slide the other way and have a qwerty pad underneath, like one of those Sidekick things all the kids on the OC/Laguna Beach, The Real OC/The Hills had before Apple got involved. Yes, at this size the keys would be tiny, but T9 predictive text drives me fucking mental, even though I'm still quite good at it, even after a year on the iPhone. Like riding a slightly dodgy bike you bought from Brick Lane market, or something. On another T9 note, I noticed they changed the default of "2-6-6-5" from 'book' to 'cool' since I last had a numeric keypad phone. That's quite funny.

Facebook is a little pointless on this phone unless you're an addict, as you'd have to be willing to use the crappy interface. It gets you the information you're after, but it looks awful and is 'just a bit shit'.
---
*UPDATE*: Trevor Bennett blogged about how you can use the facebook app in areas with no reception (like the tube), and all is synced up when you return to reception. You can see status, write messages, post pictures, all of it. That's bloody clever, that is. The interface is still monsieur uglyfaçade.
---

Oh, and I still can't figure out if I can listen to last.fm on it. I tried, but kept going in circles and not seeing a play button anywhere. It should be seamless like the other social networking things if they're using the logo all over the marketing materials. Anyway, the supplied headphones are SHIT, and you HAVE to use them as there's no 3.5mm jack, just some bloody USB thing. I put them back in the box.

I think I'll try using the phone as a 3G wireless modem with my MacBook at some point soon. That should be fun.

INQ1 Test. Here we go

2009-02-03T15:49:00.005Z

So, I was recently asked to do a trial of the INQ1 phone on the 3 network. I should be receiving the phone tomorrow and will probably have to do that thing when you charge it for 16 hours while trying not to play with it.

www.3mobilebuzz.com asked to do the trial as I'm a "social media savvy blogger" which means, I assume, I'm supposed to write about it on here. And that's what I'll do. I'll probably take some pictures of it and put them on flickr, too, where I'll be taking bids for usage rights if they're any good.

As an iPhone user, I'm GUESSING the first week of trying out the phone will be the most frustrating experience of my life since I first tried to send a text with a numeric keypad. I'll probably keep trying to touch the screen and crying. Also, I don't really use last.fm and I'm a mac user so iChat and Skype are the only 'IM' services I'm signed up for. That said, before iPhone firmware 2.0 was released I didn't use twitter and now it's an every day thing.

BUT, I have high hopes for this thing - for the price, it sounds like a great deal for a social media savvy blogger like myself, that is, if I didn't want an iPhone or couldn't afford one...

Come on, it's a free 3G handset with skype and facebook for £20 per month (or £15 if you only communicate by numeric keypad and don't need more than 75 minutes per month).

So, we'll see what happens in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

This is my favourite thing on television right now.

2009-01-06T21:04:00.001Z

Seriously?

2008-12-01T19:01:00.000Z

Let's hope this shit isn't supposed to be aspirational.

Today, Tomorrow

2008-10-31T15:18:00.004Z

Today is Halloween. People in the USA, UK and many other countries will be having fun dressing up, trick-or-treating and partying. There will be people dressed as fried calamari, computers, dinosaurs, space men, politicians, Indiana Jones and towers of Ferrero Rocher. There will be amazing carved pumpkins with designs from the death star to bowling balls to popular television personalities.

It's an exciting time for anyone. We're planning on carving up some pumpkins in the office this afternoon, and we all arrived to find sweets and spider webs on our desks.

The different thing about it these days, though, is that today (the only Halloween) is only the start of the event. As more and more awesome costumes and pumpkins arrive on flickr and digg, it'll take them a few days to reach the top of 'explore' or the front page. Halloween will last four or five days.

Christmas will last until mid January, thanks to this 'digital delay'.

It's slightly ironic, too, that all this technology that has made things easier and faster in so many ways has now overloaded us and it actually takes more time now for our trusted filters like 'explore' or digg to deliver the information we see. Without them, though, we'd be living in the dark ages... right?

High Five Generator

2008-10-14T11:00:00.002+01:00

A bit of self-patting-on-the-back today. This made it onto the interweb in all sorts of places.

Zoomdoggle

PSFK

Gizmodo!

and it even made it through the NotCot editors!

Where to next, mister high five?

The best product design I've seen in a really, really long time

2008-10-02T12:45:00.003+01:00

I have no idea where you get these, or who designed them. PLEASE use the comments to let me know, if you know.

THIS IS TYPOGRAPHY

2008-09-25T16:52:00.004+01:00

I recently noticed a trend in which designers write the word 'typography'.

