His take on Star Wars brought the laughs and riled up the humorless fanboys of the world. We can only hope his take on Star Trek design will do the same.
Videos: Star Wars typography in motion
There’s are quite a few motion typography (or kinetic type) videos on Youtube. I first saw one done using one of Samuel L. Jackson’s more memorable scenes from Pulp Fiction (NSFW.) They’ve since multiplied (no doubt thanks to the efforts of eager graphic design professors) and now naturally there are several that feature Star Wars. Here are my picks:
This one is my favorite, with really good integration of form and function. But I suspect Youtube is crunching the reds, and would love to see a more pristine version.
Most impressive!
Very nice use of symbols for Artoo’s dialogue in this one.
I’ve never been a fan of that particular fanmade version of the logo font (it’s just off, not to mention ill-suited and far too obvious for anything but the logo itself) but the concept in this take on the Death Star run is certainly neat. (via)
A few more worth watching: Seinfeld, Fight Club, Trainspotting, Wedding Crashers and Anchorman. (How very boy’s club. You know what’s dying for some of this? Gilmore Girls.)
Design failures of the galaxy far far away
John Scalzi takes a look at the tip of the iceberg with the design failures of Star Wars, both technical and biological.
ETA: Slashdot is in super-fanboy mode over this, and Scalzi taunts them… It’s beautiful. Knot those panties harder, boys.
The catchup: Links from Twitter
Here are some of the things I’ve micro-blogged over @clubjade in the past few days.
Design! Mockery! Jumpsuits! Vintage Dharma Initiative ads are by Lost fan Adam Campbell and awesome. (via)
Important questions of our time. How does Star Wars end?
The blogside. Author Sarah Zettel on her love/hate relationship with Star Wars.
Bacta! Dutch scientists have created a healing goo based on the liquid that protects embryos in the womb, but they’re calling it “baby butter.” Eww.
Tips. Authors behaving badly is common sense advice from a bookseller.
Who’s behind the Fate of the Jedi covers?
The Drum, a marketing and advertising site from the U.K., has a feature on Keltie+Cochrane, the Welsh design agency responsible for the Fate of the Jedi covers. (The site requires registration, but you can get a user/password at BugMeNot.)
Everyone’s black and blue in tonight’s Clone Wars
What can you expect from tonight’s ‘Jedi Crash?’ Well, it co-stars famed comic export Aayla Secura. (She’s… French?) And some injury bonding for Anakin and Ahsoka. Check out the latest webcomic, ‘Headgames,’ for a quick preview.
- Last week: Watch ‘The Gungan General,’ or catch up with the usual round of reviews from the review blog, IGN and Den of Geek.
- People: Sci Fi Wire has a two-part interview with Katie Lucas, who wrote tonight’s episode.
- Merchandise: New packaging is designed to correspond with the show.
- In case you forgot… DVDs coming in March!
Eye Candy: Searching LIFE for Star Wars
A couple months ago, the LIFE photo archive went up in Google, fully searchable. Plenty has been done with them since then, but it didn’t occur to me to look for Star Wars until today. There isn’t a ton there – the bulk of images that come up are from The Phantom Menace premiere – but there are a few things of interest, like Time covers, some vintage toy pics and this shot of Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness and Mark Hamill at a party celebrating the tenth anniversary of A New Hope. You get about the same amount of shots searching for just George Lucas, and even more for Harrison Ford, but clearly Sir Alec wins. (Wait! Was it really a party for ANH? Now I doubt.) But perhaps most amusingly: Jar-Jar and Madeline Albright? Or Peter Cushing in Hamlet?
Off the fannish track, two of the more interesting uses I’ve seen around the web have been Jezebel’s The Way We Were features and Typophile’s book cover meme.
V for Vintage
Posterwire on the propaganda-style teasers for V for Vendetta. They’re really fantastic posters, and I’m not looking forward to the inevitably bland photomontage that will no doubt follow for the release.