Long before helveticka began working with Bouten Construction, I had a minor connection to them. My home town of Chewelah was preparing to construct a new hospital while my mom chaired the St. Joseph’s Hospital board of directors. It was completed in August of 1983—a full three years before Frank Bouten’s son, Bill, would join the family construction business (and ultimately become its president). My mom recalls a group of Chewelah citizens traveling to Washington, D.C. to visit congressman Tom Foley in hopes of getting the last of the low-interest federal dollars available to help with construction. In typical fashion, Mr. Foley came through for his eastern Washington constituents.

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

“Can metaphors be designed?” asks Michael Erard. They can—and they are:

In the 1960s, the US philosopher Donald Schön spent some time at the consulting firm Arthur D Little (he eventually became a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology nearby). He was working with product researchers trying to figure out why a new paintbrush design with synthetic bristles didn’t apply paint smoothly. As Schön related it later, someone in the group suddenly said: ‘A paintbrush is a kind of pump!’

Erard admits that the idea of paintbrush-as-pump isn’t beautiful, but it’s useful. And that’s the point of metaphor design.

Read more over at Aeon magazine.

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

The Reverend Sydney Smith to his son-in-law, Dr. Henry Holland, June 8, 1835—180 years ago today:

I am suffering from my old complaint, the hay-fever (as it is called). My fear is of perishing by deliquescence. I melt away in nasal and lachrymal profluvia. My remedies are warm pediluvium, cathartics, topical application of a watery solution of opium to eyes, ears, and the interior of the nostrils. The membrane is so irritable, that light, dust, contradiction, an absurd remark, the sight of a dissenter—anything, sets me a-sneezing and if I begin sneezing at twelve I don’t leave off till two o’clock—and am heard distinctly in Taunton, when the wind sets that way, at a distance of six miles. Turn your mind to this little curse. If consumption is too powerful for physicians at least they should not suffer themselves to be outwitted by such little upstart disorders as the hay-fever.

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

Back in 2012, I alerted readers to the Australian slang word boofy. At the time, I wondered whether a term that seemed to apply to both CK and me—when it should be clear to even the most casual observer that we’re, well…completely different—had any linguistic value whatsoever.

But I hadn’t considered the possible derivations.

Just yesterday, the New South Wales parliament unanimously voted to condemn television personality Eddie McGuire as a “boofhead” for “racist comments.” Set aside for a moment my profound disappointment in seeing Australia, of all places, clutching its pearls over a tenuous claim of racism; I like where this is going. From boofy to boofhead to…? (Help me out, Aussie readers.)

I’ve always thought that we Americans had mastered the art of idiomatic derivation: dumb, dummy, dumbhead, dumbass, dumbsh*t, dumbf—, and so on. I obviously shouldn’t have been so quick to discount a country with venomous trees, drunk feral pigs, and 65,486 Jedi.

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

Eva Braun’s unmentionables are “first rate: the fabric, embroidery and monogramming, the sewing of the button,” says Ernie Scarango. And they can be yours for only $7,500. As for their provenance, well…that’s another story entirely.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  comments(1)

Over at Helveticahaus, intern/apprentice/go-to gal Morgan Lynch has a great post on the true meaning of National Hamburger Day.

What? You haven’t heard about Helveticahaus? Here is a great place to start.

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

Last Friday we had the privilege of of giving a tour to around 30 first-year design students from Spokane Falls Community College—who unknowingly gave away their early arrival by posting up outside helveticka’s west wall.

Whether you see eager-to-please students waiting to learn from one of Spokane’s best creative directors (or, like me, a creepy image of ZOMBIES), we can all agree that it’s refreshing to see such drive and enthusiasm.

Photo credit: Me.

posted by: Courtney Sowards  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

On a recent visit to the southwest, I had the good fortune of visiting one of the finest architectural structures I’ve ever seen: the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix. The visit included lunch in an open-air restaurant known as Frank & Albert’s—as in Frank Lloyd Wright and Albert Chase McArthur. The latter, a former student of Wright’s, was the primary architect on the 1929 masterpiece, while Wright served as consultant.

The hotel was constructed using Wright-inspired pre-cast blocks nicknamed “Biltmore block,” derived from Arizona’s desert sands and formed into 34 beautiful geometric patterns.

The Biltmore campus has been carefully restored, maintained, and expanded upon over the years. Just walking around the facility, one can’t help but be inspired by what is often—and accurately—referred to as “the jewel of the desert.”

posted by: CK Anderson  |  category: architecture  |  make a comment