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Court Revives Civil Suit Over Worker's Fatal Heart Attack

The South Carolina Court of Appeals overturned a grant of summary judgment dismissing a lawsuit against an employer and its in-house nurses, alleging that they failed to provide adequate treatment to a…




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Social, environmental factors may raise risk of developing heart disease and stroke

Research Highlights: People living in neighborhoods with more environmental adversities, including pollution, toxic sites, high traffic and few parks, had higher rates of cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular disease risk factors. This association ...




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La atención coordinada en niños con síndrome de Down y cardiopatías congénitas reviste gran importancia

Prohibida su divulgación hasta las4:00 a. m., hora del centro / 5:00 a. m., hora del este, del jueves, 12 de septiembre de 2024   DALLAS, 12 de septiembre de 2024 - Según una nueva declaración científica de la American Heart Association (la Asociación...




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La nueva guía explica en detalle cómo manejar el riesgo de enfermedades cardiovasculares (ECV) antes, durante y después de una cirugía no cardíaca

Aspectos destacados de la guía: La guía conjunta de la American Heart Association (la Asociación Americana del Corazón) y el American College of Cardiology, que aborda el tratamiento y la evaluación cardiovascular de los pacientes antes, durante y...




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Popular home blood pressure monitoring cuff devices may not fit some US adults

Research Highlights: An analysis of at-home blood-pressure monitors estimates that the arm cuffs for 10 of the most popular potentially do not fit up to 18 million adults in the U.S. and nearly 12% of Black adults. To ensure accurate blood pressure ...




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New Spanish language stroke prevention website aims to remove barriers to equitable health

DALLAS, September 9, 2024 — While stroke is the fifth-leading overall cause of death in the United States, it disproportionately impacts Hispanic people. It is the third leading cause of death among Hispanic women and the fourth leading cause of death ...




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Nuevo sitio web en español para la prevención de ataques o derrames cerebrales busca eliminar barreras a la equidad en la salud

DALLAS, 9 de septiembre de 2024 — Si bien el derrame cerebral es la quinta causa principal de muerte en los Estados Unidos, afecta desproporcionadamente a los hispanos. Es la tercera principal causa de muerte entre las mujeres hispanas y la cuarta ...




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Reviewing your photographs from Older Archives


Sometimes its just plain fun to go through your archive of older photos. Now with a distant memory of the scenes and events your photographs may appear better than previous scans. This is in part due to that at the time there are too many good photos and those not with the highest rating but still with merit tend to get drowned out.


This image was taken at one of the great Buddhas in Kamakura Japan. The hawk like bird may seem small but this Buddha is very large.  Without the bird it would be hard to understand the scale of this image. It could be in anyone’s home garden. Besides scale the bird helps to give height to statue as there is the appearance that the head is up high where birds soar.


The next image with people in it does convey the scale of the Buddha. In theses type of metal statues the green colors are soft and muted and it is easy for green foliage to overpower the scene. That is why I have mute the greens in the background to give the Buddha statue more visual punch.

The Great Buddha of Kamakura (Kamakura Daibutsu) is a bronze statue of Amida Buddha, which stands on the grounds of Kotokuin Temple.  It's the second tallest bronze Buddha statue in Japan, at a height of 13.35 meters, surpassed only by the statue in Nara's Todaiji Temple.
The statue was originally built in 1252 and located inside a large temple hall. The temple buildings were destroyed many times by typhoons and a tidal wave in the 14th and 15th centuries. So, since 1495, the Buddha has been standing in the open ground. 

Do take the time to review your collection as there may be hidden gold or at least fond memories of places you've been.


Niels Henriksen.




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Book Review – Serengeti – The Eternal Beginning

I was excited to get the opportunity to review a photography book that wasn't technical in nature. It gave me a chance to read for once and not have to think about the technical merits about the subject material being discussed.

At first I thought it might just be a pure photography book, nothing but pictures and little text. When it arrived I realized that there was a fair amount of story that surrounded the photos. The story about the Serengeti was very interesting and unique and an important part of the book.


Book Title: Serengeti – The Eternal Beginning
Author: Boyd Norton
ISBN: 978-1-55591-593-3
Publisher: Fulcrum Publishing
Hard cover - 265 pages

The Review
One of the first things that struck me about the book was the experience and depth that the author 'Boyd Norton' had with this area of Africa. While its not exactly clear, it appears that he has spent more than 25 years visiting and getting to know this area intimately about the life and its nuances in the Serengeti.

The book is not only about Serengeti as its title suggests but also includes the Maswa Game Reserve, Ngorongoro conservation area, Loliondo Game controlled area and the Masai Mara National Reserve. As with most geographical features, country boundaries do not define its scope.

This geographical area defines the coverage, for the most part of the 'Great Migration' that we are all familiar with. Where thousands upon thousand of larger African animals such as wildebeests are seen to run for thousands of miles in search of food as the weather patterns change. While the predators lie in wait for the dinner train to run by.

