This includes the one pictured above (in its travel option); as well as my best-selling Font Me Typography mug, below.

Input code HOLIDAYSALE4 at checkout. Plus, free shipping on orders over $50. Visit my store here. Zazzle has a new special every day for the holidays, some limitations apply (of course).

‘Exciting, Neue, Romance! Adventure!’

‘Love Boot’ prints, cards and postcards.

Vintage, repeating playbill poster design featuring type and boot dingbat from my Jeanne Moderno fonts.

And  . . .  Save $10 on your order of $35 or more at my store. Restrictions apply, go here for details/to get the discount.

(The prints come out really nice too)

Niedermann Grotesk is my newest font and it’s been sitting in the hopper for awhile.

It became a side project that appeared while I’d been working on my update to Jeanne Moderno (which is Jeanne Texte, which has been in a little limbo due to other projects) (I plan on getting back to it next month).

Along the way I fell in love with types that were part of the German Sachplakat (object poster) style pioneered by the great Lucian Bernhard – a lot of which can be seen (as backgrounds) in their original zeitgeist settings in the 1927 Ruttmann film I posted on Sunday.

Plakat lettering was drawn as needed, typically painted. For my adaptation, I went back to brush – and included a handful of alternative characters, ligatures, plus a few dingbats.

Grab your copy here.

And  . . .  Save 31%! Niedermann Grotesk is on sale right now at MyFonts. Sale ends September 22, 2011.

Jeanne Moderno A. Baby doll tee. Customizable. Available here.

‘inspiring homes with heart’

Magazines are great sources for inspiration. Not as permanent as a logo – or brand – periodicals have a timer on them. After a few months, they’re gone.

A good newsstand is a treasure trove of the experimental, conservative, international, concise, good, bad, ugly. I drop by whatever I can find – even the Barney Noble chain if one is not nearby – just for a shot in the arm.

Earlier this year I spotted Chandler 42 being used in an Australian interiors pub. Alexendria-based Inside Out is using my typewriter type as a nice accent throughout their pages.

Here’s a few snaps (taken in my new home office – sleepy dog in background).

Set in my own Escoffier Capitaux font. Get it here.

‘Another inspiration was the film MAX (2002), written and directed by one of Emigre magazine’s founders, Menno Meyjes  . . .  I decided Jeanne would be a fictional typeface that was released in 1918, the timeframe from the movie.’

Ascender is running a little sale on some of my fonts. 25% off until March 5, 2011. Offer only available thru Ascender’s website. For details, go here.

(and watch the trailer for MAX here)

The Greater Sacramento Metropolis by mehallo. Graphite on marker pen paper, 2002. Prints available here.

Helvetica on a mug, set in my Alta California font.

Dark brown text, vintage baked enamel-like styling. Great for sweet tea, moonshine, or hell, even prison-grade pruno.

Snag it here.

$2 off t-shirts, $4 off mugs. Input code: VTRNSDAYSALE.

Visit my store at Zazzle here – or just click the images.

More Zazzle Veterans Day Sale info here. (other stuff on sale too, not just my stuff)

Sale ends Thursday November 11, 2010 at 11:59 pm (PST).

I think it’s time for a good old fashioned font giveaway.

Escoffier Capitaux is my tribute to culinary legend Auguste Escoffier – and is based on the 1920s lettering (done while in France) of commercial illustrator/fashion designer Ernst Dryden. The font also has some Herb Lubalin-like ligatures and a bit of Garamond thrown in.

Very French.

to enter
All you have to do is leave a comment on this post. To comment, just click the ‘comment’ link below (and please fill out all the fields).

I will randomly select one winner from the comments. The winner will receive a complete, licensed copy of my Escoffier Capitaux font, OpenType format, $19.23 USD value. For more about the font, go here.

