the mehallo blog. beta.

Jason Munn

Just had a discussion – and major test question – involving 19th Century wonder Clarendon in my history class. As a type, Clarendon has been popping up all over the place for a bunch of years now.

I use it (paired with Jenson) for handouts in my introductory type course at ARC, up until recently, it was the corporate font for Starbucks  . . .  it just boldly says, read me.

New article (and cool samples) posted by SOTA’s Tamye Riggs here.

Jessica Fleischmann


Madeleine Eiche

Simon Dovar and Nils Davey

Tags: cool finds, design history, education, fonts, typography by steve
1 comment  . . .   

‘Is there a way to know what fonts will work together? Building a palette is an intuitive process, but expanding a typographic duet to three, four, or even five voices can be daunting.’ –H&FJ

‘how do I pick the right font?’
. . .  is the most common question I’m asked in my type courses. And my answers aren’t usually simple. I liken it to picking the right suit, tie and shoes.

What handbag will work best, nail polish, lipstick, gloss or none, which eye liner will simply look great  . . .

One learns by doing. [Read more →]

Tags: cool finds, design, education, fashion, fonts, thoughts, typography by steve
1 comment  . . .   

Many, many samples: Ads using fantastic typography. Go here.

Found via Veer

Tags: cool finds, design, fonts, illustration, typography by steve
3 comments  . . .   

‘Joos is a revival of an upright italic created in 1536 in Gent. This work is not a formal revival but it faithfully fits into the scheme of Joos Lambrecht (punchcutter), which was to idealize roman types by bringing together the characteristic graceful shapes of italics and the angularity of romans.’

Not all Italics are slanted – they have their origins in calligraphy.

More about Laurent Bourcellier’s beautiful Joos fonts here.

Found via Colin M. Ford

Tags: cool finds, design history, fonts, typography by steve
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The work of Mabona Origami for ASICS. Creative director: Lars Rühmann, Nordpol+ Hamburg.

Found via Gábor Kóthay

Tags: cool finds, design, fashion by steve
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Money designed by Art Nouveau painter/illustrator Alphonse Mucha for the Republic of Czechoslovakia, circa 1919-29.

Tags: art, cool finds, design history, illustration by steve
2 comments  . . .   

‘The video was fourteen months in production. Seven months in notes, research, photography, pre-production, art work and direction. It was then all sent to Philip James Cheaney with full trust and faith and he knocked it out of the park with seven more months of motion work and additional art and direction elements. It wouldn’t work without him. We’re working together under the title of Mur Mur Man Productions’ -DJG

Introducing: The first music video directed (and designed) by my friend, Danny J. Gibson. And animated by Philip James Cheaney.

Video for David Seume’s Will Ya Be My Friend, download the debut single here. From the album It Is What It Is.

Danny’s been working with David Seume since November 2008. Images of DJG’s production art can be found on Flickr. And pre-motion art can be found here.

Tags: art, cool finds, design, illustration, music by steve
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‘Some of my favorite assignments are posters and program flyers for conferences dealing with complex subjects. This one was about patterns, forms, functions and aesthetics of sacrificial rituals. Raster design with blood (OK, beet juice)!’

The work of Nina Stössinger.

More project details in her blog post here.

Or you can read it in the original German here, or in bad Google translated English here.

Tags: cool finds, illustration, typography by steve
1 comment  . . .   

The history of Monopoly money, 1934-present. Details here.

The site also covers the game’s early, little-known pre-depression era origins.

Tags: cool finds, design history by steve
Comments Off on Redesigning US bills, part five

‘Guilloché machines (also known as geometric lathes) have been used since the 17th century by watchmakers and goldsmiths, such as Fabergè, for ornamentation.’

Subblue’s Guilloché Pattern Generator.

Found via Nina Stössinger

Tags: cool finds, design, design history by steve
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‘Anyone who was following my Twitter personal account at the time may have noticed a fair bit of bitching about Illustrator’s pathfinder tools’

Aegir Hallmundur’s beautiful money illustration for Wired magazine. Details (and design considerations) here.

Again, can’t we just let someone like Aegir design our currency? Pleeease??

Found via expiro

Tags: cool finds, illustration, typography by steve
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