British Hat Guild

     

"Sky and Water I" by M.C. Escher

     So Twitter is dead, apparently, and we're all going over to Threads, the Twitter knockoff that Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Wednesday.

     I'm no early adopter — I waited until Thursday to wander over and sign up, which was easy, because if you have an Instagram account, which I do — @neilisteinberg — then that migrates over. Though frankly, at first blush, Threads seems just a twist on Instagram. I sent a post — some pretty purple rooster beebalms my wife and I saw at the Botanic Garden. Those got 12 likes. And so we begin.

    Although I suspect that, as with Mark Twain, news of Twitter's death is premature.
     We've been through this drill before. Last spring, when it seemed Elon Musk was going to pull Twitter down with him in some kind of egomaniacal, "Top of the world, ma!" self-immolation, I followed the herd over to Mastodon, which was to Twitter what semaphore flags are to an iPhone. I sent, and scrolled, but the thing never came close to being a place where people are trading interesting bits of information. 

     Elon's efforts notwithstanding, Twitter is still a useful tool. My column on Friday, if you noticed, began with seeing an arresting notice sent by Manischewitz that Molly Jong-fast tweeted.  Instagram is addictive — lots of car crashes, carpentry and ladies dancing — but not useful. Twitter is annoying, but has practical value.

     Back on Twitter, the lovely graphic above from the British Hat Guild came my way. You have to admire the negative space — the way the hat and stand form the space above and below the bar in the "H."

    You know negative space — the stuff around the objects in artworks. Critics have compared it to the silences in music. You use it to enhance the overall effect. M.C. Escher was a master at this.          

     I expected the British Hat Guild to have been founded in 1768, and was surprised to find it was created in 2019 "as a way of exchanging ideas and promoting our unique heritage." You can find out more on their website.

    Coincidentally, the Economist reported last week that hats are back, thanks to Indiana Jones' fedora. Hats are never back. But it's a nice thought.

    I can't let the topic of negative space in logos go without mentioning the most famous example — though I hope a reader or two will learn about it here — which is the arrow in the FedEx logo. I think I looked at the logo for a number of years without seeing it — not until someone pointed it out. But once you see it, it's always there.

If you need help, it's between the E and the x.

     Designed in 1994 by Lindon Leader of Landor Associates, of San Francisco, it is what is known as a "Wordmark," a trademark, a purely typographic trademark — in this case, FedEx designed its own proprietary font. Lindon played with the x height to make the arrow pop.

     In a sense, my whole career has been about exploring negative space. Not in the sense of complaining, though there certainly has been enough of that. I mean, the stuff around the objects of interest. I like to direct my gaze away from the main point. Why? Partly from a passion for the obscure, partly from just wanting to focus on something different than what is supposed to draw your attention. To not follow the herd, which might be why I've never taken to social media. I always seem to like the sides more than the main dish. Take these two columns about the Chicago Symphony Orchestra: one about a conductor, and one about a piano tuner. You needn't ask which I like better.

Notice the spoon in the pen's nib.