The author discusses the parks earliest beginnings when there wasn’t a park but only early explorers and big game hunters. The early problems all countries seem to have when they want to control activities within an area with competing demands from indigenous groups, expanding farming base and other users of the resources.

This is not only a book about the big and small animals that are found here but about the life of the people who have lived here for aeons. It’s interesting to read how the locals, weather patterns and what was a perfect balance of nature all worked together to create a faultless ecosystem. Especially when you think of this place as the dawn of human kind some 3-4 million year ago.

The author’s writings give a life to photos that are not apparent directly from the photos. As an example, he discusses how certain rock outcrops called Gol Kopjes seems to have extra gravity that applies only to the big cats. In that whenever they arrive on these outcrops the local rock gravity immediately pulls them flat on the rock and holds them for hours.

The book covers the Great Migration when it seems most of the life in the Serengeti is on the move and about the carnivores who patiently wait for their turn at the Great Feast or migration as we call it.

The next chapter is about the lions which is a fascinating subculture all unto itself. Who gets to lead, who eats and who gets to live with the group.

The 4th chapter is about Ngorongoro which is the remains of a huge volcano called a caldera, like a giant cauldron. In this crater life is different due to its unique ecosystem.

The next chapter deals with creatures both large and small and how like any balanced system they each depend on each other for survival. From control of foliage to providing food for the predators. If your visit is to only see the big game animals then you are missing so much more about the life in the Serengeti.

The next chapters deal each with the other more famous of the big African animals such as the Rhino, Leopard, Cheetah and Elephant and how they live and communicate. There are personal stories around each encounter with the wilds of Africa and this is what makes this book more exciting than just a lot of photos.

There is Anna who can talk Rhino talk and the perception that they are stupid is really outdated. There are also the Acadia trees who can communicate when the giraffes arrive for dinner.


Recommended Audience

This book doesn’t tell you how to use your camera or take better photographs, which I'm glad as sometimes we just need stories that surround images we are seeing. Inspiration rarely comes from a technical how-to-manual.

I now know that if I were to go on an African photo safari I would not expect or want a 1 or 2 day quick tour and photo-op around the park. The book has conveyed to me that there is just so much more to see and experience that it can only be fully appreciated if you take the time to watch and wait. When there, live in the flow of the Serengeti's life.

If not for yourself then this would make a great gift for any friend who has been talking about going on an excursion to see those big game animals of Africa. A time before man, at least modern man, has had an impact on the natural world.

Link to:
Boyd Norton`s Wilderness Photography website with info on supporting the Serengeti.


I have provided an amazon link for the book, below.


Niels Henriksen


Disclaimer:
Other than receiving a book to review, which will be given away, I did not or will not receive any remunerations, gifts or any considerations for this review from the publisher, author or anyone affiliated with this book.



Update:
Thanks to a comment from Mike I realized that I hadn't fully reviewed the book by also commenting on the photographs within the book.

I found every photo crisp and clear and representative of the its natural environment.

The photos are taken as found and therefore the lighting is natural and not staged. Nor are the images manipulated to give extra punch as I am prone to do. All are color prints with no B&W.

Since most of the animals by nature's design want to blend in with their surrounding there is not always a lot of high contrast, but they all stand out in the photos. The photos are all of the caliber that you would find in the National Geographic magazine.

The front cover image is representative of the quality of images whether they are up close or distant landscapes contained within the book.






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Alien Skin Exposure 4 Photographic Software Review


There is nothing more wonderful than exploring new tools or ways for something you are passionate about.

 
A B&W Infra-Red (IR) processing of a red barn and green fields


What is the Purpose of this Software?
Exposure is an add-on photo-editing application for Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Elements that provides almost a complete list of film types, both B&W and Color, for processing for the digital darkroom. I say almost as I didn't count the list of film types in this application and I don't even know all the films that have ever been made, but they sure seem to be all here.
 
'Sepia – blue Finish (modified)' setting with a layer set to 'Lighten' mode (31%) for an Expsure 4 ver. of 'Kodak HIE (Halation moderate)'


One test of software is to see how it feels right out of the box. A lot like taking a performance sports car for a test drive. You may not know everything about it but you know how to drive and turn corners.

I never read the manual first as I believe that a person with reasonable skills on the computer and with digital editing should know how to turn it on and drive around a little. 
 
Exposure 4 did not fail here. It was easy to install and when launched, the layout and buttons were intuitive. The only problem I had was that it was almost 2 hours later when I realized how much I had been playing with the different types of films.





How would I use this Photo-Editing Software?

Exposure 4 has a great repertoire of classic, vintage and just plain old films both in color and B&W. Combined with these types of film selections are the various processing adjustments you might make in a wet darkroom, such as contrast, toning, bleaching, cross-processing, calotype, platinum and much more.

