Author: Ross

Ross grew up on the wrong side of the Jukskei. He studied at Vega and was awarded the Top Student prize at his graduation. After working as a freelancer for four years, he founded Nicework with Ben Vorster. He has a penchant for Scandinavian wood furniture and really nice shirts. He is open to bribery- all iPads are welcome. He also likes chocolate cake and is happily married.

May 29, 2013

Upping Your Type Game by Jessica Hische

Posted by Ross

We have always been type nerds, but Jessica Hische is clearly passionate about fonts. She believes that designers should not have a favourite font, but a favourite type designer. In her article about upping your type game she covers:

Does it come in a variety of weights?
Does it have a nice x-height?
Does it have a true italic?
Is it a typeface I’d want to hang out with?
Is it spaced well?
Does it have even color?
What width or widths do I need?
If it’s a sans, is there enough letter variety?

You can read the whole article where she covers each of these points in depth. There is info on where to buy and host web fonts. I especially like that she is not one of the zombie Helvetica fans out there. So, if you want some info on pairing type and improving your game a bit, check her out.

I care, the nerds care, and that’s enough for me.

Here area small list of her favourite font houses, if you’d like to go shopping:

H&FJ Jonathan Hoefler & Tobias Frere-Jones
Okay Type Jackson Cavanaugh
Underware Akiem Helmling, Bas Jacobs & Sami Kortemäki
Darden Studio Joshua Darden
Mark Simonson
HVD Fonts
Type Together Veronika Burian & José Scaglione
Klim Type Foundry Kris Sowersby
Just Another Foundry Tim Ahrens & Shoko Mugikura
House Industries Rich Roat, Andy Cruz, Ken Barber, & Others
Commercial Type Christian Schwartz & Paul Barnes
Sudtipos Alejandro Paul
MVB Fonts Mark van Bronkhorst

The full article is online here.

May 28, 2013

Lacoste turns 80

Posted by Ross

I stumbled across this amazing stop motion animation Co-Designed & directed by Axel Courtiere & FX Pourre at UFO. It is a celebration of 80 years of the polo Lacoste. Apparently they used 250 shirts to shoot it.

Check out more of their work here.

May 28, 2013

NICE Magazine visits Joe Paine

Posted by Ross

NICE Magazine visited the studio of Johannesburg-based industrial designer Joe Paine to delve into the creative mind behind The Mechanical Bureau, which was shortlisted for this year’s Most Beautiful Object in South Africa Award at Design Indaba. We couldn’t have chosen a better candidate than Joe Paine for the debut of NICE Magazine’s video artist profiles. Take a look at his creative process and keep on checking back for more interviews!

A special thanks to Bram & Bram for the filming and editing

May 14, 2013

Chris Hadfield serenades us from space

Posted by Ross

We have long been following the musings of Chris Hadfield. Astounding us again on the eve of his return to Earth, the Canadian astronaut released a beautifully made video of himself performing a 1969 classic – Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’.

Singing “I’m floating in a most peculiar way” whilst actually floating up in space, Hadfield shows us again how he has won the hearts of the Twitterverse.

He was even badass enough to organise an impromptu space walk by Americans Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn, who replaced an ammonia pump on the station’s P6 truss.

After five months in space, he has safely returned home from the ISS and will be relieved by Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov. Sounds like he’s really enjoying some common earthly pleasures like a taking hot showers, and chilling in a field in Kazakstan. The usual.

Have a watch below.

via CNET

May 14, 2013

All good things…

Posted by Ross

Our website has been near and dear to our hearts for 2-odd years now. We think it’s time to give the old girl an overhaul.

Give us some honest feedback and we promise to build you into an easter egg on the new version…

May 6, 2013

The Winter Sculpture Fair

Posted by Ross

What a great weekend it was to be in Johannesburg. First we got to spend all of Saturday drinking at the Jozi Craft Beer Festival and then we had the pleasure of going the Winter Sculpture Fair. The only sculpture specific event we have ever been to. Set in the sprawling gardens of the Nirox Foundation we got to see sculptures from some of South Africa’s best artists. It was great to get out of the city, drink amazing wine and eat delicious food. Warm & Glad helped the hang over out with some delicious coffee. The Johannesburg weather even shone a bit of sunshine down on us.

Well done Artlogic

Here are a selection of some of the sculptures on show. All photos by Leigh-Anne

April 29, 2013

Type in New York City by Michael Surtees

Posted by Ross

I have only been to New York once in my life and would love to go back every year for the rest of my life… Michael Surtees is a great man to follow if you want to get a small piece of the New York life. Michael tries to explore people’s daily experiences and observations with design. He started an intersting company Gesture Theory which it seems is now sadly closed. You can also see his rambling at design notes. He runs a wonderful hashtag #walkingtoworktoday where he photographs the city of New York while walking to work (we South Africans only dream of that). He has a keen eye for detail and typography. You can follow him on twitter of instagram. Enjoy.

April 29, 2013

The Japanese have done it again

Posted by Ross

Love this clever idea by the Copy Writers Club Nagoya

Advertising Agency: Dentsu, Nagoya, Japan
Creative Director: Yoshihisa Ozaki
Art Director: Michihito Dobashi
Copywriter: Kotoha Tanaka
Designers: Masatsugu Yano, Masao Shirasawa, Koji Tanaka
Photographer: Yoshihiro Ozaki
Printing Directors: Norio Kito, Satoru Ozawa
Retouchers: Osamu Sato, Makoto Tobita
Sticky Notes Producer: Toshiya Yamada
Copywriters: Yosei Urushibata, Yoshiki Toya
Translator: Yunosuke Kunimoto

Via (ibelieveinadv)

April 20, 2013

YUMYUM the best thing to happen to my eyes in weeks!

Posted by Ross

Some times in life you find the most amazing things. This is one of those. I am going to buy every toy that YumYum London makes ever. I hope they get a Pixar deal to make a feature film…

These are their toys, you can buy them here.

This is the best creature on earth… spam them so they turn Boris into a real toy…

And if all of that is not enough, they make animations too:

Please note the squashed creature on the road:

Enjoy… I watched it many many many times

April 19, 2013

Bike Porn for friday

Posted by Ross

Gestalten has made a cool video… Beyond the messenger and fixed-gear scenes, contemporary bicycle culture is more fashionable, diverse, and alive than ever before. According to Dustin Nordhus of Berlin’s Cicli Berlinetta, “people who live in a big city are becoming aware that it’s nicer to have a beautiful bicycle than a car.” Gestalten.tv talks to Dustin as well as bike enthusiast Anna Valtonen from Pelago Bicycles, who are featured in Velo–2nd Gear.