(Just for the record, 1923 was the year my dad was born)

Contest ends 11 p.m. (pacific time) Wednesday, November 10, 2010.

update
A winner has been randomly picked: Derek Walker won a licensed copy of Escoffier Capitaux! Thanks to everyone who played along, and I loved the comments.

Nina Stoessinger does great work. Pictured, a bilingual birth announcement she designed for a friend, using my Jeanne Moderno Titling font, paired with FontFont’s Dagny Thin.

She dropped a few to me in the post. It’s always great to see how my fonts end up being used.

Congratulations to the new parents – and Laura!

My type mug goes well with the real Pepsi that’s back in stores this month.

Get the mug here.

My font named for Northern California, warzone and great place to buy a damn good burrito.

Get the font here. Burrito here.

A few months back, Claudia Chandler Brocato of the Chandler Family Association contacted me about Chandler 42 – my 1994 contribution to the ‘messy typewriter’ font genre.

And they ended up giving me a really nice write up in their quarterly newsletter. Just click the above image to read/download a one page PDF.

‘Historical font measurements, classifications, decimal conversions, proofreader marks  . . .  plus, beverage holder!’

Type specs, all on one mug. Snag your’s here.

Here’s a sneak peek of some of the PROUNS-inspired dingbats that will be part of my upcoming Jeanne Texte font package.

The basic letterforms are now in technical review at Psy/Ops and I hope to have the new fonts completed and available by end of year. Crossing fingers.

Jeanne Texte is my sequel to Jeanne Moderno, which is available thru Psy/Ops, MyFonts and Ascender. Webfonts via Typekit.

My wife is a Scrabble phenom. And one of her hush-hush strategies is the legal two letter words one can use in play.

For one of my specimens for my Chandler 42 fonts (above), she created a connected word chart listing these and a few others.

Are you using TypeKit yet?

My own fonts can be found there.

And the latest: New nav features can help you find fonts faster. Jeffrey Veen demos above. Article here.

‘I was at a department store here in Basel and this in-store magazine caught my eye. The focus is Barcelona and all the headings are set in what must be Jeanne Moderno!’ -Nina

Nina Stössinger not only snagged me a copy of Globus Savoir Vivre‘s Barcelona issue; she also popped it in the mail. It just arrived a couple days ago.

It’s always great to see my fonts in use. Especially when the designer uses my funky accents.

First two photos by Nina Stössinger, the rest by mehallo

‘I tried to make small details count by making them meaningful, fun, playful, full of color, yet useful and sustainable  . . .  With artwork, we involved Twitter employees and local artists, 3 Fish Studios.’ -Sara

A Jeanne Moderno t graces the Cafe area at Twitter Headquarters in San Francisco.

Am I honored? Of course. Twitter has become one of my favorite screwy things to do.

Interiors designed by Sara Morishige. Fonts were sourced via the supercool Bryan Mason at Typekit.

More details here. Additional photos here.

That be a Jeanne t, at right

Chandler 42 was one of my first typefaces – and one of the earliest ‘grunge’ typewriter font packages to hit the market.

It has details in it one won’t see in other autotraced typewriter adaptations. Eight fonts in the complete package. Snag your copy here.

Click on the above image to read/jump. Mood music below.

Randy Brooks And His Orchestra: Harlem Nocturne

‘Amazing fontstaches! I love Mr. Jeanne Moderno myself =D’ –Darren Evans

Hm.

I actually am Mr. Jeanne Moderno – since I did name the font after my wife.

And I did kind of base that bracket on the facial hair of this particular potato chip mascot.

Really.

The mid-century stylings of Charles and Ray Eames were a major influence on my Martini at Joe’s fonts. Snag em here.

The randomly-picked winner of my under-the-radar, spur of the moment Jeanne Moderno giveaway contest thing from this past week is Rebecca Spencer, who posted the comment:

rebecca spencer// Apr 10, 2010 at 4:25 pm
I really like the Jeanne Moderno faces… hope I win!!

The winning font has been emailed using YouSendIt. Thanks to everyone for the great comments and entries!

