Helvetica: The Film

I have to admit that I never payed much attention to the typefaces around me and the subtle differences between them before I saw the film "Helvetica". Type was just there to be read. However, since I saw the film, I started to intensely stare at all types of signs, asking myself: Is this Helvetica?
Below I gathered some examples, where I think I spotted Helvetica on my way from Germany to Dublin airport:



It is very interesting to see how widely it is used, probably because of the good legibility and the clarity of the characters. However, I have to agree with what Erik Spiekermann said in the film that Helvetica needs a lot of white space to really look good, as it is very "round in the middle". Considering this, I think that the typeface also dictates a certain style/design and just using Helvetica or a few similar fonts would be very restrictive to the creativity. On the other hand, if designers restrict themselves in this way and just use a few fonts it saves them from looking at hundreds of fonts to find "the right one", which can be very tedious.

Personally, I would not limit myself to Helvetica, but there is definitely a time and place for this typeface.

The Future is Digital

Since the Internet became widely used two decades ago, there are people who predict the demise of printed news. However there are just as many that argue that the print media will lead a long and happy live in the digital age. In this review I want to examine the two sides of the argument by locking at two papers published in the last 4 years that discuss the future of print media.

Firstly, the article “News Consumption and the New Electronic Media” by Douglas Ahlers published in 2006 by the Harvard International Journal of Press-Politics, which makes a strong case for the printed media. The author uses statistically data to examine if there is a major shift of readers away from the printed media towards the online content. Based on this data he comes to the conclusion that there is no movement away from the traditional medium. He even goes so far as to predict that the online content will never be an adequate substitute for the printed media.1

On the other hand Parker Busswood in his article “News 2.0: How Newspapers Can Survive By Embracing Technological Innovation” published in 2010 by Capilano Undergraduate Review, leaves no doubt that the days of printed news are numbered for two main reasons:
1. There is a generation growing up that is increasingly used to digital content and that expects to get their information in an easily accessible and consumable digital format.
2. The technology for tablets and e-readers is advancing rapidly, making those devices for the first time a real alternative to printed formats.2

Personally, I agree with the views put forward by Parker Busswood in his article News 2.0. The sale of e-readers and tablets has tremendously accelerated recently. As the author mentions, the Apple iPad was sold 300 000 times on the first day alone.3 There is no doubt that the technology of the e-readers will advance further. They will become lighter and cheaper, have easier to read displays, till they finally bridge the gap with regard to usability between a printed newspaper and magazine and the digital device. Once this had been achieved and the e-reader producers can agree on a common format that allows for content to be exchange between devices, there are numerous advantages to the digital format:

· It is easier to customize papers and information in an online format for the needs of a reader
· It is easier to search the content
· It is easier to store the information and retrieve it again at a later stage
· Possibly the electronic papers are also more environmental friendly4

Having moved recently, where I had to lift numerous heavy boxes with books and magazine, I would have liked nothing better then for this information to be available in digitalized form.

However, this does not have to mean the end of good investigative journalism and authorship, quite on the contrary, as Busswood also points out in his article there is a strong need for well researched news articles also in the online format. If the content has a high enough quality then readers will be willing to pay for accessing the online content. In an article published in the “Futurists”, Patrick Tucker mentions that well researched content by reputable newspaper publishers will distinguish the online newspapers better from the blogger scene and Twitter.5

The printed format has been given a grace period but depending on how fast the technology advances with regard to e-readers and tablets it will eventually decline to a minimum. However, this does not mean that newspapers like The Times or the Guardian will disappear with the printed format, if they seize the potential of the digital technology they might even gain strength.


1 Ahlers, D. , ‘News Consumption and the New Electronic Media’, Harvard International Journal of Press-Politics 11(1): 29–52, 2006.
2 Busswood, P., News 2.0: How Newspapers Can Survive By Embracing Technological Innovation. Capilano Undergraduate Review, North America, 1, may. 2010. Available at: http://moodle.capilanou.ca/ojs/index.php/CT/article/view/47/4. Date accessed: 09 Oct. 2010.
3 Apple Inc. “Apple Sells Over 300,000 iPads First Day.” Apple. Apple Inc., 5 Apr. 2010.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/04/05ipad.html Date accessed: 09. Oct. 2010.
4 Watson, R. T., Boudreau, M.-C., Chen, A., and Huber, M. H, Green IS: Building Sustainable Business Practices, Information Systems, GA: Global Text Project, 2008.
http://docs.globaltext.terry.uga.edu:8095/anonymous/webdav/Information%20Systems/Green%20IS.pdf. Date accessed: 09. Oct. 10
5 Tucker, Patrick., Newspapers face the final edition: the fate of newspapers: all the news that's fit to tweet?,The Futurist, September 2009, page 2. Available at: http://www.allbusiness.com/government/government-bodies-offices-us-federal-government/12831700-1.html Date accessed: 09 Oct. 2010.

