Roman Mars

99% Invisible: The brief and tumultuous life of the new UC logo

Roman Mars — Tue, 07 May 2013 00:19:54 +0000

If you’re not from California, or missed this bit of news, the University of California has a new logo – or, rather, had a new logo. To be more precise they had a new “visual identity system,” which is the kind of entirely accurate but completely wonky description that gets met with sarcastic eye rolls from anyone who isn’t a designer, but there it is. But they don’t have a new logo anymore. Because of a massive public backlash, the UC system actually suspended the monogram while we were reporting this story.

99% Invisible: In and Out of LOVE Park

Matt Martin — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:08:29 +0000

Though its official name is JFK Plaza, the open space near Philadelphia’s City Hall is more commonly known as LOVE Park, after the Robert Indiana sculpture installed there. Designed by Edmund Bacon and Vincent Kling, the park was fashioned in high modernism: sleek, granite benches; geometric raised planter beds, and long expanses of pavement. Its success as a pedestrian plaza is debatable.

99% Invisible: In and Out of LOVE Park

Matt Martin — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:08:27 +0000

99% Invisible: In and Out of LOVE Park

Matt Martin — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 15:08:24 +0000

99% Invisible: The most densely populated place on record

Roman Mars — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 01:40:40 +0000

In 1898, China granted a 99-year lease to Great Britain for the areas across the harbor in the British controlled island of Hong Kong. But smack in the middle of that territory, known as Kowloon, was an enclave that wasn't included in the lease. A place that would, at least officially, still be controlled by the Chinese. It was a large fort, built decades earlier to put a check on British expansion. But it evolved into something very, very different.