Trivium

27jun2009

18jun2009

Man frage nicht, was all die Zeit ich machte.
Ich bleibe stumm;
und sage nicht, warum.
Und Stille gibt es, da die Erde krachte.
Kein Wort, das traf;
man spricht nur aus dem Schlaf.
Und träumt von einer Sonne, welche lachte.
Es geht vorbei;
nachher war’s einerlei.
Das Wort entschlief, als jene Welt erwachte.
— Karl Kraus, Die Fackel, Nr. 888 (1933)

14jun2009

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.
— Philip K. Dick, How to Build a Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later

13jun2009

Bronhofer Advertisement

They put up this advertisement a few months ago, and I wanted to post all the time how bad it is.

Today I’ll tell you why it is good.

Obviously, you will notice the typography, an aggressive mix of a rather nice corporate identity and Arial that just jumps into your face, and makes you want to rip your wet, crying eyes out, and throw them on the railway line.

Furthermore, note the spacing: the asymmetry, the wasted space, the alignment of text chunks to the corners. The intimacy the bullet dots have with their list items.

This tension of uglyness is the key. It makes you look at the ad everytime you wait for the train. It targets the people who see the ad regularily: You look at it everyday, you cannot ignore it. Anyway, they wouldn’t attract one-time visitors of the ad.

Imagine the ad was beautiful. You’d look at it once, and then it would just fade away. They are laywers, and they do boring stuff. They can’t put attractive women/nice landscapes/shiny things on it to make you look at it more often.

I think it works. It’s really subtle.

11jun2009

Do you believe in rock’n’roll,
Can music save your mortal soul,
And can you teach me how to dance real slow?
— Don McLean, American Pie

06jun2009

02jun2009

Warum, verdammt, seit ihr nicht aufgewacht
Bevor die Kugeln trafen.
Jetzt denkt an Deutschland in der Nacht,
und sagt, wer kann noch ruhig schlafen?
— Franz Josef Degenhardt, 2. Juni 1967*

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