BREAKING NEWS: Backers of the NZ’s recent citizens-initiated referendum on smacking children have defended the $9 million cost to taxpayers, and have denied accusations that the premise somehow managed to be both nonsensical and loaded at the same time. Spokesman and retired comedian Ted Slap claimed that the referendum needed a “cheerful, upbeat statement from normal, healthy kiwis who love democracy, who want to bring up their kids good and who want to have a bit of fun.”
Hey, the Sunday magazine used this photo I took in Riverton. Full credit of course goes to the signwriter. That drunken hand-drawn stuff makes me think of fonts like Blockhead. The point of the magazine column was mad manglings of language, which are heaps of fun. I also love the exclamation marks, kind of squeaking up there. This is the kind of stuff that gets whitewashed in urban landscapes by banal messages laser cut laminated on plastic and MDF, reeking of gradients and drop shadows. The kind of stuff that wouldn’t comply with civic design guidelines. Historic Places Trust – is this one on your books?
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Fans of urban details of history and design goodness might like to check out a Flickr group I started called Dunedin street-level design & ornament. I warbled on about this idea in a recent talk – I think you can get a good feeling for the design past and present of a place if you look past the big architectural statements and instead go searching for the details.
