(…and it could be!) I would want it very much.

FACT: I enjoy both robots and typography.  I present to you an epic question.  IN A DEATH MATCH AMONG FORMIDABLE SANS-SERIF COMBATANTS..

…HELVETICA-BOT (HELBOTICA)…

…FUTURA-BOT…

…and AKZIDENZ-GROTESK-BOT…

WHO WOULD WIN?!?!

The above posters, found via dtrndr, are screenprinted posters by Jonathon Yule.  You can purchase them on his website, INVDR, for $20 each or $45 for the entire collection.  If you have always dreamed about owning a t-shirt that displays both your love for Helvetica and robots, Helbotica t-shirts are available at Chop Shop for $20 each.  Finally, Font-Bot iPod skins and laptop covers are available at Skinizi.

Happy Friday! I will be gone to good ol’ North Carolina next week, but perhaps Tricia & Lorraine will keep you company while I’m away! Here is just a little-something before I depart : ).

Remember that post where I RAVED about the UK-based magazine Anorak (The Happy Magazine for Kids)? WELL, I STILL LOVE IT. And I have a subscription (yes, I am a very big kid).

It is almost weird, though, it is sort of like they made the magazine just for me. It always contains bright colors and is beautifully designed. The last issue was ALL about chocolate, my favorite food. And the current issue, I kid you not!, is about WORDS, which I am obsessed with. That sounds very general, I know, but it’s not! I’m a writer, and I actually read the “Word of the Day” from dictionary.com and write down the words!

Anyway, so here is just a small excerpt from this week’s issue with my answers filled-in!

Feel free to answer any or all of the questions in the comment section! & check-out Anorak because they make me smileeee.

1. What’s your favorite word? Deipnosophist. That is, someone who is skilled at table talk. That was the word of the day on Thanksgiving two years ago. And yes, it is very obscure.
2. What’s the cheesiest word? Cheese. I really think it’s a cheesy word, and not even in a corny or ironic way. I hate when people say things like, “Oh look at all that cheese” when they are watching something like Full House.
3. What’s the funniest word? Spoonerism. This was the Word of the Day on Monday. It is “a verbal error in which a speaker accidentally transposes the initial sounds or letters of two or more words, often to humorous effect.” For example, if you said “sew you to your sheet” instead of “show you to your seat.” It’s called a “spoonerism” because some Reverend Spooner apparently did this all of the time.
4. What’s the nicest word someone ever used to describe you? I like when people call me creative. Or unique. And they really mean it.
5. What’s the word you repeat the most? Probably “the” or “a” or even “cool” but apparently I also have been known to say “random” a lot. As in, “that is so random” or “so the other day I was randomly watching this mock-Billy May’s YouTube video.”
6. What’s the word you wish you had invented? Schadenfreude. This is an awesome word which means “to feel pleasure at another person’s pain or misery.” You know you’ve felt it.

S&D “Media Kit”

I just wanted to mention a few things on this lovely Saturday evening (on which I have eaten way too many gummy bears). I’ve recently updated the About Page so that it more aptly claims what we’re about. It also tells the fabulous and true story of where, exactly, the name Stickers & Donuts came from. Surprisingly, it was not a sudden stroke of genius. It also has the “life stories” of all three of your writers. The page also indicates ways you can subscribe to S&D (daily emails, RSS, widget) if you can’t remember to come visit on your own.

Since I am in the way of general announcements, I’ll remind you that we also have our interviews collected here and our bookmarks of favorite blogs & web-pages here. Finally, please do leave comments or send an email if you like something we’re posting or just want to say hello. We are very kind and like to respond (Tricia often leaves several delightful anecdotes to commenters on her posts).

And, just for fun, so there is a visual element to this post, here are some icons. I can’t actually tell if they are necessarily Mac Dock Icons, or if you should just use them like a sticker on your sidebar. Anyway, I used this Social Bookmark Iconset as a template (which I found on Smashing Magazine’s collection of free RSS Icons). If you right click you can save ‘em and use ‘em, if you are so inclined.

I don’t know if anyone has posted this yet, or maybe I’m the only young adult out there reading Woman’s Day (er…) but I AM SO EXCITED about this periodic table of cupcakes. Go to the Woman’s Day page to view the table larger, see how it’s color-coded, and (yes!) if you click on any square you get the corresponding recipe (and more pictures, usually)!

The table is so well designed, isn’t it? And it’s about cupcakes! I wish you could clik on a square and a cupcake would appear on your desk. I’ve been thinking about cupcakes ALL DAY.

I LOVE Cornify (“the #1 unicorn and rainbow service worldwide”) EVEN THOUGH the web-site uses an UNGODLY amount of Comic Sans. (I think it’s supposed to be part of the corn, but it’s still Comic Sans, a font I (unorginially) loath.) (more…)

Copyright Pepsi

Last weekend, I was in DC for a reunion right before the Inauguration. While there, I tried to spot as many of the Pepsi “HOPE” advertisements as I could. Unfortunately, my camera didn’t want to cooperate with the single digit temperatures, so I wasn’t able to snag them all. The above are just a few of the spots we saw plastered over Metro stations, buses, and billboards.

Although I think the general consensus from the various design blogs I read is that the Pepsi re-branding is a bit of a flop, I do think this campaign was great. Maybe it was just being in DC and around all of the excitement for the Big Day, but I  thought seeing all of the uplifting signs added to the atmosphere. That, and I respected that they went with pinks and yellows and oranges rather than the patriotic color palette they could have. It broke up all of the American-flag-monotony around town. Check out more images/video of the campaign at this French site and read about it and the other Inaugural campaigns at Creative Review.

Maria’s Note: This post introduces a new S&D blogger, Lorraine, whose great design-sense I discovered through her own personal artsy blog. I’m very excited to have her here, and very jealous that she went to the inauguration!

By way of introduction: Lorraine grew up in Missouri, but claims Nebraska as her home state after spending half her time visiting family there while growing up. After college at Missouri State, she interned in Nuremberg, Germany for a summer and fell in love… with Nürnbergerbratwürste. She is currently working as a graphic designer and, in no particular order, enjoys: cheesecake, printmaking/letterpress, languages, badminton, watercolors, and antique doorknobs. In her “free time,” she reads a ton of books, plays around with her gocco printer, and blogs about design and DIY culture at her personal site, Lorraine Design. We are glad to have see her very first post on S&D!

Writing Implement Test Sheet in PDF

So, Tricia’s recent post on Brush Pens debuted the “Official StickersAndDonuts.com Writing Implement Test Sheet” (as seen above). I got a handful of requests for a pdf version of the test sheet, which I am presenting to you above (download it and you will see it’s a full, printable page). Feel free to test away with your various pens and pencils. (If you need help figuring out what to test, check out Tricia’s ever-popular guide to Pens and Pencils).

Really excited to find this web-site showing all different covers of Catcher in the Rye, one of my favorite books. An old-school web-site, but a good visual collection, even including books from other countries.

There actually aren’t any spectacular covers for Catcher, even though it’s such a great book. I’m not sure why it hasn’t been redesigned recently? I do like the one shown here in the bottom left (look! he’s wearing the red hat and catching someone!), and I think the poorly-spaced, poorly-written quote on the signet book is funny (“This unusual book may shock you, will make you laugh, and may break your heart — but you will never forget it”).