Some of these are obvious as the IR and Platinum and High contrast B&W I have shown above. Even old color films with faded color can provide unique approaches to the photographic images.


Without having access to the original old photograph, an older reproduction could be re-made. This could be cast against another image to create a story of 'then and now' and subject of an interesting photographic book.




In the image above I took 2 photos and I applied old color film technique to the bordered version to create the effect of laying an old photo on a new photo to show a change over time.


How well does it Perform?
Having a 7 processors and 12TB of RAM there should be no speed issues with loading and applying application settings. It was just over a sec to load and less to applying any film setting. The window is originally set up with 3 panels. Large central being the photo being edited. The panel on the right is the main adjustment panel color. See composite below. There is enough functionality to do almost everything you want.


A minor problem with the numbers dialog boxes. When you enter a number it doesn't apply until you click the panel and if you use the Enter key it applies the Exposure 4 application. I would rather have that only happen when I click the OK button.




The panel on the left are all the pre-set film settings which are based on some combination of settings on the right panel. This is great because once you found a style that suits your needs you can then tweak it to best suit the photograph.


I did find that using the color filter produced better color (brighter) for me than using the same color on a layer in Photoshop. It might be the preserve luminosity check box.


With my sample photos the rendering of effects was clean with no noticeable distortions unless of course you cranked the saturation way up.


I like that both side panels can be minimized and it's easy to zoom into a section for better clarity. With a 24” monitor some apps don't allow full screen editing.
I also like how you can save your own presets.



The above image is from one I tested since I had created a B&W version previously. The software did produce versions that I liked as well and maybe even better than the original.



Who is this Software meant for?
For anyone how wants to experience the look of chemical film technology and its variant processes.
Definitely for commercial ad type photographic needs. Here with the press of a button, a vintage effect can be created without much time spent by the user.
For creative types who may want to create story-line or books where the type of photograph is integral to the story experience
For fine-art photographers that require a specific look, as with my image of the tree and bench, that is not easily achieved in Photoshop.
To create new layers that can be set to one of the blend modes. There is a practice to create a B&W version of your image that looks best and then set this to luminosity for your color photo. While I haven’t experimented that much with these I suspect I will find some of the film output useful as a blend mode.




Recommendations
This is a good solid product that provides a wealth of film types and genres. It is easy to use and intuitive.
I would give this software a 4 – 4 ½ rating. The limiting factor would be price for a new user at approx $249. but an upgrade is only $99.
As an investment, I view software the same as a lens. It's a tool to help you meet your needs or goals. Many people find the cost of software somewhat prohibitive and yet see no problem with spending more on a new lens. I love a lens also as there's something about that precision instrument you are holding. But I photo-edit every photo I show to the public. I always want to bring out the very best and convey the feelings and experience I had at the time I took the photograph. The straight out-of-the-camera version doesn’t give me this. It is a mechanical device and not a human.



Definitely do download a trial version and play with it.



Niels Henriksen



Disclaimer: Other than receiving a copy of the software to review, I did not or will not receive any remunerations, gifts or any considerations from this review from the company, its agents or any of its distributors





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Ruling in the Braidwood Case Continues Uncertainty Over Access to No-Cost Preventive Screenings

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 21, 2024 – Today, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals limited a lower court ruling that many health insurance plans would no longer be required to provide cost-free coverage of preventive services recommended by the United States...




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Supreme Court decision to overturn ‘Chevron deference’ threatens to disrupt public health care system

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 28, 2024 — Today, the Supreme Court of the United States announced its decision on the Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo case and its companion case, Relentless v. Dept. of Commerce. The majority’s opinion abolishes the rule of...




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Nueva guía del USPSTF: seguir tomando una dosis baja de aspirina si tienes antecedentes de ataque cardíaco, fibrilación auricular (FibA), ataque o derrame cerebral o stent vascular

DALLAS, martes 26 de abril del 2022 - El martes, el Grupo Especial de Servicios Preventivos de los EE. UU. (USPSTF, del inglés U.S. Preventive Services Task Force) publicó sus recomendaciones finales sobre el tratamiento con dosis bajas de aspirina ...




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American Heart Association grieves the loss of Past President Ralph L. Sacco, M.D., M.S., FAHA, FAAN

DALLAS, January




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Redefinición de riesgo, prevención y tratamiento de las enfermedades cardíacas

Recomendaciones destacadas: Un nuevo aviso presidencial de la American Heart Association identifica las fuertes conexiones entre las enfermedades cardiovasculares (ECV), las enfermedades renales, la diabetes tipo 2 y la obesidad, y sugiere redefinir...




