Akzidenz! Holidaze!

Here is a little postcard I designed for the holidays.
I mixed up the "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Holidays"
solely because I, and I alone, think it sounds funny.

The typeface is Akzidenz Grotesk Medium.

Happy Christmas! Merry Holidays!


Head-spinning: Katatonia, The Mountain Goats,
Espers, Red Pepper Hummus, and clarity

Catch for Me the Foxes

This poster above is my favorite of the "film series"
that we worked on in the earlier portion of the
semester. For the film, "The Royal Tenenbaums"
I immediately connected with this idea of the
characters being these sly and secretive characters,
creeping around causing mischief for themselves
and others. Naturally the fox is immediately tied
(albeit quite unfairly) to this type of behavior.
I then decided to place them in a rather ornate and
flamboyant upper class room that might exist in
the world of Wes Anderson's film. The fact that
the found image of the room contains the eiffle
tower was a nice touch, especially if you see
the rather distant fox to be Margot.

As for the typography and layout, I wanted to express
a feeling of "functional dysfunction", which was
basically the theme that drove my film festival. I chose
the akward placement of the image in the corner to
create a slight tension, and then placed the type along
a grid, but in a somewhat disjointed manner,
placeing the description text over the image which
should never really be done without a reason...especially
with body copy.

The final conceptual aspect was that of the color choice.
I chose the red to tie into the color I immediately thought
of when I pictured the film itself. I then chose the type
colors to completely combat the background color, making
it nearly painful to look at. I got this idea from one of my
absolute favorite firms, Experimental Jetset's poster
series for De Theatercompagnie. The results of which, are
humourously blinding even on screen.

Ill post the remainder of the project soon.


Music Carousel: The Avett Brothers-"I and Love and You",
Katatonia-"Night is the New Day", breathing, Studio Culture
by Adrian Shaughnessy, White Peach Cranberry juice, and
Gossip Girl (Seriously.)

Master of None

Above are a few of my favorite sketches for the second
run of poster sketches. The last one is moving in a
direction I want to get behind, although a good deal
of refinement and "conceptual" tweaks need to be made.
Onward and upward.


Orbiting: Julian Casablancas-"11th dimension",
Brand New-"Noro", New Converge and Broadcast,
and anatomy of a typeface.

The Constant Image

If you look to your left, you will notice a new addition to the section regarding
my other locations on the interwebs called The Constant Image. What I
hope this to be, is a collection of random images I make in the vein of other
"image a day" exercises that designers are known to partake in. I will set
it all up in due time, but for now it has one sketchy image in response to a
black metal album I very much enjoy by Deathspell Omega.

Let's see how this goes.

2:30 Am Design Heart Attack

Well I'll be damned. I have seen Mark Weaver's stuff
before courtesy the perma-excited Robyn Baker and
always found myself enjoying his work. The above
images take that enjoyment all the way to home base.
His work is simply stunning. It has a weird Text-book-
by-way-of-retro-modernist-sepia vibe that I'm really
into. Just check it out NOW.

That state poster blows my heart out of it's steel cage
and explodes in my face. real talk.

Orbiting: Katatonia-"Forsaker", Broadcast-"Noise Made
by People", saltine crackers, drawing letters, Deathspell
Omega, and Fuji Apple Pear Lifewater.

Circle takes the square w/ two triangles in tow

So these are poster sketches for the film poster project.
Each one has a primary shape chosen based on the symbolism
inherent in each. Akzidenz grotesk is used to add a little, very
little, humanity to the scene.



Into: Study nights, coffee+wine combo, pasta, grizzly bear,
Kid A and Amnesiac.

The "Blessed Curse" Project: Progess 1

Above is a spread from my typographic publication
for this semester. I posted some layout's for general info
earlier, and some of the "visual language" from that
returns.

Conceptually, this project deals with the necessary and
pervasive presence of evil in life as well as the duality
that is inherent with it's relationship to the "good". In
other words it's about good and evil, with a focus on evil.
The content is that of various scientific sources regarding
the phenomena of light and darkness, black metal lyrics,
articles/essays/ etc. on the sinister aspects human
experience, including murder, genocide, the occult, and
other aspects.

Formally, this book is a sort of combination of a strict
and gridded structure of modernism with the light and
traditional typesetting of classicism. The typefaces
are Didot and Helvetica.

See if you can spot the conventions of modernism and
classicism...and you might win some knowledge.

More to come soon.

Current vehicles: Deathspell Omega, Radiohead- "Kid A",
The Mighty Boosh, late nights, wine.

Type III content proposal

Colors for once you guys.

These folks here are for a presentation on a poster series we
just started where we had to create a film festival. I chose
"Semi-Dysfunctional Families" because I really enjoy the genre
and really look forward to compelling a unique overall feel
for such a compelling subject.

Also I should mention that this poster by Double Standard was
a key influence when I designed these slides and it will remain so
with the rest of my work as I am obsessed with it.


Music/Other: Radiohead "Amnesiac" 3-disc set, Taken by Trees-
"East of Eden", Converge-"You Fail Me" and "Jane Doe", The
Bell jar, learning about book structures.

Type Cast-Reader

This post is hopefully the first in a series of posts regarding
typefaces that I can't stop fawning over. The first entry is for
Reader.

This typeface is from the Colophon type foundry, by Edd
Harrington and Anthony Sheret in the UK. It is referenced
from an unknown monospaced face found in a RSPB letter,
which I believe to be a Birding society of sorts. They
removed the monospaced grid and redrew the typeface to
serve as a more diverse face.

I have come to judge type, at least initially, by the lowercase
"a". Reader's "a" is simply beautiful, borrowing the perfect
counter of Helvetica, and then mimicking the form in the tail,
creating a more organic and friendlier form. The slightly
emphasized chiseled indent in-between the "a" tail and bowl
is a really nice touch, that is attributed throughout, creating
a minor but tangible cohesion. The lowercase "h","m", "n",
and "u" are almost cheeky in their playful slant and roundness
of their bowls. Not to mention the very "nautical" looking lower-
case "s". Maybe it is just me, but the lower portion's thinner
shape gives me a sea-faring feel for reasons I can't explain.


Also, check out the specimen book as it is really quite a lovely
addition to the type family. All of this can be seen at Colophon's
website. Get over there and look at their lovely work.

Also, for those interested in more of the designers work, you can
find it through The Entente Cordiale.They are actually quite young
as well, so mark one for the young designers!