A ramble about avoiding overpaying for printer repair, as well as the frustrating journey of attempting to fix it on my own. Printers have always been a source of contention for many; those built for home use often seem to malfunction or break down rather quickly. My family and I…

An examination of Fontesk’s deceptive font distribution practices, and how type designers can safeguard their typographic creations from exploitation. — On August 29th of this year, Xiaoyuan Gao from Not Your Type Foundry posted a statement on her Instagram addressing the unauthorized use of her font files by a font distribution website. The website in question is Fontesk.com, …

A look into the phenomenon of Singapore flats being painted in the style of artist Piet Mondrian. Is the Housing Development Board (HDB) running out of paint ideas? — I was at Yishun the other day, and I captured some footage in one of its neighbourhoods. The buildings there exude a certain cheeriness, reminiscent of adding rainbow sprinkles to a vanilla soft serve. These structures are mostly white, adorned with splashes of blue, red, yellow, and green paint.

Just because you can put it on a T-shirt doesn’t mean you should. — “When has anyone, ever, in real life, promoted an event or exhibition by holding up a poster?” — It’s Nice That’s Lucy Bourton, on the peculiarity of designers presenting works online A few weeks ago, I embarked on an online adventure that involved sifting through countless images for packaging inspiration…

It looks good in the picture, but is the weather really good? — The current Southeast Asian heat wave still haunts me as I step a few inches outside. The searing Singapore sun threatens to make me break out in a sweat. This morning was a little different. It wasn’t any less hot, but I was rather captivated by the condensation forming on…

and how I became tired by everything 3D. — It was 2010. I was a timid teenage boy who couldn’t yet grasp the concept of a new decade. With my perpetually confused mind, I had to yet again navigate uncharted territories when I was thrust into secondary school. …

Fonts that fail to adapt to new technologies can become outdated and fall out of use. However, beyond this, are we also limiting type diversity by only reviving certain fonts? Here are my thoughts on modern-day font revivals. — Update (26/6/23): The lovely team at Fonts in Use informed me that there’s actually a digitised version of Arabeqsue available online, under the name Zylobalsamum! Done by Jason Wickersty in 2015, you can get the font as part of a bundle here or here.

Amazing things only happen when we do normal things. —

Because New Zealanders love their work-life balance more, cafés close early there despite their huge coffee culture. Here are my thoughts on their flat white obsession. To be fair, when I came to New Zealand, I only had one thing in mind: mountains. My cousin-in-law had waxed lyrical about the…