the mehallo blog. beta.

I’ve been to a few tapings of television shows. The tapings are free, since tee vee is (supposed to be) free. Getting in, however, can be a struggle. Especially if a show is popular.

I saw a few tapings of The Tonight Show the final year Johnny Carson was hosting. But Carson wasn’t working much, mostly on vacation. His contract gave him Mondays off and several weeks vacation per year. Supplementing as ‘permanent guest host’ was this guy named Jay Leno.

My dad often referred to Jay Leno as ‘Jeno.’ I always liked that.

I remember Jeno was funny. Really funny – when he worked for Carson. Things changed after Carson retired. Today, don’t like that Jeno isn’t really the sweet guy he pretends to be.

Tee vee is pretend. [Read more →]

Tags: design history // Comments Off on Tee vee tix

In the 1970s, old Abbot and Costello movies were on channel 44 on Saturday afternoons; followed by The Bowery Boys.

At one point, I actually had the entire ‘Who’s On First’ routine memorized (and this Carson version was a great update).

But I digress.

Bumpers for the afternoon movies were licensed portraits from Al Hirschfeld, with Dr. Don Rose doing the intros. The movies were a different world of in black and white, with complex set ups for the comedy.

In the 1990s, I knew former child star Joe Cobb (1916-2002). Joe was famous as the chubby kid (above, click to view larger) in the original silent Our Gang comedies. Somewhere along the way, I was watching a documentary and saw that because of his girth, Joe was actually the inspiration for a character called Porky Pig.

I never could figure out how to tactfully bring that up in a conversation. So I never did. [Read more →]

Tags: art, illustration // 2 comments  . . .   

‘it took a week to do it’

For anyone who’s taken an intro to typography course with me – there is a fair amount of stippling involved as part of some really complex letterform studies.

And one of my former students – Freya Kiessling – who dotted her way thru letters – has gone national with her work.

Her color Conan O’Brien pointillism illustration (above) was used as a bumper on Conan’s show, April 11, 2011. The drawing was submitted thru their Coco MoCA page (many, many images abound).

And today – per show request – a print hangs in the show’s green room at Warner Bros. in Burbank.

Below, another Freya-produced Conan piece – from a beginning animation class.

Tags: art, cool finds, education, illustration, music // 1 comment  . . .   

Tonite this link just sort of popped in from former student Campbell BrownKorbel. It’s secrets that every creative – from illustrator (the focus) to designer to comedian to (hell) anarchist – should know.

Phil McAndrew’s Super Obvious Secrets That I Wish They’d Teach In Art School. Read the whole thing here.

Tags: art, cool finds, design, education, illustration, thoughts // 2 comments  . . .   

Well, I see it this way. I’ve been using my time listening to the greats and nights spent in comedy clubs as part of my teaching ‘act’ for years now. And after reading Steve Martin’s Born Standing Up and all the insane prep he did to do what he did (never realized how neurotically obsessive he was), it all seems to resonate.

Michael Bierut – who had one of the best lines in the Helvetica film – takes a look at the parallels between hard work as a designer and a comedian. Great read for anyone working in a creative field.

Tags: cool finds, design, thoughts // 3 comments  . . .   

Svend Smital’s Super Grotesk used on the cover of Brendan I. Koerner’s Now The Hell Will Start: One Soldier’s Flight from the Greatest Manhunt of World War II.

Found via The Book Cover Archive

Tags: design, fonts, publication design, typography // 3 comments  . . .   

‘My father gave me some magazines from the 1920s and 1930s’

Hannes von Döhren’s Brandon Grotesque, influenced by early geometric types – available in six weights with true italics.

One of TDC’s 2011 award winners. Available thru HvD Fonts.

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

Dmitriy Antropov’s final project was a Gill Sans maze, hand crafted from foam.

After we tried to actually do the maze (and failed), Dmitriy reached down and carefully removed a small partition – near the bottom of the a – and we were able to complete.

Tags: design, education, fonts, typography // 4 comments  . . .   

‘escaping the norm’

Just finished up my Friday night beginning type course – and final projects can take any form. Last night, Christopher Gianni-Embrey showed up for class with an old computer monitor.

Inspired by a recent viewing of The Shawshank Redemption, Christopher visualized the word ‘escaping’ using Morris Fuller Benton’s Bank Gothic.

Not on screen, but in screen.

The final piece was Christopher’s first ever attempt at model making. It was crafted from mostly found materials. As he put it, ‘driving around town, there’s a lot of stuff people throw away.’

In the process, he ended up with a bunch of dead computer monitors – just in case the first attempt didn’t pan out.

My next Friday night type course is scheduled for Fall 2011 at American River College. Course number: ARTNM 303.

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

‘Azuro, the first typeface that’s perfect for reading on screens’

FontShop has released Georg Seifert’s Azuro. Humanist in origin, with large counters and oldstyle numerals; Azuro has been tested in all current on screen media, including Apple’s iOS.

Gizmodo review here. FontShop details here.

And Azuro is on sale – 90% off – thru May 31, 2011.

Also check out Seifert’s Graulau Sans, types he started working on while studying at Bauhaus University, Weimar.

Tags: cool finds, design, fonts, typography // 3 comments  . . .   

In addition to eating pizza, Nick Sherman designs cool interactive stuff.

Over at MyFonts, Nick’s incredible interface is not only for buying fonts, but a jumping off portal for font cataloging and research. At the bare minimum, I like to use my own RSS feed for previews.

Nick’s latest idea: Webtype’s Font Swapper (pictured above).

Type in any (CSS-coded) website, see what it looks like with types from the Webfonts library.

Tags: cool finds, design, fonts, typography // 5 comments  . . .