The work of Simon Bailey.

Found via Jean François Porchez

Found via imjur

‘In July 2013, artist José Parlá painted Nature of Language, a mural commissioned by SNØHETTA and North Carolina State University for the James B. Hunt Library in Raleigh. The library is best known for its architecture and technological integration, including a large robotic book storage and retrieval system which houses most of the university’s engineering, textiles and hard sciences collections.’

Jose Parla’s lettering art in a library. Syncs with concepts I’m throwing around in my Friday night type class.

Found via Graffuturism

‘rare Belgian newspaper article on the publication of Jan Tschichold’s ‘Typografische Vormgeving’ (unfortunately no information on the name of the newspaper nor the date)’

Found via typojo

‘Sketches by Jan Tschichold found in the National Library in Leipzig, Germany’

If one is going to do a Tschichold revival, one should pour through an archive, no?

Photos posted on Behance with a link to Sebastian Nagel’s Tschichold revival, Iwan Reschniev.

Found via Thinking Form

It’s interesting how celebrity works.

I’ll often bring up Stephen Fry in the classroom (and mention his incredible Gutenberg documentary for the BBC) but very few students have heard of him. Then I mention Hugh Laurie and House, then draw the connection to Fry and Laurie and – just let things happen.

(I also think Laurie should have played Archer on the Star Trek prequel series, but what do I know)

Designer Matthew Rogers took Fry’s comments on language – which has this wonderful way of evolving – and made it visual (above).

I am currently working on a project where I’m screwing with language for fun. Google Translate is a great video game, no scores or explosions (unless you look them up); but always fascinating results.

Found via Upworthy

Years ago Step By Step was a graphic design magazine that showed complex design solutions in a ‘step by step’ process. So was HOW, which broke out HOW things were designed.

Today we assume computers just design everything. Not true. Not everything.

Pictured is the work of Dmitry Karpov. And at Behance, here is the Step by Step breakdown of HOW they were done.

Found via Designcollector Network

‘a nice typo series by talented recent SVA grad Zipeng Zhu’

Timely messages for a bunch of people in my life – including the redneck in the large white truck.

Found via Jessica Walsh

Covers for Kenny Burrell’s Blue Lights. Reid Miles, design; Andy Warhol, illustration. Blue Note Records, 1958.

Just because.

As a side project, Irish graphic designers Mark Shanley and Paddy Treacy turned a bunch of client feedback (the bad kind) into a series of posters. They then put them up for sale and ended raising a bunch of money for charity.

Pictured, a few. More here.

Of course, the goal is always to work with clients that know shit. And are willing to go thru a creative process that leads to the best work imaginable. This usually involves understanding that good logos typically involve letterforms (I’ve heard poster #1 before).

‘So just as we change as we grow up and our bodies, opinions and tastes change. This is Time. This is Life. They are defined by Change. So Change is inevitable, its outside of need or necessity. It just Is.’

The images (and words) are from this wonderful post over at the Alias blog: Why new typefaces? Alias is run by David James and Gareth Hague.

In my opinion/experience, we’ll stop having a need for new typefaces right about the time we stop wanting new music, new food ideas (I’m hooked on detox water right now) and new ways of looking at how we dress ourselves.

Types have personality, just like humans. Take it all away and we become  . . .  Helvetica. On a Star Trek planet where we all look, think and dress alike.

Type is everywhere. And humans like to mess with shit.

via Alias

Too many graphic design award competitions award people for being young and full of ideas. What about the rest of us who are OLDER than YOUNG and maybe filled with better ideas?

I think experience and wanting to keep doing NEW is worth something, no?

So you can now be AWESOME too. At any age. Go here.

Courtesy Jessica Hische; found via Jessica Walsh

Last week I attended TYPO in San Francisco and noticed that my notebook was full. No room for notes.

My solution was the #typo13 hashtag, Twitter, plus big fingers and cranky iPhone. Everything I attended I tweeted, autocorrect had other ideas, TYPO ended up meaning typo.

Typically if I go on a tweeeeting binge like this, I lose ‘followers’ and get bitched out a bit. Instead I ended up meeting some cool people from around the planet.

Sol Kawage lives in South Tyrol, a ‘german speaking region in northern Italy.’ Her tagline on her Twitter account states: ‘Annoying people since 1980.’

Pics are from her blog, cool holdings of a small Museum of Modern Art in the City of Rovereto. More here and here.

Modern Dog recently created this poster for Sunday Rock, a music school in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

And I provided Robynne and Co. some quick Cyrillic type the old fashioned way: Scanned in from early 20th Century sources, pieced together letter by letter.

Four different scripts combined to have similar weight, rough edges, heavy caps. I’ve been doing a bunch of work this way lately – sometimes one has to go back to basics.

And on weathered days (like today) vinyl sounds better than digital.

‘David A. Smith is a traditional sign-writer/designer specialising in high-quality ornamental hand-crafted reverse glass signs and decorative silvered and gilded mirrors. David recently produced a wonderful turn-of-the-century, trade-card styled album cover for popular American singer/songwriter John Mayer.’

