Wandering curiosity
The rabbit holes of curious creativity
‘Steve knows about type’ was the general consensus circa 1997, in response to a brief to design a calendar based on typography during the second year of our Graphic Design (BA) at Nottingham Trent University.
I didn’t know much, not really. I knew how to fuck type up. Endlessly photocopying bits of printed text through the battered photocopier in our studio. Emulating my (then) design heroes David Carson, Tomato, Chris Ashworth.
I set off for the library and spent two of the three week project pouring over any book that gave me some sense of knowledge. Amongst other publications in the libary (there weren’t many) I read ‘An essay on typography’ by Eric Gill. One quote stuck-out and yelled at me:
Legibility, in practice, amounts simply to what one is accustomed to.
– Eric Gill
Fast-forward twenty-seven years and whilst I rarely visit libraries, I have always approached every project by burying myself in research. Or should I say in tabs. Browser tabs. Lots of them:
I bookmark. I make notes. I read at least the first two paragraphs of every article before, like my dog Barney, I am distracted by...
A project I am about to start has lead me down some curious rabbit holes this week. I thought I’d shared the journey. You’re welcome.
From
Hyper-niche influencer strategy (thanks to
)to;
Make-up company utilising community based channels to garner advocates for the brand , Hot Topic (thanks to
, again)to;
Modern Fertility site that provides safe spaces for women to find, connect and share information about fertility. (again, Zoe, thanks)
to;
Need for Speed, and Unbound Palace Edition.
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Connecting with fans and driving sales by giving token holders exclusive access to merch, experiences, and more with Shopify.
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Long live digital collectibles and how NFTs are dead (TBC).
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Lego’s World Builder (this may have been another link from Zoe, thanks)
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Learning about Genus - or Genera, the taxonomic ranking used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses.
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Panthera’s, a genus within the family Felidae.
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Auspicious colour theory in Asian culture.
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Meowing cat sounds from SML bank cards with Anna.
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Anchorman’s, Sex panther.
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Marketing Science with Bryon Sharp
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88 Rising Documentary; How The Next-Gen Of Asian Hip Hop is Taking Over The Music World.
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Film director, Jonathan Lim.
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Beats by Dre Party.
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INSIDE THE CULT FANDOM OF FORMULA 1.
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The Red Flags Podcast.
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Palace Skateboards BEYOND THE 3RD WAVE.
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iRacing Stream Tutorial.
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What is Discord and how can it help your Twitch community?
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Why brands are obsessed with building community.
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Why community building has become such a hot topic for startups.
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Back to Palace, just because.
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Flock Together, a birdwatching collective for people of colour.
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Jimmy Broadbent and his Team87 initiative to take SIM racers to real cars using his own Praga R1.
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How social media (as is) is dying. Not before time either (IMHO).
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“Genuinfluencers” who don’t want to sell you anything (thank fuck)
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What the next generation of startups looks like and why Direct to consumer (DTC) brands are going to struggle.
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Thandie Sibanda and Nyasha Sakutukwa, hosts of the Quick Stop F1 podcast.
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STAN CULTURE; the behavior or beliefs of an extreme fandom whose members fervently and blindly support their chosen celebrity or team, often demonising or reviling anyone or anything opposed to, or not sufficiently devoted to, the object of their worship.
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Appreciating just how good NYLON and Vogue Business online magazines are as a source of infinite information.