Poster boy

Photograph: Albert Exergian

Captioned as "Damn, damn fine" by The Guardian, on whose website it appears alongside a further 14 Albert Exergian offerings, including a pretty natty Battlestar Galactica number.

I found this collection of modernist TV posters by pure chance. I'd actually gone to look at a gallery of John Nettles photos, in tribute to him hanging up his Midsomer Murders gloves. Sob. I'm a sucker for Bergerac; both the detective show set in the Channel Islands and the robust red wine.

Freaky Friday

I've been farting about with fonts a lot lately. I'm working on an exciting new project that the team is currently building a brand for, and fonts have been at the forefront of our thoughts. I used to know lots and lots and lots about fonts, but I've been noticing a surge in new offerings recently, perhaps due to developments in DTP. I remember when everyone ran screaming from Quark a couple of years ago someone mentioning InDesign has more scope for creativity with this kinda thang.

Anyway, I thought I'd share my current favourite: Mental Freak. It has a great name, and I really dig the hand-drawn cartoony feel. I'm also quite liking Action Jackson (another fab moniker) and 3D Blocky.


Illustration © Rodrigo German, contact: rodrigo_comics@hotmail.com

Glocal warning

Buzzword of the week is "glocal". It was in that Up In The Air movie I was harping on about yesterday (since announced as a nominee for the Best Picture gong in the upcoming Academy Awards; obviously my glowing review must have swayed the judging panel). The young upstart teaches the old dogs new tricks by informing them that they need to be moving from thinking global to thinking local: in other words, they need to go glocal.


Glocal is also the title of my Chorlton pal Jeff Heie's short film, which had a successful Big Green big-screen premiere on Saturday night. It tells the true tale of an American family's move to Manchester and their attempt to lead a more sustainable existence. Giving up a gas-guzzler for a bunch of bikes, swapping supermarkets for local shops and foregoing fast food in favour of homegrown produce, the Heies show how easy it is to break free from the consumption-obsessed lifestyle so common in the West. We're hoping to show it again at the main day of Chorlton's Big Green Festival on 27 March - come on down and you may even be lucky enough to see some of the stars on the green carpet!

Not such an airy-fairy idea

I went to see the movie Up In The Air on Sunday. It stars Mr George Clooney; perhaps you've heard of him? I thought it was very good: a few interesting observations, a bundle of laughs, a mean little twist, even a sassy haircut courtesy of Vera Farmiga. Perhaps one of the things I liked best, however, was the opening sequence.


Film credits are very important to setting a scene and style; they shouldn't be underestimated. Miss the start of a film and sometimes you miss the very essence of what it's all about and where the director is coming from. You usually get good opener action with indie flicks. The titles for Up In The Air were shot for director Jason Reitman by Shadowplay, some short film-maker mates of his, who "came up with this idea of vintage moving postcards". They've created a clever montage of lots of bird's-eye views of the good ole US of A; a theme repeated throughout the feature as the characters dart about the continent's major conurbations via American Airlines.


You can check the moving images out here, or, indeed, by going to the cinema and watching the film while it's still on. I found these stills for illustration purpose at a nice little blog called Blueberry English; go visit for more design-related delights.

Emergency exit

It's February already, so only a month before culture is booted out of the glossy glassy Urbis building by football. It's definitely not worth crying over spilt milk - the petitions have been signed, the letters have been written and even the obligatory Facebook group has been joined - but when I popped into Urbis on Friday, I'm afraid I just wasn't sad enough to shed a tear for anything much.


Maybe it was a nagging headache that made me disinterested in the hip-hop show (even listening to a bit of Ruthless Rap Assassins for old time's sake was dampened by the fact that the footage wasn't in synch with the music). Perhaps it was the slight back-slapping feeling to Urbis Has Left The Building (still a great title, though). Even the Ghosts of Winter Hill did little to exorcise my bad mood, such was the overwhelming sensation that all Mancunian TV amounts to is Coronation Street and what looks more and more like an enforced, bitter relocation of certain BBC departments to a blustery campus stuck out at a tram terminus in Salford Quays. I did like the mock-ups of front rooms through the decades, however, and a wonderfully named episode of World In Action about the Crescents called No Place Like Hulme. See, it's not all negative.

And I have seen plenty of good stuff at Urbis in the past; from potting sheds about sustainable urban gardening to fabulous Matthew Williamson frocks. It's just a shame Urbis is leaving the building seemingly by the back door, but then I suppose being sent off early is never going to be the glamorous way out.