1. via vneckandacardigan: Helvetica Cookie Cutters

    via vneckandacardigan:

    Helvetica Cookie Cutters

  2. Don’t be original, just be good.

    — Paul Rand

  3. Words of Wisdom

    Watch this masterful tribute to legendary designer, Paul Rand. This film was produced by one of my favorite studios called Imaginary Forces.

    It’s important to learn from the masters, because that’s the only way you’ll truly learn and grow as an artist. So I think this short video is a must see. My favorite part is when Paul Rand says, “don’t try to be original, just be good”. Wow. Such simple, brilliant and humble advice.

    Watch it here, and learn from the master: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yOjts0tpco&feature=youtube_gdata_player

    What are some things from the clip that resonate with you?

    Which other artists inspire you?

  4. So long, Farewell, Auf weidersehen, Good-bye

    I’m always amazed at how fast the summer flies by. Not so long ago, we were just getting familiar with type and type crimes—and now you are all typographers with your own typeface.

    I hope you take a further interest in typography and keep in touch with your future projects. Good luck this school year, enjoy the rest of the summer, and in the words of the Sounds of Music, Adieu, adiu, to yieu and yieu and yieu.

  5. Datamoshing an experimental video technique where the I-frames or key-frames of a temporally compressed video are removed, causing frames from different video sequences to bleed together.

    One of the examples we discussed in class of applying datamoshing to work was this music video, “Evident Utensil” for the band Chairlift, directed by Ray Tintori of Court 13.

  6. Inclass Glitch Art Workshop

    Glitch art is an experimental type of art where digital or analog errors are intentionally made by either corrupting digital code/data or by physically manipulating electronic devices. The term is thought to derive from the German glitschig, meaning ‘slippery.’

    In our inclass workshop, we manipulated a scanner to create glitch art from typography. We also filmed short videos using datamoshing.

    What movement of your paper on the scanner produced the best result?

    What other experimental glitch art techniques have you tried?

    Why is glitch art an important experimental tool?

  7. Final Type Specimen Posters

    The final type specimen posters are a solid proof that great typography skills is all about patience and refining your letterforms. Looking back at how these typefaces began and where they ended up today, it’s rewarding to see everyone’s progress. Great job all around.

    What did you learn about creating a typeface?

    What would you do differently?

  8. Light Workshop Photos

    For tomorrow, 7/22/2010:

    If anyone is interested in having their own copies of the light workshop photos, I will bring a disk of all the photos tomorrow. You must bring your own external hard drive (or laptop) if you want copies of the pictures.

  9. So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica? →

    Take this quick quiz to test your Arial/Helvetica chops!

  10. Amazing stop-motion music video made with typography.

  11. 17 Amazing Inspirational Typography Videos →

  12. Type History in 2 Volumes!

    Today’s type history lecture was about an overview of typography, typographers, and the development of visual styles from the 15th Century to today.

    If you are interested in learning more, I recommend Type: A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles, Volumes 1 & 2. These are great references that provide a comprehensive and detailed overview of type and its development. In order to accommodate a vast amount of material, the writers have divided the text into two volumes. Volume 1 covers 1600-1900, Volume 2 covers 1900 to the mid-20th century.

    Type historyType: A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles, Volume 1

    This book offers an overview of typeface design, exploring the most beautiful and remarkable examples of font catalogs from the history of publishing, with a special emphasis on the period from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, when color catalogs were at their height. Taken from a Dutch collection, this selection traverses the evolution of the printed letter in all its various incarnations via designed catalogs displaying not only type specimens in roman, italic, bold, semi-bold, narrow, and broad, but also characters, borders, ornaments, initial letters and decorations as well as often spectacular examples of the use of the letters. The Victorian fonts are accorded a prominent place in this book. In addition to lead letters, examples from lithography and letters by window-dressers, inscription carvers, and calligraphers are also displayed and described.

    Featuring works by type designers including: William Caslon, Fritz Helmuth Ehmcke, Peter Behrens, Rudolf Koch, Eric Gill, Jan van Krimpen, Paul Renner, Jan Tschichold, A. M. Cassandre, Aldo Novarese, Adrian Frutiger

    Type vol. 2

    Type. A Visual History of Typefaces & Graphic Styles, 1901-1938 (Volume 2)

    This book offers an overview of typeface design, exploring the most elegant fonts from the history of publishing.
    Featuring works by type designers including: William Caslon, Fritz Helmuth Ehmcke, Peter Behrens, Rudolf Koch, Eric Gill, Jan van Krimpen, Paul Renner, Jan Tschichold, A. M. Cassandre, Aldo Novarese, and Adrian Frutiger.

    Why is knowing the history of typography important?

    How can your knowledge of type history help you in approaching projects and work?

    What other type history books can you recommend?

  13. Type Specimen Sheets

    The Type Specimen Sheets were due on Thursday. The type specimen sheet layout should be printed on a single piece of paper and contain your typeface Title, all letters, numbers and punctuation. The design needs to be simple and minimal. The PESTO sheet was beautiful! Gashinamu came out great as well, and could be simplified by removing extraneous design elements.

    The Type Specimen Posters are due tomorrow 7/20 (print it out on 11x17 paper). Remember to use color to make the posters beautiful and use contrast of size/direction/etc., to create a focal point.

    Is your type specimen sheet and poster set up on a grid?

    Check the blog for ideas for inspiration of existing type specimen posters. See everyone tomorrow!

    What makes a successful type specimen poster?

    Do you have any favorite type specimen sheets or posters we can share here?

  14. Light Painting Typography Workshop

    Have you ever worked with long exposures on your camera? Long exposure photos allow you to get really creative if you have the right ideas. One of the coolest ideas is to make light graffiti. Steven Smith lead the light type workshop where we used different sources of light, a dark room and our camera set to a long exposure ranging from 5sec-30sec. The results are stellar!

    We played with different options and created a whole alphabet. I also made a type specimen sheet from everyone’s letters. Here are a few of the pics from the light workshop.

    What other examples of experimental typography can you name?

  15. Ever think about where your favorite fonts are derived from? Bram Pitoyo, a self proclaimed “type nerd”, tells us about the secret history of fonts.