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POSTERGASM: Calvin Ball Edition

Started by Cramulus, July 17, 2008, 03:32:47 PM

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Cramulus

Hey Net / font people:

what are some good fonts for "official" signs? Are there any dingbats you can point me at which lend to that illusion?

Cain


Cramulus


ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞

Quote from: Professor Cramulus on August 20, 2008, 12:27:34 AM
Hey Net / font people:

what are some good fonts for "official" signs? Are there any dingbats you can point me at which lend to that illusion?

This is where bold Arial does well. It's a stiff, mechanical, default typeface—perfect for most "official" applications. Aesthetic concerns are generally not considered at all for these, legibility is the only issue. Since it's so common and basic, no attention is paid to the font when read, which is the point for such signs.

More elements that adds to its officialness is to put the headline in all caps and in a graphic box (a shorter, fancy way to say a solid rectangle of color or black) with a knockout (more jargon meaning white type on a darker background). Then add a border that is approximately the same thickness as the stroke of the letters and the same color as the graphic box.

The dingbat situation really depends on what you're saying in the sign, but, Fnord - Hodge and Podge is fucking fantastic. Just use them prominently and sparingly. I'm not sure if the key combinations are the same for PCs but there are a ton of glyphs that you need to hold the alt key and alt + shift to access.

Blue Highway is another one that looks official and has a condensed version for packing more words into a smaller space.
P E R   A S P E R A   A D   A S T R A

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

At last, an explanation for my fondness of Arial! i am a utilitarian kind of girl. ;)
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞

Quote from: Nigel on August 20, 2008, 07:47:02 AM
At last, an explanation for my fondness of Arial! i am a utilitarian kind of girl. ;)

:awesome:
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Cramulus


LMNO

This is really cool.


I like the 000 idea about cards, so you can be unobtrusive about putting them up.

I really like the idea of participating in some unknown game, connected to a website.

I envision an almost imposing webpage, either very complex to the point of absurdity, or incredibly empty and mysterious.

The complex one would have lots of entry fields and buttons, but would only produce errors or password challenges if clicked.

The empty one would only have an upload link, and a point score field.

Either way, both would only allow you to do a small number of things; upload pics, and see your current score.

This might heighten the sense of mystery.



Anyway, the small card idea is cool, because you can slip them into almost any situation; in a cab, on the train, any supermarket or bookstore, in restaraunts... and usually you can do it so no one notices (unlike posters, where it's pretty obvious).

There.  $0.02.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Tempest Virago

#54
Quote from: LMNO on August 22, 2008, 06:21:19 PM
I really like the idea of participating in some unknown game, connected to a website.

I envision an almost imposing webpage, either very complex to the point of absurdity, or incredibly empty and mysterious.

The complex one would have lots of entry fields and buttons, but would only produce errors or password challenges if clicked.

I like the idea of a website that gives you a series of "prove you're a human" challenges, each more complex (and strange) than the previous, until you make a mistake. (Upon which it would give you a blank page with, "Clearance request denied." or something similar.)

ETA: I downloaded the poster pack, and will print some out and post them around town tonight or whenever I get a chance. I especially like the "If you stand in this spot long enough, you will some very strange things." (Though I would've gone for a more official, less Discordian style. Still, pretty neat.)

Triple Zero

Quote from: Tempest Virago on September 02, 2008, 05:18:06 AM
I like the idea of a website that gives you a series of "prove you're a human" challenges, each more complex (and strange) than the previous, until you make a mistake. (Upon which it would give you a blank page with, "Clearance request denied." or something similar.)

whoa i love this idea! :D

it could start with a few simple CAPTCHAs, then a couple of those weird "pick out the three kittens" selectors, then a "pick the three cute chicks" captcha, then some vague reference to robot sex (it's mandatory), then something reall absurd, and from there it should move on to slightly more active/real life kinds of challenges, finally stuff like "to prove you're not a robot, download these posters, paste them all over town, take pics and post them to Flickr tagged as 'postergasm'".

ironic thing being, if they carry out all these tasks, they're pretty much programmed like a robot :-)
Ex-Soviet Bloc Sexual Attack Swede of Tomorrow™
e-prime disclaimer: let it seem fairly unclear I understand the apparent subjectivity of the above statements. maybe.

INFORMATION SO POWERFUL, YOU ACTUALLY NEED LESS.

Cain

That would be brilliant, in fact.

It would also spread like wildfire, like so many of these sites do, when their purpose is unknown.  Digg, Stumble, reddit etc would mean crazy hits for the site.

Cramulus

Quote from: Tempest Virago on September 02, 2008, 05:18:06 AM
ETA: I downloaded the poster pack, and will print some out and post them around town tonight or whenever I get a chance. I especially like the "If you stand in this spot long enough, you will some very strange things." (Though I would've gone for a more official, less Discordian style. Still, pretty neat.)

Yeah, to some extent I agree - I've put up two or three complete rounds of Calvinball, and I think the Discordian Shtick is a bit much in places. Effort depending, I may tone it down a bit in the next PDF.

Let me remind people that it's still not too late to submit stuff for Calvinball - the last PDF I released was a draft, the final version will be coming when I can be arsed to do it.

Glad you had fun putting 'em up!

fomenter

"So she says to me, do you wanna be a BAD boy? And I say YEAH baby YEAH! Surf's up space ponies! I'm makin' gravy... Without the lumps. HAAA-ha-ha-ha!"


hmroogp

Cramulus