Love & Work
A notebook about how we work, learn, love and live.

"...even if more Americans acknowledge that racial inequality exists, agreeing on solutions to meaningfully redress it may be more difficult," the researchers write. (Credit: Wikipedia)

"According to Fang and White, they 'find compelling evidence that such arguments can increase beliefs in the existence of Black-white racial inequality and increase beliefs in structural causes of racial inequality, particularly among white Republicans and Independents.' They also find evidence that such information can reduce racial resentment among these groups.

"The researchers say this demonstrates that exposure to historical information can induce more nuanced thinking about contemporary racial inequalities in the United States." - Ellen James

Article: Can History Change Minds About Inequality?


Community, Libraries
“A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never-failing spring in the desert.” - Andrew Carnegie

Bodleian Café in the Weston Library, Oxford, U.K. Photo by Julie anne Johnson, via CC

"Covid accelerated an existing trend: America was in the throes of a crisis of loneliness well before the pandemic struck. Today nearly 40 million Americans live alone, representing almost 30% of all US households — up from 9% in 1950. The rise of remote work, the shift away from cities to more far-flung exurbs, and many other trends have combined to worsen America’s loneliness epidemic. The effects are visible in everything from the rise in substance abuse and mental health challenges to the surge in crime and disorder in cities across the country.

"To recover from this epidemic of isolation, America needs to reknit its frayed social fabric. Many institutions can play a role in this 'Great Reknitting,' from schools and churches to businesses and voluntary associations. But there’s one institution that has long bolstered communities in an open and democratic way: America’s libraries." - Richard Florida and Brooks Rainwater

Article: Libraries Can Unite a Lonely, Divided Nation


Graphic Design, Social Messaging
“Posters are art in service to movement.”


UPSIDE DOWN, Digital, Kelly Holohan, Elkins Park, PA, USA, holohandesign.com

"I can say—having helped organize some of the biggest climate demonstrations in world history, and having gone to jail and sent others there, and having campaigned on every continent and in most nations—that art is at this point as necessary as science in the battle for the future. The poster is likely to be the place where art meets organizing, where it lends its hand most powerfully." - Bill McKibben

Article: Where Art Meets Organizing: Bill McKibben on the Power of Climate Crisis Posters


Learning, Research, Linguistics 
Cognitive science needs to broaden the linguistic diversity represented in its participants and researchers.

"The cognitive sciences have been dominated by English-speaking researchers studying other English speakers. We review studies examining language and cognition, contrasting English to other languages, by focusing on differences in modality, form-meaning mappings, vocabulary, morphosyntax, and usage rules.

"Critically, the language one speaks or signs can have downstream effects on ostensibly nonlinguistic cognitive domains, ranging from memory, to social cognition, perception, decision-making, and more. The over-reliance on English in the cognitive sciences has led to an underestimation of the centrality of language to cognition at large." - Damián E. Blasi, Joseph Henrich, Evangelia Adamou, David Kemmerer, and Asifa Majid

Abstract: Over-Reliance on English Hinders Cognitive Science.


Visual Identity, Typography
A type family that allows users to "flex in style while creating cohesion"



In a new positioning and visual identity program, RISD is calling themselves "A creative project that started in 1877". While they've updated their classic seal, the star of this visual ID program is an original family of typefaces. The whole effort is in support of a new guiding idea to “question to create, create to question”.

The creators say they wanted to make a type family that would “flex in style while creating cohesion". So they created a type system in two parts: RISD Serif, a headline typeface, and the very utilitarian RISD Sans, serving "as the system’s straightforward neutral backbone". 

What gives the system its ability to flex in style is the fact that Serif is available in a whole range of "doneness", ranging from “complete” to “incomplete”. The word Sale in the retail setting above, for example, uses RISD Serif Semi-Complete, the same face that they are using right now for the bulk of their heavy lifting, including primary wordmark. But usage is not limited to this version of the face. From their ID Guide:

"Wordmark: Typeset in RISD custom fonts is always allowed
RISD Sans should be all caps, RISD Serif should be upper and lowercase."

That's it. The rest is up to the designer. Hat's-off to RISD and teams. Thanks for stretching how we use type to tell a rich story. 

Article: A New RISD Rebrand Places a Family of Custom Typefaces and a Redrawn Seal at its Centre



One-Liners

Article: Kellogg's and Tesco testing recyclable, paper-based liner

Article: Businesses call for nature impact disclosures to be mandatory by 2030

Article: Y’all: the most inclusive of all pronouns

Article: How public radio’s structure, growing resources are giving local journalism a boost


Playlist

This week Ted Gioia published a terrific essay that summarizes nine things that he learned reading Carolyn Glenn Brewer’s Beneath Missouri Skies: Pat Metheny in Kansas City 1964-1972—which focuses entirely on the famous guitarist between the ages of 10 and 18. He says that "we can learn from these stories even if we aren’t destined for superstar music careers. But we also see how much even the greatest talents require support and nurturing, as well as personal habits of discipline and hard work. We discover, too, how many obstacles even artists of exceptional potential face—and must overcome—during their formative years".

All nine lessons are worth reading, but I want to hold up one, because it honors another monster jazz guitarist, Wes Montgomery.

"(5) Pat picked a good role model. At age 13, Metheny got a chance to see his hero Wes Montgomery perform live—just 7 weeks before the guitarist’s death. He and his brother returned from the concert dazzled by the music, and with an autograph from Montgomery himself. Pat’s mother had it varnished and hung on the wall. Even today, so many decades later, you can hear how deeply Metheny internalized Wes’s holistic approach to phrasing, and like his role model avoids empty histrionics and showboating (rare austerity for any instrumentalist but perhaps especially guitarists). Metheny, for his part, still cites Montgomery’s Smokin' at the Half Note as 'the gold standard of what is possible to achieve in music".' - Ted Gioia

Recorded live in 1965, this album is still "the gold standard of what is possible to achieve in music".


Album: Wynton Kelly Trio, Wes Montgomery, Smokin' at the Half Note

Article: 9 Facts About Guitarist Pat Metheny as a Youngster

Image of the Week

A clay sculpture/vase by Carol Long

"Carol Long, a Kansas-based artist, creates colorful clay sculptures by drawing influence from plant and animal life."

Article: 20 Beautiful Clay Sculptures Created By Carol Long


What's Love & Work?
Love & Work is the weekly newsletter by me, Mitch Anthony. I help people use their brand - their purpose, values, and stories - as a pedagogy and toolbox for transformation.