Two Metres

• 2011-12-12 17 notes

  

  This is my go-to album when I need to get my head down and work.

  I was gifted this by one TJ Huff a few years ago on a trip to Brooklyn and it has received plenty of airtime in my studio and through my headphones on the walk to work ever since. Part 1 is the third-most played track in my iTunes, and at 41 minutes long that’s pretty impressive.

  The first 5-10 minutes of Part 1 are absolutely beautiful. This segment is so perfectly realised and incredible through decent headphones. Part 1 then effectively spends 25 minutes reaching it’s spine-tingling peak at 33 minutes and the following 8 minutes deconstructing the awesomeness that came before, a healthy warm-down after a heavy exercise. Sections of Part 1, taken alone, are difficult, but the arch of the song is what is worth listening for. It’s so hard to believe it is improvised; bits of the peak start to appear a good five minutes before; a sprinkling of open, crystal-clear notes in a melee that finally washes down in a cascade that is one of my favourite moments in recorded music.

• 2011-12-07 0 notes

  Jonathan Hoefler on webfonts. Essential

  Why making fonts for the web requires further thinking. Hoefler’s mind is pretty incredible to behold.

• 2011-12-05 0 notes

  Erik Spiekermann talks to Bristol’s own Elliot Jay Stocks about Typographic design in the digital domain. So much good stuff in this conversation; Spiekermann is, as ever, a tidal force. What he says about designing for the issue and not for the medium is so important.

• 2011-11-29 0 notes

  Cute, if not almost entirely pointless. Feels like a step too far, even in a world where staying in touch with people all the time is absolutely the thing to do. Surely there’s something a little off about using a feed aggregated on your smartphone to print off the same feed on a roll of paper?

• 2011-11-22 4 notes

  Mark Mahaney is a photographer I’ve been following remotely for a couple of years. His photographs have that Stephen-Shore-Stillness I love, and that I think can only be achieved with real clarity of the mind, and eye.

  I saw this video on his blog today. He says something special at the end: “If you’re kind, and you’re talented, and you’re determined and you don’t let anybody deter you…then you’ll be OK”. What really makes this a stand-out statement, is that it comes from a guy with a dream client list. He’s done the work, and done it well.

  Friendly seems to be trending these days. A lot of “neat” clients, and “great people”. A lot of folksy mission statements being written. Mark articulates his take on this in the best possible way, his work reflecting his philosophy, filling his words with meaning. I shared some of these thoughts with Mark and he sent me an email back explaining that a lot of undergraduates he has lectured were surprised by such an approach. I think it’s the way to be.

  www.markmahaney.com