Cranked up about bicycle postage stamps

Okay, I'm glad the US Postal Service saluted bike riding with this set of stamps released on June 7, 2012. The drawings are nice and the concept of the stages of bike riding is okay . . . but I have quibbles. 

The publicity material reads [with snippy comments by me]: 

"Art director Phil Jordan designed the stamps using illustrations by San Francisco illustrator John Mattos. Each of the four Bicycling (Forever®) stamps features a different kind of bike and cyclist:

". . . a young child learning to ride . . . " [In my opinion, this is the best of the bikes shown here. It has two of the things needed on a regular bike, a chain guard and an upright riding position.]

". . . a commuter pedaling to work . . . " [This is the one that bugged me the most. Why should a commuter need a road-racing bike? This bike has rams-horn handlebars and skinny wheels and the rider is in road-racing clothing. This bike forces the rider into a crouched racing posture that's tough on the back and rotten for keeping an eye on traffic. I'm guessing the saddle bags are partially full of work clothes to be worn after this rider showers upon arriving at work. Commuter bike riding -- to me -- is not a workout and it's not a race. It's transportation. If you're sweating a lot you're doing it wrong. This bike doesn't even have any fenders or lights. Bad for riding in weather or at night.]

". . . a road racer intent on the finish line . . . " [Same bike style and clothing as the "commuter" bike above. Minus the saddle bags and plus the elbow-rest handlebars.]

". . . and an airborne BMX rider." [And what is this? It's the last stamp in the series -- so does it represent the final stage in the evolution of bike riding? Jumping your bike into the air? This belongs at the other end of the stamp series, right after the training wheels. This is 10-year-old kid stuff.]

What would I have wanted on a bicycle stamp? I would have put a regular bike in the middle instead of the road-racing bike shown. Fenders, front and back lights, chain guard, stepthrough frame, upright handlebars. A bike fit for riding in all conditions. And the rider would be in regular clothes, not spandex. I would want the stamp to show that bike riding doesn't always have to be fast, and it doesn't always have to be a competition.

Update: Changed the headline, added the release date of the stamps. Plus, I redrew my alternate stamp to raise the handlebars and put the rider in a more upright posture -- and I added a bell. I also added the picture below of bike commuters in Copenhagen. As always, click for closer view.

I like it! (The new David Bowie album cover.)

The designs, side by side.

The designs, relatively sized.

David Bowie has recently come out with a new album, titled, "The Next Day."

I really like the album cover (designed by Jonathan Barnbrook) -- it takes a very striking vintage Bowie cover and repurposes it. Even down to crossing out the original title.

I see it as a comment on the difference between designing for a 12-inch square record album and the much smaller CD cover / digital download icon.

Fun and funny! Makes me think of work M&Co did in their heyday.

Update: Added the size comparison.

I don't get it

An editorial cartoon from the Vegreville, Alberta, Observer. I'm not sure I get all the nuances of this Curatolo cartoon. Being a new resident here I don't know all the ins and outs of provincial rivalry. I've heard that Albertans believe other Canadian provinces are slightly miffed because Alberta has lots of jobs and is making money. Alberta makes its money from oil.

I guess the reader is supposed to take the guy talking as an Albertan working on the oilsands. The punchline being that he cares about "green" because money is green. And then the big switcharoo is that he's in the provence of Ontario, not Alberta.

I don't really get the switches. Alberta digs up the stuff and Ontario refines it? Everyone should be happy and shut up because there are jobs at stake? Albertans aren't hypocrites like people in Ontario?

Whatever the deeper meaning of this cartoon, I do enjoy the Jack Davis-esque drawing style.

Magazine rack in a Canadian grocery store

The magazine rack in this grocery store has a couple of "Feature" spots -- with their own holders in front of the regular rack. I would easily expect People magazine to be featured -- with it's cover story on "627 Spring Looks." But Adbusters? With it's "Canada, Tar Sands, Kyoto, etc., #SwaggerNoMore" cover story? I think that's unusual.

