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You Can Download the National Parks' Typeface

Andrew Orr ·

National Parks use a distinct typeface, featuring round edges in all caps carved into wooden signs. And now you can download it.

Shellhorn, who was on sabbatical from his current job as an associate professor of design at the University of Kansas, was redesigning the park’s newspaper and wanted to include the type found on National Park signs. But he soon discovered there was no digital typeface because the letters are simply formed with a CNC router in the park’s sign shop, chiseled into wood. The shape of the letters were determined by the size of the router bit.

Although it sounds like the typeface wasn’t intentionally designed, it’s a good choice for signage because of the legibility due to all capital letters and wide kerning.

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The Original Storyboard for Apple's 1984 Super Bowl Commercial

Charlotte Henry ·

As ever the morning after the Super Bowl, there is as much chatter about the adverts as there is about the football. Aside from the Game of Thrones/Bud Light tie-up, the ad spots during Super Bowl LIII were as uninspiring as large parts of the low-scoring match. Time to reflect then on the most iconic Super Bowl commercial of all time then – Apple’s 1984 clip. Business Insider posted the original storyboard and ideas behind the commercial.

Before the ad was even filmed, Apple’s ad agency needed buy-in from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and then-CEO John Sculley. The tech executives were shown a storyboard, or a series of pictures that describe what the ad would look like when it was actually filmed. The ad men were nervous – especially when Jay Chiat, an executive at Apple’s ad agency, was tearing up every idea before they were finished. But it turns out that Jobs loved the idea when they showed it to him.”

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Your Health Data is Turned Into a Risk Score and Sold

Andrew Orr ·

Yet another reason why we need privacy laws. Companies collect your health data and turn it into a “risk score” which gets sold to doctors, insurers, and hospitals.

Over the past year, powerful companies such as LexisNexis have begun hoovering up the data from insurance claims, digital health records, housing records, and even information about a patient’s friends, family and roommates, without telling the patient they are accessing the information, and creating risk scores for health care providers and insurers.

There is no law against collecting and using this data.

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3 Things Apple Does That Keep Annoying Us

John Martellaro ·

Dan Moren at Macworld reminds us that there are some Apple practices that continue to greatly annoy customers. In this case it’s all about revenue, and the argument is that Apple could please us greatly for not much loss of income. But at least we have a choice: buy or not buy.

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5 Mistakes Everyone Makes When Buying New Tech

Andrew Orr ·

David Nield wrote about five mistakes we all make when we buy new tech. It’s a good list to reflect upon when you’re in the market for new gadgets.

Prying open the packaging of your new gadget should fill you with excitement, not second thoughts. To avoid the sinking feeling that you have, once again, spent $80 on a device you don’t need, take note of these common pitfalls before you buy.