flickerfade.org

i am very confused about what exactly makes me happy.

i should write more about the problems i really care about. the funny thing is that it’s easy to solve problems that don’t really change anything when solved. or is it that i mis-identify those supposedly pointless problems, the problems that only those who are affluent suffer?

the solutions to these problems are like reality tv. they would make someone happy, and someone rich. but they’d add almost no value to this world.

so back to the whole startup thing that i’m supposed to be chasing. like dating sites, sure, i could build a better one if i thought about it, but honestly i don’t give a shit, too bad. although, if you asked me to help you build one i probably would. i’m actually a top-class engineer, most likely. just inexperienced, a bunch of shit to learn, and an elusive passion to find.

the search for that special problem that means me tired. excited, but tired. i can’t tell if it’s because i lack a creative outlet, or if it’s because i’m working too hard. those are two extremes. not sure how that’s possible.

in any case, i’m probably not going anywhere until this problem is solved. i’ll get stronger, but i’ll be going nowhere. like half the people at my gym.

finally hit up my old stamping ground tonight.

there are always interesting people to meet. a budding filmmaker, a burnt-out consultant.

ironically the consultant works harder than the filmmaker.

from the AIGA:

The same year that the Red Line of the Metropolitana Milanese opened, plans for modernizing the Boston subway system were announced. The newly created Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) awarded the contract for station renovation in January 1965 to Cambridge Seven Associates, a multidisciplinary architectural and design firm led by architect Peter Chermayeff. The design partners in the firm, Ivan Chermayeff and Thomas Geismar, were responsible for the station graphics. They created a new symbol for the Boston system (a black sans serif T in a circle), color- coded its four lines (and renamed them red, blue, orange and green), designed a Beck-inspired diagrammatic map, and established a uniform typographic style for all signage in the subway and bus system.

The enamel signs were split in half horizontally with white lettering on a colored background at the top for the name of each station and black letters on a white background below for additional information about each stop. The typeface, used on maps as well as the signs, was Helvetica Medium. “As to the choice of Helvetica, it’s a bit fuzzy,” Geismar said recently, “but I recall that we were generally excited to have a machine-set version, and felt that its directness was appropriate to our whole effort to simplify and clarify the MBTA transit system. Also, as part of the program, I had designed the T in the circle to identify and rename the system, and that featured a very simple, Helvetica-like T.” The MBTA signage was publicly introduced in August 1965, but the first renovated station—Arlington Street—did not open until October 1967. It was the first transportation signage system to use Helvetica without modifications.

that would be the firm at 1050 mass av, a place i pass very very often. need to pay more attention i guess.