I’m a big fan of the Eurostile font, it’s easy to read and I enjoy its lack of serifs. The letters are casual and sophisticated, making it suitable for both logo and text. Designers like euro style because its width- oriented proportions and special extended cuts make it legible in any size and weight. Eurostile has an attitude and authority of its own and provides impact in whatever messages it’s representing.

Eurostile was born in 1962 in one of the most esteemed Italian foundries of its time, Nebiolo in Turin, Italy. Draftsman Aldo Novarese was inspired by the Microgramma font, which was designed specifically for sign making and exclusively in capital letters. Although Microgramms was extremely popular with designers, Aldo saw its lack of lowercase letters as a flaw and rendered it into Eurostile, which would be suitable for text.

You’ve seen Eurostile before on a fairly regular basis, just check out your wallet! Eurostile is the font used on Canadian bank note currency. It is also featured as the main interface font for many videogames, including Halo, Final Fantasy xiii and its sequel, as well as most of the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Have you ever gotten into trouble with the law in Europe? If so, you may or may not have noticed Eurostile on the police vehicle. Furthermore, if you’re a San Antonio Spurs fan, then you’ve seen Eurostile scrawled across the jerseys of their players.

Here’s a more detailed review into all the different styles of Eurostile.

Images from google.

New Media Trends

3D film has existed in some form since 1915. However, it wasn’t overly popular in western cinema until the 50’s with such notable films as Cat-women of the Moon, Creature from the Black Lagoon and House of Wax. It then went on a bit of a hiatus for a while until IMAX began showing 3D films in the 80’s and 90’s. The current trend in the movie industry is Polarized 3D or RealD which is a stereoscopic motion picture experience. The viewer doesn’t have to wear the traditional red and blue glasses anymore because the two images are super imposed through different polarizations in each of the lens in the glasses.

 

In 2007, at a time when 2D ticket sales were dwindling 3D movies really taking over the show. Movies like Monsters Vs. Aliens, Toy Story and Up were released in 3D. And in 2009 the most expensive to make and the most highest-grossing film of all time, Avatar was released and really changed peoples interest into 3D rather than 2-D films. 

 

Since then the trend is most definitely been for more and more movies to be released in 3D.  However there has been a reported audience decline in 3D from 2011-2012 displaying that it may infact just be a trend after all.  The decline could be blamed on more expensive 3D ticket prices, or that the quality of movies is at fault. Even with the reported decline, many people in the film industry remain optimistic towards 3D digital format movies. 

Read more about 3D trends here.

 

Lynn Hershman Leeson

As I researched Lynn Hershman Leeson I found out that she is, pretty dang cool. Not only is she an extremely talented artist/film maker in the field of new mdeia, but a catalyst for feminist art, experimenting with themes like: identity in a time of consumerism, privacy in an era of surveillance, interfacing of humans and machines, and the relationship between real and virtual worlds.

Lynn is always pushing boundaries in the field of new media. One example is, In 2004, when she created an interactive installation in the form of a computer generated woman named DiNA. UCIRA.ubs.edu describes DiNA as “socially intelligent and aware agent who was capable of learning and evaluating current news events and relaying them immediately to users.” She can convers with and remember people for up to 2 months, and make general assumption’s based on tone and mood. What’s truly innovative about this project is that DiNA is connected to the internet, so she is always up to date with current events and is even able to articulate her views on heavy issues such as religion, abortion and capital punishment.

Aside from her interactive agents, lynn has created numerous videos that are interactive, original, and usually exposing and underlining issues of female communication.

She has been honored with awards for her achievements in new media, including: Grants from Creative Capital and the National Endowment for the Arts, A Siemens International Media Arts Award, Flintridge Foundation Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts Alfred P Sloan Foundation Feature Film Prize,, Artist Award for Lifetime Achievement in Digital Art from the Association for Computer Graphic’s Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques and was the Recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2009.

Hershman Leeson is currently Chair of the Film Department at the San Fransisco Art Institute, Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Davis and an A D White Professor at Large at Cornell University.

Considering Graphics…

After observing each website I found that I could navigate through them pretty easily. Most of them had pretty interesting, original approaches to how they presented their content. For example, viewing the different stages of the dinosaur evolution diagram on the Tyrrell Museum page was really cool. I dont know alot about dinosaurs and their history, but the illustrations, and the timeline got me interested. The blue imp website was also enjoyable to navigate, I checked out the entire website, trying to find a play structure for adults lol. The IKEA website was assembled efficiently, the various flashing pictures gave a great example of what was available on the website.

I thought the Crystal Waters Spa website kind of mundane. I couldnt tell if they were providing information for a spa or a business. The Old car trader was kinda distracting to me, I felt super overwhelmed with all the content crammed onto the main page. Im don’t pay much attention to cars though so I cant tell if its actually a graphics issue or just me.

Anways, here is a link to a super cool graphic website i found

http://www.jeugdraadbrakel.be

Fair Dealing

Fair Dealing is the legitimate use or reproduction of part or all of copyright (q.v.) material by someone other than the copyright owner, for defined purposes, as defined by lawhandbook.org

 

Fair Dealing is a restricted set of rules designed to allow users to reference copyrighted content in their work. The criteria states that in order to be protected by the fair dealing law when borrowing content you must be sensitive to:

• The purpose of dealing
• The character of the dealing
• The amount of the dealing
• Alternatives of the Dealing
• The nature of the work
• Effect of the dealing on the work

 

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breaking through the mundane

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Did you know that businesses can be hugely affected by whether or not they are connecting interactively with their customers?  Taylor is a graphic designer and 1/3 of the trio that makes up, S Media, a regina based new media company that ‘Specializes in creative development and engaging experiences that move people into action. Smedia is making people around town aware that their business’ can actually be influenced by consumers engaging in their social media presence. Find out more on his website.

This is a really cool interactive billboard project that I came across for McDonalds. Basically the users sync their smartphones to a billboard in a huge game of pong for a chance to win a free McDonalds treat. All I’m tryna say is if someone handed me a coupon for a free small french fries, I’d probably throw it in my purse and forget about it until it became pulp. But if I had to work for it…Im lovin’ it!

For adults and kids alike, Yo Gabba Gabba is arguably the most entertaining children’s program… like, ever. For those of you who haven’t heard of the show, it can easily be summed up as Sesame streets psychedelic, hip-hop affiliated cousin.

The official website does an amazing job keeping users interactive with the adorable, quirky characters of the show. The homepage showcases Muno, Foofa, Plex, Brobee and Toodee who move and talk when you hover the mouse above them. Also, there is a video panel on the top of the page that gives you the option to watch music videos from the featured artists and television personalities who have made guest appearances. Some of those artists include Quest Love, The Roots, MGMT, Ladytron, The Killers, The Shins, Dataroc and Special guests like Sarah Silveran, The Offices’ Angela Kinsey and Sean Kingston. But the interactive fun doesn’t stop there, you can also play Gabba games, And Biz’s beat of the day keeps children interacted by teaching them how to beat box. Check it!

Invivo is serving the medical field well by rendering beautifully animated 3D videos, case studies, medical games and illustrations for presentations and lectures. Videos provide detailed accuracy to methods that were once maybe hard to explain due to lack of visual material.

LocaDo is an iphone app that makes your “to-do” list easier to tackle by being interactive.  You simply drop pins on locations that you need ‘to do’ things at and as you approach said locations the app will send you an alert. Thus you shall have no excuses not to get your do’s done! I could definitely use this app in my life… How about you??