TYPOGRAPHY AND CITIES

Last blog of the semester. I've enjoyed finding images and writing about them! It's been an interesting experience (and my first blogging experience, too). So, here we go.

I came across a really cool web site called SHOW US YOUR TYPE, which is a project about type and cities. They started the project to provide a creative platform for designers to share their talents and explore cities from a different perspective. Here's the website. http://www.showusyourtype.com .

It seems that they put out an "issue" every so often that exhibits typographic design posters of a specific city. The ones they have on the web site right now are Barcelona, Beirut, Berlin, Cairo, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Kingston, London, Melbourne, Moscow, New York, and Rio de Janeiro. The current city for which they just finished taking submissions (on Nov. 23) is for Tokyo. It seems that anyone can enter, and they provide the exact specifications.

There are many posters for each city, and they are really fun to look through! I'm going to post the ones that are my favorites for each city. These are the ones that caught my eye either because to me they portray the feeling of the particular city, because I love the typography, or because I love other design elements including color, contrast, emphasis, etc. In some cases there were so many great posters that it was REALLY hard to pick a favorite!

Here they are:

 BARCELONA, designed by Ana Areias. The decorative typography appeals to me SO much, as do the colors!

 BEIRUT, designed by David Gutiérrez - I like the illustrative graphics and colors (and I like tabbouleh!).

BERLIN, designed by Remy Sanchez. The different colored photos and the letters of BERLIN made from the negative space is a cool approach.

CAIRO, designed by Bosco. I LOVE the simplicity and minimalism of this Swiss style poster!

 HONG KONG, designed by Law Siu Yin. I love the beautiful colors swirling through the letters, and the flowering blossoms on the tree branches seem very "Hong Kong." It's gorgeous.

 ISTANBUL, designed by Eyüp Ugramaz. I like the typeface and the fact that it's all lower case. Also the brightness of the greens and lighter blues have a neon effect against the dark sky, giving it bright, positive energy.

LONDON, designed by Cake. I almost chose another one that had a double-decker bus and simple typography, but I just couldn't get over the amazingly interesting typography in this one.

KINGSTON, designed by Juan Medina. Very Jamaica, at least I think so. The colors and images are great, and the symbols appear to have cultural significance.

 MELBOURNE, designed by George Skalides. Again, I love the simplicity of this because of its Swiss style  approach and because of the kangaroos!

 MOSCOW, designed by Julio Martinez. The delicate letters are shaped (I believe) to look like Russian glass ornaments. Absolutely beautiful.

NEW YORK, designed by Petr Kay. Very hip and striking design. I love the severe contrasts in weight (and obviously black and white), and the three dots for the O is a cool decorative element.

 RIO DE JANEIRO, designed by Michaël Carreira. Rio is supposedly a very fun, partying city, and this image is beautifully expressed through everything about this poster!

Here is the page that tells how you can participate. http://www.showusyourtype.com/participate.php Too bad the deadline for TOKYO has passed, but I'm sure they will open it up soon for another city! It's a fantastic project! I would love to try to design one for the next city, whatever it will be! Ciao!

FREE FONTS if you want.

The homework in my typography class this week was about free fonts. We were to look for free fonts, find a "good" one, and create a document using it. We answered questions about where to find free fonts, the quality and quantity available, and so on.

What I found was that many free fonts aren't all that good in terms of quality OR that there is only one weight and style available at no cost and you have to pay to get the entire set. Occasionally you'll find something pretty good. I found one on dafont.com called Roboto, and it seems like a good, clean sans-serif font that actually comes in 16 different weights and styles from thin to black, bold and italic. I haven't tried printing with it yet, but I'm curious to see what it looks like printed. I won't attach the document here because it's too big.

The coolest website I've found that has interesting fonts is called Lost Type Co-op - here is the link: http://www.losttype.com . It's the first of its kind pay-what-you-want foundry. It was founded by Riley Cran and Tyler Galpin. All of the funds go directly to the designers of the fonts. Lost Type doesn't take any cut of the sales and hold no funds. You can pay whatever you want, and even enter $0 if you can't afford to pay (students, for example).

