This book is made in a time of crisis; with a lot of pleasure.
WHY
The most influencing of my Hamburg experience was the place I've been living in for the past nine months. Sankt Pauli, St. Pauli for intimi. Famous for it's sex industry, being dark and dirty, but also cultural, sweet and friendly. Since there is so much happening with the economic crisis, this place is becoming even more exciting. The revolutionary 'left' atmosphere getting even more visual on the streets and the rage is big.   Five months ago, an artist called Filomeno Fusco put a 'Versace' sign above an empty building in the heart of St. Pauli, right in front of my house. He put up big wooden plates, which implied that there was actually a Versace store opening up. The negative respons (ofcourse, it is St. Pauli) written on the walls and he documented it. There was never a Versace store coming in the heart of St. Pauli, but the anger and hate and interesting
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Sankt Pauli
reactions it brought was a piece of art. Versace sued Filomeno Fusco, but he got to a lot of St. Pauli hearts. And also to mine, because this provocative way of getting people to stand up I find very interesting.   Financial crisis and St. Pauli, they have more in common then you would think. And 'chain reaction' is there keyword. As are capitalism and anti-capitalism. My personal keywords happen to be exactly the same words in whatever order. I started Miami Ad School Europe and got myself into a world where capitalism is more present than it is on Wall street, these days. I am afraid of it. I want to live in it, but I also want to be against it. I want to be a Graphic Designer with my own voice and I will not be afraid of speaking up, visually. This book is about rage and capitalism and Hamburg’s most important place, for it's economy but also for it's darkness; the harbor.
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Gentrification
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Text
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Financial crisis
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Fucked up
Such a big financial crisis the world has not seen very often.. Great recession makes a whole lot of people loose a whole lot of money and in times of crisis people turn to/believe in more extreme regiments. Politics, engineers, etc loose a lot of credit because of this. The economy is more under pressure then it has ever been, and because of the faith people lost faith in it, it only gets worse. A dark, unknown world for almost everyone.
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Crisis
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A dark world
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Text
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Text
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Crisis
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Crisis Rage
Fortis investors protested at a shareholders meeting in Gent by throwing shoes and a voting machine at chairman Jozef de Mey on Tuesday, further evidencing of their disapproval at de Mey's management. The meeting was held to vote on a proposed partsale deal between Dutch-Belgian Fortis and French BNP Paribas, which was approved..
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Financiel crisis
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Anger
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Anger
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McDonald's ist für viele Bewohner der Schanze ein Symbol des Kommerzes und des Konsums und ist von daher nicht in dem Viertel erwünscht. "Da werden die Scheiben nicht lange heil bleiben", sagt eine langjährige Bewohnerin des Schanzenviertels. Ein weiterer Anwohner, Andreas Blechschmidt, behauptet, dass die Fast Food-Kette zahlungskräftige Mieter und Ladenbesitzer verdrängen würde. Die andere Idee von Seiten der Anwohner ist es nun, ein "Centro Sociale" in der Schanze einzurichten, das diesem Kommerzialisierungstrend entgegenwirkt. *
McDonalds
Schanze soll McDonald's bekommen*
Hamburger Abendblatt, 22/09/2008
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Harbor
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Harbor
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Capitalism
Capitalism in its purest form: The harbor. The big capitalistic image is in big contrast with the area around it, St. Pauli.
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Text
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Text
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Harbor
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Text
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Text
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Text
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Text
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Text
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Text
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Restroom signage
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Restroom signage
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Design
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Restroom signage
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Woman
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Restroom signage
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Restroom signage
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Gentleman
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Restroom Signage
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Typography
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Through typographical signs the human
mind gets informed, amused and dramatized.
*
What is it
Typography is very much influenced by the post-literate, global monoculture of capitalism, amusement, crisis and convenience. Experimenting with typography is bigger then ever, mostly because of different mediums and the technology used to create it. The way something is created is still very vital to its meaning, which means that the growing technology not necessarily enhances typography and the way it's being used. You can interpret typography in two ways; the way it looks and how it is set and by the history of the designer of type. Baskerville is nowadays a formal and often used type. Which at first hadn doesn’t fit to the content of this book. But, apart from the look and the serif (which makes a longer text very nice to read) the history of Baskerville* makes a very nice fit with this book. Typography and typefaces grow more than ever and I don't really like this. The historical meaning of type is very important and should not be underestimated. New typefaces should first 'prove' themselves, because they are made digitally and have so much information to build their ideas on. Old typefaces still rule and there are not much typefaces designed in the 21th century that can battle with the ‘oldies’. Actually, none. read page 67
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Typography
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Baskerville
Baskerville was designed in 1757 by John Baskerville (1706-1775) in Birmingham, England. Baskerville is seen as a transition between the font Caslon, by William Caslon and more modern fonts of Giambattista Bodoni and Firmin Didot. John Baskerville intended to improve the font of William Caslon. He increased the contrast between thick and thin layers, serifs, sharper and less round and placed the letters more upright. The arches are more circular and regular characters. These changes led to a better consistency in size and shape. John Baskerville was a radical man. He was an atheist (which was very radical in the 18th century) and had a lover who often dressed as a peacock‌ Also his font was pretty radical for it’s time. The Baskerville typefaces received many critics. Some even said that the strong contrast was harmful to the eyes.. We’re they wrong!
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Typography
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Bob Dylan Theory
"It is not what you sing, it is how you sing it", Bob Dylan at an interview with music critic and MTV producer Bill Flanagan. Candans, ritm and frasering are equally important as the content. So even if you don't speak a word of the language, you should still enjoy it. And this is how type works as well. It depends a little bit on the medium, but I found the type setting equally important to the as its content.
