Going Rogue

Going Rogue - An Experimental Typeface from Ryan Ogborn on Vimeo.

For someone who has serious contempt for firearms, I find it ironic that my last 3 posts all have a gun-related theme. This one comes from my student, Ryan Ogborn, who took to a shooting gallery to "design" his experimental font this quarter. He claims it is inspired by the font, Bernhardt Medium and Sarah Palin. I admit I was very reluctant to give him my blessing on this production, but I think it is quite mavericky–and in that case–experimental. I'm rather offended however when I see the bullet-riddled face of Bernhardt, (Cheney could have done better), but sometimes one has to take a hit for art's sake. Frankly, I think Ryan scored a big hit with his Palin-inspired tribute. However the winking emoticon on his poster (click to enlarge) got a big zero.

Misinformation Graphics

Ok, I don't mean to get all political, but this creepy infographic steps on the toes of free speech. It appeared recently on Sarah Palin's Facebook page and lists 20 Democrats who voted to approve the Health Care Reform Package, and who were elected in previously Republican districts. Their locations are identified on the map with crosshairs – a rather crass metaphor to take up arms to defeat these Democrats in the November elections. In recent days, a number of these targeted politicians have received death threats and even had bricks thrown in their office windows. After the health bill was signed on Tuesday, Sarah shouted a plea to her Palin posse on Twitter, "Dont retreat, RELOAD!". Palin's scare tactics and her inflammatory firearms rhetoric are a shout-out to her base to take aim at these politicians and target their election campaigns. I am all for dissent and free political speech, but I find this sort of discourse and infographic offensive and irresponsible. Sarah is not going rogue – she's going ballistic. And as designers, I think we all have a responsibility to be very careful about what messages and information we promote in the name of free speech. Our actions may come at a very high cost.

Designers Don't Let Friends Use Powerpoint

From information designer, Mark Goetz, comes this satirical take on firearms and Powerpoint. It's IRONY folks – not reality! No kittens were harmed in the making of this infographic.

Get yours today!

From designer, Mary Huang, comes the Designer Action Figure in all various styles. Some tools included.

Biblio Bold Sans

In the spirit of making letters out of unusual materials, what says Letterology more than books and fonts?

A Book Cover Design in Less Than 2 Minutes

Chartered Territories

Information is everywhere. We are all drowning in it. As part of an exercise this past week, my student's were tasked with collecting data and displaying it as a personal geography. Their objective was to display the information in a visually interesting and entertaining manner. It was also to be fact-based, include a title and display handlettered text. From some of their many fine results are Things People Leave on Trains, by Hiroko Ebizaki; An Apartment's Surface Area, by Marta Sivertsen; The Analysis of a Scarf Collection: Belonging to the Twins, by Chelsey Scheffe; and Some Stuff in My Body, by Dane Herforth. Click on images for larger views.

Shoes You Can Use

Of course you have to have the shoes to go with the dress! And you will always find your way home in these fashion footware from designer, Jennifer Collier of Stafford, England.

Wear Everrrr

Working on maps and information graphics in class this week has taken me to many far off places exploring other people's wonderful maps. Is it me, or are there an explosion of new sites about maps and infographics these days? I never grow too tired of looking at new ways to display information. It has been fun seeing lots of new material from my students this week which I will display here in short order. Meanwhile, take a further look at Elizabeth LeCourt's lovely map wear here.

Student Book Design

Jules Verne cover designs by Jim Tierney from Jim Tierney on Vimeo.

The work of Philadelphia UArts design student, Jim Tierney brings new meaning to the word adventuresome. This guy is charting new territory in book jacket design. Check out his video of the Jules Verne series he did for his senior thesis recently. And check out his blog entries about the entire Verne series here. There is also a great entree on his blog about his book jacket design process here.