Alternate realities

To me, a principal joy of living in a new place is the differences in graphics. Particularly on very familiar brands.

Left: USA version, right: Canada version.

Coca-Cola is such an international powerhouse, I would have thought the United States and Canadian versions of its cans would be the same. And the 12 ounce (355 mL) cans are the same. But the 7.5 ounce (222 mL) mini-cans are a little different. As much as I love the original returnable glass Coke bottle, I find the constant picturing of it on paper cups, aluminum cans and plastic bottles to be . . . tiring and sad. I understand that it's part of their heritage, but since they are never going to go back to returnable bottles, I wish they would stop rubbing it in my face. Also note the calories label on both cans: United States 90 calories. Canada 100 calories. Perhaps calories are calculated differently in the two countries.

Top: USA version, bottom: Canada version.

When I saw the Canadian Kit Kat logo something resonated. Is it the Gill Sans-like font? Probably not. But the red letters on a white background harken back to the original logo. The Canadian one doesn't look as modern as the United States version, but that's okay.

Top: USA version, bottom: Canada version.

The United States and Canada versions really are the same elements -- just tweaked differently on the different packages. I guess the Canada one adds the large script "Holiday Mix," But that't the only major difference. Again there's the variation in the calories notice on the bags. This time the U.S. comes out on the high side. United States: 210 per serving. Canada: 190 per serving.

Update: Thank you, Mark Simonson, for coming up with the Alternate Reality name for an U.S. citizen's experiences in Canada. Really sums it up.

Hershey-ets

3.5 by 5.5 inch postcard.

Thank you to my friend Doug, who sent me this postcard -- the caption on the back reads:

The chocolate product that sounds as good as it tastes is Hershey-ets, little pieces of candy coated milk chocolate which greet you on the tour at Hershey's Chocolate World, Hershey Foods Corporation's visitor center in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Plus these words:

Mike Roberts
Berkeley 94710
C32036

Anti-comments

Comments on a newspaper article are often just plain stupid. I mean the comments themselves, not the idea of comments.

How to weed out the stupid?

I first thought having people having to log into their Facebook accounts before commenting was a good idea. Who will make an asinine comment when their real name is displayed? Turns out -- a lot of people. So, while it may make some people behave themselves, there are plenty of people who will not.

Okay. All well and good. I usually don't comment on anything, so the whole logging into Facebook routine doesn't affect me.

But now it does.

I went to read the comments on a story on the St. Paul Pioneer Press website about Walmart building a store where the Cottage Grove drive-in movie theater used to be.

When the comments get too numerous, in the past, I would have to click on a link to see more comments.

But now when I click to see more comments I'm told I have to log into Facebook before I'll be shown those comments.

I have logged into Facebook and it does show me the additional comments. But why should I have to log in to Facebook to just browse additional comments? I'm not going to leave a comment. I'm just reading.

Guess I'll have to get over the guilty pleasure of wading neck-deep into the Pioneer Press comment lagoons.

Update, January 16, 2013: The comments seem to have returned to the way they were. That is, I can read them all without logging into Facebook.

"The Vegreville Truck"

The Vegreville Truck 066

There are a lot of four-door pickup trucks in my newly adopted town of Vegreville, Alberta. After I noticed there were a lot of them I started taking pictures of them. I'm up to 68 pictures so far -- with a few repeats. The square format makes me include each truck's surroundings. I think that makes for more interesting photos and the format helps describe the town as well.

All the photos are viewable in a Flickr set.

Old Dutch brand potato chip crazy

Old Dutch potato chip varieties

In Canada (in Vegreville, Alberta anyway), the Old Dutch brand seems stronger than in its native Minnesota. It seems stronger than even Frito-Lay.