In this example I'm a bit disappointed there's no message connected. It's a beautifully executed piece of 3D/retouching, but all it says is 'typography', which is a bit boring in my opinion.

All sorts of other designy stuff at www.youthedesigner.com

Awful, just terrible, really, really bloody bad media placement

2008-09-25T07:37:00.003+01:00

Link below for those of you from outside of the UK, or are immune to londonpaper sandwich boards.

Jean Charles de Menezes on Wikipedia

If you know who took this photo, or where it originated (blog, news website, etc) please let me know in the comments so I can credit the image.

nano-chro. sorry I can't say it again.

2008-09-09T22:07:00.002+01:00

I like the paint streaks. Obvious choice, but nicely executed and stuff or whatever. But that headline is pretty painful.

"iPod Touch, the funnest iPod ever" on the other hand, is quite funny. Say it a few times, funnest. Feel dirty?

UPDATE: this is awesome too - from the end of the TV Ad.

Virgin Media get it

2008-09-04T14:05:00.001+01:00

This pretty much sums up the experience I had getting my broadband transferred and working when I moved. Over a period of 4 weeks.

Animals on the Underground

2008-08-15T16:54:00.002+01:00

Animals on the Underground is probably the best London Underground map 'mashup' I've ever seen.

Go look at it immediately!

Content Paradise reconsider brand promise?

2008-08-08T07:36:00.003+01:00

Content for your 3D models can still be found at Content Paradise, though.

These post-its are awesome.

2008-08-07T15:13:00.000+01:00

For men who drill, screw and...

2008-08-07T08:54:00.002+01:00

Forgot the end of the line, and the brand, but this was definitely an ad for tools.

Update: the line was "For men who screw, bang and drill" and is for a £39.99 pair of steel capped boots.

Matter of fact: most image searches will have a cat result in the first 5 pages

2008-07-28T14:26:00.003+01:00

Fact.

Edit, make it 'first six pages'. This one was on page six of the search string 'towel':

We built this city on milk and... Um. Milk.

2008-07-25T13:35:00.000+01:00

London Dairies 020 8440 0619

Solving the problem of mumbling in the office

2008-07-15T12:37:00.001+01:00

Many creatives (well, here anyway) tend to mumble to themselves while working. So I invented this hi-tech flag so people know when they're being spoken to.

Is that cause you think you're fat?

2008-06-23T09:57:00.002+01:00

Cause you're not, you could drink whole if you wanted.

Sainsbury's launches 1% Milk in the UK.

Box Master

2008-06-21T12:00:00.000+01:00

Yes, pardon me? What is 'Box Master'?

SWA

2008-06-15T22:07:00.000+01:00

Except for the delays, crying babies and poor people, of course.

So happy to be a Bank of American

2008-06-12T19:51:00.000+01:00

Now I work here

2008-05-21T21:26:00.003+01:00

Cunning have lots of logos, so I thought I'd show you mine. It's a bit silly. I couldn't believe that nobody had done an alphabetti spaghetti one, then I went to Sainsbury's and found out THEY DIDN'T HAVE ANY.

Shocked and appauled.

See what we do at www.cunning.com

It's the widescreen that makes it

2008-05-12T22:32:00.000+01:00

Popular Flickr subject matter

2008-05-12T12:53:00.008+01:00

I thought it was about time I compiled a list of what i notice to be popular flickr subject matter.

'Bokeh' (out of focus light sources that make pretty, colorful circles

Attractive women doing the 'take a photo every day for 365 days' thing

Attractive women (no theme)

A bit of an attractive woman

Writing on hands / body

Stuff with something written on a piece of paper next to whatever it is. Usually a coffee or something like that.

Hands making the shape of a heart over a belly button

A ring stood up in an open book, lit so the shadow makes a heart shape

Kittens / baby animals in general

Pictures of pets with sickeningly cutsie titles

Those freakish Japanese 'fashion dolls'

'Thank you for so many views on my photostream' dull as hell self portraits / screen grabs

Flowers really, really close up

Pictures of dogs taken close up with a wide angle or fisheye lens

Extreme off-camera flash work

Other pictures photoshopped into polaroids in the picture

Water/colorful liquids splashing in wine glasses

Bugs humping (macro, of course)

Out of focus things brought into focus by a water drop in mid air

Something poorly exposed, badly framed with boring subject matter... with a clever, 'poetic' name

Around f/1.4 or f/1.8 aperture (usually taken on a Canon 350D)

Pandas!