More on David A. Smith here.

‘The very first rock and roll Music Video. A stop motion film of the Beatles singing ‘I Feel Fine’ drawn by Stephen Verona and hand colored by Verona and John Lennon’

‘Voiced by Canadian legend Gordon Pinsent (Away From Her, Pillars Of The Earth) Typesetter Blues is written in the nonsense poetry tradition of Edward Lear and Shel Silverstein’

Crafted by Toronto-based TOGETHER – part of their silly rhymes series Beastly Bards.

‘Cieślewicz always compared himself to a journalist; but he referred to himself as a visual journalist. So Graphic designer, as a profession, is very close to that of journalism; except that it is about articulating clear ideas through the justaposition of imagery and layout – it’s a question of wanting to say something.’ –Professor Andrezej Klimowski, Royal College of Art

Above, a BBC overview of the work of Roman Cieślewicz (1930–96), which was part of a retrospective this summer at the Royal College of Art in London.

Click image to view video/jump.

Found via BBC News

As an educator, I’ve broken graphic design into three components: Message, Typography, Layout.

I’m not the first educator to do this – just happened to constantly notice these three elements staring back at me in all the student pieces I evaluate. In my opinion, careful appreciation, understanding and implementation of the three can lead to beautiful work.

message
Graphic design is a communication field, so Message should always drive the project. Today we are bombarded by thousands of Messages on a daily basis, so being on Message is critical. And yes, this usually involves language and writing – which is why I love when students take their written studies seriously.

typography
I’ve seen an (often not cited/supported) statistic that graphic design is 95% typography. Scientific or not, I agree with this. Type is important. I like comparing the exploration of lettering to that of music – there’s enough complexity for it to become a lifetime endeavor. And most of what I teach is type, from multiple angles.

form
Graphic designers are taught to use grids for layout – though relying on ‘grid’ as a catch all way of handling form can be misleading. Grids provide support, a fallback position for dealing with massive amounts of information. Though important, grids have their limitations. Building structure using symmetry, asymmetry, balance, color – some elements obvious, some not – involves continuous practice, a trained eye, instinct.

These three are not formulas, can’t be added together. They need to work in tandem, like cooking a great stew where the ingredients are based on what feels just right.

Click to view/jump

On a related note, the above film – Edward Tufte’s Ingre Druckrey: Teaching to See – found its way into my Twitter feed. It’s about graphic design and beauty. And much more.

In January I’m going to be teaching my first non-type course on Form and Space. I’m starting prep now because I consider form so important – so powerful, so delicate.

And beautiful when done right.

Video found via ayana baltrip

‘As a student, live by these words, ‘Quantity rather than quality.’ The more you design the better your quality will become and you will continue to grow’ –Tony Montano

I like that quote.

Quality does come later. Being a designer becomes all about instinct – not having the best computer, not software, not measurements, not rules.

I’ve just started teaching another semester of Graphic Design History and Typography at American River College – have a whole new group of kids to introduce to my gospel of visuals.

One thought that’s been weaving its way thru my classes over the years is simply, ‘the more you do, the better you get.’ We’ve all heard this, and yeah, it’s true. The only real stumbling block is ‘the more you do, if you’re not paying attention, you probably won’t get better.’

This year the student work has been incredible – but only when tied to good, old fashioned Hard Work. Risk taking, going out on that edge, trying something one has never done before leads to fantastic creations.

I haven’t been blogging much – I also have my usual four type classes at Ai Sacramento and a rather large project that’s been taking up the rest of my time (more on that soooooon) – so something had to give. It was blogging.

I’ll be posting more as time permits; otherwise been immediately throwing finds up on my Twitter account.

I’m keeping busy. Hope you are too.

Infographic found via Ai Sacramento Graphic Design; click image to jump/view larger

‘Signage for an alternative music festival.’

The work of Dani Wolf.

Found via YouWorkForThem

New video for Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra’s Want It Back. Lettering by Curran James.

Found via aeroplanegirl

The work of Britt Wilson.

Found via Ape on the Moon

Exquisite lettering by Luca Barcellona and Francesca Biasetton for ELITA, Milan.

Found via Cátedra Bardelás

Often there’s this thing – where the graphic designer – feels like shouting, ‘I’M A PROFESSIONAL, I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING. REALLY.’

It usually arises from the idea that graphic design is a voodoo art that many do not understand. Or they think they do, but only understand a small portion of it. Trained, professional designers do spend at least 4–5 years studying our craft – and the years after finessing what we know.

Keeping communication open to clients is also important. But really, there’s some of us who know what we’re doing.

Mostly.

Button design by UXPin.

Found via Sandoer Berg

Fan-made video for Garbage’s new single, Battle in Me.

New album – Not Your Kind of People – drops May 22 (May 15 on itunes) – and I’m really loving this beautiful g they’ve found  . . .