The selection isn't very large, but there are some really interesting fonts. Some are very vintage-looking, some are elegant, some are script fonts, some are display fonts. I actually used one called HABANA for one of my projects in typography.

I also like the way in which they display the fonts on the site. Here are a few examples:

I am amazed at how many typefaces are available to us today. I can't imagine what people who lived hundreds of years ago would think if they saw what things are like today. It's pretty mind-blowing!

Paula Scher ROCKS!!!! (Or, are we still spelling it "RAWKS?")

I was inspired by Sidney's presentation on Paula Scher today. I didn't realize she designed SO many album/CD covers!

I decided to check it out. I have all of the CDs below!

CHEAP TRICK! One of my all-time favorite bands! She designed this and several other Cheap Trick album covers, maybe all of them! Awesome.

RADIOHEAD! Now this really does look like her work! Love Radiohead. She designed this one called "Hail to the Thief," and I think she also designed "In Rainbows." Again, very cool.

BOSTON! Now this really goes far back! I saw this during the presentation. I had no idea Paul Scher designed it. I've always thought it was a cool album cover. The colors are fantastic!

I'm really impressed with Paula Scher as an extremely influential designer. I WISH I could design CD covers! That kind of work is going to become fairly obsolete as we move more into the digital music age. But, you never know!

OXYMORON WARS

I'm really excited about the classes I'll be taking in future semesters. This semester has been great, and I am looking forward to learning more!

One of the kinds of graphic design that interests me is moving type. It's also a bit daunting, but that's probably because I have no idea how to do it yet.

This is a great example of a former Parkland student's kinetic type project. I think it's brilliantly creative! I only hope that I can design something half as cool. I hope you enjoy watching the way the words and illustration (mostly words) move and fit the message. I think it's really fun to watch. :)

Kinetic Type Project

What's on the MENU?

In my typography class we are currently designing a menu for a new local restaurant. It's really exciting because they are going to choose one of our designs and use it for their actual menu! As part of the research we have been finding different menus and pinning them on our pinterest board. I thought I would post a few of my favorites and talk about what makes them good in my opinion.

This one is designed by Erin Jang. I love the square layout, which is a bit unusual. The organization is great, and the colorful, whimsical illustrations give it a cool, creative quality. The gray loops and vertical lines add just enough to contain each section, and the black shapes containing the categories work really well too. Overall, I really like this design a lot!!

This menu for Bill's Restaurant was designed by Kyle White. It's a fan and a menu in one, which is really creative! It also makes it easy to hold, so it's functional. Again, the square design is appealing to me, and the colors and quirky art on the back make it feel bright and happy. It's really well organized, each category in its own box of a different color. Love this one too!

This is a menu for 50s Prime Time Cafe, and the first thing I thought of was The Jetsons, especially the shapes and colors! That is the primary appeal for me. It's not one of the easiest to read, and the information could be a lot better organized, but it's just plain cute and nostalgic.

There is a lot that goes into designing a menu, as I'm finding out. The main things are to capture the mood of the restaurant and organize the information so its readable. Hierarchy is a huge consideration as well. Obviously I'm attracted to the colorful ones the most, so it's too bad the one we're designing in class has to be black and white. However, I've got some ideas and have begun sketching them out for our first critique for this project. I'm going to be paying a lot more attention to menus when (or if) I find the time to go out to eat in the next few weeks!

Bon appétit!

Fun with Guerrilla Marketing

I'm currently taking Advertising 101, and our final assignment will be on guerrilla marketing.

Basically, it is an alternative advertising strategy focusing on low-cost, high-yield, unconventional advertising tactics, often very imaginative/creative with the element of surprise. The idea is to make a lasting impression and create great amounts of social buzz about whatever is being advertised.

Here are three good examples.

