gordon ling

To mark its 50th birthday, Swiss dots will produce a film about Helvetica. Gary Hustwit will direct the movie featuring Massimo Vignelli, Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones, Matthew Carter, Erik Spiekermann, Stefen Sagmeister, Wim Crouwel, Hermann Zapf, Kirsty Carter and Emma Thomas and others.

Helvetica is definately everywhere. Look into corporate, contempory magazines, signages, etc. When you enter the LRT, Helvetica directs you. Helvetica saperates the mens from the ladies.

I used to be a hardcore Helvetican back in my old college days. Not to escape the hassle to tell people that i work hard in making a design but Helvetica seems to be my kind of type back then. Take away the ‘noise’ from all other typefaces, you end up with Helvetica. Minimalizing readability character? Simplicity forcing the type to look ‘left-behind’ in the design? Maybe, its the easy way out for many designers or for those who have doubts with a certain copy in a design.

Technology has allow Helvetica to span even more. Along came Neue, Rounded… etc. in colors of Condensed, Bold, Medium, Light, Extended, etc.

I would be looking forward for this movie. Pardon me for the enthusiasm but I seriously am interested in this movie, eventough some designers might say “I had have enough of Helvetica. Please make a movie about the early days of Allan Quartermain. If you’de manage to find it in any DVD shops nationwide, I would be glad if you could purchase a copy for me.

For the past few weeks, I have been up to many things. From completing the corporate brochure design to going internationally maximum spamming blogs.

In the process, I lost 3kgs, slept an average of 5 hours a day (sometimes 10 hours if its a Sabbath/ non accurate information), travelled an average of 300 kilometres a week around town (small scale?) and drank coffee every day & night. Had a little weak knees & mal-nutrition thing going on in my body. Nothing to be horribly excited about really, its just that I thought I was crazy enough to be a cynically dedicated workologist critic. Whatever.

P/s: I found something 100x more fun to do than figure drawing; Max Singh would know what it is.

The pictures below happen to be better than sex at its point of time:

Before the pictures, Mrs Eaves that is. This one was pretty challenging. All that stiching & the complicated grid thingie, together with the folded pages thingie. Nevertheless, the feeling of completing a job truly satisfies. Again, another piece of rebellious work, skeptically against what my ‘advisor’ or ’supervisor’ spoke off.

The additional catalog:

Others:

The highest-standards of my figure drawing.

I had this idea of after this month to have this little closing act of smashing my guitars onstage. Care to join?

Personally, I was very happy with the results of it. 220 people up to date that signed up, first time in the history for TSF (correct me if I’m wrong). Indeed, it was really satisfying to see that you personally did something benefitial for the community & furthermore, helped the community break the mark that they originally set for, 200 people.

The picture came by while I was bored doing my ‘Befrienders’ assingment. I just grabbed the digi cam, put my hand against the wall, set the table lamp, and shot. It turned up pretty cool. When proposed to Elder Ang of FGAKL, it was mentioned that the hand is searching within the very walls, a spiritual ambient where one could come to experience an encounter. One of my personal favourite typefaces, Sabon was used.

Wish I could do more projects like these that really worked. Meanwhile, enjoy a video here & another video there. Many thanks to Jon’ & Patrick too. Not to mention Datuk Tiu. Visit the web, but sorry, registration is closed.

Almost suddenly, time is going by faster than the time where the entire cosmic universe started to rain meteor showers passing earth that’s witnessed by Korean drama series lovers who tend to make wishes related to somebody they have certain fantasies on when coming into contact with one.

As the baby crawls & goes into 5 years of secondary education (or perhaps 6 years for some students) while their parents working hard to a) feed the family, b) settle bills etc., c) save some cash for emergancy’s sake & d) just to have something that neighbours can talk about, time is slowly taking it’s sweet time whilst enjoy watching people getting things done which a) varies from individual to individual, b) for goodness sake, work, c) to make something out of the content of time given. Oh, and also to d) finish up last minute assignments.

Suddenly, consumerism seems of primary importance to many many companies, big or small, verterans or rookies, juniors or super seniors and also lecturers or part time lecturers regardless of time. The rebels of certain communities seems to go in a non-aligned movement that actually denounced pro-consumerism other than what Ralph Nader’s very insightful pro-consumer thoughts that seriously are trying it’s very best to help humanity through companies whose workers politically causing havoc or chaos around the office in coporate dummy suits.