Update: Jumping. Just people jumping in the air.

Update: Balloons. Preferably black balloons in white, softly lit airy locations. Polaroids of Balloons are good too.

Tate Local

2008-04-30T18:51:00.001+01:00

The Tate Modern has kindly moved their turbine hall floor to Valentine Place, SE1.

Nearest tube: Southwark

Showing for a limited time.

Ameeeewwwrica

2008-04-30T13:19:00.003+01:00

If you haven't yet seen the new American passports, I suggest you search for some images on Google right now.

Following that, I suggest you get a new one yourself, even if you're not American. In which case you'll have to apply for citizenship and then get one before a Democrat gets voted in.

Seriously, they're the most amazing pieces of propagandist artwork I've ever held in my own hands.

o2 makes mistakes too

2008-04-14T15:59:00.004+01:00

Found on the o2 website.

Must be something in the water today, or maybe since I saw Photoshop Disasters I've been subconsciously looking for website cock-ups.

This poor web designer did a quick copy-and-paste (probably while muttering "I'm a designer, I'm not supposed to be copying and pasting frickin' content... always with the frickin' content. Jesus".

Fair enough, though, art school never told me I'd spend half my life copying and pasting stuff.

Microsoft Typo

2008-04-14T12:10:00.004+01:00

Just found this on the Microsoft website.

Well done boys.

-UPDATE- Try clicking on the 'Connect and share anywhere' image. It goes here.

Again, well done boys.

A thought on routers

2008-03-26T18:20:00.002Z

I've been thinking, why don't people take the opportunity for comedy
names for their wireless interweb routers more often?

A while back I was thinking of compiling a list of 'good' Bluetooth
device names. I have a couple written down at home.

Ok everyone, let's get interactive here: use the comments bit on this
post to suggest a couple 'good router names' for others to use.

As an example, I'll share one I can pick up from near my home:

"buy_internet_from_flat19"

Fire away!

Sent from my iPhone

Am I on MySpace?

2008-03-26T11:33:00.003Z

No.

This is a Firefox plugin that warns you that you're on MySpace with the message,

"You appear to have navigated to a page on internet cesspit MySpace.com
This is probably a terrible mistake.

Would you like to rectify this unfortunate mistake?"

All in good fun, I assure you.

I also had to post this

2008-03-18T08:11:00.002Z

Dalston Kingsland Shopping Centre, London

Lomostrobism

2008-03-13T13:22:00.004Z

So recently, I've been into this 'DIY-on-a-budget-home' lighting thing that many people are calling 'Strobism', after the interblog that has made this way of thinking about photogaphic lighting very popular and accessible: Strobist.com

Also, I just found that Lomo are now making all sort of flash equipment - maybe not the cheapest for the quality you get, but certainly fun and quirky.

The gadget pictured above is a slave flash, which is a flash that flashes when other flashes flash, allowing you to.. well, have more than one controllable light source in your photograph. It's quite tempting to buy lots and lots of these things and stick them all over the place.

They even have a lave flash that you screw into the lighting fixtures in your home which sounds like a bit of fun.

Maybe I'll treat myself to whatever's cheapest next pay day.

Custom Made

2008-03-10T13:23:00.005Z

In short, if you have a girlfriend that likes vintage furniture, hand made things, Animal Crossing on the Nintendo DS and cats, you should go to this website and buy her something.

They're also very friendly people, and if you sign up for their newsletter they'll even tell you when their website is down, and when you can buy more cute woodland animal print purses. Oh, and if you want to meet them, they have a little market stall, either in Spitalfields or Brick Lane... they might move around, not sure.

More iPhone Stuff: BBC iPlayer

2008-03-10T10:28:00.007Z

[photo by me]

Ok, trust me, it's not my intention to turn my blog into an iPhone or Apple fan blog (they do exist, and they're run by REAL Apple geeks. I've never downloaded an SDK, whatever that stands for).

Anyway, BBC's iPlayer, a 'watch TV you've missed online' service is now available on the iPhone via interwifi at www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer.

You can't watch it on the bus quite yet as 'the EDGE network is too slow to stream video', but if you take a bus through Moorgate on your commute, The Cloud network should soon be signing some pieces of paper that allow iPhone users to watch iPlayer while out and about, which will lead to comedic instances of people walking into lamp posts while watching, hopefully.

In the meantime, just put EuroTrip on your iPhone to watch on the bus, it's amazing.

The BBC blog talks about it all here, too.

Hot nuts

2008-03-07T15:17:00.002Z

I had to post this.