The first one is for the HBO series TrueBlood. Very witty and creative. I don't know where this is located, but it's pretty funny and memorable!

The next one is an advertisement for a rock radio station. It catches your attention, definitely! Silly, creative, humorous, memorable.

 Finally, and my favorite of the three, is the bench made to look like a partially unwrapped Kit Kat bar. The bench DOES look like a Kit Kat bar! Someone probably noticed that and came up with this idea. Or, the bench was constructed to look like one intentionally. In any case, it's bold, memorable, funny, unexpected.

After looking into guerrilla marketing a little bit, I think I'll enjoy the assignment for my advertising class. However, I have to actually come up with five different tactics for a store, which won't be easy!

I think guerrilla marketing may be a form of advertising I sort of like (I don't tend to like most advertisements in general). I like the ingenuity that's necessary to design them.

CUDO PRO SHOW - And the FIRST PRIZE AWARD goes to.....

CUDO PRO SHOW

Today I went to Indi Go Gallery to see the CUDO (Champaign Urbana Design Organization) PRO SHOW, an exhibit of graphic design pieces by professional designers in the local area. It was quite impressive and enjoyable! 

I apologize for the quality of the photo and the description. However, I wanted to post the winning piece, which is really pretty cool. The illustrative design is brilliantly clever and the message is really easy to read from it. So simple, yet it probably took the designer a LONG time to get the shapes and curves just right. I like the typefaces he chose - simple, easy to read, modern but classy. It's definitely an eye-catcher! 

It has some elements of Swiss/international style - straightforward, to-the-point, simple, abstract (somewhat), symbolic, only the totally necessary elements are there. The only thing I can think of that isn't really typical of Swiss style in this poster is that it's pretty much symmetrical. I love the simplicity, the minimalism, the stark contrast. There were a lot of really great posters and other pieces of graphic design, though, and it's hard to say how they chose this for the first place award, but I think it's deserving of it.

The show closes this Tuesday (Oct. 29), so if you haven't had a chance to see it, better hop to it if you don't want to miss it!

Humane Society Logos

I was at the Champaign County Humane Society yesterday with my mom to help her look for a cat to adopt. Happily, she found one and will be taking her home tomorrow! 

For my typography class we are designing a wordmark along with business card and stationery set, and I'm designing mine for an organization for which I sometimes volunteer called Mobile Mutts Rescue Transport.

The combination of these two thoughts going around in my head got me looking at humane society logos online, so I thought I'd blog about them. Some are really good and some could use a little help. It is interesting to see all of the different ones out there and look at them through the eyes of a novice designer. I can't discuss every one of these, but I will talk about a few of the things I see as I compare them.

One thing I'm noticing as I look at them is that almost all of them have the words HUMANE SOCIETY as the largest print. That's a good idea in terms of hierarchy. They should be the first words you see. The logos all have some kind of illustrative element, usually of a cat and dog, sometimes other animals, sometimes hearts. Some of them are just too busy in terms of the illustrative elements.

The Bay Area Humane Society is trying to do too many things. Making the As look like mountains or rooftops is just a little too much. The heart/paw print with the toe prints also looking like water drops is too much. I think a good solution would be to just use the heart and nix all of the other cute things.

The Coppell Humane Society has a really sweet illustration, but I think it's still a little too busy. Maybe just the cat and dog looking at the heart without the rays shining out. Also, maybe Humane Society should be the largest words, but COPPELL lines up nicely with HUMANE SOCIETY they way they have it.

I like the Humane Society of Harford County logo. It's balanced, hierarchically correct, and the rather simple line art used for the heart with the dog and cat heads is nice. It would also work in just black on white.