Please keep reading. More to come.

Pick a big letter from my Jeanne Moderno fonts – select any of the shirts available thru Zazzle – order, wait for them to custom print, watch for postal person, open box when it arrives.

Wear it with pride.

Order your own (or a few) here.

This week I’m giving away a free licensed copy of Jeanne Moderno Geometrique ($32 USD value). Cause I feel like it.

To enter, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. To comment, just click the ‘comment’ link below (and please fill out all the fields).

I will randomly select one winner from the comments. The winner will be notified by email and the font will be sent via YouSendIt.

Contest ends 11 p.m. (pacific time) Friday, April 16, 2010.

And
You can also snag a print or greeting card or postcard of the above image. Zazzle does a great job with these – even though their onscreen previews look fuzzy. Been using the greeting cards a lot.

I don’t buy a calendar anymore.

Because, like clockwork, a super cool one will arrive in the mail; typically a bit after the New Year has arrived.

For the past 15 years, Thomas Krug has been mailing me an incredible calendar. It often arrives in a large box and it always dazzles. Elaborate printing techniques, special inks, die cuts – a mesmerizing trip of photography and design.

Thomas is the owner of the Traffic design agency in Winnenden, Germany. And his firm’s self-designed calendar is one helluva promotional item.

‘fantasy be with you’
This year’s theme deals with fantasy, perforated door signs (to hang on knobs) and (though I like to guess, instead of rely on a literal translation)  . . .  product placement.

Behind each image of a product is a photograph (with the calendar date part) incorporating the product in some fantasy way. One has to tear thru the diecut perfs to actually use the calendar.

Or in short, I haven’t seen the whole calendar yet because it’s only April.

font surprises
Past calendars have included die cut fish, video stills of NYC, stripper fashions  . . .  it’s always a surprise.

And this year Thomas is using some of my Jeanne Moderno fonts to punctuate. It’s a blast to see my fonts in an unexpected setting.

Years back, my Chandler 42 fonts found themselves paired with some unreal, black and white, nude zodiac photographs.

Again, dazzling. Of course.

This week there’s a feature article on me in the American River College Current. It’s about my typographic activities, teaching and stuff like that.

Huge thanks to Kelsey (and Terran, Bobbie and Don) for following me around, sneaking into my classes and sleeping on my porch. The article is posted online here.

Some of the ampersand options available in my Jeanne Moderno fonts.

Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931). Magazine publisher. Artist. Designer. Propagandist. Troublemaker. Dutch. The guy behind de Stijl.

A van Doesburg show just opened yesterday (my birthday, how bout that?) at the Tate Modern. Review here. Another review here.

Runs thru May 16, 2010.

Stained glass composition by van Doesburg

Plus,
Here’s a link to my own low cost, van Doesburg-influenced font, 2491.

Recently, I featured a preview of the new collection I’m working on with Pretty Trashy. A few of these one of a kind pieces are now for sale thru the Bows and Arrows store at Etsy.

Click on the images for product info/jump.

Recently, I made most of my font library available for the web via Typekit.

The list is here.

Thru TypeKit web designers can (legally) embed my fonts as html text at any website. Here’s a site that’s using Chandler 42.

Typekit has 4 subscription options; with a free trial plan available. Note: My fonts are only available through the Portfolio plan and higher.

For more info, drop by Typekit. Subscribe to their blog for updates.

And
Here’s a review at Webmonkey that does a good job explaining what all this font embedding hoohah is about.

The Greater Suburban Strip Mug by mehallo
15 oz. White Travel/Commuter Mug option, stainless steel interior

Great filled with some fresh brewed Peet’s Coffee.

For the past few months, I’ve been working on a new collection with Trisha Rhomberg of Pretty Trashy. Prints on vintage clothing, American Apparel, historical interpretations, typography, illustration, some naughtiness and more.

Here’s some preview images. Will post more as we get closer to a launch date.

