Et cetera
Posts Tagged ‘typography’
Between Here and There
A few weeks ago a friend and I were talking about the fractions of life – how events can shift your course depending on the smallest difference in circumstance or how you handle a situation. I feel this acutely every time I walk around my work neighborhood in Portland, a pocket between the Pearl and Chinatown. In the Pearl, well-to-dos get their nails buffed and highlights touched up, while a few blocks away in Chinatown down-on-their-lucks wait in line for a bowl of soup.
Fractions are funny, my friend and I agreed, in that they are intangible and hard to measure until the repercussions of an action are fully unfurled, and sometimes only become apparent when you stack each fraction of change on top of the other. I am somewhere between these two worlds of well-to-do and down-on-my-luck, but walking the line down 5th Street in Chinatown makes me wonder how many steps there actually are, between here and there. #occupywallstreet
Well Vegan (Hold the Pickled Herring)
The most recent project I’ve been working on, Well Vegan, just launched at the New Year. I enjoy eating healthy food frequently and on a regular basis, so when my friend Katie asked if I would help make it easier for vegans to do the same, I jumped on board. I’m not a vegan, but I have some vegan friends, and seeing some of them struggle with finding a variety of things to make that were also meeting their nutritional needs made this project hit close to home. Katie’s personal motivation to start Well Vegan stemmed from having her young daughter suffer from food allergies that were only ameliorated by switching to a vegan diet.
The first task was to create a logo for Well Vegan. After a short design brainstorm, the theme of “it’s in the greens” bubbled to the top, and resulted in a happy pea pod bursting with, well, veganism.
Well Vegan logo in various color ways.
The second and main task was to design a website. Katie wanted the site to reflect her healthy, simple, and homespun take on veganism. Visually, this is reflected by using the approachable and versatile font Skolar alongside rough-edged and spare illustrations.
The font Skolar pared with a simple illustration style.
Basically, Well Vegan is a repository of vegan recipes that are partnered with shopping lists and weekly meal plans that take all the hassle out of planning how you are going to sustain yourself. Sure, some people take joy in shopping and figuring out each and every meal, but others just want to get the job done without spending hours poring over recipe books and making lists. Using Well Vegan for $9.99 a month gives you all the tools necessary for eating home-cooked meals most every day. And if that’s what it takes for some vegans to eat healthier on a regular basis, I’m all for it.
How the Well Vegan plan works. Pretty simple, and then you're full. Also, beets are pretty rad.
Some people might have the misconception that vegan food is bland, but with the right recipes it can be anything but. A series of illustrations were made to let the ingredients take center stage and focus on the uncomplicated nature of the vegan diet. I’m not sure eating a tofu cube that large is realistic, but it gets the point across! Send me some giant chopsticks and I’ll let you know how it goes.
Food for giants! Or very hungry vegans!
I even got to use my new favorite phrase on the error screen, making this my favorite error screen second only to the consolation trout I made for Under the Table with Jen.
If you’re interested in checking out the site and what Well Vegan has to offer, visit www.wellvegan.com, or follow them on twitter at @wellvegan.
Story Cards
As a follow up to the business cards I designed for Jelly Helm Studio, here are some additional cards that show a little bit about how the studio approaches things. All of the cards were letter pressed on cream colored Neenah Classic Crest #165 cover.
Good questions.
The cards were printed at Brown Printing, where they were very helpful in trying out an unusual combination of printing techniques: first embossing (raising) the paper in a tree shape, and then letter pressing text (pushing the paper down) on top of the tree shape. For all that pushing and pulling of paper with the text being pressed into both the tree and non-tree area, it turned out pretty well.
A very advanced "who, what, where, when, how" diagram.
My favorite of the three cards is this reproduction of a diagram by Joseph Campbell. Wikipedia says “…his work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience”. No small task to fit onto a 1.75×3 inch card, even with some rejiggering on our end so the large original diagram translated well to a tiny version of itself.
This should get you through most situations.