The last one I'll talk about is the Champaign County Humane Society redesign. The older version is the black and white one below the other one. It looks outdated. The animals and the text don't have nearly as much of a modern look as the new one, which uses clean, flat silhouettes of the dog and cat, sans-serif all cap font with the top and bottom letters perfectly aligned through careful tweaking. The new one also depicts a dog that has more of a pitbull look, which is the look of the modern mutt these days. The CCHS redesign is actually the best-designed, most modern looking of all of these logos, in my opinion. I'm not crazy about the dark green background, but it's ok. I think the second best is the Harford County logo. It's not that the others are bad; in fact some are quite good. I'm just trying to look with a more critical eye.


I can't wait to see Peanut tomorrow (my mom's new cat, who will be renamed I'm sure)! I'm happy to see so many humane societies and rescue organizations out there; unfortunately there still aren't nearly enough, and over 6 million perfectly adoptable dogs and cats are euthanized every year in the U.S. just because of space issues.

So here's my public service announcement: Please spay and neuter your pets! And, don't breed or buy while shelter pets die! Adopt, volunteer, donate, rescue, spread the word about the millions of homeless pets in this country! THANK YOU!

TRAGIC KINGDOM

I love album cover art, and in my music collection I came across a No Doubt CD from 1995, the cover of which I think is amazing. This was a super-successful record, one of the best-selling albums worldwide. Before taking this graphic design history class I knew the cover art looked "retro," but now maybe I can try to identify what they were going for in terms of graphic style. I don't feel I'm nearly knowledgeable enough to accurately analyze or interpret it, but I'll give it a shot.

To me, the cover has a 1950s advertisement feel. It's a quirky blend of their own unique style as a band (a mixture of ska, pop, punk, new wave, reggae, rock, hair-band guitars, white-boy funk, disco, party-bounce, and the unmistakable vocals of Gwen Stefani) and various elements and motifs from a number of graphic styles (loosely interpreted), including a tad of Art Nouveau (the circle, the beautiful woman, the gold outlines around the letters) and maybe some Early Modern (sort of a photomontage approach, some images that may be seen as unsavory or shocking, like the flies and bug-eaten fruit), geometric shapes, sans-serif type for NO DOUBT-maybe it's Avant Garde?). I'm finding that analyzing something like this is a research project unto itself, but it's pretty interesting.

It does have a variety of elements that, when combined, project familiarity, quirkiness, retro-feel, beauty, playfulness, and a little bit of darkness. I still enjoy the music from this record, and I think one could even use the same terms to describe it. Anyone ever heard it? :)

MONEY AS ART

Paper money. Sometimes dirty and crumpled, sometimes clean and crisp, these pieces of paper (which are used less and less with the increasing use of credit and debit cards) actually incorporate interesting art and typography on them. Yes, graphic design. I'm intrigued by the history. I hadn't really considered before the fact that money (bank notes) have been a very important form visual communication for two centuries, and really is an art form in itself! It's something we just take for granted because it's ubiquitous.

The first three images are from an exhibit in Princeton that demonstrated how "an effort to thwart currency counterfeiters in America's Colonial period spawned an outlet for creative expression that remains vibrant to this day: money as art." http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S29/25/25E44/


This bank note, from 1829, is a beautiful piece of art. I have never thought about who actually creates the images that appear on money. As it says below, American painter Asher B. Durand was a major figure in bank note art in the U.S. in the 1800s. The layout is somewhat awkward to me, but the contrasting typestyles are interesting, and all of the important elements are clearly visible.

Older still is the shilling note from 1763. It shows how illustration was put on Colonial currency to prevent counterfeiting and also to be beautiful aesthetically. Again, the contrasting typestyles are apparent, and also the decoration is quite ornate. 

From the same exhibit, this is an example of European paper currency from Czechoslovakia (1929), and guess who designed it? Poster designer, Aphonse Mucha! It's absolutely gorgeous and typifies the art nouveau style with its organic, symmetrical, ornately decorative motifs and design elements filling up every possible space (even the female form in profile). It's so fun to look at money from other countries. I used to have a collection of coins and bills from different parts of the world that my dad would bring back when he traveled. I don't know what happened to it, but I used to enjoy just looking at it, touching it.

