With an epidemic of charitably patchy face-fuzz sweeping the country, a group of designers and copywriters have gotten in on the Movember action by offering Hairy Lipsum – a placeholder sure to bring that little bit more manliness to your mockups.

It would, of course, be remiss not to mention my own efforts for the cause – all donations welcome!

ROOTING through the CMYK drawers the other day we found two sheets of A4 featuring some rather shaky handwriting that caught our eye. It was a questionnaire filled in for Caledonia magazine by the maverick poet, singer and harmonium player Ivor Cutler.

The ailing genius’s answers, posted to his native Scotland from his adopted home in north London, never made it into print because Caledonia, a glossy consumer magazine that we had much fun producing for five years, folded shortly afterwards. Two and a half years later, on 3 March 2006, Cutler himself passed away aged 83. But now that his characteristically whimsical responses to the magazine’s standard questions have been rediscovered, it seems only right to share them.

What do you wish you’d done differently?

Nothing. My unconscious does all that stuff. It seems to have done a decent job.
A bit slow, perhaps.

What do you wish had never been invented?

The worship of money. What a daft way to pass your life.

Do you have a role model?

That’s like saying “Do you believe there’s a god?”

Have you made a difference?

People come up to me in the street and kiss me (fem.) or shake my hand (male)
but I don’t let the men as my hand hurts.

On the whole, are things getting better or worse?

Both.

What’s the biggest thing you’ve changed your mind about?

See number one.

What was your best ever meal?

I can’t remember.

Describe your ideal weekend.

I haven’t done it yet. It’s the same as the other five days.

Matt had the ink and paintbrushes out this morning for a spot of custom lettering. Whether any of it will make it to print is yet to be seen but I thought I’d share a teeny snippet.

Always nice to get away from the Mac and draw something when you can.

“Linotype: The Film” Official Trailer from Linotype: The Film on Vimeo.

John Boardley is a designer with a passion for typography – so much so, in fact, that he’s making a film about one particular iconic piece of typesetting equipment: the Linotype.

The trailer looks interesting and we’d love to see how this spins out to a full-length programme.

New copies of Scotland Outdoors magazine have just landed and we’re delighted by how this issue has turned out and love the cover image kindly supplied by Woodland Trust Scotland.

If you’re a UK-based fan of the Scottish outdoors – and particularly if you have kids - we strongly recommend you pick up a copy at your nearest stockist.