Lovely as a tree

2008-03-07T14:39:00.007Z

Beyond the trendy logo, there's a great website and lots of information about making your big print jobs less negatively impactful on the environment.

I'm the new office 'green nazi', by the way.

Troika's Jealous Picture Frame

2008-03-07T14:18:00.004Z

Troika: The objects that surround us are rapidly getting electronically updated with promises of greater intelligence and enhanced user satisfaction. This developing intelligence might set the ground for darker impulses, and soon greed, jealousy and revenge could happen electronically.

Ok, so these guys are genius. Sometimes they make me wish I did an MA. Basically this picture frame messes with TVs because it's jealous of them.

Click here to find out more, and see more of their crazy stuff.

No touch? What the...?

2008-03-07T14:11:00.008Z

So I noticed there's a lot of stuff about iPhones and touch things on my blog. Well, since I last posted I got a job that isn't in a pub. Part of this job involved me making this no-touch interactive window thing happen for Orange.

See the ITN News coverage here:

Oh, and the company I work for is here

A few things about previous posts

2008-03-07T14:04:00.006Z

I got one of those iPhones. It's pretty sweet. (Jan 21st 2007)[photo by me]

The patent application drawings for some sort of touch-sensitive Apple MacBook-looking thingamajig (May 5th 2006)are most likely the starting point of what turned into the iPhone: the Safari Pad. See Mac Rumors for more info.

Flickr's 4th Birthday

2008-03-07T13:37:00.008Z

SO it's going to be Flickr's 4th Birthday on the 15th of March 2008, see:

How very exciting! I hope they give members some cool free stuff.

What I'm not looking forward to, though, is the 'explore' section of the webbysite being full of cakes, t-shirts, and emo girls with 'happy birthday flickr' scrawled on their arm with black lipstick.

Good luck everyone!

Breaking news: Waterloo International Signage is Rubbish.

2007-02-21T22:42:00.000Z

spot the signage.

IT’S a nice modern idea, but it doesn’t work. It keeps the platform ceiling light and airy, and the trains decal-free, but putting the carriage numbers on the floor is nothing short of confusing.

In case you haven’t noticed, signs around the world are either on something to tell you what it is, or above the crowd pointing you in the right direction.

I’m not saying the signage at Waterloo International Eurostar completely ignored the concept of putting signs up high where everyone can see them and expect them to be. While each individual train carriage has its very own sign on the floor next to it, every 2 to 5 carriages, there is a sign that lets you know which carriages lie ahead. However, not noticing the floor signage and seeing “Carriages 5 – 8 [up arrow]” made me think my carriage, 5, would be a bit further up. Before I know it I’m being eyeballed by high salary city-types. Oh right, I’ve gone too far and I’m in the world of upper class. Turns out my carriage was right next to the sign telling me it was up there. Eh?

Now, I did only get 2 hours of sleep last night, and security took the coffee I just bought off me when I got to the x-rays, but I’m not the only one who was there asking the chap with a permanent look of, “can’t you count, you fucking idiot?” on his face, where to go.

[Ooh! We’re in the tunnel! This never gets old.]

Basically, I’m just wondering why they didn’t stick to the old system while still making it all modern and eurotronic. You know, crack out the DIN Mittelschrift and slap it on the carriages, have it laser-etched into brushed aluminum on overhead signs, hung from posts reminiscent of the Southwark Council area signs from those wires the cool Ikea ceiling lamps have?

Perhaps King’s Cross will get it right.

An old idea.

2007-01-24T04:50:00.000Z

iPhone's nice, but what happened to that touch-screen laptop?

2007-01-21T19:00:00.000Z

Well, here's my sketches from 2002, thinking about it.

When exactly?

2006-05-05T00:55:00.000+01:00

I've been waiting for this for a long time, and this is the first confirmation I've had of the idea going onto paper. It's Apple's patent for a tablet computer, filed in 2003.

I'm surprised these didn't hit the market with the advent of the new Pentium systems this year, as many Windows-run tablet PC's have been on the market since early 2003. I get the feeling you could to a lot more than color in your spreadsheets with Apple.

AT&T

2005-11-22T14:00:00.000Z

AT&T unveiled their new logotype this week, following SBC Communication's successful purchase of the telecoms giant. Which was nice.

Modernisation of the former logo graphic, plus a change of typography has led to a fresher look for the communications company, without losing its brand recognition.

The globe is 2d-3d. What you see here is the 2d (print) version. However, elsewhere on the web and on other interactive services, the globe is said to rotate. I've not seen this yet.