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Nueva guía: Prevenir un primer derrame cerebral puede ser posible con una prueba de detección y cambios en el estilo de vida

Aspectos destacados de la guía: Cada año en los EE. UU., más de medio millón de personas sufren un primer ataque o derrame cerebral; sin embargo, hasta el 80% de ellos podrían prevenirse. La nueva guía de prevención primaria de derrame cerebral de la...




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Estudio ofrece ‘evidencia contundente’ para la mejora continua en la atención de derrames cerebrales

Puntos destacados de la investigación: Un análisis retrospectivo del registro Get With The Guidelines® – Stroke, desde 2003 hasta 2022, revela mejoras sustanciales y sostenidas en la atención de derrames cerebrales agudos entre quienes participan en...




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Primary care professionals key to helping people achieve & maintain heart health

Statement Highlights: A new scientific statement outlines the role of primary care professionals in helping their patients achieve Life's Essential 8, the key measures for improving and maintaining cardiovascular health defined by the American Heart ...




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Rotis is everywhere

Typeface Rotis Serif

Available in four font families from sans to serif, Rotis typeface can be found everywhere around you. Unfortunally Olt Aicher died in a traffic accident in 1991. Linotype currently owns the Rotis Font Family, where all of the font variations can be bought.

Rotis® gives an impression of both strength and generosity and all four versions can be used interchangeably with one another. Rotis® is suitable for book/text, documentation/business reports, business correspondence, magazines, newspapers, posters, advertiments, multimedia, corporate design.
Linotype

During our holiday in the beautiful German Steigerwald (near Nürnberg and Bamberg) I came across the Rotis Font Family quite often, this is a photo showcase collection of the Font Familiy Rotis Sans.

Boek

This is where I first spotted Rotis, during a visit at the bookstore and came to the idea to putting this post together. As you can see, Rotis works well for legibility and design.

Street Signs

We were walking down the streets where I took this photo of a small billboard, The font family Rotis has enough detail to show at large points. Good readable from a distance.

Cafe Signage

Sitting down for a espresso where I saw this acrylic nameplate, clearly the usage of the noticable ´e´ of Rotis. A good color usage as where the brick will look dark from a distance the off-white lettering will stand out.

1000 Jahre Bamberg

During the celebration of 1000 years of the city Bamberg various information signposts has been put up in the city (now only available in the Church), a clear usage of font Rotis.

Museum Nürnberg

We went to various museum in Nürnberg, but this one got my attention. The openinghours and detailed information folder about the museum was all created using Rotis.

Shopping

My wife wanted to go shopping, so I sat down and read some magazines. Here I spotted Rotis in a Loreal print ad, see the payoff.

Escape route plan

When walking down a mayor cityhall I spotted this Escape signage. All type is printed using Rotis font family, easy to read.

Bookstore

Going to a bookstore in Germany is a pleasure for all typophiles, you can recognize a font on almost every cover you see. I spotted the Rotis on the cover of this book.

Door Signage

A small signage for a local company called Temme uses Rotis on their door signage, a bold versions and a regular are displayed in the design.

Museum Gerolzhofen

When visiting the museum in the small city of Gerolzhofen you can find the openinghours plate created using the font Rotis. With so many lines and text Rotis proves a clear legibilty.

Arte Caffe

At the tourist guide shop I found this business card all designed using the type Rotis. Unfortunally we could not find the coffe shop, but I sure liked the design.

Kind of noodles

At the grocery we bought some kind of noodles (Spätzle), you can get this typical German kind of noodle with many dishes. At the package I spotted the Rotis, small printed but readable.

Rotling Wine

With food you can drink wine, I bought this dry Franken white wine of 2007. The label was printed using the type Rotis. If you can find a bottle I can suggested it, tasted very good.

Steigerwald walk

The area we stayed was Steigerwald, a great forrest area and we went for many walks there. Our guide was a map of the area, with on the frontpage a design using Rotis.

Shoppingbag

At the local bakery we bought typical German bread (really dark with good taste), we carried the bread in this paperbag, printed with the details of the bakery using Rotis.

(wrapper)

Where to get Rotis?

The font package is available in four type families, via Linotype:

Personally I like Rotis Sans Serif Font Family (2nd on the list above) the best, it has a very distinctive look and feel with a high legibilty for usage in many fields of visual communication.

More information about Olt Aicher

There is much written about Olt Aicher who was not only a font designer but also a graphic designer who had a big part in designing the Münich Olympic Games in 1972.

  • Information about Olt Aicher at Wikipedia.
  • Great article about Olt Aicher at Underconsideration.
  • Work from Olt Aicher at a huge flickr pool to be found here.
  • The graphic design work he created for the Münich Olympic Games at this website.
  • Other interesting and informative article about the type Rotis, here at manic.com.
    (/wrapper)




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Arial is everywhere

Arial, a contemporary sans serif typeface by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders designed for Monotype in 1982. If you are familiar with a computer you must know Arial, one the most used “standard” typefaces for “normal” computer usage.

