Studies of Matthew T. Marco

My five-point theory about the Apple iPhone.

Matthew T. Marco — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 00:38:11 +0000

1. Apple’s default Mac OS X typeface is Lucida. The company’s marketing typeface is a custom Myriad family.

2. The Apple iPhone’s default software typeface is Helvetica.

3. The Apple iPhone is pretty much unslayable. It won’t matter what other touchscreen-based mobile network interfaces are developed and how much more feature-rich they are and on what networks they run, the iPhone will still be more desirable. I do not proffer an image of one because you, my reader, should know how it looks. It is one of the rare instances of a first-mover dominating a market space, and it’s a first-mover in a hardware interface, no less.

4. Why does the Eames Lounge Chair hold its resale value so well compared to practically every other lounge chair in existence? Of all the thousands designed, there are numerous more comfortable, more visually daring, more exotic in their use of materials. Despite this, the Eames still commands a premium.

5. The choice of Helvetica as the iPhone’s software typeface was a strategy to position the device not merely as the next step in a technological progression — the Motorola RAZR and StarTAC phones were groundbreaking but their cultural value was only set within the context of other mobile phones — but as the next milestone of the modernist tradition.

And in case you were wondering, yes, this has been a long week.

Chop’t/house.

Matthew T. Marco — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 01:38:51 +0000

Over lunch with JP at Chop't, my eyes wandered about the wall art — an artichoke dug into the Capitol dome, a corn cob in place of a train in a Metro station, and this, a bunch of asparagus on the back of a Nissan Pathfinder parked in front of my apartment.

No bird is an island.

Matthew T. Marco — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 01:26:33 +0000

As I poked the lens of my camera through the chain-link fence, an anomalous thunderclap persisted. I swung my camera left, focused to infinity.

I’d never shown it to you.

Matthew T. Marco — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 05:06:25 +0000

Though I completed this chapter of my pop music autobiography in late September, a few weeks into my first semester at Georgetown, only now in the more apparent denouement of my existential crisis do I feel compelled to write its intentions, framed in the context of two gifts I received in November.

A quick case study on the dynamics of status messages in Google Talk.

Matthew T. Marco — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 01:05:01 +0000

Argument: "Everything tastes better on a stick."
Counterpoint: "No, everything tastes better wrapped up burrito style."
Countercounterpoint: "No, everything tastes better mini, regardless of impaled or wrapped."
Countercountercounterpoint: "No, everything tastes better with bacon, butter, or maple syrup."

Four information architects walk into a Chinese restaurant.

Matthew T. Marco — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:25:23 +0000

Last Thursday night, over dinner at Eat First with Lou, Mike Lee, and Aaron Watkins, as the conversation meandered from information architecture, young designers, microcelebrity, Movable Type, the Ted Kennedy question, the information networks of museum collections, and raising five-year-olds, a billboard on the back of a truck rolled past the restaurant window on rain-drenched H Street. Dozens of bullet holes were painted on it, and printed in all-caps Impact were the words "FREE RANGE TIME."

Nine thoughts for November: from a frayed edge.

Matthew T. Marco — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 09:40:11 +0000

When reflecting on what I wanted to say about the end of last month, I read the first in this series, written in 2003. It started: It's that time again—when I stay awake for 98, 73, 61, 55, and so on hours on end, barely snatching sleep in car rides provided on someone else's dime as they're worried I'm too far beyond needing sleep to safely maneuver a motor vehicle on my own … .

Ursa major.

Matthew T. Marco — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:30:01 +0000

Some families set their dramas on the stage of a castle, a city apartment, a suburban bungalow. Mine was wed to the four wheels of a 1990 Toyota truck.

That’s just the way it is; things will never be the same.

Matthew T. Marco — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:23:31 +0000

This is required viewing for anybody who confuses sporting a lapel pin for true patriotism. I question and doubt my government because I want it to be better, because its impact on the world is undeniable. All those baseball games where people stood respectfully and listened to a celebrity of dubious talent sing the national anthem were just practice for this moment. Eddie Izzard said about the American national anthem: "70% of what people react to is the look, you know, it's how you look; and 20% is about how you sound; and only 10% is what you say." But that crowd on St. Mark's Place knew and believed 100% of what they were saying. The awkward pause before 'banner,' where the crowd collectively catches its breath to belt out the last three words of that phrase, gives me chills.

You complete us.

Matthew T. Marco — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:26:09 +0000

After the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004, I became acutely aware of how voter fraud and suppression are perpetrated and how the simple process of tallying a majority can get so damn complicated. I don't doubt that it happened again yesterday, that there were places where voters were intimidated, places where good citizens were confused for felons, places where the vote just didn't work. And I don't doubt that it will happen again. I fear this is just an inherent assumption of the millennial voter.