the mehallo blog. beta.

Sten and Lex

Posted on July 9th, 2010 by steve

Also from Monsieur Bandit, a look at the incredible work of Italian street artists Sten and Lex.

Article here, video above. Flickr page here.

Tags: art, cool finds, design, illustration // Comments Off on Sten and Lex

Printing Machine invented

Posted on July 9th, 2010 by steve

Thomas Bernard and Florian Chevillard have invented The Printing Machine.

Presented at the Festival de l’Affiche in Chaumont, France.

It helps if you understand French. If not, that’s okay too.

Found via Monsieur Bandit

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The end of movable type in China

Posted on July 8th, 2010 by steve

‘While Western letterpress printing has made a recent revival, what was once considered one of the Four Great Inventions of Ancient China is no longer a sustainable practice in its country of origin.’

A look at Chinese movable type, article at idsgn.

Tags: cool finds, design history, fonts, typography // Comments Off on The end of movable type in China

tif and fontes

Posted on July 8th, 2010 by steve

‘Tipoteca Italiana is a private foundation that was founded in 1995 to advance printing knowledge and preserve venerable printing technologies. Its founder, Silvio Antiga, a 65-year-old printer who owns a printing firm in the Veneto region, has collected more than 20 vintage presses and typesetting machines, along with hundreds of wood and metal type ‘fonts”

From T Magazine, Steven Heller looks at the incredible Tipoteca (tif) and where the term ‘font’ comes from.

I haven’t been there, but a friend visited several years ago – and brought me a whole bunch of really cool ephemera.

Found via Campbell BrownKorbel

Tags: design history, education, fonts, typography // 2 comments . . .

Design is History

Posted on July 8th, 2010 by steve

‘I created this site as part of my graduate thesis at Fort Hays State University in an effort to share with others what I have learned on my own.’

Dominic Flask’s Design is History website – featuring highlights from design history.

Found via Grain Edit

Tags: design history, education // 4 comments . . .

Big Bag Big Boom

Posted on July 7th, 2010 by steve

‘an unscientific point of view on the beginning and evolution of life . . . and how it could probably end.’

Direction and animation by BLU, production and distribution by ARTSH. Soundtrack by Andrea Martignoni.

Found via Jessica Hische

Tags: art, cool finds, design, design history, illustration // 1 comment . . .

Tobias Wong, designer

Posted on July 6th, 2010 by steve

‘Indeed, Mr. Wong created a stir in 2001 when he acquired Mr. Starck’s plastic Bubble Chair before it was unveiled in the United States, installed a light bulb inside, and transformed it into a piece he called ‘This Is A Lamp.”

That was one of my favorite stunts. Read that Philippe Starck was furious. And I really loved Tobias Wong’s work.

I was saddened to see this article appear on Twitter (via Retinart).

I loved his take on screwing with the norm. Fucking the establishment while being one step ahead of it. [Read more →]

Tags: art, design // 1 comment . . .

It’s Typography: film, song and dance

Posted on July 2nd, 2010 by steve

‘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.