Arial

Most professional designers and typophiles think of Arial as a copied typeface from Helvetica and while reading the The Scourge of Arial by Mark Simonson Studio I have realized this is in fact a true story.

The typeface became free with the release of Windows 3.1, which was a sales hit and Arial quickly gained spread around the globe. The main reason why Microsoft chose Arial as standard typeface is because of the license fee from the original Helvectia typeface by the Haas Foundry was too high. Missed change to educate the world about the wonderful Grotesk family.

Arial vs Helvetica

There are several glyps of the typefaces similar and some of them are different. Due the similarity Arial is often (unfortunately) mistaken for Helvetica, the differences between these two typefaces is explained in an article on iLT, both typefaces are shown next to each other making it easier to recognize.

Today Arial belongs to Monotype:

Arial is an extremely versatile family of typefaces which can be used with equal success for text setting in reports, presentations, magazines etc, and for display use in newspapers, advertising and promotions.

Arial is everywhere!

Passing by an advertisement by a Dutch website about flight tickets, noticed the Arial Black at the top, when visiting the website also all other text is designed using Arial.

Advertisement sign

Driving on the highway when I spotted the Arial here in this advertisement, it seems to be an German clothing company using Arial for their logo, the payoff of Gerry Weber seems to be in a Futura.

Thai cuisine

Love the Thai cuisine and went to this small restaurant in Amsterdam, the window signs and menu is done using the type Arial Black.

Highway truck

Another highway shot taking while driving… Here is a clear usage of Arial Black italic for the logo and text.

Mirabeau*

A large Dutch internet company is using Arial for the illuminated signs, at first I was mislead, Mirabeau* using Arial? I only really recognized it by the letter “R”, visiting the website it seems they have changed the typeface of the logo.

Clearing out the garage

Throwing away old stuff… And found a small travel raincoat. Used typeface Arial Black.

Swarzkopf

Say again… Swarzkopf is using Arial? My wife bought something to color hair and while brushing my teeth I couldn’t believe my eyes. Quickly went to the store and yes… Swarzkopf is using Arial!

Tommy Hillfiger

Yet another large company is using Arial, this time I found a print on my wife her shoebox all lettering is using the typeface Arial.

Kaldi Koffie

This is actually one of the few brand where they consistently use Arial for all their visual communications. This Dutch Coffee shop uses Arial for their logo, text and shopping branding.

Vehicle signage

Waiting for the light to turn green, just had enough time to take this photo. This van has some lettering done using typeface Arial.

Hotel signs

Went skiing about two weeks ago and never have I seen that much usage of Arial. Here the hotel used Arial for the name of the hotel and the text.

Getting up the mountains

Most of the ski lift in this area (Ischl, Austria) uses Arial as typeface for the name of the ski lift.

Sun terras

Unfortunately we didn’t have a sunny weather, but when there is you can visit the sun terras. On the doors is placed with etch foil the text “Sonnenterrasse” in German language.

Ski rental

This shop used Arial for all the visual communication, not to mention that in this small village there where three of these shops… Arial is everywhere!

DigiD

Getting back and filling out some forms for the government, in Holland there are ways to fill out forms using a digital signature, called DigiD. I noticed the usage of Arial at the top of this letter. Hopefully this will change towards to new brand identity of the Dutch government.

UPS

The packages send using UPS are using Arial on their sticker, all information is printed using Arial.

For sale sign

Due the credit crisis many houses are for sale in Amsterdam, the broker puts op V-shape signs with the information “For Sale”, this broker also uses Arial Black for their name.

Design shop

Everyday I drive pass by this furniture shop in Amsterdam, the sell luxury design furniture, but all the typeface use is Arial Black.

Plummer company

This is a large pluming company is Amsterdam, they use Arial Black for their logo and other forms of visual communication.

Bike bag

Walking down the streets and spotted this printed bike bag which they use to distribute flyers, typeface used Arial.

License plate holder

Spotted this one many, many, many times. A license plate holder for Dutch cars, most of them use Arial to display the name of the garage.

Vehicle signs

This plummer company uses Arial for their logo and text, designed with icons.

Local coffee bar

This local cafe uses Arial Black for their logo on the window, also the opening hours and other text is displayed in Arial.

Arial is everywhere

Look around and you'll spot Arial around you! Arial is everyyyyyyywhere!!




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FF Meta is everywhere

You can find FF Meta all around you, this is a collection of designs where we found the use of typeface FF Meta.

FF Meta® is a wonderful typeface designed by Erik Spiekermann, the font family was released between 1991 and 1998. A very readable typeface in smaller point sizes but also with enough detail to display in large point sizes. FF Meta is a sans-serif typeface which can be found all around you. The last several months where every I came (The Netherlands) I saw typeface Meta, in this font series you can see the many different faces of the FF Meta®.