The Goodie Monster Is Here
Just in time for Halloween! Over the weekend my friend Mark and I put the finishing touches on the Goodie Monster: a vending machine filled with healthy, tasty snacks. Not only does it taste good, it looks good too. Check out the full project process and see more pictures of us sewing and painting nonstop to create a green fur-clad monster complete with a mountainous environment where pears fly south for the winter. Read more >>
Keen “Green Thumb” Type
Here is the last of the type and illustration I did for some Keen videos for their Recess is Back site. The work was done through North, a local design/advertising agency. I am more of a black thumb, but I still enjoyed creating this vine-like typography.
Title Type for Keen Shorts
Here are a few more pieces I helped North with for Keen’s RECESS IS BACK site. I created the hand drawn typography for these two spots, “Fresh Air” and “Grab a Paddle”, which are part of a video series about outdoor activities. I love the outdoors and this summer went both camping and paddling, the spirit of which I think are captured nicely in these little snippets. Although not quite as risqué as the biking-troll-powering-a-hot-spring “Get Naked” illustration.
Happy Projects Are All Alike
“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” So starts the novel Anna Karenina, which was the subject of a poster project I completed a while ago. It was the first time I had worked directly for another creative entity (a local theater company), and I was excited to be working on a topic of literature with a fuzzy deadline entire months away.
After talking about the creative process we decided that we would volley ideas back and forth in various levels of completeness, ranging from very rough sketches to more refined digital comps, until we arrived at a final poster design. The first round of creative went over well, focusing on some main themes from the book.
Round 1 Sketches
The art director and I decided the strongest idea was the smoke type (upper left sketch), and that I should explore that further before we chose a final executional style.
Keep reading »
Portland’s New Food Pyramid
Enjoy a good gastro-challenge? Love making tiny checkmarks? Need more refrigerator swag? Don’t we all! That’s why my friend Jen compiled the Eat Sheet, a stalwart Facestuffer’s best friend, to go along with her new guidebook. Affix it to your fridge, steering wheel, elliptical machine, or antacids bottle, then Go Forth And Eat!
You can download your very own Eat Sheet right here.
Portland’s 100 Best Places to Stuff Your Faces
For the past five months I have been working on a side project that IS…NOW…FINISHED. Written by Jen Stevenson, it’s a guidebook of all the best places to eat in Portland, Oregon. Between her hilarious writing style, meticulous research (seriously, who else eats three dinners a night?) and single-minded obsession with food, I think this one is a keeper.
Your chance to become a champion face stuffer.
Jen writes the blog Under the Table, and follows the mantra of “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all”. It’s refreshing to work with somebody who focuses on the positive, and we all know it gets a bit tedious to sift through thousands of polarizing Yelp reviews. Instead, Jen only features what she considers is the best, and leaves the rest up to you. How you decide to stuff your face is, as we all know, a personal preference.
Primary Diagram: How to Properly Stuff Your Face.
This project was a labor of love in many ways. As a fledgling self-publisher the budget was in the pro-bono range, so instead of cold hard money I accepted a few free meals, a flexible timeline, and a fair amount of creative freedom in exchange for my efforts. Having a single pro-bono project at a time is also a good way to get some kicks that you might not otherwise get from paid projects. Kicks like hand drawing maps of Portland…
Put a bird on it, Southeast Portland!
To Jen’s credit, she chose the high road in the production phase by printing the book at local Brown Printing instead of producing the book in China or through an online vendor with less material options and size limitations.
With 220 pages of reviews and tips, over 80 illustrations and the afore-mentioned custom maps of Portland (whose streets do not care if you want to be orderly and label things in a consistent manner) this project was an undertaking, but well worth it. If you’re interested in the guidebook, you can buy it directly at www.bestplacestostuffyourfaces.com. If you’re competitive or like checking things off of lists, you can track your face stuffing progress with the Eat Sheet. Enjoy!
A Ligature
Only a few letters go together well enough to create a ligature, but when they find each other it’s beautiful. Thanks to Wikipedia for this fi letterpress ligature (or as Michael accurately commented below, an si ligature).
Moveable Type: Cross Country Adventures in Letterpress Printing
The genesis of this project started quite a ways back, in ’05 or ’06 when Kyle Durrie took a letterpress class from me at the IPRC. I teach there frequently, so I see many students come and go with varying levels of interest in letterpressing. Many dabble a bit but never fully embrace the craft of it, which requires patience, skill and more patience. Kyle, however, decided to make it her mainstay and formed Power and Light Press.
