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It is December so lets get festive

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I haven't drawn anything for about *checks notes* 14 months, but I was feeling inspired to draw Jonas with a bunch of sunflowers today I guess.

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‪happy christmas to my favourite story of all time‬

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just learned about the ginkgo trees that survived the nuclear blast in Hiroshima

you cannot kill me in a way that matters

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well well well well well. well.

also a b+w version cuz i like the lineart by itself

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Are u kidding me 😭

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The holy grail of searching through academic literature is coming across a string of publications that are like:

Here’s An Idea. Smith et al. 2016

Terrible Idea; a comment on Smith et al. 2016. Johnson 2016.

You’re Wrong Too; a response to Johnson 2016. Nelson 2016.

Guys Just Stop Fighting, None Of Us Know What’s Going On; a Review of the Current Literature. McBrien 2017.

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Someone PLEASE tell the Witch-King of Angmar that this little hobbit genuinely thinks it’s anyone’s guess whether or not he’s literate. PLEASE.

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guy who doesnt realize hes commanding a small army and thinks a lot of people are just going along with his bit

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Over 10 years ago I drew this mother naga with her kid and a bowl of gulab jamun, and I was blown away to see people still reblogging it and saying kind things here. I decided to draw a sequel, the PTA (People That are Anacondas) meeting is over, and she finally gets to have some gulab jamun. c: I really hope this cheers you up some.

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As we're entering new kit season, I want to present my theory of kit design. Obviously this just my opinion, but I want to also offer some more tools to analyze kit designs. Also nothing is specific to me, but this combination of factors is how I think about it. There are three main considerations: 1) font/type 2) colors 3) composition. Be warned that this post is way too fucking long, I just wanted to get all my thoughts out somewhere.

1) The words on the kit and what fonts are used are predetermined by the sponsors. Sometimes you get lucky have a sponsor with a great logo, like Jumbo. Their logo gave the team a retro feeling that resonates well with the history cycling. Their logo also complimented Visma's well; they're both sans-serif, but Jumbo's has extreme differences in stress (the thickness of lines), while Visma's has only one stress. Jumbo's is wide, while Visma's is narrow. They work together well because they're so contrasting and are well-made individually.

Sometimes you’re unlucky and you get the absolute monstrosity that is the UAE wordmark.

God, each font on their own is disgusting, and they're even worse together. If you look carefully, you can see that UAE and TEAM are actually different fonts; the E in UAE has slanted stroke endings, while the E in TEAM has 90° endings. the A in UAE also has a higher crossbar (the line in the middle of the A) than the one in TEAM. They're too close to each other as sans-serif fonts for these differences to work together well. At least the jerseys just use UAE, but it's so bland. I particularly dislike how square the bottom of the U is. And then there's Emirates... I already dislike flared serif fonts, so there's that. The bottom of the letters are swooped, I guess to make you think of movement and flight since it's an airline? I think it's too subtle to work, and it looks even worse on bodies because the stretch of the fabric makes the swoop incomprehensible.

Generally, I think chunkier fonts work better with jerseys because they work better at larger scales and can match the contrast of blocky compositions that are popular for jerseys. So if your sponsor's font is mid-weight or light, you're probably fucked. If that's the situation, you should try to make your logo smaller, instead of trying to compensate by making it larger. That's one of the reasons I hate the new Cofidis jersey; the size of the logo just emphasizes how light the font is, and it can't hold up against the bold and simple composition.

2) The ideal jersey has 3-4 colors: a main color, a secondary color, and 1-2 accent colors. The ratios should be around 70% for the main color, 23% for the secondary color, and 7% for the accent color(s). The secondary and accent color(s) especially should appear more than once so they don't seem random. Another area where Cofidis fucked up: the ratio between the yellow and maroon aren't distinct enough, so they're unbalanced. The thesis of this whole post is basically about creating clear visual hierarchies. The 2016 Sky jersey is a very simple example of principal, even though the ratios are a little different: black is the main color, white is the secondary color, and light blue is the accent. Both the white and light blue appear twice. I think the blue on the helmet ruins the balance, though, it might've been better as white.

Lidl-Trek also consistently does a great job of balance with what's a very tricky color palette to work with, the primary colors.

Other factors to consider with color include temperature and saturation. Still working this out, but generally, I think kits should avoid mixing colors that are very warm and very cool. Again why I don't like the Cofidis kit: the yellow is incredibly warm, the bright red is more neutral/maybe slightly cool, and the maroon is noticeably cool. Most jerseys use colors with a similar saturation so this isn't usually a problem, but using weaker colors with stronger colors would also be an issue.

3) In terms of composition, there should be three levels of detail in a kit. At the least detailed, biggest level, there should be a recognizable and catchy arrangement of shapes. The middle level is usually the logos. There should also be a smaller level of detail that adds depth to the composition. This third level is optional (for example, the Sky jerseys were great and often omitted this level), but it can really elevate an already-good design. With one of my favorite jerseys, the 2023 Jumbo-Visma one, the extra little gradient lines around the black border gives dimension to what could've been a too-plain composition.

These levels need to operate harmoniously, adding to each other and not getting in each other's way. This is where the Visma 2024 TDF jersey failed. They didn't have the first big level of detail, just the middle and small levels. There also wasn't enough distinction between those two levels, so the logo didn't stand out enough against the intricate pattern. It's also why I don't like the Decathlon-AG2R jersey, it's just a bunch of nothing.

I think one reason the Jayco jersey was so popular is because they successfully had all three levels: two big blocks of color, the sponsors, and the fainter pattern. Unfortunately i think the colors and pattern were ugly :/ but they did have all three levels!

I also think jersey design should be thought of as fashion that go on actual bodies more than just another flat surface for advertising, which is what a lot the failed designs look like to me. The Cofidis jersey, for example, makes the riders' torsos look way too long with the nipple-height composition and makes their shoulders look narrow. The Jayco jersey works slightly better because the top color extends to the sleeves, making the shoulders look broader. Even though I praised the 2016 Sky jersey earlier, I think it works better as a flat jersey than in practice, because when raised, the light blue stripe on the arm looks weird.

In the opposite direction, the stripes you often see on the side of jerseys makes the riders look skinner and gives them more of a V-shaped torso. (Fun fact, there was a copyright case in the US about this issue with cheerleading uniforms, which is why I know this). Who knows if it's intentional with cycling or not. But you can see how the black stripes make it seem like Jonas has a smaller waist, while Sepp doesn't get that effect from the red jersey. It's an interestingly common design technique for a dominantly male sport that would usually shun using clothing to enhance their physical appearance.

Coda: I need to do more research because clothing design isn't my area of expertise, but fabric also plays a big part in what designs do or don't work. Retro jerseys made out of wool look great with really simple designs (it was also just harder to make more complex designs), maybe because of the added effect of the wool texture and because it's not so body-forming. I think that lycra jerseys benefit more from more complex, detailed designs because the surface is so smooth. That's why imo the EF Flanders jersey should've been cool but just didn't work: the simplicity that looks so good on retro jerseys isn't enough for lycra. Also wow those gray lines are ugly, I thought they were wrinkles back in the spring.

anyways we're really out here huh but at least I can stop obsessing about this for today

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it’s official

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Peloton Text Posts (4/?)

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Reading sports headlines while pretending sports doesn't exist suggests a fascinating world of magic and whimsy.