This week, Jeanne Moderno ended up with the dubious honor of being on the
Merkwürdige Schriften 2009 (Strange Types 2009) list over at Slanted.

Thanks guys! Strange, that would be the best way to put it.

Here’s a link. Here’s the same link translated into dubious English.

As a thank you for everyone who entered my contest, I’m offering 30% off the purchase of any Jeanne Moderno font at MyFonts.

Please use this discount code: MEHALLOBLOGBONUS

Discount applies to single weights or for the complete family. Discount code is required, input at checkout. Offer available only thru MyFonts. Promo ends Monday, February 8, 2010.

Go here to order.

New blog posts coming later today (I’ll be back on a mostly daily schedule)  . . .

Normandie’s Circle of the Beloved membership kit arrived in the mail. Wrote about it last week.

Box o good stuff: Handmade CDs by the band and a bunch of things I designed, black and white tees, poster, lifetime show pass. For more info, hit up their merch page.

doug’s tour
This fall, Oklahoma City-based photographer Doug Schwarz followed LA-based band Normandie on tour. And I just happen to be designing for Normandie.

Normandie is a side project of theSTART – or another way to look at it, Doug also followed theSTART on tour because Normandie just happened to be in the same vehicle. Follow that? Hope so.

So it was fun when Doug pinged me and said he got my poster signed by everyone he talked to. It’s now part of his Wall of Inspiration (above); the signed poster (below).

tees-n-stuff
This year I also designed some tees for Normandie. They can be snagged via the new online Normandie store here. They’re running a holiday special too (details on page). One can also order a poster.

Vocalist Aimee Echo hawking tees

ink
It’s fun to see my type, ornament and heart circle showing up in the oddest places. Here’s a circle heart in wrist tattoo form (below), sported by fan Amber Rose:

Amber and Normandie’s Chelsea Davis; thanks for the photos Amber!
 

beloved circle
My latest design is for the Circle of the Beloved laminate credential (art above). A Franklin nets lifetime membership, pre-releases, bunch o cool stuff. Again, drop by the new Normandie store – mucho details there.

and  . . .
Here’s Normandie’s MySpace.

Plus, more tour photos from Doug:

Closed venue in Texas (whoops!)

This is Kayla. She was following the tour with Doug. And Kayla secretly runs everything (shhhh)

These three are Normandie (Jamie Miller, Aimee, Chelsea)

Doug and Aimee

Mark Travis and the merch booth

Tour RV on left, fake tour SUV (decoy?) on right

My Zazzle store has prints, cards, mugs and much more. Not sure what to get, here’s some highlights from my individual collections.

Click on the images to jump to products. Visit my main store page here.

what’s your poison?
Celebrate the holiday season with your favorite seasonal toxin on a mug! Choose from Poinsetta, Mistletoe, Holly or the often elusive Pyracantha (which is a bit like holly). Vintage druggist labels on a nice, clean mug. Brand new, limited edition merchandise, available only thru end of December 2009.

Go here to order.

For additional mehallo merchandise, go here.

When I drew Jeanne Moderno, my hopes were the fonts would end up somewhere in a cool fashion magazine.

UK-based Ponytail has em and has used them beautifully in their third issue. Website here.

Sort of a 16th century fashion magazine spread.

Used as a promo piece for my Jeanne Moderno fonts. Available as a print or on a greeting card/notecard/postcard.

Details on my Twitter page here.

Just do what it says (you’ll need a Twitter account, of course). Contest ends Monday September 7, 2009 at 9 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.

The Greater Sacramento Metropolis: A bird’s eye view from the Sacramento River by mehallo. Graphite illustration, available as a high resolution poster or framable print here.

Choose from two vintage stiletto dingbats.

Options are an art deco-themed pump or basic, clean lines.

Part of my Moderno Collection at Café Press, limited edition tees featuring type and dingbats from my Jeanne Moderno fonts.

