the mehallo blog. beta.

The (left-handed) lettering work of Todd Klein.

From his book on comic book lettering.

Tags: design, education, illustration, typography by steve
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Posters for Metropolis by Maelle De Bernardini. From 2002.

Tags: cool finds, design, education, illustration by steve
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Student Mike Thomas went back to basics with his work for my experimental type course.

As part of an 11-week study, Mike explored types created by the originator of italics, Francesco ‘Griffo’ da Bologna (1450-1518).

Mike’s work was produced using a stack of 20 year old, aged paper – and involved media ranging from paint to ink to digital.

His final project (above) was realized by cutting Griffo’s italic directly out of pieces of lead and creating a ‘soot proof’ of the carved letters. Not quite to spec, but challenging nonetheless.

Tags: design, design history, education, fonts, illustration, typography by steve
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I teach an experimental typography course at Ai Sacramento. And this past quarter, student Joyce Tabujara ventured into song.

For her final project, she wrote and preformed This Is To Mister Bell (above) – a tribute to typographer John Bell (1745-1831) and his types.

Below, a few of her studies.

Tags: design, design history, education, fonts, illustration, music, typography by steve
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It started with the advice: ‘You have to go back to the broad edge pen. It’s all there.’

Brilliant calligrapher Arthur Baker gave me direction when I first set up my beginning typography course. And I’m still using the same approach today. [Read more →]

Tags: cool finds, design, design history, education, fonts, illustration, thoughts, typography by steve
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‘Today there are approximately 22,000 polar bears left in the world’

With the help of some polar bears (above), Coca-Cola sold a bunch of soda in the 1990s. Today with WWF, they’ve set up a fund to help save the population that’s left.

More info can be found at the Coca-Cola Polar Bear Support Fund website.

Tags: cool finds, education, thoughts by steve
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‘Saturnalia became one of the most popular Roman festivals. It was marked by drunken orgies, tomfoolery and reversal of social roles’ -Wiki

Saturnalia was the already-established Roman holiday which seemed to be the best choice for celebrating Christmas. Since no one knew exactly when Christ was born, Saturnalia fit the bill.

Article here. More here. Hippie pagan comic strip video here.

Illustration by Paul Bommer.

Found via Jeanne Mehallo

Tags: education by steve
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‘Well known for its iconic cover designs over the years, to celebrate the partnership with (RED), Penguin’s design team has commissioned original artwork for each title, beautiful eye-catching designs that break from the conventional Penguin Classics black to red.’

Today is World AIDS day – help spread the message of an AIDS Free Generation by 2015 with the gift of great literature.

More info here.

Tags: cool finds, design, education, illustration by steve
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RSA’s new animated lectures remind me of Larry Gonick’s wonderful Cartoon History of the Universe series.

Gonick’s been working on these since the 1970s. I have a few of his original comic book editions. In the 1990s, he even licensed an interactive CD ROM version – with panels animated directly from his book, plus detailed 3D animated history lectures. Unfortunately, this CD adventure will not run on my computer today.

Wanna get caught up on history? Start here.

Larry Gonick’s official site here.

Tags: art, cool finds, design history, education, illustration by steve
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‘Renowned academic David Harvey asks if it is time to look beyond capitalism towards a new social order that would allow us to live within a system that really could be responsible, just, and humane?’

Dr. Harvey defines our world financial problems from a Marxist perspective – with cartoon illustrations by Andrew Park.

He asks the right question, but the problem does need an answer.

Part of the RSA Animate series of lectures.

Tags: cool finds, education, illustration by steve
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It’s now an hour earlier. If you were observing Daylight Saving Time in the US. Shorter days ahead.

Pictured: Souvenir clock from The 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Photos by mehallo.

Fredy Jumbo et Son Ensemble: One O’Clock Jump

Tags: art, education, photography by steve
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