A few years later we both became members of Em Space, a printing and book arts group. There I got to know her a bit better, her effervescent nature and gusto for everything letterpress. So I wasn’t surprised when she put up this Kickstarter video for her latest idea: building a mobile print shop and touring the US teaching letterpress.
The project got funded and I was thrilled to imagine Kyle in her trusty letterpress van on the open road, nothing but her and some moveable type. Wanting to get in on the action, I offered up my computer skills so she could have a logo and website to help make her adventure an even bigger success.
Kyle gave me some inspiration to start with, from which I made this hand drawn 3D type reminiscent of both old building signage and of those interchangeable letters that Gutenberg thought were a good idea. Turns out he was right.
Damn, that's some hot type.
A couple of alternate logotype treatments.
Matthew Johnson also volunteered to help out by setting up a wordpress site that Kyle could update with the latest events from the road. Follow along on her adventures, see when she might stop by your town, or request a visit from one of Portland’s leading ladies of letterpress at www.type-truck.com!
Super Fresh Type
Summer is almost here, and you know what that means…BBQ season! So I’ve created a miniature ode to the two most common condiments used at outdoor soirées, picnics, beach bonfires, camping excursions, tailgate parties and Fourth of July fests. Here’s some typographic ketchup and mustard for all your summer celebration needs.
Bar Gelato Logo and Packaging
I looooooooooove to work on food identity and packaging, so when Substance contacted me to help work on a new gelato product, I was psyched! Their long-time client Gelateria Naia was preparing to unveil a gelato in bar form, and needed branding to support their pilot efforts. While Substance managed the project, marketing and created the Bar Gelato website, I was focused on making a custom logotype and labels for their first run in stores.
After lots of sketching, we agreed a “just gelato” approach was best, using a simple and bold type treatment reminiscent of window signage. Orange worked two shifts as a bright and cheerful color that stood out against the bars while nodding to colors used in Naia’s branding.
Created from a scanned type sample called Kent Sans, and altered generously to become Bar Gelato.
To get into the gelato mindset wasn’t hard, as I often think of what’s for dessert after I’ve finished lunch. And I was in luck, because Naia had sent Substance a batch of sample gelato bars, which I nabbed six of for a personal tasting session. And thus began the Great Gelato Hoarding of 2011. Knowing that I only had a limited supply, each night I cut 1″ chunks off of each bar and then stapled shut the cellophane wrapper to keep it fresh for the next “serving”. Out of 6 bars, I made about 30 mini-desserts (except for the hazelnut bar which I ate in one sitting because I couldn’t help myself). These gelato bars are the most delicious thing I’ve tasted in a while!
Nom, nom, nom. There are plenty more flavors in a select central coast California Whole Foods.
The first roll-out of Bar Gelato in San Francisco and other Central Coast California locations has gone very well, and I encourage any of you Californians to stop into a Whole Foods to try a bar or two. OR, buy some and put them in one of those styrofoam coolers made for shipping things like special Danish hotdogs or other perishables, and send them to me. I will take gooood care of them, I promise.
Label close-up and gelato bar seal quartet.
Thanks for having me, Substance…and to any other artisan food creators out there who provide samples to inspire their designers – bring it on!
Island Mist Logo and Illustrations
I’m excited to finally share a project I worked on at the beginning of 2011 for Boyds Coffee. The project entailed updating their logo and branding for Island Mist, a line of iced teas. Their previous logo used the font Papyrus, and the people at Boyds wanted to nix it…I felt like I had hit the designer jackpot! The new logo is a refined version using a “cool pool” border and some slightly retro island-inspired type.
Left: old logo in Papyrus...Right: new logo NOT in Papyrus
Another portion of the project was to create flavor labels for dispensers in restaurants and convenience stores. Most of the competition used giant images of iced tea in a glass, usually splashing out of it with lots of ice everywhere. It kind of looked like watered down coke. It’s my belief that you don’t always have to SHOW people watered down coke to make them want iced tea. So for Island Mist’s new dispenser wraps we chose the next closest thing to induce thirst: a series of summer beach illustrations.