Good job InterBrand chaps.

About Mister Chappy-Chap

2005-10-06T08:26:00.000+01:00

Mister Chappy-Chap is a character from a short animation I created in response to the Routemaster Bus in London. The following paragraphs are excerpts from the explanation I included with my animation, a foreward if you will.

The character of Mister Chappy-Chap comes from the idea that the Routemaster bus is a quintessentially British vehicle, much like the Black Cab or Concorde for example. For the past few years, I have been fascinated with Martin Parr's photography as he captures 'very British scenes' that seem absurd even to the most British viewer. Since moving to London I have seen more of Britain's unique eccentricities than I ever saw in Bath. This may be because I am more used to the West Country way of life, but before moving to Dulwich, I had never seen a public house with two entirely different sides.

The Crystal Palace Tavern, like many other Victorian public houses has a central bar, with a 'lounge side' and 'bar side'. The Crystal Palace Tavern, however, has maintained the lounge side to Victorian standards: the round gas lamps, etchings on the wall, large mirrors and iron-footed tables, while the bar side has been 'upgraded' to suit modern needs: two projected televisions, wood flooring and very 'Ikea' furniture. Stella Artois is only available on the modern bar side.

Liam, a friend of my brother, is now finishing his MA in English at Oxford University. During his interview, he was asked where he lived. When he replied 'Dulwich', the interviewer perked up and informed Liam that he too once lived in Dulwich:

'Where do you drink?' the interviewer then asked, and Liam replied 'the Crystal Palace Tavern'.
'Ah ha, or the 'CPT' as they seem to be calling it these days'.
According to Liam, the next question was the decider in his success on enrolling to the course: 'do tell me... which side do you drink on? The right side or the left side?' Luckily for Liam, he drank on the right side, the Victorian side.

I imagine Mister Chappy-Chap would get along with - if not be slightly frightened by – due to his kind and unassuming nature – the Oxford 'Don' that interviewed Liam, and that he too would drink on the right, as he is stuck somewhat in the past, enjoying the family roast every Sunday, smoking his pipe, 'thinking of England' and chasing that Routemaster bus he so adores. I have it in my mind that Mister Chappy-Chap does not however live in close proximity to the Crystal Palace Tavern. Mister Chappy-Chap is a Dulwich Villager. The Village is a posh enclave at the top of Lordship Lane, housing the Dulwich Picture Gallery and Dulwich College – one of the finest private schools in the country. Maggie Thatcher used to live in Dulwich Village.

Dulwich Village does not feel like London, unlike East Dulwich, which holds some resemblance to surrounding areas such as Brixton, Camberwell and Peckham (the Rye is, after all, just down Barry Road from Dulwich Library).

Mister Chappy-Chap works in a bank in Bank, much like Mr Banks in Mary Poppins. Although he is surrounded by computers at his job, he is only competent in doing with them what he needs to, and prefers doing sums in his WH Smith grid-lined notebook with his Parker fountain pen (one of the more expensive ones, of course). He carries a handkerchief, and one spare – in case a lady needs one – and washes them both by hand every night whether they have been used or not. Mister Chappy-Chap gets his hair cut at Keith's Barbers on Northcross road. Keith, to me, is an amazing piece of Martin Parr's Britain. In a world of Toni & Guy, Aveda and Garnier, Keith does what he's always done and what he knows how to do: a short-back-and-sides. Keith appears to be around sixty years old, but I expect he may be much older. His back is naturally arched from leaning over the head of each and every customer he has had for goodness knows how many decades, but he does an incredible job. I went to Keith's once. For £7 and quarter of an hour of my time, he trimmed my hair with incredible precision and skill – a steady hand like his, at his age, is to be desired. Keith does not require bookings, so pop in if you’re in the area.

I can imagine Mister Chappy-Chap visiting Keith on a weekly basis and he would, of course, get a proper shave on that occasion. Mister Chappy-Chap likes to be tidy and lives by the rule 'only the best men shave twice a day'. He enjoys the sting of after-shave.

While I have described Mister Chappy-Chap as rather posh and a likely hard right-winger, I feel I must make it clear that he is much more soft and innocent a character than that. He appears as he does through sheer naivety – as though he has had is eyes shut for fifty years, perhaps opening them once a fortnight to realize that shillings have disappeared along with outhouses. After all, he is a comedic character in the animation, susceptible to slap-stick mishaps much like the classic early film comedian Charlie Chaplin, born on East Street in Walworth, not far from where I picture Mister Chappy-Chap to reside.