I snapped a photo of an end-cap display at my local grocery store -- just look at that variety of potato chip flavors.
The flavors include: Rip-L-Chips, Creamy Dill, Mexican Chili, Ketchup, Sour Cream and Green Onion, All Dressed, Original, Sour Cream and Onion, Au Gratin, Lightly Salted, Cheddar and Sour Cream, Dill Pickle, Salt 'n Vinegar and BBQ. There's also a bacon flavor and another version of BBQ flavor that I missed. Whew!

Not certain what the All Dressed flavor is -- it tastes like a spicy tomato sauce, maybe.

There's this really large egg-shaped sculpture in Vegreville, Alberta . . .

. . . and it spins in the wind.

I've made two previous attempts to capture this happening. I just have to wait until it gets windy enough. It's almost always windy here, but it has to be at least 19 kph (12 mph) to get the Pysanka (Ukrainian Easter egg) moving.

Yesterday was a good day for filming only because the wind was blowing and I was there and I brought along the iPhone 4 and a tripod. The sky is rather dreary, but the snow flakes add snap to the visuals. I also like that there's some snow on top of the egg.

Pysanka (Ukrainian Easter Egg) Rotates In The Wind from David Steinlicht on Vimeo.

Toby Jones versus . . .

It's a coincidence that Toby Jones has now been in two movies portraying real-life people at about the same time when much more famous actors play that same real-life person. 

I'd argue that Jones actually looks more like his real-life characters than the more famous actors. Beyond that I have no particular insight. It's just interesting. 

Welcome, bicycles!

Bike path near 2012 Minnesota State Fair.

To allow more cars and trucks to travel to and from the Minnesota State Fair, three blocks of on-the-street bicycle paths on Como Avenue are obscured with black tape.

J&N Weed Harvesting

 J&N Weed Harvesting pontoon boat spotted in Bottineau, North Dakota. Something about clearing weeds from lakes, I guess. An unusual machine. And a striking logo. There's harvesting and then there's -- harvesting.

Twin Cities Reader lives again

I wish this had been the last issue, but it
was the second to last issue. Of course, Carl
ultimately got Minnesota to build a stadium
for his Twins baseball team.

Artwork by the great Jack Mhyervold.
He sent this in unsolicited. Depicting Carl Pohlad as
The Godfather, it was a perfect illustration
for John Yewell's Twins stadium story.

How is it possible that it's been 15 years since the last issue of the Twin Cities Reader was published? 

I was the art director of the TCReader when it went out of business in March of 1997. I'd been there for a little over two years. It was a fun job. I had the trust of the editor and could pretty much do what I wanted. I was able to hire great artists and photographers. And then it was gone.

Burl Gilyard, a writer for the Reader, emailed former staffers noting 15th anniversary of the dissolution on March 12, 1997. This sent me to Google to snoop around to see if there was any electronic evidence of the Reader. I was mostly looking for older versions of the paper -- before my time -- but there was almost nothing in image search. I found only one version of the logo from the '90s. But not a single cover.

And then I got an email out of the blue from another former coworker, Jesper Goransson, who was a Reader production intern, wondering why there weren't any Reader visuals on the Internet. Probably the reason is that the Reader went out of business before the Internet revved up.

So, I'm going to post some Twin Cities Reader covers here. And why not! 

The last issue. Photo by Jeffrey Rabkin.

My first issue. White space!
I changed the logo after a couple months.

Stunning John Noltner photo.

A sweet Merle Nacht illustration.

The first appearance of my
TC Reader logo in December 1995
Photo by Ann Marsden.

The Winter Guide, 1996.
Photo by Robyn McDaniels and Gordon Stettinius,
model: Penny Reinwand, stylist: Ellen French.
Robyn and Gordon shared a weekly
photo feature in the Reader.

I redrew the classic Reader logo for the
big 20th anniversary issue. The original
artwork was long gone.

My direct inspiration
for the upside down
20th anniversary cover.
A 1988 Village Voice
cover designed by
Michael Grossman.