Today is National Waaffffle Day – celebrating the day the first US patent for a Waffffle maker was issued to Cornelius Swartwout in 1869.

Celebrate your love of waffffles with a limited edition waffffles! shirt by mehallo. Available for both men and women. Part of The Moderno Collection at Cafe Press.

Photo taken at The Original Pancake House in Roseville, CA

Great for soup.

My client, Normandie, is currently touring the known United States.

The band is a side project thunk up by 3 members of theSTART; as a result, the shows become a twofer (two bands in one).

In tow they have a bunch of my tour posters (seen above) as well as some special handmade START cds doodled by the band itself (see below).

Follow their advance across the continent by jumping over to vocalist Aimee Echo’s Twitter page. As of this writing, they seem to be somewhere in the original 13 colonies  . . .  And may have been replaced by pirates.

Tour dates for both bands can be found on their MySpace pages here and here.

i’m digging all this
I’ve had these merchandise ideas for a few years and just never got around to building them until recently. Production issues always held me up   . . .  so did fulfillment, pricing   . . .  inventory   . . .  

Then Café Press and Zazzle invented themselves. What is known as Printing Upon Demand made it possible to have a product line – without it actually existing.

So I’ve set up stores at Café Press and Zazzle.

The product ideas come from “what would I actually like to own?” and I’m going from there.

at café press
is my Moderno Collection; which I’m going to keep as limited as possible, swapping out designs seasonally. Featured are shirts and buttons highlighting “Moderno” and a few dingbats from my Jeanne Moderno fonts. The style is simple, clean, wearable.

The “Waffffles!” shirt is a favorite, it features the Jeanne Moderno fonts’ “ffffl” ligature, an unusual take on traditional typesetting’s standard “fl” ligature. The color reminds me of the old IHOP days. Which, as a side note, I was happy to see IHOP’s current interiors now harken back to IHOP as comfort food. They were always a Sunday morning treat. Wear your Waffffles! shirt when heading out for a stack.

over at zazzle
I’ve amped it up a little. Because of their large product assortment, I’m only really limited by time.

The Font Me mug – based on vintage printers rules and type gauges – was an idea I had several years ago. All elements came from rare type resources, and I’m glad to finally see it produced.

Zazzle makes it possible to actually do a series of shirts where you can pick your favorite style/color/etc. And then I thought, why not have your favorite letter printed on it? Really BIG.

This is my “Jeanne Moderno Lettres” product line – and I absolutely love that there’s NO WASTE. No extra letter shirts lying around because they didn’t sell. Each one is custom made, you pick your favorite letter and put it on ANY of Zazzle’s shirts   . . . and that’s really cool.

The Theatre, from the 20th Century Obsolete series

I’ve gotten requests over the years, so I’ve also posted prints of some of my work. Some of my pieces are now available up to around 6 feet, if you have the money and wall space.

going green
I also love that it’s sort of green in that each of these products only exist if one orders it. All retail should be like that, no waste. And hopefully, that’s where we’re headed.

pricing
I’m finding these are not entirely cheap – and yes, if I want my own merch, I have to buy my own merch. But I think the trade off is really worth it for what is really as close as one can get to one-of-a-kind items in the retail universe.

We live in an environment of excess, making a purchase on one good mug – or one good shirt – is a great way to think about shopping in today’s world. There’s really no need to own a zillion items, just pick one and make it a good pick (Tim Gunn supports this thinking in his book on personal style; tho I’m paraphrasing).

so
Please click on any of the images above to drop by either shop. There’s also links to the shops in the sidebar at right. Everything has been fun to put together – and as of today, I have both the Font Me and Master of Typography mugs on my desk. Zazzle ships FAST. And I’ll say the 15 oz. is a good size for anything.

Happy shopping and thanks for the support!

o yeah
Most of these designs are based on type and elements from my font collections. And of course, they can be found in their own store at MyFonts.