Typezilla

A font of shame

2011-10-25T16:44:00.000-07:00

Author, Simon Garfield wrote a really nice piece in the L.A. Times about his love for typography, and his (and others) disdain for the new London Olympics logo. I would have to agree, it really is a low point in design for the Olympic history. And once you see what Lisa Simpson is doing to Bart, you can't unsee it.

Garfield, references the other logos, so I thought, let's take a look at the others and see how poorly this London one stacks up. Here's a list of every logo from the summer and winter Olympic games from 1924 to 2012. My personal fave is Athens. The blend of traditional with the handwritten logo is simply beautiful.

Typographer Ryan Gosling

2011-10-25T09:29:00.000-07:00

Smooth and handsome Gosling lays it down for the ladies (and typographers).

Awesome Poster from Vahalla Studios

2010-09-15T22:46:00.000-07:00

Check out the full size here. Love the gray on black printing.

Props to Migtastic for the find.

A Field Guide To Typestaches

2010-07-26T11:38:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't love a mustache made out of type?!

Inception Typeface = Gotham. How appropriate.

2010-07-20T15:10:00.000-07:00

Seeing as Christopher Nolan's last two films dealt with Gotham city's caped crusader, I wonder if it was on purpose, or a happy accident that his following film uses the font named after the flying bat's city. (This is the kind of stuff that keeps me awake at night)

BTW, the film was one of the best I've seen in years. I can't wait to see it again.

Someone's been drunk blogging with Comic Sans

2010-07-10T11:10:00.000-07:00

http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/news/gilbert_letter_100708.html

Unintentionally Dirty Font Fails

2010-06-23T09:56:00.000-07:00

As always, be careful out there when choosing typefaces. More here.

Beautiful Words Written in Knives

2010-06-21T21:49:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Rebecca Rivera for sharing this. "Saw this in Paris. The words are written with knives." I love it. (click to enlarge)

I'm Comic Sans, Asshole.

2010-06-17T11:00:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Miguel and Don for sending me this. This is rich. (BTW, I still hate you Comic Sans)

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/monologues/15comicsans.html

Concert Posters

2010-06-06T12:02:00.001-07:00

Love the simplicity and design of these beautiful concert posters. HT to Miguel for the awesome find.

Old School Type Love/Hate

2010-04-09T15:06:00.000-07:00

United Weights of Helvetica

2010-03-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

Sweet. It's about time the weights of Helvetica were united. Thanks to Miguel for the find. Buy the shirt here.

Typefaces and Dogs

2010-03-17T22:49:00.000-07:00

HT to Don Lupo for the find.
More here.

Beautiful Graffitti

2010-03-08T22:39:00.000-08:00

Beautiful street art. RIPO was raised in NYC and now lives in Barcelona. His parents were creatives that brought him at an early age to galleries and museums.

Star Wars vs. Saul Bass

2010-03-03T21:00:00.000-08:00

French Fry "A"

2010-02-11T23:32:00.000-08:00

Via Jessica Hische http://twitter.com/jessicahische/status/8824374345

My message in a bottle

2010-01-31T21:41:00.000-08:00

I recently took part in a quickie quiz online that asked 8 or so questions about ABC's Lost. I managed to get them right, so they sent me (and 814 others) the below package. A note and a flash drive with a movie clip on it. I was under the assumption that the footage was exclusive, but looking on the ABC website, the clip was there, too. So, I'm guessing the exclusivity was the message, "Nothing's Irreversible." Which sounds a lot like an Adidas tagline.

At any rate, I can't wait for the final season.

By the way, the video on the flash drive was 102 MB. Would've been cool if it was 108. (Nerd Level: Rising...)

Oh, and for the typophiles that follow this blog for typography stuff, the Lost logo looks like a variation on Impact, and the note is illustrated.

Helveticookies

2010-01-25T16:17:00.000-08:00

Mmmm, I could eat a whole stanza's worth.

I'm curious how the "O", "D", "B", "R", "P" and "Q" cookies handle the counter (empty space inside the stroke). Created by graphic designer, Beverly Hsu.

HT to the magnificent Don Lupo for the find

Interesting Letterhead pieces

2010-01-18T20:35:00.000-08:00

A writer friend of mine, Robert Manley found this and thought his AD friends would find it interesting.

One word: yes.

here's the rest here.

