Ever wondered what those Hoffler & Frere-Jones dudes looked and sounded like? Well, you’ll get the answer to all that and more by watching this sweet, short typography documentary that’s part of PBS’ Off the Book series. This is a must-watch for typography nerds and the people who love them.
Check out more typography nerdiness over on The Atlantic.
Spotted this over at PSKF this morning. It’s the first part of a BBC documentary exploring the history of design. I’ve only made it 20 minutes in so far (it’s a long ‘un, clocking in at just under an hour), and it has been fascinating.
A short 11-minute documentary about pixel art and early video games. There’s talk about Mario and how he got his bushy mustache (as you know Mario’s a particular Nerdery favorite), and how pixel art is more relatable (where Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics is name-checked).
Holy crap do I want to see this. Sadly, it’s not playing in Minnesota anytime soon but eventually it will have to come out on DVD, right?
The Genius Collection
Who couldn’t use a small pack of geniuses hanging out at their desk to provide inspiration and encouragement? Plus, these are just about the cutest little action figures ever. And if geniuses aren’t your thing, there’s also a Revolutionaries, Scientists, and Artists. Oh, and a writers collection sure to please nerdy bloggers everywhere.
You Rock Letterpress Cards
I can tell you from experience that these cards do, in fact, rock. This awesome design comes on beautiful, heavy card stock. The best thing about these cards is that they’re all occasion — thank you, happy birthday, Valentine’s day — is there any event where this sentiment isn’t appropriate? No, no there isn’t.
A Beautiful Tea Pot
I am resisting the urge to make a ‘cup of tea’ joke here. It’s difficult. What I don’t have to resist is talking about how beautiful this tea pot is. Look at it! It elevates making tea to an art form. Pretty rad for the tea-fanatic in your life.
These are cool, and not just because I have a Superman thing or because I spent all weekend reading Identity Crisis. Sometimes after a hard day fighting crime or making the Internet safe for surfers even the superest of heroes might like to knock back a shot of tequila. [Buy at Etsy]
Ampersand T-Shirt
Ampersands seem to appeal to both font nerds and designers (and well, let’s face it, all people with impeccable taste), so much so there is an entire blog dedicated to this special character. Here I show you the Baskerville tee (because it looks most like the Caslon one I’ve got tattooed on my arm), but they’ve got 10 different fonts to choose from.
Robot Pint Glasses
Last week while out to lunch with my friend Seamus I boldly proclaimed that robots are cooler than pirates, ninjas, cowboys, and zombies. These glasses just prove my point. It doesn’t matter if you’re drinking chocolate milk, a nice lager, or Tang, you’ll look infinitely cooler when you’re sipping out of a glass with a robot on it. Trust me, I wouldn’t steer you wrong.
The Future is Unwritten, a Joe Strummer Documentary
This one kind of breaks the “no batteries required” theme I had going. I blame it on my cubemate, who I call Trip Shakespeare. Trip’s a musicgeek and when I was looking for a music-geeky gift, this Joe Strummer documentary was the first thing that came out of his mouth. It’s a safe bet for the musicgeek in your life.
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
This is the gift suggestion that gives me the most trepidation. It’s a gamble putting a novel on a list like this, but I’m going for it. Why? Because not only was The Gargoyle one of the best books I read all year, it’s also the one which will have to broadest appeal. This tale of a former-pornstar who is severely burned in a car wreck who, while recovering, meets a bi-polar sculptress who claims to have been his wife, a former nun, back in like the 1300s. And that’s just the part that’s easy to summarize. Part fantasy, part romance, and all the way awesome, this genre-bending book will please everyone from snooty lit snobs to hardcore genre-loving-geeks. I promise.
Need more ideas? Try these:
The Zeus Jones Holiday Gift Guide
Mighty Goods’ 16 Perfect Gifts for Geeks
The Pioneer Press’ Tech stuff to tuck under the tree
Vitamin’s 10 Web Geek Gift Ideas
