Blog-tart THIS

SO
I thought I should blog about something ACTUALLY designy, nevermind it being belated.
About two weekends a go was the Aotearoa Digital Arts symposium in Dunedin (http://www.design.otago.ac.nz/news/index.htm?articleid=1420). It was a weeknd of different talks and workshops about digital media. And it was free registration if you replied to Caro McCaw (convenor) in an email by Novembver 24th.

So on Friday the 25th, I hob nobbed along to the DPAG, wearing my biggest yet "fuck-off-i'm-too-cool sunglasses" yet, and arriving fashionably late. Apart from I read the brochure wrong, and I was fricken early, so I got to talk to design department lecturers, and tell them all about what I was "going to do next year", while wishing I'd taken my ridiculous sunglasses off at the door.
After a while more people showed up, and soon the DPAG was full of Dunedin's most sophis. and hippest 22-40 demographic, all wearing no-sweat chucks and kookie accessories on black, black, black. Then the digital art started and so did the need to drink. Lucky there was such cheap drinks, (and, coincidentally some really firm seedy strawberries.)

The digital art itself was all flash-o-grams of abstract video clips and music -- all very Too Cool.

And then it starts to get hazy.

I know that I talked with others about how the next day we were supposed to go on a digital media 'mystery bus tour', and something to do with an RGB scavenger hunt, but the next time I remember thinking about this, was sometime on Saturday morning lying in my bed feeling too ill to move. The next time was when I crouched in feotal position in my shower until the hot water ran out. And then the next time was when my stomach decided it didn't yet want to be rehydrated, and pointed this out to me in my own RGB bucket scavenger hunt.
When I finally could move on Saturday night, I couldn't stand up straight becuase my liver hurt too much.
That's right, try getting so drunk that you can't stand up straight because you LIVER hurts! I haven't been like that since my Totally Tequila 18th birthday party.

So, I forfeited most of the digital symposuim for a night of highschool drinking. I'm sure i'll be able to reflect on this with fondness and some stage in my life, but probably will never be able to drink that regal combination of beer, wine and vodka again.

Tomorrow I graduate. Isnt that nice. A good ol' pink-satin, white-fur BA in Art History in Design; another hopeful in the ratrace of the 27-35,000 income bracket!

Checklist:
UNI10106 -- check
HBD06 -- check
Wallplanner06 -- check

aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh

revenge tastes like chocolate

I don't know where you find your images Kitty but that one is bang-on. V scary. Over the weekend though, my flatmate Sarah and I devised a plan of revenge to deal with the Italians. When we are away over the holiday season, we are going to put Sarah's stereo in my room, find some horribly cheesey CD, turn up the volume and set it on a timer so that it comes on at about 2am. Or maybe just really loud at 6am for an hour or so and again at 1am. Some ppl may say this makes me a bad person. I say, "Mwah hah hah, vengence shall be mine."

Otherwise, apart from plotting revenge, putting up the Christmas tree and doing FAR too much non-Xmas-related shopping, it was a pretty chilled weekend. On Friday night Richmond turned on its Xmas tree lights and for the first time in my life, I found myself walking down the street and spontaneously humming a Christmas carol. Which was kinda scary. There's just something about a northern hemisphere Christmas that feels more, um... Christmasy.

Quieten down through there! You noisy scoundrels!

Nanna Noever

Being in the UK may well be turning me in to a nanna. Or maybe it's just the Italians next door. In traditional British style, my flat shares a wall with the Italians and I'm the lucky person whose room is against that wall. I don't know much about my neighbours except that they have an eclectic taste in music and like to play the worst of it very loud late on weeknights. Before I bought the earplugs, I would fantasise about buying hair curlers, a terrycloth robe and matching slippers and a large broom so I could slam it against the wall and yelling stuff like, "Keep it down will you? Some of us have to work in the morning!" When that failed to work, I would shuffle over in my slippers and hammer on their door. I think this is a far more reasonable goal than skanking myself up and going over and fluttering my eyelashes and getting them to stop that way.

But I haven't. Instead I pop in my earplugs and fall into a paranoid slumber, worried that I won't hear my alarm go off in the morning...

Baaaaaa

My dear Aynia! Don't lose the faith!
Sometimes it may feel like we are drowning in sans serif tapers, slightly bulgy strokes and "jaunty" angled T-bars, but the reality is that, like how 'Everyone Loves Raymond' keeps winning Emmys, not all creative decisions are sound and audiences don't necessarily know quality from schmuality.

The point is that in every case where Comic Sans is used, another font could've been used more appropriately and effectively.
There are happier, chirpier, friendlier, more casual, more sans serifed, and more comic fonts for every occasion.
Your friends, and mine, who use Comic Sans with wreckless abandon are just lost lambs, and Aynia, it is our job to bring them back to the flock of typographical sheep.

