Someone went into Google Earth and put together an alphabet from landscape features...very inventive! The designer is Rhett Dashwood. 

Awwwwww.....so cuuuuuute

Ridiculousdesignrules.com is a funny website to look at. It challenges the idea that we need to have rigid rules to make good design. This cat is a great example of typography as art and message. The designer does some other interesting things with type. Nice website...

Font

This is a font created by Craig Ward whose poster I describe in the previous post. 

About this typeface he designed, he says:

My final Fontlab Photofont (so far) was Bodinky and was inspired by some classic fashion illustrations I found in Vogue. I traced over the typeface Bodoni with a fountain pen and dripped water onto the letters, creating splashes of ink and color where the ink ran. This was a poster I created using the typeface.

Self-explanatory!

I'm having trouble coming up with a lot to say about these examples of typography in use. This poster seems self-explanatory. I guess that might be a good criterion in terms of what good typography does. No one needs to explain it!! Its so great how the designer demonstrated the statement about good typography with his treatment of it. Designed by Craig Ward for Buck's New University in England.

Here's what he said about the design:

Before a series of typography workshops I was to conduct for second-year design students at Buckinghamshire Chilterns University, I created this poster to drum up student interest. It was created using 3D wooden letters and photographed using a combination of natural and studio light. The rest of the type was overlaid afterwards, digitally.

Kinda Gross but Cool Typographic Treatment!!

From what I can gather this poster was done by a student in a typography class. I just think it's very funny and unexpected even though I don't feel this way about typography.

Israeli Posters

I really like the way this designer created the letter G to send the message, I presume, about Russian oppression of Jewish people. This poster is part of a collection owned by a graphic designer. You can see more posters here. Unfortunately, there isn't any history about the poster on his website so I can't offer much more information.

I Am Not an Artist

I just got my most recent issue of Eye Magazine and it happens that this is the Typography Special so I'll be posting some images from the magazine. This is actually an ad for Elisava which is (I think) a design school in Barcelona. If you go to imnotanartist.org you can see some funny little looping animations by designers. I like the dynamic, creative way they've used typography. 

Project 2 Research

For my project 2 brochure, I'm redesigning the brochures I use in my private practice. The two main forms are the Privacy Notice (which I'm required to provide by federal law) and the Psychological Services Agreement. The latter is not required by law but outlines information about my services so the client has clear, written information about what to expect (e.g., if they cancel an appointment, if they have a mental health emergency, etc.). 
     For my research, I edited the text down because it was pretty wordy and I tried to find examples of similar brochures. It's hard to make this stuff interesting so I'd like to at least try to make it easier to read!
     Most of them are in tri-fold format. Many have images that seem a little hokey to me (a stack of papers with a padlock on them, one person whispering to another, etc.). I don't want to use human images because it's too difficult to be inclusive. We have some posters in our office that have the Doors of ... (can't remember where the doors are from but I'm sure you've seen these). I thought it would be interesting to have images of locks or locked doors to represent security and privacy. 


Here are some relevant examples I found:

 

 

How About This One?

Here's another font I found here that's difficult to read -- even harder that the previous one I posted! Can you tell what it says? Don't get me wrong...I love it when people push the envelope. I like working to figure out a visual concept. 

Can You Read This?

Found this poster here and found it really hard to read. Can you tell what it says? It seems like there's a very fine line between being interesting and new and going over the top. I think this one crosses the line because it takes too much work to figure out.The site where it's located is called behance.net and it's a place for "creative portfolios, projects and collaborations." Fun to look through. 

Android Fonts

I recently got an Android phone -- Motorolla/Verizon's answer to the I-Phone. Given that I haven't been able to get an internet connection to my computer through the phone yet, I've been having to do lots of internet interactions through this little bitty screen. I've noticed more than ever that special considerations in typography have to be taken into account with hand held devices. Apparently, Ascender Corporation provides "advanced font products" (not sure what that means, exactly) and developed a type specifically for Android phones. Here are samples:

 

I was disappointed because I really like the numbers that appear on the front of the phone. It doesn't look like they match any of these fonts...I'm going to look at more info about typography for hand held devices. I'll let you know if I find anything interesting.

