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Prejudgments Based on Typography

Seth Godin writes in his blog about the importance of what font is used for any and every situation. In his post, "Type Tells a Story," he describes that the font one uses in an email, an invite, on a project, for a flier, for a company is crucial in how people receive the message:

"If you send me a flyer with dated, cheesy or overused type, it's like showing up in a leisure suit for a first date. If your website looks like Geocities or some scammy info marketer, I won't even stay long enough to read it."

Its a good point. I remember times where I've been turned off from a flier or invite or message on a social network just due to the obnoxious typeface used. I've also spent hours on choosing typeface for an album cover (it has to fit the style/design, it has to fit the message)... and at least 30 minutes at times on simpler documents and powerpoint presentations. One friend of mine recognizes and despises "arial" (which is this font) because he claims it is a competitor's copied version of "helvetica." You never know who will see it and the stories they have behind even the simplest of fonts! Just as humans prejudge others on their appearances, we often times prejudge someone, or at least their message, when we see what font they've used.

PAVs

Although I, and I'm sure many others, would love to own our own PAV (personal aviation vehicle) one day, this post on pantopicon makes me wonder if PAVs would ever be a good idea for our society.

In the post, it describes different concepts and designs by NASA and others that would allow individuals to fly their own personal aircraft down the street to the supermarket... or at least that's the way they talk. They speak of vertical lift-off methods, spiral vent concepts, and one even mentions how we could potentially transform our cars into aircraft... literally like Transformers.

Its all pretty cool and all, but when you think about it... with all our issues with oil, gas prices, the environment, "going green," etc... how would putting money and research into unnecessary PAVs help our world? We would spend more money on gas/oil (because you know we have SO much of that stuff to begin with...), we would clutter the sky instead of the streets (yay.), and we would get even lazier (if possible...).

I'd love one, I would. But I'd rather our money go towards making sure we still have a place to live by the time PAVs would actually become a reality.

On "Making Art..."

Seth Godin shares with us his definition of "art" in his post, "Making Art." He concludes that there are three stipulations (why is it always 3? we must still be hooked on the whole trinity thing...):

1. Art is made by a human being.
2. Art is created to have an impact, to change someone else.
3. Art is a gift. You can sell the souvenir, the canvas, the recording... but the idea itself is free, and the generosity is a critical part of making art.

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First, I do believe "Art" is made by a human since the word, "art," and its definition are human creations in themselves. I also believe that animals have the ability to create, but don't do it so as to appreciate its essence, as humans do.

I don't necessarily believe his second stipulation... I don't believe that art is ALWAYS created to have an impact. When a songwriter writes a song, are they always writing so as to have impact on someone else? I have written songs with no purposeful intention to show someone else... but its still art.

Number 3 is an interesting concept. I believe it was Carl Jung (I could be wrong) who philosophized that art is the idea itself. Once the idea is born, art is created... no matter if its expressed outwardly.... I believe that this kind of goes along the lines of what Seth Godin is saying.

Thank God most artists are "generous" in letting us in on their masterpieces.