Blog archive February 2006

<< January 2006 / March 2006 >>

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28.02.06 / 01 / web designing

[quote] All you need to design Web sites are on "Web Designing". Web Designing is paper-based monthly Japanese magazine. [unquote]

ah, so.

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25.02.06 / 01 / architect

sigh...

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18.02.06 / 01 / british design icons

the bbc/design museum 'great british design quest' throws up an interesting list of british design icons from the last hundred years. i'm going to write the list here because pages like this go missing eventually:

longlist:
anglepoise lamp
aston martin db5
british road signage
dr martens boot
dyson vacuum cleaner
e-type jaguar
london a-z
mini skirt
penguin paperback
'power corruption and lies' album cover
raleigh chopper
'sergeant pepper' album cover
sinclair calculator
'the face' magazine
verdana typeface

shortlist:
catseye
concorde
grand theft auto
k2 phone kiosk
mini [car]
routemaster bus
supermarine spitfire
tomb raider
underground map
world wide web

some thoughts:
out of 25,
7 are vehicles
8 are graphic design [10 if you count the computer games]
6 [at least] are the work of amateurs with a good idea rather than professional commissions
0 are chairs [inconceivable in an italian list, say]
4 have to do with networks/navigation [road signs, a-z, www, tube map]
6 are from the 1960s

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05.02.06 / 01 / surname profiler

'surname profiler' gives the geographical distribution in Great Britain of any surname you type into it, as collated from the census data of 1998. that's interesting, but it also does the same thing for the census of 1881. what this reveals is how little geographical mobility there has been - in most instances the 1998 result shows a greater spread but still the same heartlands for each name.

but given the lack of population mobility before the 19th century, the maps effectively show where names have always been concentrated - essentially it shows where you came from. the profiler also gives data such as the distribution of a name among ethnic groups, and its occurrence in the USA, Australia, and New Zealand. there is also data [confusingly via the 'geographical location' link] on which social demographic in Britain the name is most likely to be found in - data via Experian's Mosaic UK group and type descriptions - which are in themselves fascinating reading on the UK's current social structures.

this throws up some surprises. my own surname is most common in kent [tonbridge] and the southern counties, with a strange concentration in west cornwall. but i am from grimsby, half-way up the east coast in an area which doesn't show any significant distribution of collinses at all. but i know that my great-grandfather collins, who was a sailor, came to grimsby from suffolk which does show collinses. is it possible that my great-grandfather's grandfather, say, was a sailor out of the north kent ports, and the family has been making its way up the east coast?

the profiler also shows that collins is english not irish, in fact it's only 25% as frequent in ireland as in southern england. possibly they got it from us. but it's more common in the US and Australia.

as far as social demographic goes, it seems there's a slightly higher than average concentration of collinses among the lefties of places like hackney. but my social type is pretty much E30 New Urban Colonists - the descriptions are worryingly accurate - life, job, flat etc except these people seem to have a bit more money than me!

so give it a try and place yourself.

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03.02.06 / 01 / god the great iconoclast

have just been enjoying 'god the great iconoclast' by sam trujillo in denver, on group blog emergingcity.com. sam contacted me via alternativeworship.org to wonder where there is other emerging stuff working on the margins of society. being white, middle class and in another country i'm not best placed to help, but if you fit the bill say hi to emergingcity. that sense of "is there anybody else out there who is doing this?" is familiar to most of us.