Found via Garbage

Typeface sheet set. Available thru Anthropologie.

‘My paper weaving technique — a process of interlacing objects with memories — attempts to redefine the commonplace book structure with chapters emerging from seams. The garments reveal new beginnings, life lessons and notable achievements. Memories evoke garments; garments evoke memories.’

The work of paper artist, graphic designer Julie VonDerVellen.

Website here, Twitter here.

‘Inventive costume project – created for Anne Boleyn.’

Found via Alice Smalley

‘The concept I’m trying to portray is: Nothing can cover the flaws we have, and the flaws, the flesh we were born with is who we truly are. They are even more truthful to what we are trying to make ourselves; this is why some of the area of the dress are not meant to be covered up. The dress barely covers the whole body. It is meant to be see-through to display the body in its whole and that since we all are imperfect is an important concept.’

The work of Hui-Ni Su.

Found via ‘Adrian Frutiger’

‘For our first release, Alphabuild for iOS, we wanted to pay tribute to the process of building letters (which is the other fun work we do here at our studio). We wish building letters for our clients was as zany and colorful as it is in Alphabuild. On the other hand, we’re glad we don’t have aliens, glue bottles and sawblades trying to mess up our letter drawings.’

Featuring types from the great Psy/Ops library (including my own Jeanne Moderno) as well as a few tikis (see below) – James Beall’s Alphabuild is a fun, quirky educational alphabet game for iPhone, iPad and iPod.

Snag it in the App store. Website here, Twitter here. And free goodies here.

Happy alphabuilding!

Simone Massoni’s Chicks & Types calendar, still available here.

‘Only the finest quality’

The lettering art of Jon Contino.

‘Émilie Vast’s third Herbarium is dedicated to plants that find the strength to creep into our urban space, into the joints of gutters and pavements, in the wall’s cracks, at the bottom of the trees, the park’s grass, on the roofs  . . .  just like their cousins from the woods, they have a history, uses and mythology.’

Cool find. This ‘wild plants in the city’ edition also features my Jeanne Moderno fonts.

Found via Iconoclastic and le lièvre de mars

Design by Lewis Moberly’s Poppy Stedman for Waitrose. Details here.

Found via Popsop

‘~600 photos, >100 photographers, >40 countries’

New Vintage Digital Vernacular Letters runs thru March 31, 2012. Mota Italic Gallery, Berlin. Details here.

From 1978: The work of Arnie Lynde.

Found via It’s Nice That

Found via  n i g h t m a r e

Gareth Emery. Feat Christina Novelli. Concrete Angel.

Trance. With subtle typography. February 16 in San Francisco.

Another map. This one by Haley Nahman.

Found via The Daily What

YeeHaw Industries’ letterpress PONZI poster. Available here.

Democracy shirt.

Found via Zoran Dimovski

‘I just like the typography, honest.’ -wkd

Found via whatkatiedoes

“Every initiative we pursue,’ starting February 1, reads the press release, ‘will be guided by our core value to treat customers as we would like to be treated — fair and square.”

In just under a year, JCPenney rebrands again. Out is Helvetica, in is Gotham. Also in is a whole new approach to store organization and product pricing.

Brand New article here, press release here.

Changes start tomorrow. Bold design move, bold ad campaign.

‘Originator of Type Fashions’

American Type Founders’ complete 1912 specimen book. 1348 pages.

Entire book posted online here.

The industrial revolution changed the size of font offerings. What were once posters or broadsheets from small type foundries, ‘type specimens’ became elaborate volumes – today collected as rare editions.

more
Since 2007, Open Library has been digitizing rare type specimens. Available to read online or as PDF downloads.

I found out about them just this weekend – font specialist Laurence Penney had posted links on his Twitter feed. These are them:

Caslon, 1785
Binney & Ronaldson, 1812
Montreal Type Foundry, 1850
Boston Type Foundry, 1860
Fann Street Foundry, 1874
Cincinnati Type Foundry, 1882
Allison & Smith, 1889
Cleveland Type Foundry, 1895
Inland Type Foundry, 1897
Toronto Type Foundry, 1899
Keystone Type Foundry, 1906
Barnhart Bros. & Spindler 1907

and
One of my favorites, here’s a link to Bauer’s offerings from 1900.

Found via Hoefler+Frere-Jones, Lawrence Penney, Oded Ezer, Nina Stoessinger, Falstaff & Fakir and Kris Sowersby

‘It includes 134 glyphs – both Latin and Cyrillic script plus two different manicules and various arrows’

Crafted by typedepot and available free: Corki is a beautiful condensed slab serif with Tuscan-styling, pointing hands and other extras.

Snag it here.

Film for the New Zealand Book Council, produced by Colenso BBDO and animated by Andersen M Studio.

And you can snag a copy of Maurice Gee’s Going West here.

Found via Daniel Will-Harris

Found via over the rainbow

The graffiti of Jerm IX.

Found via LOUDreams

The work of Dominique Fung.