Studio Notes #79

Howdy, my friends. Here are this week’s Studio Notes™—quick bits delivered to you each Friday.

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I haven't watched the whole documentary yet, but this clip explaining how Carrol Spinney operated Big Bird by himself is remarkable. One hand for the mouth, but a pinky of that hand for the eyelids! And the fishline pulley system for manipulating both arms, the "monitor bra" and notes taped to the inside of the suit. My goodness, what a talent.

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I'm still in awe of the Artemis II mission and what they've accomplished and now shared with us back here on Earth. NASA posted these incredible mobile device wallpapers of some of the shots from the lunar flyby. I'm currently rocking Peeking at Earth—but they are all truly awe-inspiring. Wishing the crew a safe re-entry tonight.

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These limited edition PanAm luggage tag art pieces made me stop and look. Handmade editions of 25 that recreate the vintage travel tags of various cities on a large scale. Outstanding work.

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I have the honor of chairing this year's STA 100, an annual competition recognizing typographic excellence. The Society of Typographic Arts has been a Chicago institution for almost 100 years (!) and the STA100 is their yearly event showcasing new type talent from around the globe. As Chair, I selected the awesome judges that will form the jury panel: Simon Walker, Lauren Hom, Lisa McCormick, and Damian Orellana. Selfishly, I chose folks I've long been a fan of, and I'm looking forward to hanging with them a bit on May 7 when the winners will be announced in Chicago. If you have recent typographic work you're proud of—enter it! The first deadline is coming up fast (Friday April 24th).

This Week's Poll

Last week, I asked, “Which is your favorite (semi-realistic) space movie?” and the winner was Space Camp—which was quite a surprise! I love that movie, and while its premise is absurd, it's fun to imagine the scenario of non-astronaut kids accidentally going into space. Anyway, the fact that so many of you even knew about the movie is impressive. #2 was Interstellar, which was my vote.

Space Camp (22%) — Interstellar (20%) — Apollo 13 (18%) — Contact (16%) — Project Hail Mary (13%) — Hidden Figures (11%)

What are you working on?

Earlier this week I shared the free pre-release of our forthcoming typeface, Beeswacks, with Secret Club members and I've been tweaking here and there, adding a few more requested icons, etc. Looking forward to releasing this one officially soon.

Hoping you can rise above the noise and chaos this weekend and get out and enjoy some peace. I will be doing my best as well. Thanks for reading!

Cheers,

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