[Video] Helvetica is boring, use Franklin Gothic instead

I think Franklin Gothic is cooler than Helvetica, so I made a video about why you should use it more often. And since the Franklin Gothic font you get with Windows and Office 365 isn’t particularly good, I recommend a few great free and paid alternatives.

I guess I make font explainer videos now

I had a lot of fun making the ‘Stop using Times New Roman’ video and so I’m back with a new one. Let me know what you think!

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[Video] Stop using Times New Roman

I made an explainer video about why you should stop using Times New Roman and which font you should use instead (based on your needs).

What did you think? This is the first time I’ve made a video like this, so all feedback is appreciated. A voiceover artist I am not :)  So if you have any specific voice acting tips for me, please share those too. Thanks!

Where did this come from?

You know how they say, “if you can’t find what you want to read, you should write it yourself”? Well I’m now applying that to explainer videos too :)

Designer Oliver Schöndorfer from Pimp my Type is the only person I know who creates videos like this one. They’re excellent and you should watch those on his YouTube channel. He also does weekly ‘Font Friday’ reviews on his mailing list.

But most of the other online discussions about typography are in blog posts, forum threads, or webpages – like these alternative-to resources on Typewolf and Practical Typography.

I myself wrote a couple of blog posts about recommended alternatives to Times New Roman a few months ago (original, follow-up).

The videos that people have produced about fonts are either from a graphic designer’s perspective or they’re one-offs – like ‘The controversial story of Times New Roman’ by The Middle-Aged Hack.

But since I’ve never seen anyone do an explainer video of this type before, I figured I might as well make one my own.

And since I had so much fun creating this video, I’ll think I’ll create a bunch more. Maybe one every couple of months? *crosses fingers*

Let me know if there’s any font you want me to talk about, by the way. I love researching and getting into the nitty gritty of typography, and I’m more than happy to take requests :)

Video transcript

Links and references, in order of appearance

Font downloads and purchases

Photos and screenshots

Text and articles

Other resources

 

Agreeing with Angela Collier on how bad Star Trek: Picard is

Today I finished watching Dr Angela Collier’s 3 hour, 48 minute long video essay titled ‘How Star Trek: Picard Ruins Star Trek’ and I want to state for the record that I agree with it 100%.

I don’t usually write posts about how much I dislike a piece of media. But as a long-time Star Trek fan, a couple of years ago I was compelled to write about how season 2 of Star Trek: Picard (ST:P) was ruined in editing.

Angela’s media analysis takes things up several notches and explains how not only each season of ST:P is bad, but how damaging many of the currently-airing Trek television shows are to the philosophy and the joy of watching Star Trek.

If you’re a Trekkie like me and you enjoy long-form video essays, I highly recommend you watch this.

Maggie likes popcorn

Maggie would like Nadia to know that she too likes popcorn. Very, very much, in fact.

Photo of a red dog, ears pricked, standing at the foot of a low, outdoor lounge chair. The dog is looking attentively at the person sitting on the chair, whose is mostly off-camera but has their feet visible near the dog’s head.

A few seconds later…[Chariots of Fire soundtrack starts playing]

Favourite 4K videos

Hello. Here are some of my favourite 4K videos, timelapses and hyperlapses (ie moving timelapse).

First we have JeffHK’s ‘30 Days Timelapse at Sea’.

I’d been wanting to buy a 4K monitor for a while. That video of Jeff’s is what finally got me to pull the trigger on a 32” 4K Dell display. Thanks Jeff!

Jeff’s more recent '14 Days Timelapse of U.S. East Coast' is fantastic too.

And while you’re on his channel, check out his Panama and Suez canal transit videos.

Next is Mike Oblinski whose storm videos are mindbogglingly gorgeous. Like his recent ‘Monsoon 6’.

Or 'Vorticity 3’ from a few months ago:

Then we have Timelab Pro, who create some of the most fantastic 4K+ drone footage.

Their latest video is from Switzerland.

Though my recent favourite of theirs is ‘75 000 h.p. The Biggest Nuclear Icebreaker’ – which is set to Hans Zimmer’s Inception soundtrack, no less.

Next we have this lovely hyperlapse from FilmSpektakel which presents 'A Taste of Los Angeles’.

Finally there’s this timelapse that I just recently came across. It’s from The Timewriters and is a riveting ‘Travel from Rotterdam to Amsterdam in 10 minutes by boat'.

If watching these types of videos is totally your jam, by the way, search for ‘4K timelapse’ on YouTube. You’ll find so many fantastic videos.

Happy watching! And let me know if you have any favourites I should really watch.

Economic Gender Imbalance Infographic Video

The Information Aesthetics blog recently alerted me to this excellent video created by the JESS3 and the Economist Intelligence Unit about the EIU’s new Women’s Economic Opportunity Index (which you can download as a PDF or Excel file):

JESS3 x Economist: Women's Economic Opportunity from JESS3 on Vimeo.

It’s a great video that presents a lot of complicated information really clearly. It’s not often, even in most women-in-development circles, that you get this much global data presented this clearly and powerfully.

New Lenovo ThinkPad X200T Videos

I don't mean to go on and on about the Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Tablet PC...no, wait, I think I do :)  After all, this will be the most expensive piece of computing equipment I'll have ever bought!

Anyway, Warner Crocker from Gotta Be Mobile posted a couple of videos on the new multi-touch screen on the X200 which you can watch here:

Enjoy :)