Story Shop Brief

To:           Story Project Committee

From:       Lori Davis

Date:        February 3, 2010

Project:    Story Project Book

Overview

Story Shop is a program sponsored by Parkland College. Seventh and eigth grade students submit 1500 word/5 page stories for review. Every author receives written comments and 20 stories are chosen based on quality of creativity, uniqueness, voice, character development, and consistency to be featured in a published book.

This is the third year the Story Shop Committee has enlisted the help of Graphic Design students to design the cover and body of the final compilation of stories. This year, the Typography II class has been invited to submit book design options.

The overall message of the design will be an energetic invitation to look inside to see the unique voices of young storytellers.

Target Audience

There are several target audiences in this project:

Authors of the stories

Teachers

Parents

Librarians

Book store shoppers

School administrators

Parkland administrators (as funding body)

Design Objectives

We will enlist principles of unity, emphasis, balance, rhythm, depth and color to convey energy, creativity, and movement.  We want the design to be warm, playful, timeless and fresh. The color pallette will be bold and we will consider including the green used in the two previous designs in order to create an element of unity across publication years. Our designs will be unique in their

Parts of the design already determined are:

Logo design (color can vary)

ISBN number

Content

Order of stories

Book dimensions

Year and Story Shop logo on spine

Goal

The intended response depends on the audience. For kids, we'd like them to feel that their work has been taken seriously and that they're treated with respect. For parents, we want a more sophisticated, mature design. For librarians and book store shoppers we want the book to tempt them to take the book off the shelf and see what's inside. Once they look inside, we want them to stay engaged by the subtle interest of the design. Overall, the intent of the design is to feature the stories and not to distract from them.

Format

The committee will choose cover design and body design separately. The book will be 5.5” high X 4.25” wide. Number of pages will depend on number of stories and body design. The cover can use a 4-color printing process. Internal pages will use one color only. The logo will remain the same although the color may vary.

Schedule

February 5, 2010              Stories are due to Committee by authors

March 1, 2010                  Electronic copies of stories will be provided by Committee

                                        Present design ideas to the Committee on or before this date

March 19, 2010                Provide print-ready file to the Committee

Phipps Font

 

I recently visited my sister in Pittsburgh, PA and we went to Phipps Conservatory. Really beautiful place. I took a picture of the logo and type on the entry doors. The image and type are really cohesive. The curves of the type mimic the curves of plants. I just used What the Font for the first time -- that is cool! The font is Aperto Semi-Bold. Very nice font and reasonably priced too!

Gunter Rambow

Discovered this designer in Graphic Design history. Love his work! Here are some posters he did for a Theater in Wiesbaden, Germany. There are lots and lots of images on his website -- really interesting design. 

I think these two are my favorites. They kinda hurt my eyes but I love the intricacies of them. If you look at the "Love Counts" poster, you can see the use of numbers (clever!) to create the image. You can also see the theater name in one of the lines toward the bottom but you have to work for it. They're mostly in German so I don't know what half of them say.

I've tried to identify these fonts but I give up. There's always one little thing off. It's also possible that since the designer is German (Austrian?) he's using different fonts than what I can find. They're all sans serif and pretty classic, though. The font itself seems less important than the way he uses it.

He seems to like a black, white, gray, red palette.  He also likes to use type in curves.

 

Many of his designs for the theater are type-focused. He's really able to use type and some imagery to capture attention in a simple way.

 

Some of his designs get a little "messy" too, though.

Things Made up of Things

I found this in an ad placed in American Craft magazine. I really liked the treatment of the S. It's a gallery that represents glass artists. I'm not sure I fully understand the definition of silica (or silicone in the singular) but I think it's one of the contents of glass. The S is a larger curved thing made of smaller curved things. This could refer to both glass (a substance made up of a number of other substances) or to several artists making up the gallery. The color actually looks nicer in the ad than it does reproduced here. 

Fragments

This is a wall hanging that was pictured in an American Craft magazine (vol. 69, no. 3, Jun/July 2009). It was designed by Paul Loebach & Jessie Henson. I couldn't get the dimensions on it but it was hanging in one of the spreads and looks like it must be about 3' X 5'. The type treatment is interesting. I like the hand lettered look. Seems to match the sentiment. 

