ITC Lubalin Graph
When Watson appeared on Jeopardy! on February 14, 2011, it did more than make history as the first machine to compete on the game show. It also demonstrated the strength of a typographic identity. The human players are traditionally represented by their handwritten names. How, then, would the computer be identified? With ITC Lubalin Graph.
The typeface, by the great Herb Lubalin, hasn’t always been a part of IBM’s identity, but it’s the perfect fit for Paul Rand’s iconic design. Like most centenarian companies, IBM has gone through some dramatic logo changes (and even a few name changes) over its lifetime, from the ornamental lettering typical of the Victorian era to the jaunty globe of the 1920s, to the hefty mid-century slabs. Rand made his first mark in 1956, replacing the less confident outlined Beton with a design that began with City. Rand lengthened the serifs and poked squares in the ‘B’. He added the stripes in 1972 and the logo hasn’t changed since. (By the way, the average Saul Bass logo lives 34 years. I wonder what Rand’s record is.)
Print:
ITC Lubalin Graph has just the right geometric structure and slab weight to complement the IBM logo and the brand has been using it extensively. The typeface does a lot of the work in IBM’s very typographic print campaigns by Ogilvy
Web:
IBM backs up their commitment to innovation by using ITC Lubalin Graph as a webfont on its Watson. There is some fine-tuning to do — absent kerning is especially apparent in words like “Watson”. The IBM.com homepage and online version of the Smarter Planet campaign are still old-school type-as-image, but the pages are well designed and the identity is truly consistent across media. Kudos to IBM’s internal UX team and VSA Partners for their fine work on these pages.
The "right" approach to online advertising.
I’m an advertising skeptic. Often enough I click a “like” button more often than a banner, text or search ad. But I also believe what we do can always be done better, so here are two interesting approaches to advertising online I’ve encountered recently.
Looking around I found several approaches to the problem, one of newest called Pretarget takes the opposite approach to advertiser keyword selection, where they combine contextual and behavioral ads to reach homonym words, and they claim to make a 10% to 20% difference in conversion…
If thats their sales pitch, they might as well quantify the amount of homonyms the Advertiser might have to see if its worth the trouble (and money).
There’s also The Rubicon Project that wants to end the Advertisers draconian regime (an all too true case if we consider newbie Advertisers) and give the power to the Publisher, claiming that “in doing right by our publishers, we will do well”. I actually see some light in this approach, but knowing the ropes, I urge Rubicon to be just as Draconian as a money jealous Advertiser would be.
I’ll keep you posted with more “nice” looking agencies I find out about in the near future.
I'm not sure how to go about answering these post-class questions for that Contextual Listening Project.
1.) In what genre is this piece composted (e.g. symphony, sonata, song, opera, etc.)? In your answer, discuss the instrumentation and language used in the piece (the example is sung in German).
2.) Look at the vocal line. In what range is the vocal part written (e.g. mezzo soprano, tenor, etc)?
3.) Who is a likely composer of this piece? Name musical characteristics found in the piece to support your answer. Discuss instrumentation, genre and language.
4.) The text of this example, which is not given in your score, is intended to lull a child to sleep; it is soothing and repetitive, and makes reference to comforting actions and imagery (rocking, slumber, warmth, peacefulness, and embraces). Name three ways in which the musical details in this example reflect the text’s intention. Be as specific as possible, referring to specific measure numbers and musical parameters (specific ways in which the use of melody, rhythm, harmony, texture or other parameters help to “paint” or more fully communicate the meaning of the text).
5.) Finally, complete a roman numeral analysis for mm.1-8 (ignored the circled pitches in your analysis).
One and two are pretty easy. But three? I dunno, I wish I could hear it recorded again instead of me playing what she gave us on my piano. But of course, we aren’t allowed to know what the song is.
context progression
I keep trying to find something deep and contextual for my art…one thing that my art is about….but when im illustrating , photographing, researching, i keep referring to nature, i love nature, i always have.
does art need to have a super complex and deep notion behind it?
does it need to be dark and sinister?
does it need to be political?
does it need to be picking the human brain apart?
I love things that are dark yet innocent, I love the psychology of humans. But maybe I should start on my love of nature. It all around us, i relate everything to it. Nature is my one true love, as in the words of Lord Byron …
”There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.”
Everything comes back to that.
Hm I must think, maybe i just need to relate everything that is human and complex in life back to the pure life that is nature.