Construction Billboard

A large size billboard with information about houses in Amsterdam, you can clearly see the power of Meta with the readability from a great distance to this billboard.

Vehicle logo Endemol

Waiting for a free pomp I spotted the logo of Endemol at the side of a car, it seems to be the Meta Bold, but I’m not sure about the letter – l – , anyone?

Big billboard

A big advertising for a Dutch company that sells small business software, used the Meta Bold for their billboard campaign. Also easy readable from a distance.

Bike Bag

In Holland you see the bike bags very often. Displayed is the logo of Sandd a new post company which uses the Meta for their visual communication.

Truck on the highway

Quickly trying to get my camera and take a shot while driving, I was mislead by the big company name. But the payoff is display in Meta Book.

Gulpener Beer

Even on my holiday I spotted the Meta, this time the Caps version got my attention. A Dutch Beer Browery Gulpener used the Meta Caps on various visual level of communications.

Supermarket Coop

A small supermarket company is using Meta Book & Bold to show their latest offers, I’ve also seen plastic bags printed with logo and text using the typeface Meta.

Staatsloterij / Lottery

Hollands biggest (run by the state) monthly lottery uses the typeface Meta! Not for all forms of visual communications but here I spotted a announcement created in Meta Book.

Meta Pickles

A Dutch company Volwater uses various weights of FF Meta to display the information on the bottles, a good example of various font weights working together.

Lekker bij Rosé

Huibrecht Duijker is one of Hollands famous wine lovers, he writes, tells and drinks wine. In this small booklet the typeface Meta is used in various ways, bold, caps, book. It shows again that Meta is a very eligable typeface for small point sizes.

Signage

This is an example of signage made with Meta Bold, created in our company I suggested to the owner of the building to go for Meta in all signage and wayfinding.

Shopping Window

Found through photo website flickr, a shopping window printed with various font weights of Meta in a nice design.

Elastic Bandage

Went through our medicines and found the package of Hansaplast who are using the Meta in English and Dutch text at the front and backside of the package.

No more headache

With this package of paracetamol you will never have a headache again. For all text on the package they are using the Meta in Bold and Book typefaces.

Avery Surface Cleaner

To clean and remove adhesive vinyl foil you can use the Avery Surface Cleaner, a clear usage of font type Meta Bold on the bottle.

Real Estate Sign

A Real Estate Sign from Lunshof is using Meta as their house type. A good readability with the use of blue fonttext and white background.

Gall & Gall

Hollands largest liqueur store is using Meta for all levels of visual comunications. The stores, posters and internet website is filled with the Font Family Meta. A Meta tread to buy your favorite wine or beer at Gall & Gall.

FF Meta

The Complete Font Family contains a package of 24 variations (via FontShop) and was published by FontFont (see their website for lots of Meta usage), is available in the following formats Mac PostScript, PC PostScript, PC TrueType. All styles Book, Caps, Bold and Bold Caps are also available in Italic. Starting from a set of 3 fonts at € 40,- to the complete font family for € 229,-. When bought at FontShop you can download the fonts after the purchase and start using them right away. Although FF Meta® is not in the top 10 bestsellers at FontShop I believe this is a very popular font.

  • Visit FontShop for a complete overview of the Meta Font Family 1
  • The complete overview of 55 variants of Meta Font Family.
  • The Meta 3 Font package which contains Meta Hairline, Meta Thin & Meta Light. (Thank you Stephen Coles for adding the links)
  • Wikipedia information page about the font Meta




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SDS Defining City Event

On Wednesday 31st March Ivan Bennett, Design Manger for London Buses, delivered a presentation on the design and development of Bus infrastructure furniture and products at Transport for London’s offices in Southwark. This article gives and overview of the evening and highlights some of the key topics discussed.

Background Information

As part of Transport for London (TfL), London Buses is responsible for securing the provision of bus services throughout Greater London in a safe, efficient manner, while encouraging the use of buses and public transport. Surface Transport Infrastructure Development are responsible for the design and development, specification, installation and maintenance of the supporting infrastructure within Greater London. As the main point of contact with passengers, bus stops in London currently total over 19,000.

Introduction

Mike Wolff, Chairman of the SDS, introduced Ivan and highlighted that the society often discuss the graphic design and strategy of wayfinding systems, but talk less about the design of products. That in mind he was very keen to get the event underway.

Ivan began his presentation by putting the scale of the London Bus project into perspective. Every weekday over 6,500 scheduled buses carry around 6.25 million passengers on over 700 different routes, amounting to over 1.7 billion journeys a year. He was also keen to point out that the first use of the iconic roundel was the 19th-century symbol of the London General Omnibus Company; its usage on the Underground came later.

