#TimeTravellerNewsletter • Issue 6 • LINE WORK •
Themed source of inspiration from the past, present and future for curious creatives. By @alvaroarregui, Señor Product Lead @ustwo
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FRESH to have you back ❤︎
This issue is all about:
LINE WORK
A line is simply a mark connecting two points.
･ ━ ･
The line element in itself is so fascinating. If you think about it, you can’t represent anything in a simpler way than with a line.
Even though a line is simply a mark we make by moving a point, it has a strong psychological impact on our minds, according to how we choose to draw its direction, its weight and the variations between the two.
And because of this, it can function in both visual and verbal ways. For example, it can act as as a symbolic language (like with pictograms), or it can communicate emotion through its character and direction.
As designers, we have in our hands the powerful opportunity (and the responsibility) to make use of lines in whatever way we want or need depending the occasion.
So please, let me take your through an inspiring selection of some of the best examples of line work out there.
Enjoy, It’s a great time to be a designer!
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Designer fetish
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EMOJI 絵文字
Probably one of the best examples in history of lines communicating emotions.
1881
The birth of emoticons made a discreet entrance, arriving in print for the first time in this March 30, 1881 issue of Puck magazine (above).
The small item in the middle of this page gives four examples of ‘typographical art’ — joy, melancholy, indifference, and astonishment.
Mind-bending.
▶︎▶︎ Fast forward 100 years…
1982
This appeared on the Internet:
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I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:
:-)
Scott E Fahlman / 19-Sep-82 11:44
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1986
The boom of the Kaomoji 顔文字.
This style arose on ASCII NET of Japan and soon spread like wildfire!
Today, the list of Kaomoji face expressions are almost endless. There are tons of libraries, ( ◠‿◠ )☛ here is one of them.
Kaomoji are so embedded in the Japanese culture and play such a big part in their daily communications, that you can literally find them anywhere! Most recently in car headlights (although this was part of an April Fools’ joke by Audi Japan).
1998
The Emoji as we know it today.
NTT DoCoMo created a set of pictograms for its i-mode mobile Internet platform. Shigetaka Kurita inspired from weather forecasts symbols and manga emoticons came up with a set of 172 12×12 pixel 絵文字 (Emoji) to facilitate users to express emotions in their day to day communications.
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Digital products
I can’t believe this exquisite and expensive synthesizer is already 5 years old!
On top of its beautiful Scandinavian hardware design, OP-1 comes with a small amoled screen displaying perhaps the best line work I’ve ever seen in a digital UI.
60fps vector graphics running in realtime: when a modulator is assigned to a synthesizer parameter, you’ll see how that specific parameter is animated, telling you exactly what’s going on. It features an incredible amount of sleek and cheeky UI graphics, comprising just dots and lines, painted with a limited colour-coded palette.
Personally, I’m constantly trying to blend hardware and software design as one. Teenage Engineering took this thinking seriously and definitely nailed it with the OP-1. The use of the soft curvy shapes, thin lines, beautiful type, limited colour palette, and lightweight iconography and graphics makes it all blend seamlessly from the inside out. This design ethos even spans across the website and online manual.
OP-1 — An excellent execution and great source of inspiration.
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Retro inspiration
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Thanks muchachos, I’ll bring you new inspiration again very soon again 👋
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