Whatever, this post is completely a very unaddressable post. By now, you might be guessing what I’m trying to say here or maybe a) “What’s wrong with him man?” or b) “Idiot. What an idiot. or c) “I think he’s trying to say something.. But what is it??” or perhaps d) “Sorry dude. None of the above.”.

Just trying to be cynical about addressable issues, which i know either 1) some people get what the whole thing is about and had a good laugh over this, 2) some totally lost in trying to decode the code or perhaps 3) some who couldn’t be bothered but stopped reading this post after the 4th line ( maybe the 7th for the curious ones) which actually might be posted up to people who are actually concerned about & valuable time.

Lets check this out:

Less is more - Andrea del Sarto
As you get older less is always more - Ivana Trump
More matter with less art - William Shakespeare

The art of less just always amazes me. Those Swiss designers that created their signature style back in about late 1930s - 40s based on the art of less well, should be respected. They ‘rejected’ the Constructive terms. Ignored the popular Bauhaus ideas on design. Used only mainly sans serif fonts (only Garamond was introduced later). The style includes:

1) Lines of capitals
2) Justified wither left or right
3) Cool expressive fonts
4) Significance in illustrations & type
5) Straight forward information given
6) Bla Bla Bla (Simplification of ‘I don’t know much.’)

I’m not here to preach about Swiss style. Correct me if I am wrong;
My guess is that these guys say, “Cut off all that crap. Let’s create design that works.” Functionalists. They might probably have based their design aesthetics on keeping the design looks simple. Simplicity for both visual pleasure & also reduce the risk of non-workable designs (No wander IKEA.. But still every time we go there, we meet somebody we recognize). Get my point?

My dad always advices me to live simple. Complication allows rooms for complexity issues that stand chances to disappoint. Till now, my folks don’t even actually own a ‘house’ under their name, drive huge cars with complicated controllers on their steering wheels (Which the radio volume control looks like a video game forward & backward icon) & actually hardly even buy furniture for my house back in Sitiawan. As a matter of fact, most of the furniture at my home are given by beautiful kind people.

The bible says that we came to this world naked. Naked shall we leave this world then. If you believe in heaven, would you possibly want to bring your Ibanez Jem7vwh up there? The bible for example, simply 1 book on creation, 66 books on redemption. Love compassionately came down from heaven to die for mankind, which was created out of love. Minimalism?

Let’s say, put 2 of your friends together side-by-side. You start comparing them & you will find so much difference in them physically. Put your whole class together & well, everyone then looks the same. It’s just a human figure in many other forms of variations. Minimalism? Or maybe perhaps variations of a kind.

I used to attend classes by a lecturer who I believe is a strong minimalist. Even named his company Minimus. Check out some good stuff he did. Simply nice.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, “The fewer limitations the artist imposes on his work, the less chance he has for artistic success.” Pretty much as interesting as when the lecturer says “No.”. But then, you couldn’t be bothered by what he says, even though minimalism might take place, it imposes a challenge to prove yourself better.

The art of less is more has a very interesting canvas to paint on. But still the issue of wether too much of something is good is always argurable. Read more & you will get more knowledge. Hang out more with Ah Lian & you will become Ah Lian. Then, Ah Beng like. Work hard & make money. Work hard & loose family. I always get this from my clients, “Too simple lah.. Can you make it more feeling?” Read your bible & pray more. I’ve always envy those guys out there who can easily turn a complex message into simple message understood by everyone though. Less is absolutely complicated.

On the lighter note, I couldn’t be bothered about World Cup. I didn’t watch a single match. Football minimalist.

Back while I was still about 9 years old, I wore a pair of Fu Keong shoes, a Pagoda singlet under my Black-Cat school uniform & a pair Dolphin pants that I wear to sleep at night & sometimes even out. Not to forget too, the Tat Sing slippers I wore out sometimes. When Fido Dido came out while I was in standard 5, I had stickers of the ever-famous 7-UP character & even a notebook with his picture upfront! Back then, I had a Hudson’s metal package where I would put all my $0.30 stickers in it. Even collected mini-decks where one would place on the floor to play with. Not to forget my toys, that were bought from routined supermarket visits, which consists of mainly squeezable characters from cartoons (normally the hero..). Also always challenging Heman with Snap, Happy Family & Old Maid. Sometimes, we upgrade to Millionaire and when we got out 1st video cassate recorder, we recorded King Kong.