Mister Chappy-Chap is, also, a small part of me – as an American with a British (private school) upbringing and family heritage (my grandfather was from Liverpool), I think I feel ‘Britain’ on a day-to-day basis perhaps more than someone born here. While I take it for granted, having lived here for almost seventeen years, there are still little bits and pieces that surprise me, that remind me I’m in Britain and that this is not my home country.

To conclude, the mixture of my early years in the United States and the upbringing I had in the UK culminates in my interest in what I could call the truly British Britain – the places, people and things you couldn’t find anywhere else in the world – one of which being the Routemaster bus.

New Guardian

2005-09-13T00:26:00.000+01:00

Today, the Guardian newspaper launched its new format and layout. In the coming days I hope to provide a full opinion on the new design.

So far, I like its continental feel and new typeface cut.

Cooper Black Continued

2005-09-05T23:24:00.000+01:00

A quick look through the Yellow Pages (and a day in the life of me) reveals...

It's everywhere!
See previous entries for further explanation.

STOP PRESS: Not all examples are the typeface Cooper Black, however they have many similarities to Cooper Black that may lead the untrained eye to believe they are the same typeface.

Toppling type - Iceland

2005-09-02T01:14:00.000+01:00

I was recently talking to Erna Hreinsdóttir, an Icelandic designer-type friend of mine, about something when she mentioned how absurd some signposts look in Iceland.

Over there, place names are not seperated into seperate words, and given the complexity (or perhaps absolute clarity) of the language (look at this supermarket website as an example: 10-11 - the chaps seen on the website are the Icelandic Trinny & Susannah, by the way. It's worth a look just for them), you end up with very long place names.

So imagine the pictured standard signpost pointing you in the direction of Kirkjubæjarklaustur, Hafnarfjarðarvegur or Hallormsstaðaskógur. The sign itself is getting close to the length of the post to which it is fastened. Pure genius.

Finally, here's a snippet from my current online chat window with Erna:

Erna says:
this is actually a word:

Erna says:
vaðlaheiðarvegavinnuverkfærageymsluskúraútidyralyakippuhringur

Erna says:
but it is not used very often

Spencer E Holtaway says:
that's insane

More later.

"Hi-Def"

2005-07-22T03:57:00.000+01:00

This week, Spencer E Holtaway and housemates acqiured a 32 inch widescreen television. While this is a vast improvement on the previous cheap box, Spencer E Holtaway has found a problem.

At 100hz refresh (most TV's today run at about 72hz) the raw quality of betamax recordings becomes very clear. It is my guess that betamax records at something that relates to 100hz but then loses quality when broadcast at 72hz. I love betamax at 72hz. That's what Frasier looks like, what Friends looks like, what any American TV show looks like.

I have just watched Frasier for the first time on this 100hz set. It looked dreadful. It lost the smooth feel American television has (because most televisions in the US are about 15 years behind European and Asian TVs in technical terms) and looked like a dreadfully cheap pilot. It looked like raw DV, from a modern camcorder. Dolly and pan movements are clear - you can see every jerk and jog on the way across the dolly track and every shake of the human hand - something I have never spotted on Frasier. It's very strange.

How can an improvement in technology ruin the way technology works in an emotive sense?

More on this later, as usual. Goodnight.

Film review for creative people: Entropy

2005-07-14T01:54:00.000+01:00

Entropy

"The hardest thing to do in life is direct your own"

Currently showing on Sky Movies, I was intrigued to see this film following Sky's brief synopsis: "Romantic comedy set during U2's Popmart tour starring Stephen Dorff as an aspiring filmmaker documenting the tour whilst his personal life continues in turmoil".

First, let me let you understand that this programme synopsis is really quite poorly written. It is more the case that the lead role played by Stephen Dorff is a film director who gets fired and then reverts to music video direction, hence U2's bit. Bono and Larry Mullen Jnr do, however, have nice little cameos.

I found the film interesting as a commentary on the way creative people think outside the world of work. From personal experience (including looking back at parts of my own life) it seems that creative people are very much in control of their professional careers - even when they are dealing with the big evil: the client. What we see in Entropy is the lead character's life fall apart in days, as he tries to re-build it into a better life than it was when things were working just a few days previous. When reality sets in (via the medium of thinking he is seeing Bono and his pet cat talking sense to him) the character instantly tries to revert to the situation as it was to start with - giving up on his new dreams and trying to find a solution to his problems.

