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This is directed at my designer-dork fiends:
Has anyone else noticed that the kerning of “Madrid” in the header image is atrocious? It begs the question “Who’s ‘drid’ is it?” Clearly, it’s Ma’s Drid. Way to go, Ma; I didn’t know you had a ’drid.
Needless to say, I’m planning on replacing that image as soon as I find a more appropriate one.
At any rate, the shot is of the back of a street sign near our apartment, typical of those throughout the city. Though at first glance, it appears clean and refreshing, especially when viewed in context with stereotypically clunky American civic signage, I have seen numerous examples of the city signature (the crest with the bear and the strawberry tree (who knew they grew on trees??) with “Madrid” set below) in a number of different fonts, arrangements and renderings. Brand standards anyone???
Jesús Dulce.
On the contrary, I must credit Madrid for having a decent design vocabulary overall. I’ve found a number of examples of stellar graphic design that I am planning on uploading as soon as I get the opportunity (though judging from past precedent, that could be a while).
-bdmc
So I have a sinking feeling that we’re in for a rude awakening in the next couple of days, at least from an educational perspective.
The way the class structure works, you take classes for a week or two, then on Fridays, there’s a test of your aptitude to determine if you’re fit to ascend to the next class. It seems most of the people here take these tests pretty seriously, as they are always studying. Al and I, however, don’t seem to fully understand the gravity of our impending doom. Rather than “study” (and what material to study, we haven’t the foggiest idea, as lesson plans here aren’t really…linear. Or defined—page numbers and topics are arbitrary, we’ve discovered), we are focused on applying our knowledge and expanding our skillset by real world testing: in the bars.
At any rate, Al has a test on Friday (I don’t because I take the short bus to the beginner’s class in the basement and they’re giving us a few weeks to stop drooling on ourselves before they ask us to write our ABC’s) and neither of us spend a fraction of the time studying that the rest of our roommates and friends do. Are we missing something? Or are we just that freakin’ smart?
I’m going with B.
-bdmc