Prince and [symbol] through the years.

Fantastic art by Erik Johnson

made this cover idea work.

And the flip side.

Note: The Twin Cities Reader is now owned by City Pages (or Village Voice Media, if you want to be technical) in Minneapolis and they use the name every once in a while for stuff. It was on a book section in City Pages for a few years. And it was also used for a City Pages news aggregator that ran for a short time. I imagine the name will turn up again.

Condensed

There's a distinctive warning sign in a parking lot close to Minnesota Center for Book Arts in Minneapolis.



It's one of the more extreme misuses of type squishing I've seen in a while. But I have to admit, it does read a little like poetry.



Do any of these adaptations improve on the original? The original has an aggressive charm to it, but the information is not a quick read.

But as I rework the design to get to something more functional, it starts to look like any other sign. Can I get any of the original charm back by using the original fonts? Maybe.



In the end I have to admit -- I would not take a picture of this sign.

Android logo in physical space

[Updated with the idea drawings on the bottom]

I like collectible figures. I like the Android logo. So I purchased an Android logo collectible figure.

I was a little disappointed.

The figure itself is rather large. It's roughly three inches tall (76 mm) .It looks good with my Pee-wee Herman doll, but completely overwhelms figures from Kubrick, Qee, Lego and Homie. I think a smaller size figure would have been nicer. It would play better with the rest of my toys.


When you translate a flat piece of artwork into the real world, you have to make some choices. The strangest choice the designers made was to make the Android's legs very deep. I understand that it was to allow the figure to stand on its own, but it really makes the thing look kinda stupid from any angle other than straight on.


The proportions of the logo and the figure are pretty close. Only the legs are a little different -- shorter on the figure.


Possible improvements? At the very least, the white sections -- between the arms and the body, and between the head and the body -- could be painted black.

More radical improvements could be putting the head on a much smaller neck -- so it would disappear in many views and be in shadow in all views.



The legs should be the same in form as the arms. Cylindrical. The feet could be made flatter to allow the character to stand on its own.


Or the feet could fit onto a clear base -- allowing the bottom of the feet to stay in the rounded form of the logo. Either solution would look "right" from all sides.


Still, it's a fun little guy and I'm glad I got it.

[By the way, when I say I like the Android logo, I mean the little guy. I don't particularly like the Android type treatment, but that's probably the subject for a different post.]

Whoo-hoo!

Is is something about having a name that has two "o"s?

Skyway timeline

This skyway has been built, rebuilt and built again. Currently, St. Paul's new light rail line is being assembled underneath. Click for larger.

Out with the old

The Twin Cities Marathon footrace was represented by an M.C. Escher-inspired Charles S. Anderson-designed logo for 25 years.

But since 2006, the race has been called the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon, so this year Medtronic decided the race needed new branding. Hence the new split leaf design.

But the old logo is so beloved it's still used by the people who -- I'm guessing -- actually put on the event and get some money from Medtronic to do that.

What's interesting to me is: the old logo couldn't just be jettisoned. Sure, it's on its way out, but it's still hanging in there on this year's street banners.

Wishful thinking about Apple

(Advising other people how to spend their money is just silly. But here I go.)

Apple is now the largest corporation in the world. Bigger than oil companies. Bigger than Microsoft or Google. As of Tuesday, Aug. 9, they had $347 billion in the bank.

With their Apple stores, they are already employing quite a few people. Good for them.

What could Apple do with all that money?

I have a suggestion:

Apple should build manufacturing plants in the United States.

In the '90s they actually made quite a few of their computers in the U.S. They could do it again.

You can tell Apple is a little embarrassed that they make everything in China. On all their products, instead of just printing "Made in China" they put "Designed by Apple in California. Made in China." Sure, the design is important, but so is manufacturing.

Stand tall, Apple. Bring those jobs back. You could print on your computers and iPhones . . .

"Designed and made by Apple in California."

That would be nice, wouldn't it?