Alphabattle

Over at lettercult comes an opportunity to make some letters and have them posted on the Alphabattle 2.0 Flickr site. Between now and February 28th, submit the letter A to lettercult@gmail.com. They will publish all submissions. From March 1–15th, submit the letter B. This will continue with the entire alphabet over the next year. You can find out more information about submission requirements here.

I Heart This

Rob Ryan produced a limited edition of these lovely lasercut valentines. They were screenprinted in an edition of 250 and were available on Etsy for a mere nanosecond. After the first run sold out so quickly, he did a red edition and those flew out the door too. Gotta love it!

Vanity Barcodes

Gee I wish I had launched this idea myself. It's about time. Barcodes for the differently-abled designer. See many more designs here.

Type Faces

This is from a series of postcards entitled Typefaces You Won't Recognise, designed to promote The Type Museum in London. All of them using letters–and numbers, to create faces. This one does it elegantly with only 3.

Belle Lettres

These little gems are from my small, but growing collection of Czechoslovakian postage stamps. Stunning handmade letterforms. Another good reason to write more letters. The two lower stamps are by Czech designer Karel Svolinsky.
:: From The Letterology Archives

Just My Type

Show the L O V E

More Things to do With Books

Dutch artist, Anouk Kruithof created some installations from over 4000 books for her exhibit in Berlin last year entitled, Enclosed Content Chatting Away in the Colour Invisibility. Lovely!

What's-A-Letterhead?

Remember when people used to write letters? Check out a wonderful archive of old letterheads over at Letterheady. This one left me wondering just what the Robot Salesmen Ltd. of Liverpool are selling. Robots maybe?

TEXTile

Opening this weekend at the Type Director's Club in NYC is a lecture by British photographer, Adrian Wilson who will be speaking about his amazing collection of wood and copper stamps used to imprint merchant's trademarks on English textiles during the Victorian era. These elaborate stamps often featured stunning ornamental lettering and devices which represent a very highly sophisticated style of branding. I find them remarkable inspiration and hope we get to see them all published in a book someday. The coloful printed fabric labels in Wilson's collection, reminiscent of our orange crate labels, are pretty darn fine too!

Pattern Thinking

This is what happens when you set Novia with negative leading. Thank you Cyrus Highsmith!

Can't Believe the Type

As a class exercise this past week, students were asked to design a familiar image using just the letters of either their first or last name. For this "typographical analogy" exercise, students were allowed to repeat those letters of their name and rotate, reverse and even consider the negative shapes and spaces they might create. I threw in the option of allowing just one punctuation glyph (in the same manner as Vanna White might throw in a vowel), and expected them all to complete their artwork within just 30 minutes. They were to look at the shapes and forms of letters and let them suggest an image rather than predetermining something to illustrate. Here are just a few of the delightful results among many. From the top: Ryan Ogborn (Angry Cow with Gun); Tracy Curly, (Sheep); Erin Kendig (Walking Bird with Tailfeathers); Kaitlyn Goodeve (Man Smoking Pipe); Ariana Sigglin (Scorpion); and Chieu Van (Peacock). Typeriffic!

Ornamental Robot

Sweet! A typographical robot created by British letterpress printer, Mike Edwards for a booklet entitled "Daft Robots".

The Many Faces of T

The T Magazine, a supplement to The New York Times Magazine dedicated to design, celebrates their fifth year of publication with a retrospective online gallery highlighting some of the best cover designs. Artists and designers are given little guidance or direction with their interpretation of the fraktur T, and it is amazing to review all the distinctive styles that result here. And read the backstory of artist Marc Andre Robinson's, castoff chair construction of the letter T, and watch a time lapse video of the making of it here.

How to Decorate a Letter

Class is back in session and we are ready to play – and experiment with letters, words and all things typographical. Jessica Hische offers up this morphology on how to decorate a letter, using the basic skeletal structure of the letter A as a great example.

Communal Font Design

THE ABC 2009 // KLUB7 from KID CASH // KLUB7 on Vimeo.

A great introduction to urban experimental typography by the German artist collective, Klub7.