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Fountain presents: Heroine fonts

Posted on September 15th, 2009 by steve

Eleisha Pechey’s Windsor typeface (1905) is one of my funky favorites. There’s a hint of it in Jeanne Moderno (believe it or not; even moreso in my upcoming text versions), Woody Allen loves it for titles and Sacramento’s Golden 1 Credit Union uses it for a distinct yellow logo.

Today, Fountain Type releases Göran Söderström’s Heroine, a ‘modern interpretation of this rusty pearl is something that always have been missing in the major type libraries.’

More details here.

Tags: cool finds, design history, fonts, typography // Comments Off on Fountain presents: Heroine fonts

Baskerville: The Animated Movie

Posted on September 14th, 2009 by steve

John Baskerville (1706-1775) was an incredible type designer. His work holds up very well today. He reinvented printing and his ink was beyond compare. And, unfortunately, he was hated by his contemporaries. His type was seen to ‘hurt the eye’ and would be ‘responsible for blinding the nation.’

‘Baskerville the Animated Movie celebrates John Baskerville, the man, the typeface and his future legacy.’

For more about this short film, drop by The Baskerville Project website.

For more detail about John Baskerville and other famous type luminaries, snag a copy of Type: The Secret History of Letters and start reading.

Tags: cool finds, design history, fonts, typography // 1 comment . . .

The notebooks of Audrey Kawasaki

Posted on September 13th, 2009 by steve

Audrey Kawasaki is an illustrator working out of Los Angeles. Her work channels the soft feminine forms of Mucha mixed with a manga sensibility. Sort of. In this, she takes these influences and makes them all her own. Any references are just that: references.

What really caught me are her notebooks – experimental, playful and erotic. Found in the doodles section of her site, her work plays with cartoonish human forms, ornament, typography and graphic layout. Dazzling.

Visit Audrey’s site here. Her online journal is here. And Twitter . . . here.

Found via Twitter.com/blackbirdsings

Tags: art, cool finds, illustration, thoughts // 5 comments . . .

Line work

Posted on September 12th, 2009 by steve

Clown: acrylic transfer, acrylic aerosol

The work of Jason Thielke.

Shadows: laser etch, lacquer

Grace: acrylic transfer, acrylic

Don’t be Afraid: acrylic transfer, acrylic, aerosol

Tags: art, cool finds, illustration // Comments Off on Line work

Tweeeet!

Posted on September 12th, 2009 by steve

twittery bird rescue me by artist Christine Scheer

Here’s a really good article on the social value of Twitter.

Article link originally posted on Twitter; retweeted from @blackbirdsings, @Glinner

Tags: art, cool finds, illustration, thoughts // Comments Off on Tweeeet!

Double take

Posted on September 12th, 2009 by steve

I’m typically not a purist when it comes to a lot of design. But updating a brand should be done with respect to the original brand. In this case, it simply bugs me that in its current configuration, Wrigley’s famous SPEARmint gum is now identified with the DOUBLEmint double arrow.

In terms of visual semantics, the arrow was a SPEAR (for spearmint – get it?). Spearmint was one spear, Doublemint (peppermint) was identified as a double spear (see above).

But now – both gums carry the double spear (below). It’s like someone didn’t get the memo. Totally throws it for me. The current wrapper, with illustrated sweaty mint leaves and pseudo-retro-like design – could have been handled so much better.

Yes, I do worry about this stuff. Someone has to.