Jimmy Winkleman, a college freshman, has created a clothing line with a logo that looks like the reverse of The North Face logo and instead says The South Butt.

Funny, right?

Well, not according to The North Face, a popular clothing company, who has decided to take legal action in the form of a cease and desist letter for selling what they see as a trademark infringement of their logo. Winkelman has decided to ignore the letter and this could lead to a legal showdown.

It seems like a bit of an aggressive strategy on The North Face’s part for what is clearly a parody. Even Winkelmann’s attorney, Albert Watkins said “I did try to explain with a great deal of candor to counsel for The North Face that the general public is aware of the difference between a face and a butt.”

Although on the other hand The North Face is simply trying to protect their brand, image, and reputation for which they work very hard.

What do you think? Should Winkleman be allowed to continue selling The South Butt shirts or is The North Face justified in their cease and desist request?

link

Tags:   Attorney · Graphic designer · law · lawsuit · lawyer · legal · logo · northface · parody · southbutt · the North Face · the South Butt · trademark15 Comments

Every single day these applications are launched on my computer and most of them stay running alongside Photoshop all day long. They can really help you increase your productivity so you can spend more time designing and doing the things you love.

1. Things $49.95
Started using Things in February of this year and it has quickly become my favorite application. I use it to track all of my tasks and now wonder how I was doing it before with pen and paper. It has improved not only my productivity by leaps and bounds but it also is a great way to never forget to do anything ever. With the companion iPhone app the experience is nearly seamless (syncing isn’t great yet—but will be soon we’re told).

2. Quicksilver Free
Whenever I sit down at a station that doesn’t have Quicksilver installed on it I get so flustered trying to remember how to do things “the long way.” Quicksilver is simply amazing. It’s shocking that it hasn’t been acquired by Apple and built right into the OS. If you enjoy using Key Commands in your design applications you will love this program. It’s so powerful that I have been using it for over a year now and have just scratched the surface of what it can do.

3. iBiz $39.99
iBiz is a great program for tracking all of your projects’ billable hours and elements. I use it for all of my invoicing and time tracking. It has built in invoices, estimates, and other forms as well as many other features. It’s also available in a server addition which is fantastic for small offices. The company that makes iBiz—IGG Software—also makes a nice money management tool, iBank.

4. Evernote Free with ads and limits on monthly uploads or $5 per month
Although I’m somewhat new to using Evernote I’m enjoying it so far. The basic idea is to never forget anything. Now, I don’t use it as a memory bank, but I do use it as an artist before computers may have used a “morgue.” Essentially it’s a great place to throw sketches, ideas, inspiration, reference materials, really anything and be able to quickly retrieve it when needed. The coolest feature is that it can search for text in images.

5. Coda $99
Typically I work with 3rd parties to develop code and I focus on the visual side of the project. However I still have to inspect the code provided and perform edits when necessary and on smaller projects I’ll handle the code myself. Coda is the perfect tool for viewing, writing, and editing code. Coda’s interface is slick and intuitive; it takes a process that used multiple applications previously and streamlines your workflow into one application. The developer—panic—also has a wonderful FTP tool, Transmit.

Tags:   apple · coda · evernote · IBiz · mac · Productivity · Quicksilver · Software · Things4 Comments

What a great game! Pick whether the name listed is a type of cheese or a font.

link via buzzfeed.

Tags:   · funny · game · quiz1 Comment

Recently Ikea changed it’s house font from a modified version of Futura to the ubiquitous Verdana. Cue the freakout. Designers and typophilles all over the internet have been decrying the change. Even Time Magazine has written about the font controversy.

All this outrage over a font? For some designers, it’s an issue of propriety — Verdana, which was invented by Microsoft, was intended to be used on a screen, not on paper. “It has open, wide letterforms with lots of space between characters to aid legibility at small sizes on screen,” explains Simon l’Anson, creative director at Made by Many, a London-based digital-consulting company. “It doesn’t exhibit any elegance or visual rhythm when set at large sizes. It’s like taking the family sedan off-road. It will sort of work, but ultimately gets bogged down.”

Between Ikea changing it’s font and Marvel being purchased by Disney it’s been a rough week filled with scary change for us graphic designers. *please note the sarcasm*

Photo from mattcrest on Flickr.

Tags:   catalogs · covers · disney · fonts · Ikea · marvel · typography5 Comments

Hand Made Font is an Estonia based design company founded in 2008 by Vladimir Loginov and Maksim Loginov. They specialize in developing unique, non-traditional fonts. Most of their fonts are made from actual materials.

Choose your own 10 fonts for 250 € ($350) or 780 € ($1,050) for everything.

link.

Tags:   font · handmade · typefaces · typographicNo Comments.