‘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
‘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
Still from Ingre Druckrey: Teaching to See
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
‘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!
‘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
“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. [Read more →]
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