Logogate in Connecticut, or, The Rodneydangerfieldization of Graphic Design: Part II

Logo for the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, Cummings & Good, 2004

A government agency unveils its new logo. A geometric abstraction, it intrigues some but baffles many. Eventually, the inevitable question: my tax money paid for this? Finally, the handwringing once the exorbitant fee is revealed.

The government agency is the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. The logo was created by the respected Chester, Connecticut, firm of Cummings & Good...

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The World in Two Footnotes

Are you an Agent of Neutrality? Or are you an Aesthete of Style?

Eye number 53 (Vol. 14, Autumn 2004) is a landmark in the history of that irreplaceable publication. The theme is "brand madness" and editor John Walters introduces the topic with a tongue-in-cheek essay that cheerfully reveals a new Eye slogan ("Love critical writing! Love Eye!") but concludes on a queasier note: "Personally I hope never to use the 'B' word again. In the course of editing this issue, I have literally typed it out more times than I have had hot dinners -- and that can't be good."

At the core of the issue are a group of essays by by Rob Camper, David Thompson, and, in an impressive coup, respected theorist Terry Eagleton, who has been persuaded to turn his attention to Wally Olins's On Brand...

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First Person Shooter

Photograph by Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times, 2004

My partner Daniel Weil pointed out an extraordinary picture in the New York Times on Wednesday, the day after U.S.-lead forces began its assault on Fallujah. It all looked oddly familiar: the central figure, frozen in mid-action; the curiously featureless, textured rectangular void; the array of other characters in the background; the sense of portals to other settings, yet unseen. I stared at it blankly for a moment. "It's a video game," he said...

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Colorama

Colorama #234: Saturday Night Bath, Lee Howick, February, 1964

We moved to the suburbs in 1984. It was my wife's idea. After only four years in Manhattan, I was resistant to the idea of retreating to a place like the subdivision I had grown up in, so I insisted to Dorothy that we move to Westchester County. There were two reasons...

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