OK, so finishing up with some humor: I came across a website called Geek Tyrant http://geektyrant.com/news/2011/6/7/must-see-pop-culture-money-art.html which has a page dedicated to pop culture money art, such as this five dollar Spock bill! At the bottom is says BOWL HAIRCUT. Check out the site for a few laughs if you like this one. I got a kick out of it. :)

Next time you look at money up close, just check out the details, the fonts, the artwork, the design. I'm a little cash-poor at the moment, but next time I have a bill in my hand, I'll examine it more closely!

WRINKLED BILLBOARD

Who would think it would be a good idea to make a billboard look like crumpled paper? In this case, I think it's pretty brilliant.

Hada Cosmetic Medicine is a local business in Downtown Champaign. They specialize in skin treatments to restore a youthful appearance (chemical peels, botox, facials, laser vein treatment, waxing, and more).

Youth/youthful appearance is so valued in this society. Many young people (and I'm going to say all of this applies primarily to women) are taking preventative steps now to avoid wrinkles and skin damage later. Older women are doing things to look as young as they can. This is BIG BUSINESS!

What's probably the number one skin "problem" that women feel they have or want to avoid? Wrinkles.

I had to take note of this billboard from an advertising standpoint. I think it's designed so well. The wrinkles on the left side catch our attention and as we read the word WRINKLE our eyes move to the right to REMOVER, and right below, Hada Cosmetic Medicine logo along with its easy-to-remember website. This can all be absorbed by our brains in a matter of seconds, which is what billboards need to do to be effective. Simple, clear message, good hierarchy, very readable serif font, easy website... it's perfect. And, by the way, I really like their wordmark. It's so elegant.

Does it appeal to me as a woman (of a certain age)? Well, I suppose it does. However, while I've had a couple of facials in my life, I don't plan to spend a lot of money (and I assume it's expensive) to have procedures done that will reduce my wrinkles. Mainly I stay out of the sun, I don't smoke (did you know that smoking has a dramatic effect on your skin?), I eat pretty well, I moisturize and wear sunscreen, and I use gentle, natural facial products. Ask me again in 10 years. Maybe I'll be a Hada client by then. :)

STRUWWELPETER

Looking around one's home can be just as interesting as being out in the community when it comes to interesting graphic design in the form of books, book covers, CD covers, art, and so on. 

When I was little I was intrigued by STRUWWELPETER by Heinrich Hoffman, a German book (this was an English translation), which is a rather gruesome collection of rhyming cautionary stories, the message of which is that if you don't behave properly, the consequences will be harsh, to say the least!  The illustrations alone are extremely chilling. My parents had bought a copy in the 1950s; the original having been published in 1845. There have been over 400 different editions, and it has been translated into many different languages. Notice the differences in the book covers, the one on the left from 1995 and the other from a lot earlier (but there is no publication date in the book!). Actually the main differences are in the type, not the illustration.

One of the stories is called, "The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb." Conrad's mother leaves him alone and warns him that if he sucks his thumb while she's away, the tailor will come with giant scissors and cuts off his thumbs, as he does to all little boys who suck their thumbs. "...and cuts their thumbs clean off, --and then, you know, they never grow again.". Conrad doesn't heed her warning and sucks his thumb; sure enough, the tailor comes and cuts both of them off! When his mother returns, she basically says: I told you so.  Yikes!!!

The illustrations on the second page are rather horrifying! Well, maybe not by today's standards considering all that children are exposed to, but still! It's so graphic, with the thumb right in the scissors and the drops of blood falling down! I don't remember being frightened by this as a kid, though. As I said, I was intrigued. It left quite an impression on me, however, and as an adult I have collected a few different editions of Struwwelpeter. The main thing is that the story can pretty much be gleaned by looking at the illustrations alone.

One other example is "The Dreadful Story About Harriet and the Matches" in which Harriet is left alone with her two cats who try to warn her about playing with matches. Of course she doesn't take their advice and ends up catching on fire, and her cats scream and cry as she burns to death, crying a pond of tears next to her shoes and pile of smoldering ashes!!! Again, the illustrations clearly tell the story, even if you don't read the text. So graphic!

