FargoBoy : Eat, Sleep, Blog

PaulWL.com

My new portfolio site/domain is up over at www.paulwl.com. Demo reel, resume, motion/print/identity/interactive work, etc. Check it out.

Backup strategies

Mark poses the question: How do you back up 100GB of data per year for 50 years?

Everybody's data needs are different, but nobody would argue that the amount of data generated on average is going to continue to rise for the forseeable future. CD-Rs and DVD-Rs are extremely delicate media, hard drives and anything else with moving parts or magnetic sensitivity are questionable for long-term storage, and the tape backup industry really isn't geared toward the average user (based on price, availability or ease of use). I thought this quote in the comments on Mark's post was telling:

If you write it on papyrus and lock it in a pyramid, we know it will last a few thousand years. Everything else is just guesswork.

Having a data backup strategy is becoming more and more important in our ever-growing digital lives. As a broadcast designer, I'm suffling around tens to hundreds of gigabytes of data on a daily basis. I don't even want to think about what it will be like once I finally start working in HD!

A year

It has been one year today since I last wrote in this space. And what a year it's been -- I've been finishing up my MFA, and I spent a quarter in France. This next year will be full of change in my life, and this blog will likely change with it. A new URL and design, perhaps. Something more representative of my life since leaving Fargo nearly two years ago. If nothing else, something about this site will change before another year passes.

MoGraph.net

Note to self: Mark says to check out MoGraph.net forums.

Method Design

Jeffery Veen writes about the concept of design as method acting -- that is, using research and immersing yourself so deeply into the intended client/audience psyche that by the time you actually put pen to paper (or mouse to pixel), you're bound to come up with an appropriate solution without having to think too much about it. It becomes sub-conscious, natural; a concept I'm convinced my Dynamic Typography instructor is also trying to drill into my head.

Type geeks

Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones are quite possibly two of the top type geeks in the world. Their attention to detail and thirst for history and research is remarkable. Eye magazine has a great interview with the pair.

Paul Graham is a genius.

Paul Graham's latest piece, "How to Start a Startup," is a must-read for those of you out there looking to start a tech-related business.

Michal Levy's Giant Steps

Great 3D Motion Graphics piece by Michal Levy visualizing Coltrane's music.

Oscar time

With the Grammy's wrapping up last night, award season is squarely fixed on the upcoming Oscar's. So far, I'm 2-for-5 in my annual goal of seeing all of the Best Picture-nominated films before the Academy Awards, having seen "The Aviator" and "Finding Neverland" -- both good flicks, but neither likely to win BP.

Of all the Oscar-related hoopla I've read so far, the best quote comes from Roger Ebert's review of Best Documentary-nominated flick "Super Size Me" (another one on my still-need-to-see list):

Of course it is possible to eat responsibly at McDonald's, as spokesmen for the chain never tire of reminding us. ... [But] eating responsibly at McDonald's is like going to a strip club for the iced tea.

Paul Debevec

Anybody interested in high-end 3D rendering or realistic visual effects should take a look at Paul Debevec's work. He's been part of some ground-breaking work on high-dynamic range lighting, among other things. Amazing stuff.

Not much to speak of

The past two months have been the first two since starting FargoBoy.com where I have only had one entry for the whole month -- and barely one, at that. I have ideas for where I want to take the site -- beyond the blog, so to speak. But, whether due to lack of time or lack of effort, the site remains woefully neglected.

School remains intense. I have switched from the Master of Arts program to the Master of Fine Arts program, which means I'll be in Savannah for at least another year, but I'll have a terminal degree that will permit me to teach at the college level when I'm finished. This also means that I need to complete a Thesis in order to graduate, and that process began with my Broadcast Design Studio I course this quarter. Currently, I'm heading toward something to do with converged media: the coming together of television, computing and mobile media and what it means to the broadcast designer (or companies who need/produce broadcast design and motion graphics).

Work has also been intense. And perhaps more than school, has been keeping me away from regular updates to this site. Preode has moved from an entity in which Andy and I would collectively work on freelance projects into something more. Preode is now registered as a business with the City of Savannah, and current projects have been keeping me quite busy over the past two months. Preode recently completed and launched an online identity/website for Rejuv Clinic in collaboration with Durgin Design in Fargo, North Dakota. There are a couple of other larger projects that will be completed in the next month or two that we will announce on Preode.com when they are launched.

I'm not sure when things will calm down again, but when they do, I'm sure there will be changes in store for FargoBoy.com.

A few end-of-the-year links

2004 was chaos. War and politics dominated the airwaves, and a big move for me personally made for an eventful year. Amidst the madness, though, there were those out there still trudging on, creating great design or writing brilliant things. Here are but a few:

2005 resolution: finally re-design FargoBoy.com. We'll see.

Pablo Skinny

Introducing Pablo Skinny, a new typeface I designed based on the film title work of Pablo Ferro. I'm reasonably happy with the results--Pablo Skinny has a nearly complete character set, although I would like to design a lowercase or true small-caps set to include with it at some point. Of course, I would also like to add other weights and widths to the family as well, but don't hold your breath.

Anyway, enjoy Pablo Skinny. If you end up using it for a project or something, drop me an email at type @ fargoboy . com -- I'd love to see it.

Belief, Digital Kitchen, MK12, etc.

Here's a couple of kick-ass motion graphics studios that keep being talked about around SCAD.

Michael compares ITC Garamond to creamy dog poop.

In a seething rant, Design Observer's (and Pentagram's) Michael Bierut goes off on Tony Stan's ITC Garamond. This has got to be the funniest critique of a typeface that I have ever heard.

The most distinctive element of the typeface is its enormous lower-case x-height. In theory this improves its legibilty, but only in the same way that dog poop's creamy consistency in theory should make it more edible.