A very wobbly font
This summer, I visited Oslo for the first time - including dropping in at the Oslo Cathedral. There in the choir loft is a series of stained glass windows, with some incredible hand-lettered text.
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It was blobby, wobbly, and perfectly suited for its task - letting in as much light as possible, while still being readable. It had such a unique character - I photographed a bunch of reference images.
Introducing Oslo
In fact - I loved it so much, I made a real working font out of it.
Thus: OSLO is a wild display font, based on the stained-glass windows in Oslo Cathedral. It’s got a wobbly, hand-drawn feel, as suited to its original context. It looks great jammed up together with text, and in high-contrast situations.
The original letterforms were designed and painted by the Norwegian artist Emanuel Vigeland, who created the entire stained glass windows in the cathedral choir area. (His brother Gustav was a prolific sculptor, too!)
OSLO is a single-case display typeface. It has only uppercase letters, numbers, and most (but not all) punctuation and symbols. It’s got a handful of accented characters as well! It’s definitely not your choice for big sections of body text, but it’s a bold choice for fun display situations.
And you can get it, too. I put it up here with more examples, and you can buy yourself a copy (for cheap!) if you ever need a very wobbly, but weirdly modern display font.
The year, unboxed
This year I made a little minisite celebrating the work we did at Brand New Box this year! Like the new year’s cards and badges, I kept with the composition book theme. I’ll probably write more process stuff on the main BNB blog. But until then: 2024 Unboxed!
Seven Nation Army should be our national anthem.
Seven Nation Army should be the national anthem for the United States of America.
That’s it. That’s the pitch.
Look. We know we need a new national anthem. The Star-Spangled Banner served its purpose, but we can do better. Let’s talk it through.
On retiring TSSB
First, it’s a bummer of a song. It commemorates getting pummeled by our enemy (the Brits) in a war that nobody remembers (_ of 1812). The song was first a poem (embarrassing) and then set to music by borrowing another tune (from the British).
The song wasn’t even adopted as the National Anthem until 1931, which means it was over a hundred years old before we finally assigned it this role. And it’s been in this role for less than century. For a nation that’s founded on the idea of new beginnings and renewal - that doesn’t sit right.
And we barely know what it means. Of the four stanzas of the poem, we only sing one in the anthem. That’s enough - with its tortuous sentence structure, its archaic terms (ramparts?), and weird hanging questions (does it yet wave?) - nobody wants to sing the second, third, or fourth stanzas.
AND It’s famously hard to sing! At the beginning of every ballgame, there’s a tense pause of awkwardness while we discover if the featured singer can even pull off TSSB. Most of the time, they can’t, or struggle through it, and the crowd winces appreciatively as the singer struggles with the huge tonal range. High parts, low parts, it’s a mess.
We certainly don’t sing along.
Seven Nation Arm does not have these problems.
I'm gonna fight 'em off.
A seven nation army couldn't hold me back.
We LOVE singing along to this one. It’s perfect.
You know the tune. Every high school band in the country knows the tune and they’re just itching to play it: DUM. DUH-DUH DUM DUM DUM. DUM. Drums. Brass. We LOVE this. It’s BIG. It’s BRASH. It’s LOUD. It’s a TAUNT. It’s aggressive, it’s warlike, it’s got SWAGGER. It’s good on any instrument.
It’s EASY to sing. We can’t stop singing it. We shout the tune in groups, in stadiums, at clubs. Plus It’s ABOUT independence and self-reliance. It’s a paean to self-determination. It’s outward-facing, and it dares anyone else to get in our way.
And the message comin' from my eyes
Says, "Leave it alone"
Seven Nation Army is more American than apple pie. Written by people from DETROIT, for crying out loud, in a ROCK song. It’s a shining example of an artform created and perfected by bold, naive, passionate young people - the story of the United States writ large.
And it’s ABOUT Independence - US style. Our Founding Fathers were young men! They boldly declaring their independence! Seven Nation Army captures this exactly: willfully independent, us-against-the-world, and fuck-you if you disagree. Imagine the podium moments at the Olympics if THAT was the song we played!
Everyone knows about it
From the Queen of England to the Hounds of Hell
And if this isn’t the American story, what is? Go west, make a new home, work hard, and do it yourself.
And the feelin' comin' from my bones
Says, "Find a home"
I'm goin' to Wichita
Far from this opera forevermore
I'm gonna work the straw
Make the sweat drip out of every pore
And I'm bleedin', and I'm bleedin', and I'm bleedin'
Right before the Lord
All the words are gonna bleed from me
And I will think no more
Think no more, my fellow Americans. We have the perfect Anthem for us. Maybe you disagree?
And that ain’t what you want to hear
But that’s what I’ll do
DUM. DUH-DUH DUM DUM DUM. DUM.
DUM. DUH-DUH DUM DUM DUM. DUM.
Little Free Quarry
So far I’m a little disappointed with the lack of engagement at my Little Free Quarry.
International_Pancakes
Look, I love pancakes. Everybody does! In fact, I believe that every culinary culture has some kind of pancake.
But here’s the deal. There’s a restaurant over by the highway that claims to serve “International” pancakes, but they are lying. All they offer is ‘Belgian’ waffles or ‘French’ toast.
Where are the delicious okonomiyaki from Japan? The aebleskiver from Denmark? Egg hoppers from Indonesia? I want to try ALL the pancakes.
So we’re collecting them here: InternationalPancakes.com.
My favorite part is the entirely arbitrary categorization. Is Pannenkoek savory or sweet? Where does a ‘flat’ pancake end and a crepe begin? If you shape a pancake in a shaped round pan (like the aforesaid hoppers) does that make them… a waffle?
You can sort and filter by these arbitrary categories:
And we’re just getting started here. If your favorite cultural pancake isn’t on the list - let me know!