Avatar and the worst possible font choice. Papyrus

2010-01-04T22:18:00.000-08:00

I saw Avatar this weekend. And while the story was decent, the action was amazing and the special effects were mind-blowing, I don't understand why James Cameron chose the single worst typeface ever, Papyrus. Was Comic Sans not loaded in the designers' computer?

He uses it as the main logo

And as subtitles throughout

A mini Twitter revolt has begun, understandably. This film cost gazillions to make. They could've at least dropped some coin on a type designer to create a custom font. Shows how little respect the world of typography gets.

Type T-Shirts

2009-12-17T16:51:00.001-08:00

Cool shirts. Check out more here.

Superman/Batman Public Enemies

2009-12-08T15:37:00.000-08:00

Love the title treatment for this. Via Art of the Title Sequence

So Disappointed - Brothers Typeface

2009-11-20T12:14:00.000-08:00

Why is it that studios market a film with a killer type treatment and then when it's time for trailers and the actual movie, they resort to boiler plate, status quo boringness?

Case in point, "Brothers". The typeface on top is used in the one-sheets and obviously, the site. Love the disjointed cut style on the bottom.

But the trailer has the old stand-by. Trajan. What gives?

Franklin Gothic

2009-11-11T07:31:00.000-08:00

HT to Miguel for the find

Kick Ass Zombieland logo

2009-09-30T21:24:00.000-07:00

Check out how not all the letters are the same type of neon. Love it. It reminds me of an uber-extreme version of the Picturehouse logo.

And taking some visual cues here

And here

5th Typophile Film Festival Opening Titles

2009-09-28T17:20:00.000-07:00

Typophile Film Festival 5 Opening Titles from Brent Barson on Vimeo.

Beautiful handcrafted type treatment trailer by BYU design students and faculty, for the 5th Typophile Film Festival. I love the tactile-ness of the typefaces, and according to the post, everything in the film is real—no CG effects. HT to art director Jennifer Lai for shooting this my way.

Another 3 pixel high typeface

2009-09-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

From designer, Ken Perlin: "I wanted to design the smallest screen font that would actually be readable. My design assumes that screen pixels are horizontal striped as RGBRGB, as are most LCD screens these days"

TypeRadio Podcast

2009-09-09T14:10:00.000-07:00

Great idea for serious type nerds. Subscribe via iTunes or check out the site here.

Typeradio from Blocter on Vimeo.

CUSTOM LETTERS at COMIC CON 09

2009-08-11T22:00:00.000-07:00

“You wanna take a picture of what?” he asked.

“The letters.”

“The letters?”

“Yes. Some of the lettering.”

“And why is that?”

“Because…I like letters.”

From LetterCult

Toyota Creates A Font

2009-07-28T10:44:00.000-07:00

The concept and process are hella cool, but the end result is a bit underwhelming.

iQ font - When driving becomes writing / Full making of from wireless on Vimeo.

Turn it off, you're wasting fonts.

2009-07-06T08:14:00.000-07:00

Interesting typographic sculpture from the portfolio of Richard J. Evans exhibited at Free Range Graduate Art & Design Show.

NEO DECO. Damn gorgeous typeface.

2009-07-04T23:45:00.000-07:00

Alex Trochut is a freelance graphic designer from Barcelona. With a love for type and illustration he has created a variety of work for clients including Nike, Microsoft Zune, Cadbury's, LG, The Guardian, British Airways, Fallon, Non-Format, and The Rolling Stones.

Buy it here.

Google Maps Alphabet!

2009-06-15T16:18:00.000-07:00

Rhett Dashwood's project, Google Maps Typography. Reminds me a lot of like Eric Tabuchi's truck letters which I think is pretty damn cool, too.

Wedding Invitation

2009-06-15T14:10:00.000-07:00

Love the attention to detail in this wedding invite.

Hello Skateboards

2009-06-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

Hello is a collaboration between California based skateboarder Buddy Carr and New York based graphic designer Antonio Carusone. Pretty cool.

Huge step in web typography

2009-05-31T07:56:00.000-07:00

"Every major browser is about to support the ability to link to a font. That means you can write a bit of CSS, include a URL to a font file, and have your page display with the typography you expect. For designers and developers, this is a significant step forward. No longer will you need to trap your content in images or Flash just to express yourself visually. Pages will be more usable, accessible, and indexable. This is a massive upgrade for the web."

http://blog.typekit.com/2009/05/27/introducing-typekit/

Movie Credit Type couldn't get any more squeezed

2009-05-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

I rented Valkyrie this past weekend and turned to box over to see if that was in fact, Eddie Izzard (it was), but I needed to hold the box perpendicular to my face to actually read the type.

