señor taco’s travels

There is a company called Moo. Their motto is “We Love To Print” and boy do they. I got the mini cards as personal contact cards a while back and I love them. Today I just received a set of postcards and the quality is fantastic. I can say for certain I’ll be using Moo for more printing in the future.

The US$5 is getting a makeover. BARF!  Once again the U.S. Mint U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing has totally blown the chance to really revolutionize the money and make counterfeiters scramble.¹

Really, look at other nation’s currency. They are more durable. It’s easier to discern denominations on sight because of color and size differences.² Most places have abandoned low value bills because they wear out too fast and I’m really surprised the U.S. hasn’t.

With the new US$5 bill the changes seem as if they’re done by committee. Hire some real designers, make radical changes, and screw corporate interests that fight you because of new bill sizes and styles and materials. You work for the People, not the corporations.

1. Not that I think US$5 counterfeiting is rampant, I’m more concerned with the superdollars that are out there.↩
2. Although the color additions to the new U.S. notes is a big help to those of us without sight problems.↩

I came across this article in the New York Times Magazine on-line today. It’s a pretty fascinating look at the development of the typeface that will be replacing Highway Gothic on highway signs in the United States, Clearview.

The work done by Meeker and Montalbano is awesome. They cared enough that they kept tweaking the design until it was great. Even looking at the Wikipedia pages linked above shows that Clearview is more readable than Highway Gothic, but we can’t forget the contribution Highway Gothic has had on our culture via the Interstate system. Long live Highway Gothic but bring on the Clearview.

There are some parallels with my work in software tool design.  We’re always trying to improve on what exists and make our products much better.  I just hope that one day I can author software that become useful and ubiquitous at my work (I’d like to say I did it once at Blue Sky, but I’ve been gone from there for a while and the memory fades).