Thursday 30 September 2010

Exploring fonts VI

Friends of Type





Exploring fonts V

Found this really useful site today, sudtipos.com with some really good and varied fonts on it. Definitely one to bookmark and come back to. I want to play around with these in ink, or even watercolour, which will be on my Design Practice blog soon.


Adios script

Semilla font

Biographer font

Jeremy Pettis

Jeremy Pettis project - 26 types of animals






Wednesday 29 September 2010

Exploring fonts IV

Tracy McGrady Logo by Saatchi & Saatchi
Nick Schmitz - Pretty Sure
Seb Lester design



Francesca Bolognini - graphic and type designer

Six word story everyday - Flickr

Exploring fonts III

Lettering and typeface designer that I found on Designworklife:
'I never get tired of cal­lig­ra­phy, espe­cially the widely var­ied styles of Keith Morris.'


Tuesday 28 September 2010

Exploring fonts II

Calligraphy work and lettering by Luca Barcellona




Illustrative Typeface II

Not animal themed but good inspiration all the same by ilovedust.

Illustrative Typeface I

Decoylab specialises in making unique and decorative clocks but this animal alphabet is a lovely starting point for my animal themed typeface I want to design for the Yorkshire Wildlife Park.

Monday 27 September 2010

Existing signs










These two signs below are a good example of how they are using type and image on their signs but I want to combine the two and create a typeface with an animal theme. Using silhouettes like they already do is a good way of not letting the detail of the image take over the type.








As well as applying my chosen typeface to the signs, I also want to re-design the map and apply it to that too. I do like the signs as they are now, and they all have a running theme through them, but I think it's a place that has the opportunity for me to use my illustrative type designs over a range of materials and scales to give my designs a purpose.


Type Goes Wild

The second brief I'm going to be working on involves designing a typeface that can be used across signs, promotional and other printed materials for the Yorkshire Wildlife Park. Here is the current look for the park's promotion:


The Chick Lit Genre

I found a brilliant article in the Guardian about chick lit book covers of today:

"When we look at a book, its cover tells us what to expect. A pink paperback featuring a smiling young woman is most likely a female-centric summer read, whereas a gun on a black background is probably a murder story. A few simple aesthetic rules narrow our options, make life easier and ensure none of us has to wander Waterstone's for hours, wailing in confusion. And yet the rules seem to be changing.
Having cottoned on to the fact that chick lit books sell like cupcakes, publishers are now adding chick lit-style covers to any book written by a woman whether it fits the genre definition or not...I hope publishers will soon realise that their tactic isn't working and could, in fact, backfire badly. If all book covers look the same, then none stand out. And if we know that how a book looks is no indication of its content, we might just become so dispirited that we bypass the bookstore and rent a DVD instead."

'If all book covers look the same, then none stand out.'














This has definitely given me the motivation to really explore the typography that I love and allow my designs to still fit into that genre but ensure they have that extra edge to them so that people's eyes go to them on the shelf and want to choose Catherine Alliott's books over all the rest with their predictable covers.