I Shot The Serif

2009-05-28T12:22:00.000-07:00

...but I did not shoot the descender...

Buy it here

Cool Milk Type

2009-05-25T20:40:00.001-07:00

Check out the tutorial here.

Good Job Conan!

2009-05-21T19:57:00.000-07:00

For its new logo, Conan explained his motives: “I wanted a logo that acknowledged the long, rich tradition of The Tonight Show while still looking good on hats, T-shirts, mugs, lawn furniture, notebooks, stemware, urns, defibrillators, water bottles, cell phones, sports equipment, pens, vacuums, chimes and our new line of unisex cologne.”

Where can I order my urn?

Looks like they used House Industries Neutra face. Great looking font. Although they should've used a real apostrophe.

It's a BIG improvement over the last logo.

Beautiful New Typeface - Deliscript

2009-05-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

I was thrilled to check my email inbox this morning to find a very nice thank you note from superstar designer, Michael Doret for reviewing his then work-in-progress typeface, Deliscript. You've seen his work most notably the Knicks logo.

He even included a copy of this beautiful typeface. Which I can't wait to use. I wish I had it 5 years ago when I did the Carl's Jr. Pastrami burger commercial. There's a ton of signage in that commercial. I ended up using House Industries Sign Painter (along with real sign painters). But Deliscript would've been a hell of a lot better.

Love the attention to detail. There are so many alternates and different ways to set the text using the OpenType pallete. Love the tails and the ability to make them longer and choose different styles.

Truly a beautiful typeface. Buy it here.

Smallest Typeface

2009-05-19T10:26:00.000-07:00

3x3 is a typeface based on a 3x3 bitmap matrix. It was created by type designer Anders de Flon Those are some hard-working pixels.

The typeface has appeared on several record sleeves; a slightly modified version appears on the cover of LFO's Sheath, designed by The Designers Republic.

HT to the magnificent Don Lupo for the find

Aaaagh!

2009-05-18T16:51:00.001-07:00

For some reason, the Y and the Z are missing. Too difficult?

Steve Jobs Fontified

2009-05-13T23:55:00.000-07:00

From the artist "This is a typeface-driven design based on the "Here's to the crazy ones" ad campaign from Apple in the 90s, using Motter Tektura, Apple Garamond, Myriad, Univers, Gill Sans, and Volkswagen AG Rounded, fonts present in Apple branding and products."

Coca-Cola Summer Cans

2009-05-08T14:02:00.000-07:00

Take note Pepsi.

Check out the beauty here.

Branding of Lussumo products

2009-05-08T13:51:00.000-07:00

Beautiful hand drawn lettering for an open source community software suite. More here.

New Typeface for Roadways

2009-04-30T22:24:00.000-07:00

The ‘overglow’ of the bright white letters on the darker reflective background of traffic signs makes it hard to read the signs. Thus a clearer one was created. Clearview Typeface. From the NYT.

New Detroit Lions Custom Type

2009-04-26T21:09:00.000-07:00

Paul over at UniWatch HATES the new Detroit Lions unis. I, however, think they are a HUGE improvement from the previous design. I appreciate the fact that they didn't completely overhaul the design, but gave it a subtle, contemporary look.

Note the new wordmark with custom details to complement the "fierce" Lion logo.

This customization applies to the numeral typography, as well. Check out the swoopes in the corners of the numbers.

C'mon Paul. MUCH better than last year's hideocity.

Helvetica Film Limited Edition Box Set

2009-04-21T12:17:00.000-07:00

Want.
Found here.

Comic Sans Abuse

2009-04-20T13:37:00.000-07:00

Comic Sans from Sam and Anita on Vimeo.

I previously commented on the site Ban Comic Sans. Well, here's a video elaborating on it.

HT to Miguel

Beautiful Vintage Porsche Posters

2009-04-16T14:35:00.000-07:00

When I was 10, I wanted a Porsche 911 Carerra when I grew up. Still have time...

Love these posters from Grain Edit. More here.

How the typeface Sand ruined the most amazing video in months

2009-04-13T21:45:00.000-07:00

Click here for the truly amazing video. (Take your Dramamine®)

The typeface "Hawaiian Starlight" in Sand makes me want to hurl more than the spinning of the stars.