Thank goodness there was a bitter-sweet ending. 'Romantic Comedy' started ringing in my subconscious in the final twenty minutes of the film, warning of a typical Hollywood happy ending. Bitter as things did not work out as 'planned', but sweet as our character learns from his mistakes. To make it extra-cheesy, the creative character uses the whole story as a basis for his next film. Aaw, how nice.

Anyway, a lot of this stuff reflects on my own life including details like talking to my cat about women when drunk out of my skull, so I thought it was quite interesting. I won't go into emotions as that's not what this page is about, but I will say the film was engaging for me, as a creative person. You might think it's utter wank, and indeed, there were a lot of things about it that were.

GCSE Drama

2005-07-03T16:37:00.000+01:00

While it may seem this article is out of place among other articles, I would like to stress that writing (on which I am commenting in following paragraphs) is a visual art not dissimilar to graphic design. It does, of course, also relate closely to the world of advertising in which words often come first, followed by art direction.

I was a fan of EastEnders for a long time, especially after my move to South-East London in 2002.

Since that point, plots have become ludicrously absurd (I recall there were two murders in one episode) and the quality of dialogue has been reduced to drivel similar to that found in GCSE drama students' scripts.

On watching the omnibus for the first time in many months, I saw the producers trying to be 'clever' by including an episode that featured four pairs of female characters learning to get along. Unfortunately, the script writers decided not to write the episode, but instead reel off a previously unsurpassed number of cliches. Every scene started with a character saying something similar to "You know what they say...". Dot and Pat's dialogue was easy: read the Bible once and re-write parts of it in 'modern-talk'. Groundbreaking.

Just to top it off, the style of writing throughout the 4-episode omnibus did not lend itself well to the screen at all. Details included character Danny Moon explaining that he's 'skint', then (rather theatrically) turning the empty bottle of beer he is holding up-side down to visually reiterate the dialogue. In case I didn't know what the words 'Pat, I'm skint, can you buy me a drink' meant.

Maybe the producers, writers and directors forgot they were making a television show and have been seeing too many West-End plays recently. Here's a pun: it's meant to be EastEnders, not WestEnders. Somebody give me a medal.

I shall continue watching Eastenders to get some more prime examples as its downfall within the television format.

Pictured: Character Danny Moon played by Jake Maskall (sadly plagued by poor dialogue). Image courtesy: BBC

Music, not design.

2005-06-29T14:07:00.000+01:00

Here's something Jake got me to have a look at and fill in. It's about music. Let's see what happens.

The total volume of music on my pc

For a start, I'd like to say that I have a Mac. That's because I'm a neo geek designer.

I currently have 2031 songs, which equates to approximately 5 days. It fills up 9.49gb of interspace on my hard disk.

I listen to these songs on my computer and on my iPod, which also carries work and important backed up stuff. I don't use those white headphones, but posh noise cancelling jobs from Sennheiser - again, because I'm a neo geek designer.

Songs playing right now

Not listening to music right now, all I can handle is live Big Brother coverage because I am exhausted and want to eat but am too lazy to get up. However, if I was to press play I would probably listen to 'Pencil Rot', the first track on Stephen Malkmus' new album 'Face the Truth'. I suggest you go buy that now.

Last album I bought

To the Five Boroughs - Beastie Boys. I don't buy music much, much to the disdain of my rhythm guitarist. In fact, I don't really like a lot of new music as it sounds like the drummers have been locked in a room with only Blondie to listen to. Good for the first song, but then I just want to punish myself for listening on. It's very dull and I play drums.

Five songs I've been listening to a lot

That's not Gangsta - Sincere
My Life Among the Rich - Awful Sparks*
Au fond du Temple Saint - David Byrne's version
One Thing - Amerie**
Hounds of Love - The Futureheads***

* You will never hear this song
** Now THAT'S drums
*** The Futureheads are probably the only recent rock band I can stomach a whole album of. They're tasty.

Passing this along to

Nobody, I don't know anyone but Jake on the interweb.

Spencer E Holtaway

Helvetica vs Cooper in a blowout

2005-05-18T00:26:00.000+01:00

Cooper-vs-Helvetica
Originally uploaded by Spencer E Holtaway.

Helvetica Family vs Cooper Black in a blowout.

Recently I have been noticing a vast increase in the use of Cooper Black as a header typeface in press advertising and - in particular - outdoor advertising media such as bus shelters, billboards and bus sides.

The Helvetica family is a design classic. It's versatility is practically unrivaled, proven by it's uses from poster artwork and large scale media, down to the 6pt terms and conditions you find on practically every piece of print today.

