the mehallo blog. beta.

‘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!

Tags: design, education, fonts, typography by steve
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‘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

Tags: cool finds, culinary, design, fonts, typography by steve
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‘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)

Tags: design, fashion, fonts, illustration, mehallo merchandise, typography by steve
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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.

Tags: design, design history, fonts, mehallo merchandise, typography by steve
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Jeanne Moderno A. Baby doll tee. Customizable. Available here.

Tags: design, fashion, fonts, mehallo merchandise, typography by steve
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‘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)

Tags: design, design history, fonts, mehallo merchandise, typography by steve
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$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).

Tags: culinary, design, events, fashion, fonts, mehallo merchandise, typography by steve
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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!

Tags: cool finds, design, fonts, mehallo merchandise, typography by steve
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‘I walk into a sea full of beauty’ -Brooke Burke, host

Another Jeanne Moderno spotting: Used for titles on TV Land’s third season of She’s Got The Look.

Judge Robert Verdi (above) can be really funny too. Been a fan since he was on that reality show where he used to sneak into people’s houses, redesign their rooms and make them cry at the end.

Click the above image to watch a preview/jump.

Found via Shandi Pierzina

Tags: cool finds, fashion by steve
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Jeanne Moderno spotted in the logo for Know-It-All Grrl Vintage’s Ebay shop. Though not too surprising. Know-It-All Grrl (Michelle, above) is a friend.

Cool finds, go shopping here. Facebook page here.

Tags: cool finds, fashion, fonts by steve
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‘Baskerville, a bad asskerville’

This spring, my Digital Typography students set out to make a short film about type history.

The class – held at The Art Institute of California Sacramento – was set up like a working design studio – with myself as ‘hands off creative director.’ All students had a role, from art direction to project management, web design, editing and production.

At one point, songsmith John Slingerland threw a party at his home – and invited a few unwitting guests – just to record the background vocals for the film’s gets stuck in your head musical number.

And, featured in the credits, a very early beta version of Jeanne Texte – which I had to prep for them as my homework assignment.

It was a fun quarter; this was a great team to work with, their enthusiasm snagged everyone in their handmade typographic web.

Tags: design history, education, fonts, illustration, music, typography by steve
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