History of London Buses

Illustrations of old shelters showed how little the identity had changed over the years and demonstrated how forward thinking London were in a period hung up on embellishment. Ivan emphasised the importance and influence of Frank Pick, head of the London Underground in the 1910s and 1920s and of the newly merged London Transport in the 1930s. Frank was instrumental in establishing the world’s most progressive public transport system and an exemplar of design management. Ivan went on to explain how Frank’s vision influenced the design of London bus products, including those we see on the streets today.

Creating Successful Products

TfL are a well known brand and the legacy of their products has a huge impact on defining the city. Their products and use of materials also help define the values of the system. Ivan identified his three intrinsic factors for creating successful products:

  • Aesthetics
  • Appropriateness
  • Economics
  • Even in the early 19th century, London Transport realised the importance of these values.

(quote: “The test of the goodness of a thing is its fitness for use. If it fails on this first test, no amount of ornamentation or finish will make it better; it will only become more expensive and more foolish.” – Frank Pick)

It was clear that Ivan and his team design products with a clear focus on ‘Appropriateness’. They adopt a cradle to grave approach to design and Ivan listed key considerations in their design process:

  • Who will use the product?
  • What will the product be used for?
  • How long does the product need to last?
  • What possible impact does the product need to withstand? (vehicles, pedestrians, weather)
  • How often will the product need to be updated?
  • How will the product be maintained?
    -In particular when looking at materials:

Do the individual materials proposed work together?

  • Are the materials used sustainable?
  • Do the materials work within the surrounding environment?
  • What is the life span of individual materials?
  • How will materials be disposed of at the end of the products life?

Current Product

Using a full scale replica of a bus stand located at the front of the room, Ivan described in detail the design of the current product used at bus stops.

Many of the components are easily switchable. Ivan demonstrated how using a tiling system, bus stop numbers could be changed and moved almost like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

Examples of timetables, route maps and network maps helped show how London Buses have simplified information to make it easier for bus stop users to answer three key questions:

  • Where am I now?
  • How do I get from A to B
  • How will I know when I get there?

A good example of this simplification of information is the timetable, where individual times have been omitted and instead only first and last buses are listed along with the general frequency of buses throughout the day.

Example: Transport for London Journey Planner.

Where other systems fail

One reason other systems have failed is the lack of continuity. London bus stops extend beyond central areas and cover all routes in Greater London. Ivan indicated that passengers do not just want information about where they are travelling from, but when they get there, they need the same consistently presented information. People need information near their homes and local areas, not just in the centre of the city.

Ivan also pointed out that many systems fail because they do not own their products. London Buses design and build their products and own the intellectual property rights. This allows TfL the freedom to change manufacturers without having to reinvent their products. Continuity of the brand is maintained and London Buses can continually work on evolving their products.

Questions and Answers

The session concluded with a questions and answers forum. Unsurprisingly many of the questions focussed on manufacturing methods and material choices, but several of the questions were centred around brand identity and the roundel. A debate began on the use of the roundel and whether overuse was diluting its visual impact, a subject I am sure we all could have continued discussing at length, but time was pushing on and Mike sadly had to draw the session to a close.

Conclusion

I have been to several events organised by the SDS, but this was one of my favourites. The presentation was filled with facts, history, illustrations and physical examples. Ivan is obviously very knowledgeable on the subject and passionate about his job and this came through in his presentation.

I would like to thank Ivan, Mike, Michelle and the SDS for another great event.

For more information on the SDS visit: The Sign Design Society

Author Bio:
Hayley graduated in 2007 with a first class degree in Visual Communication. She now lives and works in London as a Wayfinding Designer for a large architectural practice. Her key projects to date include developing signage and information graphics for both Dublin and Rome Airport. Hayley’s thoughts and inspirations can be found in her regular tweets as Wayfinding_UK.




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Book Review: Airport Wayfinding

Over the years airports have been increasingly becoming larger spaces. Often also integrated with rail, metro and other means of transportation. In general(before COVID) people tend to take flights as a fast means on transportation from place to place.

The layout and structure of airports are different from city to city, therefore wayfinding is needed to navigate quickly and safely. Although wayfinding should be clear in airport, often the navigational information has interference with increasingly more advertising.

Airports have become multi-functional environments processes are internationally standardized and maximally efficient, with a strong emphasis on entertainment and consumption.

The book “Aiport Wayfinding” by Heike Nehl and Sibylle Schlaich is a complete overview what it takes to develop a wayfinding scheme for airports.

In some cases the wayfinding becomes part of the identity of an airport. Good example cases is for instance at Schiphol. The yellow signs stand out in the environment making it easy to navigate around. In the case of Schiphol, yellow has become the identity driver, recognizable and to stand out of advertising.