Typography In Venice

2009-04-02T12:21:00.000-07:00

Kudos for Sam for finding this awesome poster on the streets of Venice, CA. You can really tell a lot about a person by the handwriting (and, of course the misspellings and punctuation).

Typographic Posters

2009-04-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

From Big Spaceship. A collection (directory if you will) of some pretty fantabulous typographic posters.

Wordle

2009-03-29T22:16:00.000-07:00

Wordle turned my ramblings into a nice type cloud.

"Vintage" Dharma Initiative ads

2009-03-26T13:16:00.000-07:00

Being a big fan of Lost, I found these hugely lostgastic. Pretty sure they came from ABC, but they could be fan art, too. Note the use of the old standby, Helvetica. Reminiscent of the old VW ads.

More here.

Watchmen Opening Titles

2009-03-16T14:16:00.000-07:00

http://videolog.uol.com.br/video.php?id=418000

Also a great article over on LetterCult about the designer Corey Holms and the typography (Futura Condensed) of the Watchmen.

Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Typography

2009-03-15T22:42:00.001-07:00

My partner at work, Miguel brought this video to my attention. I forgot how much I liked not only the show, but the opening graphics. The posterized monochromatic animals, the old-school colors, the Indian (Native American, now) logo. But what is really beautiful, is the custom type in the beginning. Look carefully, and you'll see that no two letters are the same.

I noticed that it looked strangely familiar:

Then I realized, that it's highly likely that type designer Ed Benguiat designed the opening titles. I was unable to verify it, so if any one knows, let me know. Here are a couple of other pieces from Ed's type design. Here and here.

To use on bad kearners

2009-03-12T08:33:00.000-07:00

From For The Love Of Type

Typoholism

2009-03-10T13:07:00.001-07:00

From parachutefonts.com

For all of you out there, typography and twitter junkies, when you feel deprived of your regular dose of typographic inspirations, here is Typoholism, your new addiction. The guys responsible for the Read Between the Leading (Aaron Heth and Matt McInerney) have launched a new twitter aggregator for typography posts, tagged under #typoholism. Come and take your free dose!…

http://typoholism.com/

Helvetica. From a tube.

2009-03-06T13:34:00.000-08:00

Download them here: http://www.autobahn.nl/grafisch_ontwerp/typografie/freshfonts.php

Watchmen and keeping with Futura

2009-03-05T17:59:00.000-08:00

Just saw The Watchmen (I saw an early screening... NERD!) It was true to the book, but in the end, I think Zach Snyder had a hard time getting all the content into the 2 1/2 hour format. It will be interesting to see how it does at the box office.

On to the typeface... I have a deep fondness for Futura. Sure it's dated, sure it's the old standby for ads in the golden age. But I love it. I was happy to see Snyder and crew, kept the typeface. Here it is in it's condensed version.

It's obvious that Wes Anderson has a similar love for the typeface. As documented here.

Of course, it will always have a substantial link to old school films, too...

Simple typefaces aren't always better

2009-03-03T11:21:00.000-08:00

The masses have spoken and have shot down one of The Arnell Group's awful designs. Wish the same could be done with the Pepsi logo. Hear him try to explain it, here.

Clean typography can be good in some instances, but in this case, the previous organic-ness of the straw in the orange was simple, beautiful and said exactly what is needed.

From the New York Times:

The about-face comes after consumers complained about the makeover in letters, e-mail messages and telephone calls and clamored for a return of the original look.

Some of those commenting described the new packaging as “ugly” or “stupid,” and resembling “a generic bargain brand” or a “store brand.”

“Do any of these package-design people actually shop for orange juice?” the writer of one e-mail message asked rhetorically. “Because I do, and the new cartons stink.”

Others described the redesign as making it more difficult to distinguish among the varieties of Tropicana or differentiate Tropicana from other orange juices.

The one thing that IS cool about the new design, is the orange twist-top cap. I'm glad to hear, that it is staying.

David Carson at TED

2009-03-02T12:35:00.000-08:00

It's 6 years old, now, but still relevant.

Lasers!

2009-03-01T21:05:00.000-08:00

Wow. A LASER FONT.
Created using mirrors and of course, lasers. I love the different "weights" in certain lettering. For instance the "O" is fairly light, while the "D" is blazin'.
Check out their site. Word is they've digitized this. designed by created by Oscar & Ewan

Phil Yamada

2009-03-01T20:31:00.000-08:00

From graphic designer Phil Yamuda.

