Through Lines 149

Dummer Darren Jessee may prove to be the real MPV from Ben Folds Five. He’s released a consistently good catalogue of music, including Wild Ascending Blue, a third single from his forthcoming Central Bridge release.

• Tweetbot and Twitterific face the cliff. Seriously, if you previously subscribed to these now defunct apps thanks to the ungrateful behavior of Space Karen, please do not ask for a prorated refund. Please.
• Noting for myself for the future: I’d also never heard of the sips Scriptable Image Processing system on macOS. It certainly sounds handy.
• I can wholly confirm these findings from Gensler on the Leadership Disconnects Around Supporting a Culture of Innovation. Scale destroyed this and I’m not sure anyone other than me on my team really noticed.
• “The big question underlying it is not about tech. It’s about us. How are we going to handle ourselves around these machines?” An urgent warning from linguist Emily M. Bender on the pervasive intrusion of LLMs like ChatGPT into our daily lives.
• See also this piece from Ezra Klein on the Imminent Danger of A.I. is One We're Not Talking About. Whose interests will these machines ultimately serve?
• Invisible Creature's incredible barn studio is everything I want in a home studio space other than maybe the garage doors which in my experience are a pain.
• Design thinking was supposed to fix the world. Where did it go wrong? This has been relevant to my interests and discussions I had this week with one of my colleagues while traveling up in the Seattle area.
• On one hand, do I really need another copy of Dark Side of the Moon, on the other, I now have an unreasonable desire to get this special 50th anniversary box set version of what is unquestionably one of my favorite albums of all time.
• A brief overview of a 2021 exhibit called Memory Ghost by one of my favorite artists, Nathaniel Russell, whose often cheeky but astute observations bring me such joy.
• Linoleum, featuring Jim Gaffigan and the always incredible Rhea Seehorn is definitely going on my must watch list. And there’s an upcoming screening nearby too.
• File under dream libraries to visit in Kurkku Fields in Japan.

Notable Type Releases

• DJR’s Megascope v2 upgrade brings a new series of weights from Thin to Bold to the already 1970s Deco-inspired geometric sans along with a new “Scope” axis that changes the size of the circular elements within the design. Very, very cool.
• Family from Klim modernizes the idiosyncratic father-and-son-designed Clearface and reimagines it as an everyday family brimming with nice details and considered characteristics. Of course, don’t miss the deep dive on Family's design process.
• You know who makes good type? James Todd does. And the ten years in the making neo-grotesk Parabolica is no exception with multiple optical sizes and chock full of smart details that make it a beautiful all-purpose workhorse type family.
• I want to rock with Roko (sorry) from Nuform Type (Erik Marinovich) with its tight spacing and curvy 60s and 70s vibes (in 5 weights no less). The lowercase r and f that bend around other curved characters… c’mon, so good.
• Arillatype.Studio’s At King brings an old style sharp serif face to the 21st Century with a variety of alternate characters well-suited for editorial, branding, or packaging uses.
• Meant first for long form editorial work, Chassi-L from R-Typography caught my eye with its flowing teardrop terminals and sumptuous italics.
• Quaria Display from Rene Bieder has the calm, sturdy sensibility of a sans serif but in a pin-sharp, elegant flared serif package. It has a certain “je ne sais quoi,” but I like it.
• Negatif is like a blackletter had a fight with a pile of rocks… It’s raw, chunky, and highly sculptural in its forms — and definitely best set tight.