One of the world’s most iconic brands has changed its logo. Actually, it’s more of a refresh than anything else. It’s well done and maintains all the visual equity the previous mark garnered, but without extraneous elements (who needs to use your company’s name, anyway?). It’s rare when a company achieves the kind of global brand awareness that allows it to use just a symbol and a single color for a logo.

Graphic designers love the Starbucks brand. It gives us hope. Not only did they reinvent a whole new product category in the U.S., they’ve done it with a consistent voice—through store interiors, product packaging and merchandise, playful messaging, and a high quality consistent product. And all while giving consumers more options than they’ll ever have buying a new car. If you think about it, until just recently, their brand was largely built without traditional print advertising—just pure experience driven by pure design. Thank you, Starbucks. You are my brand hero.

posted by: CK Anderson  |  category: the design life  |  make a comment

For years I’ve labored under the misconception that “hung” really ought not to be used unless you’re speaking of a man’s…er…naughty bits.

Turns out I was wrong. In all cases save execution, one should use “hung” as both past tense and past participle. Yes, even if you must write something like, “The photograph of David Beckham appeared to be well hung.” (Though I might advise changing “well” to “properly.”)

So. Unless you’re talking about a hanging, in which a convicted criminal has been hanged, stick with hung—no matter how embarrassing it might be.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the writing life  |  make a comment

Ben Yagoda has a revealing article over at the Chronicle of Higher Education website, in which he correctly identifies the problem with much of today’s writing: unfamiliarity with written English.

“If you haven’t read much, when you set pen to paper yourself, you take things more slowly and apply a literal-minded logic, as you would in finding your way through a dark house.”

Yagoda, a professor of English at the University of Delaware, calls it “clunk.” And while he’s speaking primarily about his students’ work, it’s worth noting that these students eventually become professionals in one field or another—and the ignorance continues unabated.

Like jazz musicians, who, when asked to explain the concept of swing, will usually tell you to put on a record and just listen, Yagoda has some simple advice for those confused by grammar and punctuation: read.

In related news, the folks at Electric Literature demonstrate that a book just might save your life.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the writing life  |  make a comment

The latest PROOF! publication by Johnston Printing is now available, and represents our most intense subject matter to date. The history of Modern architecture in Spokane is nothing short of incredible—and with the story going back well over fifty years, it makes for an interesting challenge.

While the publication itself mentions all of the folks who helped bring this story to life, I’d like to mention three key contributors. First, a special note of appreciation goes to local architect Steve Clark, who helped inspire us to focus on the work of Moritz Kundig. Second, I’d like to acknowledge our writer, Aaron Bragg, whose enthusiasm for this subject proved invaluable in the research and telling of Moritz’s contribution to our landscape. And finally, to our guest designer Linda Anderson, who has the rare ability to understand my scribbles while adding her own visual aesthetic befitting the publication’s theme.

And in case you’re wondering, PROOF! no. 5 is already underway! Look for it in the spring of the coming year.

posted by: CK Anderson  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

To help combat the daily drudgery of churning out word after word under the baleful watch of a whip-cracking tyrant, I’ve been keeping an orchid in the window at my desk—a reedstem epidendrum that usually blooms in mid-January.

Much to my surprise, the first flower opened over the last weekend, and today there are five.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

Discover magazine’s Bad Astronomy blog has picked the year’s best astronomy photos. Among the more interesting is a remarkable close-up (taken within 2,000 miles) of an asteroid named Lutetia.

Be sure to click on each image to embiggen.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

Alas, it won’t be in time for Christmas, but it appears that a U.S. importer is set to bring haggis-flavored potato chips to our shores.

According to my copy of Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (18th ed.), haggis is a traditional Scottish dish “made from the heart, lungs and liver of a sheep or calf, chopped up with suet, oatmeal, onions and seasonings, and boiled like a big sausage in a sheep’s stomach bag.”

Delicious.

Gervase Markham, in his English Housewife (1615), has more to say:

…and this small oatmeal mixed blood and the Liver of either Calfe, Sheep or Swine maketh that pudding which is called haggas, or haggus, of whose goodness, it is in vain to boast because there is hardly to be found a man that does not affect them.

By the way, the chips won Product of the Year at the 2010 Scottish Food and Drink Excellence Awards.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

Which came first, Coke or Pepsi? Wal-Mart or Kmart? Take the quiz over at Mental Floss—some of the answers may surprise you.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  comments(2)