When I see a tropical beach scene I want two things: sunblock and to know how to swim with my head underwater. But I'm guessing people less peculiar than I will probably want a drink of something refreshing...like maybe an iced tea.
A bevy of spot illustrations were also created to populate the wraps and be used in various point-of-sale and marketing materials. Here are a few of them…
Lettering for Hanna Andersson
A few months ago I did some lettering for Hanna Andersson’s spring catalog and retail environments. In their own words, “Hanna Andersson makes soft, quality basics inspired by our Swedish heritage”…and some rad striped pajamas in sizes for the whole family!
The client wanted a playful messy script that didn’t look like a font. I always enjoy working with custom type and letters, so this project was right up my alley. After completing the phrases using a brush pen, they were traced so they could be used at a large scale in-store.
Eat Eat Eat
Whether I’m stuffing myself silly, drawing food while thinking about my next meal, or planning my next smorgasbord, food is always at the top of my mind. So, below I have outlined the major events that will be taking place today, involving Blenheim’s Ginger Ale, some frikadeller and homemade chocolate-chip-walnut-oatmeal cookies.
Hoo boy, today is going to be a good one!
For all you font people, the top font is hand-traced from a sample called Marbleheart, the middle font is from my food-addled mind, and the bottom font is Phosphate.
Stick ‘Em Up
(Click image to zoom) Here’s another spread from my sketchbook, some smoky shady type from an embroidered gun. Yeah, I imagine someone shouting “Granny, get your gun!” and then an 80-year-old lady whips out her crochet hooks and makes this.
–
Update: the finished sketchbook is filed under my side projects at Sketchbook Project 2011: Things That Stick.That One Song
Another page from my submission to The Sketchbook Project, a community participation based movement that involves taking thousands of sketchbooks on a book tour. Yeah, I’m a groupie. Are you?
–
Update: the finished sketchbook is filed under my side projects at Sketchbook Project 2011: Things That Stick.Mister Museum, The Debut and Making Of
At the end of last year I was lucky enough to help create branding for an idea called Mister Museum. Sometimes when a new client crosses your path, you just KNOW it was meant to be. Here is a stylized version of the Bureau’s first meeting with the man behind Mister Museum.
MM:
- I’d like to promote the content that museums and educational institutions curate, but in a more interesting manner so that it engages the general public. Basically, this would be a venture for increasing art and science literacy, with a point of view.
BB:
- LEARNING IS THE COOLEST!
MM:
- My target audience is people that are curious about things in general with access to up-to-date technology.
BB:
- THAT’S ME! SCREW INTERNET EXPLORER 6!
MM:
- I don’t want this to be any old museum-y logo. It should be fun!
BB:
- I LIKE FUN!
As you can see, I was psyched to help build a voice for such an interesting client. We decided a logo, website and e-newsletter were the best things to start Mister Museum off on the right foot. So, I got to work. I started with a typical brainstorming exercise, the word cluster, a very useful tool in case you get stuck in a creative fire swamp.
Keep reading »
Late Nights, Lost Time
–
Update: the finished sketchbook is filed under my side projects at Sketchbook Project 2011: Things That Stick.A Good Book
Months and months ago I signed up for a project put on by Art House Co-op called the Sketch Book Project. The gist is that artists receive a blank moleskin, fill it with whatever they want, send it back. Then the collection of books go on a tour similar to a concert, but much more quietly. Well, I’m just now starting to fill my sketchbook, and here is one of the first pages.
–
Update: the finished sketchbook is filed under my side projects at Sketchbook Project 2011: Things That Stick.Anaco Pears Placard
I went to California recently, and although I visited the area canvassed with strip malls and big box stores, I was able to find a small town general store that had some fun vintage fruit placards. I love pears, so I took this one home with me (and totally got through border control with it!).
All The Future Is New
Today is the final day of Free Wallpaper Week at the Bureau. “All The Future Is New” was created from cut letters folded up from their original sheet of paper to make shadows. I hope you’ve enjoyed the freebies and spread the wallpaper cheer across the screens of the internet and eternity.