WhatTheFont for iPhone

2009-02-26T10:06:00.000-08:00

I often use sites to find out what certain fonts are, but now I'm gonna use the magic iPhone.

From the site: "Ever seen a great font in a magazine ad, poster, or on the web and wondered what font it is? Whip out your iPhone and snap a photo, and WhatTheFont for iPhone will identify that font in seconds!

WhatTheFont for iPhone connects directly to MyFonts’ acclaimed font identification service, which has been helping customers pinpoint mystery fonts for 10 years. It works via Wi-Fi or the mobile phone network, so you can get your font fix right there on the spot"

Harvey Milk Speech

2009-02-23T16:38:00.001-08:00

I saw Milk Saturday night, and immediately knew my Mickey Rourke Oscar pick in our company pool was in trouble.
Sean was amazing and happy he won. In honor of Penn's Oscar win last night (Milk) here's a cool music video of one of his speeches.

Kern T

2009-02-19T10:50:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of http://www.mysoti.com/mysoti/designer/Inku/product/190057

Impulsive Typetoo

2009-02-19T10:18:00.000-08:00

From sorrentinog4 on Typophile"Semi-jestfully I would talk with my friends about how stupid it would be to get an I <3 Helvetica tattoo... an even stupider idea would be to get it as a tramp stamp. Well, I got good reviews from my posse and impulsively I got it last night..."

I would've gone a point size down.

Best Corn Syrup Can Ever

2009-02-09T22:17:00.001-08:00

The Science of Comic Book Lettering

2009-02-09T09:57:00.000-08:00

Comic Book lettering has some grammatical and aesthetic traditions that are pretty damn unique.
Blambot's Nate Piekos has written a comprehensive and informative article on the typographic conventions in comic-book lettering. A bunch of cool things regarding lettering I had never thought of:

BREATH MARKS
Also called "cat's whiskers", "fireflies" or "crow's feet", breath marks are usually three little dashes stacked vertically that come before and after some sort of cough or sputter. The word with the breath marks around it may be italicized, lowercase or bold. There seems to be no hard and fast rule for these. I generally italicize and use lowercase and if the coughing gets really bad, I use bold. If you use an opening and closing set with no word in between, you get a symbol that looks like a tiny bursting bubble that indicates death or unconsciousness of a character. This is often used to end the text in a wavy balloon.

CROSSBAR I
This is probably the biggest mistake seen amongst amateur letterers. An "I" with the crossbars on top and bottom is virtually only used for the personal pronoun, "I." The only other allowable use of the "crossbar I" is in abbreviations. Any other instance of the letter should just be the vertical stroke version. Although I would debate it, you occasionally see the "crossbar I" used in the first letter of the first word of a sentence, or the first letter of someone's name.

HT to Don for the find.

Killer type treatments from Sean Freeman

2009-02-06T18:04:00.000-08:00

http://www.thereis.co.uk/

The Evolution of the SuperBowl Logo

2009-02-02T13:19:00.000-08:00

NOt sure what typeface was used for this year's logo. Most likely it was a House Industries custom typeface. I love the clean look.

As well as next year's logo revealed:

"I'm big, badass and ORANGE. GO BEARS!"

Cereal Box Design

2009-01-27T14:01:00.000-08:00

Came across this the other day and thought I'd post it. It's great inspiration for campy and kitschy design. Also, while you're at it, check out John K.'s blog (of Ren & Stimpy fame). He's a stickler for design in this era.

The work of Pedro Vilas-Boas

2009-01-26T13:35:00.000-08:00

Found some really inspiring work from Portuguese Designer, Pedro Vilas-Boas. See more here.

Jimmy Fallon Late Night Logo Design

2009-01-22T09:41:00.000-08:00

On March 2, Jimmy Fallon will fill the giant shoes of Conan O'Brien in becoming the host of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Now, he's going through logo design choices. The looks all feel like they came from the SNL school of fonts. Which would make sense since the designers Emily Oberman and Bonnie Siegler of Number Seventeen, designed the SNL titles for the last fourteen years. On one hand, it's good to build on the equity of Fallon's SNL past. But on the other, he should break away and be unique and original. Check out his site here.

