A teacher often wonders if the work they do actually helps their students in life. At least I do. That question was answered a little bit yesterday when a group of my students gathered together to give me and the other faculty of the Art Department and farewell party. They had a cake with the above image (can you guess which one is me?) on the top and these cards that they all signed. It was great to know that they all learned something from me and will miss me when I am gone.

The drawing was done by a student named Kulood who goes by KiKi. Left to right is Michael Rodriguez, Terence Dowse, me and Sean Hottois.

Jason Kottke linked to a wonderful BBC Documentary the other day on the development of Gutenberg’s printing press. Stephen Fry goes on a quest to discover how and where the original press was created. He also works with master printers and a type founder to re-create a copy of the press and cast some type. I have seen pictures of a matrix used to cast lead type, but have never seen how one works.

You can’t watch it on the BBC website (unless you are in the UK) but it is available in six parts on YouTube: part one, two, three, four, five, six.

I hope to somehow get this all in one place and show it to my students how this whole thing started. Without Gutenberg, I wouldn’t have a job.

All of the public schools in the UAE put images on the walls that surround the grounds. One of the schools down the street recently switched to a boys middle school and have been putting up new pictures. This one caught my eye because it looks like it is an airbrush image that you would find in an orange and red tent at the state fair. Maybe even a prize if you can pop three balloons with the darts. People in the US want Elvis, people in the UAE want Sheik Zayed (right) and Sheik Kalifa (left). Too bad it’s not on black velvet.

When I have access to Flickr I plan to create a photo group that highlights the images from Emirati public school walls.

Here in the UAE there is a custom that many people follow after purchasing a new car. They leave all of the import and pricing stickers on the windows and also all of the plastic on the seats. I have heard different reasons for this, one is to improve the resale value of the car and the other is the status symbol of having just bought a new car. Whatever the reason it is really strange to see brand new Range Rovers, Mercedes and BMWs worth upwards of $90,000 running around town with imports stickers on the windows and plastic on the seats. But the picture above illustrates something I had not seen before today. This person actually had the window film cut to go around the import sticker. Look at this detail image:

It is a bad tint job, but still amazing in that the owner wanted to show that this is a new car AND still black out the windows. Amazing.

What do you notice about the above covers for There Will Be Blood? Look closely at the title for the cover on the right. The blackletter type can make it hard to see. The cover on the right reads “Where Will Be Blood”

Some friends loaned me this “advanced” copy (doesn’t release on Amazon until the 8th of April) of the movie last night and I had to share the cover. Take a look at the text on the back and see if you can make any sense of the copy.

You can see a larger version with more of the great text here. I can’t really give a full review of the movie because the advanced beta copy from China skipped around a bit and I am pretty sure that I missed some important parts. I can say however that the movie, in my opinion, is not too bad. I don’t think it is as great as most people claim, but not too bad. The music was very interesting. Jason Kottke has links to lots more information and reviews.

Madelyn and I (mostly me) were bored the other day and I had a great idea of trying to take pictures of each other while in the air. It took a while to get the pictures, but it was fun trying. I think we will start a tradition of catching each other in the air when ever we visit an interesting place.

I was strolling around the Global Village in January and came across this sign. I was immediately struck by how many of these countries are considered “evil” by the current U.S. administration. And I just walked right in to each “country”. Imagine that. Anything is possible in Dubai after all.

I will be leaving Zayed University, Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates this June to return home to the United States. It has been a good three years here and I have learned a lot about teaching and life in general. I wanted to wait until things were official before I announced to the general public my next destination. The contract has been signed and received so it is with great pleasure that I announce the following: Starting the fall 2008 semester I will be an assistant professor of art at Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, MI. I will be in a tenure track position teaching graphic design courses to the fine (award winning) students in the Art Department of CMU. I am pretty excited about this new opportunity and all of the things I will learn from a new place and new colleagues.

I am also excited about the possibility of seeing SIU play every once in a while. The MAC has competed against the Gateway football conference and the Missouri Valley Conference in the past. It is going to be great. Kristin has some interesting facts about Michigan on her blog.

The girls had a half day of School on Wednesday so we decided to go watch some camel races. It was a good (but hot and dusty) time. On the way out I was struck by the size of the camel market and wanted to take a picture. Inspired by the beautiful panorama photographs of the Great Salt Lake by Michael Slade and the ease of stitching together photos in CS3 I snapped some pics and stitched them together. I think the overall image is not bad. Click here to get a larger version and see some of the details better.

I can admit when I am wrong, and I admit, I was wrong. After reading a very nice comment from Mr. Richard Grefe himself on my previous post, the Adobe® Font Folio® Education Essentials might not be as shady as I had first suspected. As Mr. Grefe states in his comment the AIGA isn’t going to make any money form the deal and there is no small print restricting usage after graduation. And thanks to Mr. Armin Vit at Speak Up, we now have a list of the the font families included in the collection. It is a well rounded collection that will serve students well in school and after graduation.

Only two complaints remain. First, I still find fault with the way Adobe is numbering the fonts. Would it really be so hard to say 25 font families for only $149? That is still just $6 per family and a great deal for the fonts included with the collection. And second, what is the deal with including Rosewood? I guess being able to produce a cowboy retro piece or a Hatch Show Print-esque poster is important. Oh well, nothing is perfect. And to echo the words of Armin, it is a step in the right direction after all.