The book in a extensive overview on airport wayfinding, and explores the following;

  • Evolving, a constant state of evolution
  • Identity, architecture, flow and integrated design
  • Design, color, typography and pictograms
  • Digital, pre-journey experience, at the airport and onward travel
  • Beyond, how airports connect, mobility and the city

Airport wayfinding

As there a many ‘standards’ in wayfinding, airport wayfinding tends to differ and creating a unique identity to the airport. Usually the background color of the signs are part of the identity. For example; Schiphol Yellow, Frankfurt Blue, Switserland Black, Heathtrow yellow, Berlin Red/Brown, etc.

Airport Wayfinding Strategy

Apart from color, typography and pictograms the wayfinding systems are also vary from letters to numbers.

The book explains the passengers flow land side and air side. A complete overview of the customer journey throughout an airport. Included examples for spatial layout and visions on how to improve passengers flow in airports.

From interviews, explanations and examples, the book analyzes wayfinding systems of approximately 70 airports by aligning their identities and functions.

Conclusion

The book “Airport Wayfinding” is a must read for urban planners, wayfinding information designers and working in the field of (air) transportation and mobility.

The countless examples, comparisons, standards and interviews makes this book on of our favorites in airport wayfinding.

If you want to learn about the authors, visit their website Moniteurs.

Information

  • Publisher: Niggli Verlag
  • Language: English
  • ISBN: 978-3721210149
  • Hardcover, 240 pages

Airport Wayfinding

Get knowledge on Airport Wayfinding and buy the book at Amazon.

Buy at Amazon




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Independently control Noise, Reverb and Breath Reduction Amounts

Responding to your feedback, we are now proud to present new separate parameters for noise, reverb, and breath reduction to give you more flexible control for your individual, best output results.
Find all the new parameters below and listen to the Audio Examples to get a closer impression of the upgrade.


What's the update about?

Before

Previously, you could only set the Denoising Method and one reduction amount, that was used for all elements.
Depending on the selected method, you were already able to decide whether music, static, or changing noises should be removed, but there was no setting to keep the typewriter sound effects while removing the reverb, for example.

Now

With our latest upgrade, you can now set the reduction amounts separately for noise, reverb, and breathing sounds.
For example, you could completely remove the background noise while reducing the reverb just a little to enhance speech intelligibility but keep the atmosphere. Like we did in Audio Example 1.
Many of you have also asked about the possibility of slightly reducing breath sounds rather than eliminating them completely. In Audio Example 2 we demonstrate how you can prevent your audio from sounding strange and unnatural by reducing instead of eliminating all breathing sounds.

To all of you who are happy with the results and don't want anything to change, relax:
If you don't change the default settings, the noise reduction algorithms work exactly the same as before.

Note: As the 'Static Denoiser' removes only stationary noise, there are no 'Remove Reverb' and 'Remove Breathings' parameters available for this denoising method.

New Parameters

Screenshot of the new Noise Reduction Parameters in the production form.

In order to use the new noise reduction features, you may separately set the following parameters:

  • Denoising Method: (unchanged) Select what kind of noise you want to remove.
    [Dynamic Denoiser (default), Speech Isolation, Static Denoiser]
    Note that the parameters 'Remove Reverb' and 'Remove Breathings' are NOT available for Static Denoiser!
  • Remove Noise: Select the amount of noise you want to remove.
    [100 dB (default), Disable Denoise, 3 dB, 6 dB, ..., 100 dB (full)]
  • Remove Reverb: Select the amount of reverb you want to remove.
    [100 dB (default), Disable Deverb, 3 dB, 6 dB, ..., 100 dB (full)]
  • Remove Breathings: Select the amount of breathings you want to remove.
    [Off (default), 3 dB, 6 dB, ..., 100 dB (full)]

Feel free to experiment with all the options to find your preferred parameter settings! Editing and reprocessing existing productions does not cost any additional credits as long as you don't change the input file.

Listen to the results:

1. Reverb reduction with full noise elimination

For the first audio example by conduitministries.com we set the 'Remove Noise' amount to 100 dB (full) and varied the 'Remove Reverb' amount starting from 0 dB (Off) to 12 dB (medium) and to 100 dB (full). Listen to how first the noise is gone and then step by step the reverb is lower:

Original
-100dB Denoise
-0dB Deverb  
-100dB Denoise
-12dB Deverb  
-100dB Denoise
-100dB Deverb  

2. Breathing sound reduction

In the breathing reduction audio example by LibriVox.org we used the 'Remove Breathing' amounts increasing from the original audio with 0 dB (Off) to 12 dB (medium) and to 100 dB (full) reduction.
In the result files you can hear, that the 100 dB (full) elimination leads to weird, unnatural-sounding pauses, that can be prevented by just reducing the breathing sounds:

Original
-12dB Debreath
-100dB Debreath

Try it now on auphonic.com!

Feedback

We hope you like our upgraded version of the Noise Reduction Algorithms with new parameters for more control.
If you have more feature requests or feedback for us, please let us know! You can also leave a comment in the feedback section on the status page of your specific production. We're looking forward to hearing from you!







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