In recent years, the Helvetica family has been used increasingly in the name of Bauhaus throwback fashion (see Franz Ferdinand's album artwork and music videos - the type used may have been from the Swis family, or indeed if even better informed of the Bauhaus, Akzindenz Grotesque ). It went from underground trendy to mass-market trendy, in the same way we have observed 'vintage' clothing rise out of Camden's markets and into the high street (and don't forget about the price increase that came along with this shift).

Cooper Black, on the other hand, has had a sudden and (in my opinion) unexpected rise in popularity. I first noticed it on it's way in when I saw a giant back-lit billboard for E4's launch of the new series of Friends. Since that day, I have been seeing it used for varied products and services.

The strange thing I find about this phenomenon of typefaces sweeping into fashion so quickly, saturating the printed world, and then holding on for many months at a time is that it appears art directors are ignoring the world around them. Advertising is looking rather generic as the same styles are used over and over again, but if it works, why change it? Maybe in the name of progress? While I'm talking about progress, I'd be interested to see how this current trend pans out: will we find a similar typeface that does the same job (like Helvetica and Swis, for example), or will we switch to something completely different?

And the end of the day though, it all depends on what sells, and it looks like Cooper Black sells (but could it sell those ponchos that were all the rage a year ago now?). But will Cooper Black suffer the way Comic Sans did after it's massive popularity growth in the early 1990's when it became tacky through over-use? Let's not forget we can find Cooper Black on the front of classic British cafes that haven't been redecorated for decades, and on the side of plumber's vans.

I think I've learned I don't really have any view on this, except I think it's a bit strange. If you can see a point in here, let me know.

Finally, I think MonoType's Baskerville, and illustrated variations of MonoType Baskerville are the next big thing, so put that in your mug of sparrowhawks and massage it.

Ringtone Disaster

2005-05-04T00:34:00.000+01:00

I just saw the 'Nessie the Dragon' ringtone ad on UKTV Gold 2 for the 500th time and suddenly remembered a documentary I saw when I was much younger about the people who wrote jingles for advertising in the 1980's. There was a big move from pure exposure to 'emotional-type branding' in which jingles disappeared. Only a few survived, the only of which that comes to mind for me right now: Duracell's "ding ding dong" jingle.

After 15 years of reduced royalty payments, have the jingle writers found a new way to exploit their talents of writing catchy songs lasting under thirty seconds? Or is that even the case? Who did write jingles in the first place? Can someone tell me before I find out myself?

More on this later, as usual.

Ring any bells?

2005-04-27T00:54:00.000+01:00

So there you are between bus stops. As you'd expect in busy busy London, someone presses the button to ring the bell to stop at the next stop.

Then it rings again.

And again.

And again.

It's pretty annoying. But what drives people to do it. Everyone can see who's doing it, and they just stare blankly out the window. If anyone does say anything, they're likely to get abuse in response. Interesting. I might look into this further, but I promise I won't do it myself.

More on this later.

Dazed and Cockfused

2005-04-24T03:00:00.000+01:00

Dazed and Cockfused
Originally uploaded by Spencer E Holtaway.

Yeah, I know. I'm not the first person to comment on crappy 'subversive' design. Look at Chris Morris' 'Nathan Barley'. But I'm thinking about taking on a personal project to prove it's fucking easy to create - all it takes is a sense of humor, tracing paper and photoshop.... and an AVCE in Art & Design. I mean, look at this crap. Yet, it's publishable, if that's even a word. Wait until they see my Kunstmaskin To. It's going to be tonk.

More on this subject later. This is simply an introduction.

Photoshoot

2005-04-23T13:39:00.000+01:00

Life's hard when you're a rockstar.

Today we're off into Central London for a photoshoot. I am dressed like the dad in 1980's and 1990's films who is always so busy at his big time advertising job in the city (if not just drinking champagne and doing coke in the bathroom) that he forgets about his son's little league baseball game and arrives at the diamond last minute to catch the groundskeeper raking the field. The groundskeeper turns around and looks at the bad dad scornfully, shakes his head and gets back to work.

Something similar happened in 'Hook'. I must practise spinning my mobile phone like a cowboy with a magnum.

Infomercial

2005-04-22T21:56:00.000+01:00

Spencer E Holtaway
Originally uploaded by Spencer E Holtaway.

The other day I did some filming with some friends from school (Central Saint Martins). I am the king of self-help, Spencer E Holtaway. You don't need talent to become a number one pop star, or class to become a celebrity. All you need are Spencer E Holtaway's videos. Order now!