Download “All The Future Is New” in the following sizes:
320 x 480 (iphone) • 640 x 960 (iphone4) • 1024 x 1024 (ipad)
1440 x 900 (laptop) • 1600×1200 (full screen) • 2560×1600 (wide screen)Please share these wallpapers following the guidelines of the Creative Commons “Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives” license. Basically, you can share the heck out of these, but always remember to attribute the source and please don’t alter or sell the art. Thanks!
Like a Glove: A Love Story
A personal project I’ve been working on this fall is finally complete! It’s wintry tale of smitten moose, fuzzy creatures and a house in the woods. Is it a drama, documentary, romantic comedy or porno flick? The verdict is still out.
Printed on a variety of colored papers using white flocking (fuzzy stuff, fun to touch), the poster is for sale in the newly constructed Bureau Shop. You can see more pictures and read about the process here.
Sneak Peek: Like a Glove – A Love Story
Here’s a quick peek at something I’ve been working on that I’m very excited about! A giant pallet arrived at my loading dock the other day, soon to be disbursed in the mail for your enjoyment. For now, I’ve got to get back to work, but you can be sure that I’ll be posting more on this very soon.
Kahuna Gift Company Logo
In September I landed one of the larger projects I’ve tackled since going solo – branding and packaging for a start-up Hawaiian gift company. I love to work on packaging, especially if it is food related, so this was a great gig. Unfortunately, due to a macadamia drought, the packaging component was put on hold midway through the project. Major bummer! Designers get used to strange things derailing projects, but I never imagined a nut shortage would be one of those things.
Nuts or no nuts, the client still needed a logo and website, so I finished up those elements while we waited for the macadamias to make a comeback (still waiting).
Kahuna Gift Company logotype
I created a straightforward logotype with tone-on-tone sky and surf colors, intentionally steering clear of the clichéd palm trees and hula girls that adorn many a Hawaiian logo. The logo needed to be used in various situations, so a few options were created to accommodate different uses.
Keep reading »
Adidas Mega
Last month I had the opportunity to work with the team at Liquid on an Adidas project. MEGA is a new product line-up, and Liquid was tasked with creating a range of in-store displays to sell the new shoes. Photography, which was based on the commercial, included celebrity appearances by B.O.B and Paul Iacono. The campaign was centered around a diner theme, and I worked with the team to expand the MEGA print and in-store branding with typography, graphics and 3D ideas for the displays.
Above are a few of my contributions and digital sketches from the project (not all of it made the cut). Thanks for having me Liquid!
Remember When We Ran Through Sprinklers?
Eighty-Five was a good year for sprinklers. The kind that go back and forth and form tunnels for dashing through, the kind that spray wildly in every direction, and the kind at the park that can be a hit or miss depending on how fast you run. Summer, where are you?
Wordcake Cards
When friend and food blogger Jen Stevenson of Under the Table wanted to start her own writing business, she came to me asking advice about collateral. She had chosen Wordcake Communications as her business name and needed a logo, business cards and a simple website to get the business going. “I was thinking I could have a big cake, with the word Wordcake on it!” she said, giving me creative rein with a theme. I replied with a somewhat muffled “Let’s see what we can do with that…”, and got to work.
Riffing on the idea of frosting, I found this typography sample in an ornaments and borders book and transformed it into Wordcake.
Before
After
The idea of a sophisticated take on a “cake on a platter” appealed to me since Jen is the epitome of a hostess with the mostess, even when she is stuffing your gullet with stinky cheeses and sweet confections. However, Jen wasn’t rolling in dough from creative writing (yet), so an economic solution was needed that would still help her stand out. I scoured the internet for an oval punch that could take the place of a diecut. Turns out, crafters have thought of almost everything, so after a bit of sleuthing I found several oval punches, perfect for the miniature platter shape that her business cards would become.
The cards were printed digitally and then hand punched by Jen in about an hour, after which she claimed she’d sprained her thumb. I told her she would have to toughen up, because once The Onion started calling and she had to churn out snarky story upon snarky story in record time, her thumb would have no reprieve.
Punch, punch.
Punch, punch, punch.
Many punches later.
Little paper hors d'oeuvres.
Wordcake Communications : Jen Stevenson : Pen for Hire