Why I choose the Applied Digital Media course

I have chosen the Applied Digital Media course at Griffith College because it is the course that most closely resembled my interests.

Firstly, I always wanted to learn in more detail about creating web pages and good design techniques. I am interested in both the design and the technical aspect of creating web pages and both are covered in this course.

Secondly, I am interested in animation, 3-D modelling and video production. I have experimented in those areas and look forward to engaging more closely with them. My aim would be to converge these 3 skills and produce a short film that uses video technology with CG technology to create special effects and animations.

Thirdly, from a social point of view, I wonder what influence the digital revolution has on, as I am very fascinated about all the new technologies and rapid advances of new media. However, I am also from a generation that can very well remember a time before email and mobile phones and I am aware of the problems that can arise from the constant exposure to digital media.

With regard to what I want to achieve with this course: I firstly hope that the broad range of multimedia subjects covered in this course will give my flexibility in finding a job digital media sector. I consider the course a great opportunity to expand my knowledge in those areas, like web design and animation. My ultimate goal would be to become self employed as a digital- / multi-media artist designer.

Games to save the world?

Lately, I have come across a few games that try to convey serious messages and deal with real life problems:

The toughest is probably "Dafur is Dying" deals with the humanitarian crisis in Dafur. The aim of the game is to collect water for the family while trying to avoid militias. A nearly impossible task and very frustrating, when you keep loosing one family member after the next and still you have no water. Yet, this might just be the message that the game programmer tried to convey.

Re-mission is a game for cancer patients, where the player fights the cancer cells in a body. According to the makers of the game playing the game during cancer treatment can be beneficial and supportive for the patient.

Evoke claims to be a crash course in changing the world (hopefully for the better). I haven't tried it yet, but it is meant to encourage creative solutions for urgent problems.

I wonder if playing those games can really help to change anything in really world, but it is least a good attempt to use the medium to raise awareness for social issues.

Triangular Shapes - Visual Communication Excercise

1. Triangular Lines




2. Triangular Shapes



3. Triangular Tone





4. Triangular Colour

Digital News

Good news for 3D artists and animators. Bad news for video production:
Taiwanese TV summarizes the news from abroad in digitally animated format.



Apparently it is cheaper to create the scenes virtually then to pay for the shooting and editing of the scenes.

I wonder if the trend catches on in other countries. It might take getting used to, as it is not what we would expect in a news format.

Spoilt for Choice: Browsers

Luckily there are a number of very good browsers out there now to choose from, but as I am a lazy creature of habit my browser of choice for some time already is FireFox. Occasionally, I use Internet Explorer 8. I have also downloaded Google Chrome, but it is leading a sad rarely used live on my PC.

What I like particular about FireFox are the Add-ons you can install. These are a few I am currently using:

- FireFTP : Easy to use FTP client

- Web Developer: Adds a menu and toolbar with various web developer tools

- Flagfox: Displays a country flag depicting the location of the current website's server

- Xmarks: Synchronises your bookmarks between devices

Unfortunately, Xmarks that always kept my booksmarks in sync between devices and browsers might soon shut down: Xmarks Sync NOT Dead Yet :-(

I look forward to read your browser experiences! Maybe I can be convinced to try out a new browser.

I am NOT a Facebook user

Facebook, Facebook, Facebook.... everywhere you look. 500 million users and no end to the growth. Even welfare officials in Ireland uses it to uncover social fraud (Internet crackdown on welfare cheats). Employers use it find out about future employees. But what if people do not find you on Facebook at all?

I am NOT a Facebook user. While I have already handed over my live and soul to Google, Facebook is not yet mining my data.. It is said that I have a choice if and how I will use social media (Facebook is evil... so are we?). But do I really? Will not being on Facebook make me a social outsider eventually? Might it even disqualify my for certain new media jobs if my future employer does not find me on facebook? Will one day not being on Facebook raise as many heads as having uploaded inappropriate party photos?

What do you think? Is there a social pressure to join Facebook?

PS: There are also alternatives to Facebook, for example check out Diaspora. It is social media with a big difference: no centralized data collection, no commercial interest. Unfortunately, so far also hardly any users :-(