Guess I was a pretty happy kid. Thanks to my old folks who are now even older. Now I’m surrunded by subjects as serious as survival. Life. How progressively impatient it is viewed sometimes.

Prior to the World Cup logo, I discovered something very interesting in protest to the current World Cup logo,

11Designer in protest to the current world cup logo designs, created about 11 other identities for the title. Check them out, personally I like option 7#. I thought that it was intersting.

Is it true that the logo has to look “friendly’ (as always said by college lecturers) again? But prior to the England hooligans that formed a mob last week, maybe, just maybe, the smiley logos might have done it’s socially responsible duty in restoring peace in Berlin. (My bombastic remark…)

Erik Spiekermann had a comment about it. Here’s a very insightful take from the interview to warm up:

” Not only the mascot, but the whole business. I mean the mascot itself is a typical effort by too many parties. It’s a lion, which has no historical relevance to Germany whatsoever. We have eagles, gnomes and garden dwarves and what have you, but we don’t have lions. That’s English or French. The mascot is called Goleo, “gol” as in the Spanish for the English word “goal,” and “leo” as in Italian, Latin, Spanish for lion. So it’s obviously trying to appeal to a world audience, which is kind of nice, but it’s a little patronizing. Why not be in Germany and call it “Fritz” or whatever? We are German, so we might as well own up to it. This artificial lion is neither cute nor ugly nor relevant; it’s just embarrassing.” -When asked why was he so being so critical on the World Cup logo.

The recent talks venued at UOA were pretty cool. I guess it contributed most to the community of students of the man himself. You could count me in. I’m still very much a junior rookie & still visual hungry for aesthetically pleasing stuff. I went to the third session, featuring Matte & Phunk. Very much of a show & tell presentation. But it brings a rhythm that design is fun to me though. That made me tap along with the music.

One of my personal favourite designers, Chung Yew Kee was among the lists of speakers in the spiritual event. He was this Singaporean guy who had his first job at Malaysia, went back to Singapore, headed over straight to the Netherlands. Worked at Studio Dumbar
, as an intern I think. I’m quite a fan of the work he produces (I even sent him an e-mail to bring me some of his work over for me) but more importantly the characteristics he carries with him. One advice he gave that I find very neccessary for students including myself;

“Get out of your comfort zone & go try something different. Anything.”

It could be the books you read. Reading more books. Take the trouble to sit down at the bookstore for hours to look for a book. The way you behave. The process of getting the work done. Even the way you wake up from bed. Anything.

The prominant move that justifies that he truly believes in it is his migration to the Netherlands from Singapore. This is no small risk to take. Imagine leaving things behind into somewhere far away from home.

I came over from my previous college (haha..) for two simple reasons, to meet people passionate enough to share things with and to be exposed & to learn stuff that I tried looking for desperately at that point of time. My first class was this figure drawing class where all my future classmates were passing up their fantastic figure drawing holiday assignments that freak me out. I do mean that. My classmates can draw very nice figures & markers respectively (If you are my classmate & can’t draw well & want to be a rebel, you’re always welcomed to hop on to the band wagon).

It’s saddening. My first intention of going over was quite a failure. Sorry for both. I’m not talking about those who are of an interest in which I am not aware of. Somehow, I’m also bothered with the facts of life about being a designer. How much can I earn? What’s the expected sallary? Why do I need to work overtime? How to get finance for fun projects? How to produce good design? How to be creative & different? etc. But screw that. Its a common problem that just needs a little extra thinking. I don’t want to go deep into that.

My second intention now walks between the fine line of learning the things I know I am not a student to & perfecting my learning process. I question the intentions of my guru’s at times. Some have had a deep impact on me & some made my eyebrows stand mischievously. “This is very creative poster. You can see that the layout is very messy. He is the designer of RayGun.”

Recently, I meet a few people in college who picked up Emigre & Matther Carters books & go “Wow!” & someone telling me “Someone booked the 10th anniversary Emigre book.” I don’t really know them personally well but it just feels so good to see it. Some friends come up and tell me about the collection of books they have. This is so cool I thought.

(This post took me an hour fifteen minutes to type with 9 fingers)