Thursday, September 29, 2011

Paper Type

While looking around I stumbled upon two artists working in a way I thought exciting. They create type using cut paper.


The first is Julene Harrison:

All her work is made from cut paper. The designs are single, whole sheets. She includes an impressive amount of detail in her precise cuts. Most of her work is in private commissions for her typographic pieces. She does commercial work as well and even manages to make portraits in the same manner.




 
And there is Yulia Brodskaya:

She was originally from Moscow where she studied art. After moving to the UK she became a graphic designer. She impressively combines her fine art hand skills with the typographic and design skills she learned in the UK.
The technique she uses for her work is called quilling, making  intricate designs with ribbons of paper.



 

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Typography in Art

I am intrigued when artists who are not designers use letterforms or typographic inspiration to influence their art. I think it’s really interesting that typography can be elevated to an art form, and appreciated by the average citizen who is not knowledgeable about typography.

Go Font Urself* is “an Exhibition of Type Based Artworks” that is held in Australia. Five shows, or “chapters” have been held since Feb. ‘09. The exhibition showcases artwork from artists all over the world, and type is the main component of each piece.The site also has profiles of each artist. Visitors can check out other work (not necessarily type-related) by the artists.







Jess Hische actually contributed to Chapter 3, with her “Say it with Flowers” piece.



I think the work by Sarah A. King is reflective of what some of people were trying to do with the Bird's Eye View assignment. A lot of her work consists of creating shapes and images out of words.

I also stumbled on the sculpture artist Doug Aitken. He does a lot of installation and video pieces, but one series he did is titled “text sculpture.” Again, it’s this idea of artists using typography as a medium in the process of conveying a message.



Post Typography


Post Typography is a fantastic graphic design studio that produces beautiful designs with smart concepts. One design I found to be jaw-dropping was their cover for the Washington Post's Sunday Outlook section in 2010. The focus was on a political viewpoint between important figures of the Republican and Democratic party that wanted to combine forces to improve government instead of butting heads, so to speak. The way Post Typography conveyed this message was such pure genius that it's hard to explain, so take a look for yourself! (and don't forget to check out their other projects, too!)


http://www.posttypography.com/site/index.php?action=news&id=864

Monday, September 26, 2011

Type-spiration for everyone

Ever since I found out about abcdefridays, I have been bookmarking some of the more notable sites and images that I've found across the web, beginning with...

I found this on my twitter feed. The site that I originally found it on is refusing to load, so I did a Google search and found the original creator of this amusing chart. This is a compilation of various "Top Font" lists including "Typefaces no one gets fired for using," all listed in the fine print at the bottom. The typefaces are sorted by style (top to bottom: san-serif, serif, slab serif, display and black letter, script) and the designers as well as the year the font was designed, is listed. I saw this and I just thought it was really amusing, as well as helpful to first-year design students. We know Comic Sans doesn't quite make the cut, but seeing many styles of good typefaces all in one place is usually beneficial to narrowing down choices when working on projects.

And Now For Something Completely Different!

We are all working on the bird project. Kelly suggested to me that I look at the 50 and 50 project for inspiration since my project is very typographical. I would have never found this on my own, but I really like what these designers have done as typographical treatments for the state mottos. 





These are just a few of my favorites, Tyler's own Jess Hische did the one for PA!!

When looking up other examples of type treatments, I came across this December Design Challenge.
The site is a little funky, but I liked the concept of the whole project and the way all the contributors were able to elaborate on every single decision that they made. Essentially, everyone had to choose a word to reflect on their year and then design it.

In this case, I don't really think the images do the project justice, I appreciated this more for the stories that were told by the people who made these type decisions. Like the fact that redemption is backwards because it is facing its designer and not the rest of the world, they did not see her redemption on the same plane that she did. Also that maturation has subtle gradients because the designer learned that subtlety and simplicity are important for design.
It was just really interesting to see someone else explain their personal designs, instead of seeing them in the real world and simply seeing what an audience is intended to see.

Last But Not Least!
http://webdesignledger.com I found this while looking for our books for class because there is a guide in the freebies section for free typography ebooks. I have since followed this on Twitter and while it may be more design-based than type-based, there are many articles and lists that focus on typography. Such as this little article on Mastering Font Combinations.
Of course, no article will be of any use without Bart's little advice: practice practice practice!

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Lyrical Typography

I have always found the play between an artist trying to say something and a designer translating it visually amazing. Here are a couple of my favorite videos with type in it!

Saturday, September 24, 2011

123klan

Ecko Unltd x 123Klan a prelude to The Exhibit: Spring 2012 from What's Really Good™ on Vimeo.


123klan has been one my favorite designing teams for a while now. Their style is amazingly clean and fun. These guys are not just good graphic designers, they are also amazing graffiti artists and fashion designers. 123klan shows me how i can apply design in amazing and free way while not being afraid to test the viewers knowledge of visual language.

*second video contains language but also awesomeness


Happy Up Here


Royskopp, a Norwegian Electronica band with funky lettering, plays with words in their music video Happy Up Here.

Enjoy!



Friday, September 23, 2011

This video is absolutely amazing. I couldn't help but post it on this blog when I found it!


It's a documentary made by West Elm, after their recent trip to Rajasthan in India. These indian hand-block print artisans have perfected their craft. Check out the print being created at 1:45!!! Unbelievable! I'm still in awe with how intricate and detailed their block prints are....I sort of wish the documentary was longer. I could probably watch it for another hour at least.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Daily Drop Cap

Tyler alumna, Jessica Hische started the Daily Drop Cap project in September of 2009, creating a new illustrated drop capital each day. All of the drop caps are available for public use as long as they are not used commercially. The project was complete after she made 12 sets of alphabets. (That's 312 drop caps!) There is also an additional alphabet with each letter designed by a different guest designer.







Arabic Type and Calligraphy

I've been interested in Islamic art for a while. These art some artists who use type as their primary medium.

Hassan Massoudy- Iraqi born calligrapher living in France. Massoudy often combines his calligraphy with poety and dance.

Massoudy's website

Julien Breton aka Kalaam- French calligrapher who uses the "light-graff" process.

Breton Demo Video
Breton's Website

Reza Abedini- Iranian graphic designer who uses type in his poster designs.

Abedini's Website

This is something I thought was interesting: Arabic Font Design