(I do tend to be attracted to the bizarre and macabre when it comes to books and movies.)

Just one observation about the text - the older edition's print is not as readable; the letters and the lines are rather crowded. I tried to figure out the font using identifont.com, and I answered 25 questions about letter features; the font is something close to Cushing or perhaps a Caslon font, but I couldn't get the exact one figured out. I had better luck in identifying the font in the newer edition using identifont; it is printed in Weidemann! I was excited that the font identifier actually worked! In any case, the font is very readable, comfortable, has enough space.

The newer book does have provide some interesting information in the afterword and on the back cover:  The book was an immediate success in Germany and became famous internationally, and it has become "widely recognized as one of the most popular and influential children's books ever written."

The illustrations were initially lithographed. "Later they were engraved on wood and electroplated; the hand coloring, done with stencils, became a fairly important local industry." This edition reprinted the color plates that came from an early German edition.

Regarding any controversy, it is stated that "Many educators, from the book's earliest days, have had ideological objections to the violence of the action and the drastic fates of the disobedient children, but young readers and listeners over the decades have seen the humor in the impossibly exaggerated situations, and have endorsed Hoffmann's pedagogic views by taking the book to their hearts."

This was a fun little book study for me. :)



sources:

Struwwelpeter in English Translation, Heinrich Hoffmann, Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1995

Struwwelpeter: Merry Stories and Funny Pictures, Heinrich Hoffman, The Grolier Society, Inc., New York, date of publication unknown

My fascination with playing cards (and other card decks for that matter)

In reading the Meggs text, the short section about playing cards and how they came to be reminded me of my own fascination with cards and my little collection of card decks which I decided to dig out and just enjoy looking through them all. I have playing cards from other countries that make absolutely no sense to me, but they are beautiful and create a sense of wonder in me about how the games are played. I also have decks of cards of things like Tibetan art and Buddhist deities. Here I thought I would focus on traditional playing cards with which we're all familiar. The suits - diamonds, hearts, clubs, spades (it was interesting to read in the text where these symbols actually came from) are interesting in themselves. The number of uses of cards (not just for card games - remember building card houses, anyone?) is vast, and I am by no means a card player. I know a few games and have played my share of Rummy, Crazy Eights, Hearts, and various Poker games, but what I really enjoy is just looking at them, feeling them, shuffling them. There are decks for any enthusiast; for example, this German deck of cards, each with a different beautifully illustrated cat, is obviously for the cat lover. The cards don't have the actual number of diamonds, hearts, etc., that correspond with the number. I guess there's no room because of the cats.  Love it. And, there's a huge difference between decks with regard to the shape of the symbols and the typestyle of the number and letters. 

So I hear that Shrinky-Dinks have made a comeback these days, but they originated in the 1970s when I was a kid. I LOVED them! This tiny matchbook card deck was something I made when I was a kid. I traced the joker but made the teeny tiny cards freehand. I don't think there are 52 cards left, but I'm glad I held on to this little piece of my past. The fascination began way, way back. :)

The third example (it was difficult to pick just three) is of a deck someone brought me from Australia. The artwork was designed by an aboriginal artist, and I absolutely love that style and actually try to emulate it in my own painting. The unique attribute about this deck is the perfectly square corners. I don't think I've ever seen a deck with that. The main beauty of the cards is on the backside - but the design is identical on each one. There's a ghost image on each of the card fronts as well. The suit shapes are slightly different and somehow more elegant than what I'm used to seeing. Perhaps something many wouldn't notice. That's what this is about, though, right? Really paying attention?

I wish I could include images of all of my card decks, but that would be ridiculous... My realization: I never really stopped to consider the graphic design of playing cards; I just have always been very fond of them and get excited when I see something that is out of the ordinary or especially beautiful or quirky or interesting in some way. :)