Communications Arts to scale back... but to offer a Typography Annual

2009-01-12T09:55:00.000-08:00

Describing it as wanting to “bring editorial consistency to our product, save natural resources and give our subscribers more of what they want,” CA is cutting its issue frequency from eight down to six issues per year. Beginning with the May/June issue of this year, every publication will become an annual (Interactive, Illustration, Photography, Design, Advertising, Typography), as well as containing feature articles. Sounds like a better product to us. Those-in between issues were rarely all that glamorous.

Bank Gothic. The world's most common trailer typeface

2009-01-02T14:01:00.000-08:00

Check out this kick ass trailer for Wolverine. Just like every other trailer, it uses Bank Gothic. Granted, this movie already earned my hard-earned cash.
X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE HD

NBA All Star Unis unveiled

2008-12-27T22:04:00.000-08:00

The custom type is pretty cool. It's got a little bit of Veer's Alphaville and a whole lot of inspiration from Space Mountain. I like everything except the phoenix flames on the leg. The idea of linking it to the area is nice, but the execution could've been a lot better. Looks like it was designed with PC clip art. Here are some pics of what they'll look like in action courtesy of NBA2K.

The good news is the design of NBA All-Star games is getting a WHOLE lot better...

CBS Special Presentation Ident - 1973

2008-12-23T15:17:00.001-08:00

Now THIS reminds me of Christmas, because following this was either a Rankin-Bass Rudolf special, Frosty, The Grinch or a Charlie Brown Christmas.

Tropfest NY 2008 winner uses only NYC typography.

2008-12-18T10:29:00.001-08:00

Jason van Genderen’s Mankind Is No Island – a 3 ½ minute film that was shot entirely on a cell phone – took home the top $20,000 prize at Tropfest NY, the world’s largest short film festival. http://www.tropfest.com/ny/

HT to Armando for the find

Sol Sender - Obama Logo Design Part 1 of 2

2008-12-15T09:05:00.001-08:00

One of the key aspects of Obama's campaign was the Obama brand. I think we'll see, more attention to design in campaigns from now on, especially presidential ones. I really like that 2nd finalist. It was a little playful, which could've hurt his chances, though.

Mexicana's new look

2008-12-11T07:51:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of BrandNew, Mexicana has done a bit of rebranding. They smartly went away from the Mayan bold blocky looks that was associated with AeroMexico. Thoughts?

The Origin of The Hollywood Logos

2008-12-10T22:11:00.000-08:00

Neatorama has a pretty interesting compilation of the studio logos and their origin. Like the Dreamworks kid fishing is the artist's son, MGM logo was inspired by Columbia University mascot, the lions and the Warner Brothers all changed their names (including surname).

The Curious Case of the Benjamin Button Typeface

2008-12-06T17:59:00.000-08:00

You can't miss the marketing campaign for David Fincher's latest picture, but I've noticed that they changed the typeface from a beautifully custom designed, very literary feeling movie title, to a no-thought-put-to-it, Baskerville typeface that looks like it was thrown together in 3 minuutes. WTF!?

See for yourself:

BEFORE
Props on the smaller "F" and the contrast between the skinny "U"s and the "O"s! Fuckin' beautiful.

AFTER
Meh. See for yourself. The site is littered with Baskerville.

What's next? Australia in Times Roman?

At least they didn't use Trajan.

Type Conference, Veer Style.

2008-12-02T21:58:00.000-08:00

Went to a very inspiring discussion on typography with fellow DDBers, Andrea, Jennifer and Pa hosted by Veer. Among many cool things (like script type is the most purchased type from Veer) was this video clip that is both hilarious and a sad refelection on the state of design.

Will post more later, but was happy to meet Brian Jaramillo of Agency 26 and Lettercult who shared his custom lettering goodies with us.

Typophile heaven.

The Typography of Quantum of Solace

2008-11-18T08:45:00.000-08:00

The new Bond uses some great handwritten type whenever 007 goes to a different locale.

Done by Tomato http://www.tomato.co.uk/

Alphabeat What Is Happening New Single Official Video

2008-11-12T12:21:00.001-08:00

HUMAN TYPE! A very happy video featuring DIY type. The typography starts around 1:00 in. HT to Miguel.

Mastercard Rebranding

2008-11-07T21:37:00.000-08:00

Ick. I can't believe a company would brand themselves with this. The type, which doesn't work with the image isn't styled. It looks like Lucida Sans. Double-ick.