I was interested in the saying so I looked it up and found that it comes from a Bible verse (John 6:12). After a meal, Jesus, tells his disciples to "gather up the fragments that remain that nothing will be lost." Good sentiment for today -- don't waste the leftovers! Wish I could afford the wall hanging for my dining room.

Research for New Year Card

The last project in my typography class this semester involves designing a greeting card. If you're interested, you can see the full instructions here.


Client
Me. I'm looking for an interesting card to send to friends and family and maybe even people who refer clients my way. The designer can have free reign on the design. Whatever she likes, I'm sure I'll like too. 

Research 
I started by searching online for cards that I liked. I was surprised at how difficult it was to find cards that just used type rather than type and image. I did find some wonderful examples, though. Etsy actually has some beautiful handmade cards and stationery. I'd love to be able to make a letter press card. Unfortunately, I don't have the equipment so Adobe Illustrator will have to do. I went to Promenade and Art Mart because they often have interesting cards but I found nothing in terms of typography cards. Here are some cards from the web that I particularly liked:

I'm hoping to incorporate this cutout design. The card itself doesn't do much for me but this was a good example of what might work for numbers of the new year. When I was a kid, I really loved pop-up books. Not sure why. I just thought it was so cool that the book was 3-D and that little pieces would sort of jump off the page. 




Clever use of words to create images:

The 12 Days of Christmas cards below are just plain clever. I don't think I could ever be a copywriter because I can't seem to come up with such clever ways to use words. Occasionally, I'll hit on something cool but usually, I just come up with something goofy and dorky!

I included this girlfriends card because my girlfriends are my lifesavers and also because I thought the use of typography was interesting.

The 2010 card has an interesting texture -- looks like woven textile.

I did some more specific research on pop-up or cut out cards so I can figure out if I want to incorporate something like that. The first is from a "maths and art" page and was made by a mathematician as part of his work with Maths and Arts club in York, Ontario. Painting the cut out part red, makes it stand out a lot more...good idea.

Some more cards with letter cut outs along with instructions:

Finally, a nice set of cut out wings:

 








Speaking of which -- it's late and I gotta fly.

The Poetry of Typography

My sister Sarah (sounds like the name of a rock band), who is a Graphic Designer, sent me a link to the Poetry Foundation which has some really great photos of type treatments.  These photos led me to Poetry in the Landscape a flickr page which contains photos of the projected word poetry. Like this

and this

From there, I clicked on over to the Winterhouse flickr page. Winterhouse looks like an interesting organization with very relevant links to socially responsible and forward looking design as well as other great organizations, publications, etc. 

Their flickr page has images of Poetry magazine covers. I was captivated by these covers. The artwork conveys various moods across issues -- some calm (these are the ones that draw me the most)

and some energetic.

To my eye, Winterhouse has designed a beautifully poetic layout. The cover is culled down to essentials. As with poetry, the elements on the page seem to be chosen carefully with plentiful white space to "hold" the components. Picture a poem on the page. 

Because I was trolling for possible typography posts, I especially noticed the masthead and thought it was a perfect match for the magazine.  I tried to identify the font (so that I could dutifully name it in my post) and was able to almost get it except that I couldn't find an R that looked like the one in the masthead. So...being the brash, pushy woman I am, I just emailed the magazine and asked what font it was. 


I was surprised to very promptly receive an email from none other than Fred Sasaki, an Associate Editor of Poetry.  Here's the info he generously provided (links are mine):

The Poetry logo font is Gill Sans (however you'll see that the "R" is modified for the cover). Interior text is Pietro, which is a modified Bembo.

Interestingly, the Pegasus we are currently using (which the magazine used back in the forties or so) is an Eric Gill design, the typographer who created Gill Sans and contributed a great deal to modern typography.

I felt rather proud of myself for noting that the R was unique. What is really confusing me is that when I looked up the Pegasus font he notes in his email, fonts.com features it as a free font but it's an exact replica of ITC Benguiat of which I made the poster for class. 

At any rate, this is some of what we're learning in class come to life!