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Setting a Text
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Clay in Potters Hand
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Clay in a Potter’s Hand * Written in England, Late 1948
Perfect typography is more a science than an art. Mastery of the trade is indispensable, but it isn’t everything. Unerring taste, the hallmark of perfection, rests also upon a clear understanding of the laws of harmonious design. As a rule, impeccable taste springs partly from inborn sensitivity: from feeling. But feelings remain rather unproductive unless they can inspire a secure judgment. Feelings have to mature into knowledge about the consequences of formal decisions. For this reason, there are no born masters of typography, but self-education may lead in time to mastery. It is wrong to say that there is no arguing about taste when it is good taste that is in question. We are not born with good taste, nor do we come into this world equipped with a real understanding of art. Merely to recognize who or what is represented in a picture has little to do with a real understanding of art. Neither has an uninformed opinion about the proportions of Roman letters. In any case, arguing is senseless. He who wants to convince has to do a better job than others. Good taste and perfect typography are suprapersonal. Today, good taste is often erroneously rejected as old fashioned because the ordinary man, seeking approval of his so-called personality, prefers to follow the dictates of his own peculiar style rather than submit to any objective criterion of taste. In a masterpiece of typography, the artist’s signature has been eliminated. What some may praise as personal styles are in reality small and empty peculiarities, frequently damaging, that masquerade as innovations. Examples are the use of a single typeface, perhaps a sans serif font or a bizarre *T
ranslated from the
German by Hajo Hadeler
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Clay in a Potter's Hand
nineteenth-century script, a fondness for mixing unrelated fonts; or the application of seemingly courageous limitations, such as using a single size of type for an entire work, no matter how complex. Personal typography is defective typography. Only beginners and fools will insist on using it.   Perfect typography depends on perfect harmony between all of its elements. We must learn, and teach, what this means. Harmony is determined by relationships or proportions. Proportions are hidden everywhere: in the capaciousness of the margins, in the reciprocal relationships to each other of all four margins on the page of a book, in the relationship between leading of the type area and dimensions of the margins, in the placement of the page number relative to the type area, in the extent to which capital letters are spaced differently from the text, and not least, in the spacing of the words themselves. In short, affinities are hidden in any and all parts. Only through constant practice and strictest self-criticism may we develop a sense for a perfect piece of work. Unfortunately, most seem content with a middling performance. Careful spacing of words and the correct spacing of capital letters appear to be unknown or unimportant to some typesetters, yet for him who investigates, the correct rules are not difficult to discover.   Since typography appertains to each and all, it leaves no room for revolutionary changes. We cannot alter the essential shape of a single letter without at the same time destroying the familiar printed face of our language, and thereby rendering it useless.  Comfortable legibility is the absolute benchmark for all typography yet only an accomplished reader can properly judge legibility. To be able to read a primer, or indeed a newspaper, does not make anyone a judge; as a rule, both are readable, though barely. They are decipherable. Decipherability and ideal legibility are opposites. Good legibility is a matter of combining a suitable script and an appropriate typesetting method. For perfect typography,
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an exhaustive knowledge of the historical development of the letters used in printing books is absolutely necessary. More valuable yet is a working knowledge of calligraphy. The typography of most newspapers is decidedly backward. Lack of form destroys even the first signs of good taste and forestalls its development. Too lazy to think, many people read more newspapers than books. Small wonder, then, that typography as a whole is not evolving, and book typography is no exception. If a typesetter reads more newspapers than anything else, where would he acquire a knowledge of good taste in typography? Just as a person gets used to poor cuisine when nothing better is available and means of comparison are lacking, so many of today’s readers have grown used to poor typography because they read more newspapers than books and thus kill time, as it is so succinctly termed. Since they aren’t acquainted with better typography, they can’t ask for it. And not knowing how to make things better, the rest lack voice. Beginners and amateurs alike overestimate the importance of the so-called brain wave, the sudden brilliant idea. Perfect typography is largely a matter of choice among different and already existing possibilities: a choice based on vast experience. The correct choice is a question of tact. Good typography can never be humorous. It is precisely the opposite of an adventure. The brilliant idea counts for little or nothing at all. It counts the less, since it can only apply to a single job. It is a condition of good typographic work that each single part be formally dependent upon every other part. These relationships are developed slowly while the work is in progress. Today, the art of good typography is eminently logical. It differs from all other art forms in that a substantial portion of the inherent logic is accessible for verification by lay persons. Circumstances exist, however, where a perfectly logical but too complex graduation of type sizes may be sacrificed to achieve a simpler image.
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The more significant the content of a book, the longer it has to be preserved, and the more balanced, indeed, the more perfect its typography has to be. Leading, letterspacing and word spacing must be faultless. The relationships of the margins to each other, the relationships of all type sizes used, the placement of running heads: everything must exhibit noble proportions and yield an unalterable effect.   The decisions made in higher typography about the design of a book title, for example are, like a highly refined taste, related to creative art. Here, forms and shapes may be invented which in their perfection are the equal of anything good sculpture and painting have to offer. The connoisseur is compelled to admire these creations all the more since the typographer is chained more than any other artist by the unalterable word, and only a master can awaken to their true life the rigid and formal letters used in the printing of books. Immaculate typography is certainly the most brittle of all the arts. To create a whole from many petrified, disconnected and given parts, to make this whole appear alive and of a piece—only sculpture in stone approaches the unyielding stiffness of perfect typography. For most people, even impeccable typography does not hold any particular aesthetic appeal. In its inaccessibility, it resembles great music. Under the best of circumstances, it is gratefully accepted. To remain nameless and without specific appreciation, yet to have been of service to a valuable work and to the small number of visually sensitive readers—this, as a rule, is the only compensation for the long, and indeed never-ending, indenture of the typographer.
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Light in the end
Think in solutions, not in problems.
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Hester Haars