If they were going for a logo that looks like a retina diagram, then they've succeeded!

TIME Magazine Photoshop FAIL

2008-11-02T15:38:00.000-08:00

Make that 8 things that could go wrong with voting machines. "Uh, mine is, er... floating."

A Celebration of Vintage Typography

2008-10-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

Ahhh,... when designers weren't using the default InDesign font tools as a crutch and actually spending time with type and creating art.

Simply beautiful.

See more richness here.

Pepsi. You have to be kidding.

2008-10-23T22:26:00.000-07:00

A contributor on the site Brand New found the registered work for the new Pepsi, Mtn Dew and Gatorade work. Now, this doesn't mean it will all be used or that this will be its ultimate form, but if it's been registered or trademarked it sure won't be too different.

It reminds me a little of this guy...

Or these guys...

The Obama Brand

2008-10-21T10:05:00.001-07:00

Watching this year's election, one thing is obvious. Obama has created a solid brand. He's incorporated a consistent visual look that ties in beautifully with his strategy of hope, change and progress. On a side note, it has forced McCain to do the same but not with the same consistency as Obama. You might even see several similarities with his look and Obama's. Imitation is the sincerest form of trying to win an election.

First, he uses the H&FJ designed typeface, Gotham to communicate the themes of freshness and newness.

Secondly, his site is just visually beautiful. Using Gotham and a visual style that incorporates gradients and blends, he really hots a home run aesthetically and hits the strategy perfectly.

Lastly, his logo.

No other candidate has treated themself as a BRAND. George W. Bush, flirted a little bit by using just the "W" symbol, but not to the extent of carrying over on all pieces of communication. Designed by Chicago design firm, Sol Sender, The Obama "O" can be used by itself, or with other elements, the stripes are rows of fields, the inner "O" is the sun rising (again, utilizing the theme of change). It speaks volumes of a candidate who can create consistency and communicate a message visually. Just think how well he'll run the country.

Look at his competition.

Not nearly as clever or thought out as Obama's. But at least they haven't copied his style, yet.

Title this under: Things I Would Do If I Had Time

2008-10-14T21:54:00.000-07:00

Design skateboards.

I found this cool site where it gives you all the resources to do so. Now if it only offered to clone me.

Laundomat Typography

2008-09-29T09:55:00.000-07:00

Beautiful typography courtesy of Aestheically Gretch.

Ricky Gervais and the "Arthur" font

2008-09-26T07:30:00.000-07:00

I was flipping through the latest Entertainment Weekly and I read an article about some of the big roles Ricky Gervais had turned down over the past couple of years. He had an offer to star in a remake of the Dudley Moore film, Arthur, Gervais responded, ''I said 'no' straight-away. Why would I mess with a perfect comedy? They know people don't watch films that have the wrong font — it's got an '80s font.''

Now, I can picture drunk Dudley, Liza Minelli and butler John Gielgud, but for the life of me, I can't remember what typeface was used. I know it would look dated today.

As my co-worker, writer, Miguel would say, "If only there was some way of instantly finding out information. You know, a collection or network of computers somehow linked together in some web fashion..."

To the library!

Okay, so the reason I couldn't picture what typeface was used is because A) It wasn't really a typical bad "80's" font. and B) They used several different treatments. Seems like consistency wasn't that important back then. Take a look.

By the way the fonts appear to be Bodoni and Franklin Gothic.

Quebec Typography

2008-09-18T00:45:00.001-07:00

Signage Quebec City, originally uploaded by mahhcus.

During a summer vacation in Quebec, I found myself taking shots (primarily of "Des Bar Laitier" which are Ice Cream Stands) of typography. The design is beautiful there. Not too commercialized and not too Americanized. Check out more here http://www.flickr.com/photos/9192597@N06/sets/72157607352777526/.

You've got to be kidding

2008-09-15T09:15:00.000-07:00

THIS is the new NBA team logo for the Oklahoma Thunder?

It's as if the designer was told to ignore any imagery about the state of Oklahoma, thunder or... basketball to that extent. The colors are safe, the type is safe, the whole logo is safe. Terrible. To me, the best logos are ones that define the city and have a purpose graphically. The two that do this the best, are the simplicity of the Celtics logo and the Spurs logo.

Of course, this latest thunder isn't the worst logo. No, Washington has that top honor.

The importance of whitespace

2008-09-12T20:58:00.000-07:00