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The tools we design with have a unique effect on the way we work, constraining and empowering us while we explore, examine and create. Variable fonts give us a new, wide open typographic space with which to work. Instead of prescribing value to individual UI elements in a vacuum, we should take a hybrid and calculated approach to variable font interfaces . How do we structure our design tools to adapt to the new advantages variable fonts provide us with? Article Continues Below 3 comments Despite being ahead of their time, variable font precursors—Multiple Master and GX—didn’t see widespread adoption for several reasons—one key reason being the lack of effective user interfaces that could communicate their creative utility to designers. Since their introduction, variable fonts have moved forward quickly , landing with various degrees of experimental support across major browsers. With this comes the exciting ability for fonts to responsively adapt to different layouts and contex...

There comes a time for most San Diego couples when they get sick of renting and, for the Whites, it came around the 40th birthday mark . Shawna White, 40, spent countless hours researching a place she and her husband Nathan, 39, could afford that wouldn’t break the bank. In addition to getting away from the region’s explosive rent hikes , they saw a home as an investment. Eventually, the Navy couple landed in Otay Ranch on the eastern fringes of the county near the border with Mexico. They bought a new 1,504-square-foot townhouse for $378,000, around $200,000 less than what something similar would have cost them closer to downtown. “We were able to buy something new instead of an older home with issues,” she said. “This was a good buy.” More and more new homeowners are being drawn to Otay Ranch, the largest residential development in San Diego County history at 25,000 acres. After being hit hard in the housing crisis , it has reemerged as a viable option for homeownership in a cou...

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - Officials at Harris County Emergency Management are watching the radar and monitoring updates on Harvey as they come in from the National Weather Service . Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said they're expecting flooding in the area. The county is expecting a major rain event , meaning we'll likely see steady rain that hangs around. Emmett said Harvey is expected to sit on our area until Monday, which means flooding is likely. Officials anticipate 12-15 inches of rain in Harris County. Emmett said the weather we've had of late proves helpful as we gear up for Harvey. "There's good news in that we haven't had any rain in a while, so the reservoirs are empty. The watersheds are all in good shape, but if we get that amount of rain, over a very sustained period of time, then we're on the Gulf Coast and people are going to experience flooding," Emmett said. The Harris County Flood Control District said crews are working to make sure...

It’s been only two months since the Portland Housing Authority opened Bayside Anchor , its first new housing development in decades. But already, the low- income housing provider is poised to file plans for two additional projects , totaling more than 155 units of housing at a time when a dearth of affordable housing in Maine’s largest city is reaching crisis levels . “This is the continuation of our effort to be a part of the solution to the affordable housing crisis in Portland,” said Jay Waterman, the housing authority ’s development director. The authority is looking to build a 55- unit apartment building at 58 Boyd St. in the city’s East Bayside neighborhood . The site is practically across the street from Bayside Anchor , a highly energy- efficient PHA apartment building at 81 Oxford St. with 45 units that opened in June. A public meeting about the East Bayside proposal has been scheduled for Monday, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., at 47 Smith St. Meanwhile, about 2 miles away, t...

In the summer of 1995, Doug Robb and his friends snuck into Agoura High School in the middle of the night. Dressed in all black, they found the set of portable stages their alma mater used for its commencement ceremonies and wheeled them through a dirt track and onto the beds of pickup trucks they’d borrowed for the occasion. The next day, they set up the foldout stages in Robb’s parents’ backyard to play their first show as Hoobastank, a metal- influenced band they’d formed about six months prior. Robb eventually returned the stages to the school, but not before using them during a massive rager that attracted teens and 20-somethings from all over the area. Among them were the then-unknown members of Incubus and Linkin Park—bands that, along with Hoobastank, would go on to produce some of the biggest hits of the next century. What could’ve easily been just another house party thrown by bored kids in a wealthy LA suburb turned out to be the beginning of a rock-music scene that was...