Remember:
Comic Sans is to typography like what luncheon is to meat.

P.S.
I graduate in one week! I've got the dress, the shoes, the hair - I even have tan-in-a-can! Now I just need 4 poool boys to carry me around on my graduation day litter and fan me with palm fronds! Oh to join the esteemed ranks of BA-dom!

tragedy

I just got a Christmas e-card from one of my closer friends back home which was lovely. What wasn't lovely was that it was, dare I confess, in comic sans. And she's a designer. (And in case you're hoping- no, this was not some kind of humorous and ironic statement.) I have started to wonder as of late whether Kitty and I might be a minority in our aversion of this abomination that gets called a font. One of my flatmates teaches design and has confessed to quite liking comic sans. (But then she's a product designer so I forgive her a lack of understanding on the finer points of typography.) Although to my alarm, the art ed of the magazine I'm working for also doesn't seem as horrified by the use of it as I believe she should be. Kitty my fellow hater of comic sans, wherefore art thou?

Aynia's Post yo!

Once again it's Monday although this one is different from any other in one way- I went to the gym before work. I signed up on Friday and I don't think the trainer that sorted out a program for me had any faith in me turning up because my program wasn't typed up and in the special drawer for me. I had to go to reception and get them to track it down for me. Shame on him. It's 6 months since I left home with no regular exercise so I have been doing an impressive impersonation of a very large pie.

All this is probably of little interest though. What IS of interest is that John Hannah (and if you don't know who he is, shame on you!) goes to my gym. I currently working in Richmond which is apparently a hotspot for famous people. So far I've only seen John but the fact that he goes to my gym makes me feel very flash. I go to the gym with a movie star. Oh yeah.

It's taken me a while to settle in over here but I'm finally starting to feel semi-at-home. My life here is an odd mix between indulging my natural nanna tendencies and glamming it up London styles. I saw my first west end show the other week- Guys & Dolls. I have now seen Ewan McGregor in the flesh, singing on stage. My life is almost complete. At least it will be once I marry him... Don't go spreading it to the press yet though because I haven't told him...

And finally let me correct Kitty on one thing- yes, I am a Star Trek fan (although it isn't my fault, I was brainwashed by my father from a very young age) but above and beyond that, I am a Buffy fan. And Angel. Hello my name is Aynia and I am a Buffy Fan. It's part of my 12 step process, innit.

2:43 AM

Welcome to the comicallysans blog!

A blog to compete with the likes of fightingtalk, jessajeffries or that crappy old critic blog; this blog is for the ex-tech eds of critic (well mainly aynia and kitty). It's a place where we can commiserate on the epidemic of comic sans, and to ponder the deep philosphical thought behind google image search and leading.

The Technical Editor position (technically editor jokes aside) is basically the designer job at Critic (the University of Otago student magazine). You're in charge of how the weekly mag looks, from layout to the reviews to the cover. The hours are unforgiving, and the overtime sucks, but it's a really important job to the success of the human race on this planet earth. So that's what keeps us giving.

VIP Members:
Aynia.
Technical Editor from Jan 2004 to May 2005, Aynia was the brains behind the super (re)organization of critic's layout and computers. She chose 3 fonts and stuck to them, whipped everything onto a grid, and also sorted out years of computer file carnage, even starting a useful labelling scheme. How long all of this brilliant organizing will last is anyone's guess, but Kitty (Tech Ed, May 05-now) can already vouch for an iPhoto file calamity.
Aynia's seemingly straight laced design approach belies her secret ability to kick-ass! She's a Jujitsu fiend, and could probably give you colonic irrigation with a stick if you pissed her off.
Presently, she has headed back to her colonial roots, and is skylarking around London. She's been working in various designerly positions and is two-timing Jamie Oliver with Prince William.

Likes: Star Trek, palak paneer, chick flicks, speakerboxx and MacOSX icons
Dislikes: comic sans, rude boys, bacon, snippy secretaries and the sound the printer makes


Kitty.
Technical editor since Aynia left in May 05, Kitty was previously the Critic advertising designer - a lowly job if ever there was one, but one that let her be grasshopper to Mistress Aynia. Kitty has done everything so far to foil all the progress Aynia made with the job, but no matter: she slept her way into, up and around the job so she's pretty safe from being fired for designerly ineptness. So far. Responsible for ridiculous PhotoShop effects and the encouragement of crass design, she also introduced the late night speakerboxx boogey, and became a vital link in the chain of salicious office gossip.
In the two hours she's not in the Critic office, she is checking the critic blog online and sleeping with other staff members.
All of them. At the same time.

Likes: Fry's turkish delight, graphic's tablets, iTrips, berocca, babies, bacon and warm fuzzy socks
Dislikes: comic sans, baby-haters, spinning wheel of death, green peppers and menacing spiders