JAM BLOG

SAY IT IN LLAMA

2011-04-14T16:15:00.001+01:00

Bored of Helvetica Neue? Hate Comic Sans? Disgusted by Hobo?
You need Llama Font.

HELLO

2011-04-10T13:29:00.003+01:00

For a glimpse into my personal work as a student. Head on over to hello mark hall. Become a fan on facebook for regular updates. Cost effective freelance design work, specialising in typography is available, and soon posters, prints, and postcards for sale. See you soon.

Home made type

2011-04-04T21:20:00.002+01:00

A lot of these website, notonthehighstreet, etsy etc have an abundance of large type which you can buy from their sellers ranging from £3-£20 per letter, depending on size.
Linking to my last post, I seriously wanted some oversized Clarenden lettering somewhere at my big day with the idea of 'Mr & Mrs' (I had to get the ampersand in somehow). Realising that six 200mm letters could set me back over £100 I decided to use my role as a technology teacher to set about making them myself from plywood.
Here are my results. The only problem now is hoping that they are still at the venue at the end of the night, (that means no pinching.... Mark!)

LOCK STOCK

2011-04-01T19:10:00.000+01:00

Love them or hate them, stock photos usually make an appearance in the world of a graphic design. Here's a funny collection of some of the less usable photos our there.

Typographic Wedding Invitations

2011-03-22T22:00:00.004Z

I thought I would share with you 'Jammers' the design for my wedding invitations. A mix of 'buffet script' and 'Vag rounded', printed on hammer white, finished with pink mounting on black pearlescent card.

They have taken an age to design, print and hand make, but I feel are well worth it. Not a floral pattern or vector in sight.

CHART WELL

2011-03-22T10:12:00.000Z

I love ligatures. The merging of two characters within a typeface to create a more confortable spacing and natural flow for the readers eye. Something practical and strangely beautiful. Even the non practical ones; some seem totally unnecessary, but I love them even more.
Now here is a really innovative use of the ligature system within OpenType fonts. Chartwell, "a family that explores the use of OpenType to interpret and visualize data." Type in numbers - get an infographic. Genius.

It's also not a bad typeface. Head over to TK Type for more info and to buy your copy.

NO MORE

2011-03-18T11:15:00.001Z

I'd just like to say that I don't want to see any more of this 'light painting' photography. Unless it's as good as this:

Making Future Magic: iPad light painting from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

NICE TYPE OF CAFE

2011-03-17T21:44:00.001Z

This is my kind of cafe. I'd be far more likely to go and spend money in a place which had good taste in design.
Designed by Esrawe in collaboration with Ignacio Cadena.

csillagok háborúja

2011-03-06T15:49:00.000Z

That's Star Wars in Hungarian, apparently. Have a look at these crazy movie posters. Either they got sent totally different films to the rest of us, or there was an abundance of lsd at the time. Either way, they're pretty cool.

URBANIZED

2011-03-01T19:45:00.004Z

Gary Hustwit, the man that gave us the thoroughly brilliant documentaries Helvetica and Objectified, has put a video on kickstarter to help finish off funding his new film Urbanized.
This time looking at the design of cities, Urbanized will be a
fine edition to Hustwit's design series. Head on over to watch the video, and if you have a few spare bucks, donote a little
bit towards the budget, and get some nice little goodies for doing so.

LINE O' TYPE

2011-02-26T13:38:00.001Z

The new trailer for the Linotype film looks rather nice. Should be an interesting watch - looking forward to it. They've raised more than their target via kickstart. Good for them.

"Linotype: The Film" Official Trailer from Linotype: The Film on Vimeo.

It's horrible to think about all those machines being thrown out and destroyed.

GUIDELINES

2011-02-22T21:08:00.000Z

Cameron Mcefee spent many hours meticulously nudging nav elements and building grids for layout in web comps, then he began to wonder why Photoshop didn’t have a grid tool like InDesign. At a certain point he decided to stop thinking about it and just build a tool to do it. And now you can download it.

ALPHABET SOUP

2011-02-02T18:03:00.000Z

Great little interview from Myfonts with the 'seasoned scriptmeister', Michael Doret. He talks about influences, experience working with Ed Benguiat, and his working process. If you're not familiar with his work, Metroscript would be a good place to start. Read the interview here.

PUTTING BACK THE FACE INTO TYPEFACE

2011-02-01T14:45:00.000Z

Erik Spiekermann shouldn't need much of an introduction. Founder of FontShop, the first mail-order distributor for digital fonts, designer of typefaces that can be seen all over the world, and all round design nut. Here is a nice piece from Gestalten TV with Erik talking about the visual design language. Enjoy.

FONTS IN USE

2011-01-05T17:24:00.001Z

Fonts In Use is an independent project from Sam Berlow, Stephen Coles, and Nick Sherman; all fairly respectable names in the world of fonts. Their new website showcases pieces of design, identifies the typefaces, and has a little critique of the work. I love the idea, and their mission statement excites me.
"This blog is a prologue of more to come. Behind the scenes, we’re building a searchable, sharable archive of typographic design, all indexed by typeface, industry, and medium."
Go have a look.

THE LEAGUE OF MOVABLE TYPE

2010-12-30T18:37:00.001Z

I don't know how I've only just come across this. I was searching for some nice alternatives to Din and Univers, and discovered The League of Movable Type. Now, I'm all for paying for my typefaces, but I would also never turn down anything free. Here is an excellent collection well-made, open-source, and @font-face ready typefaces. My hat goes off to them.

UP THERE

2010-12-29T20:19:00.001Z

Nice little video on the dying art of hand painted adverstising and signage. Kudos to these guys.

UP THERE from Jon on Vimeo.

TRUE GRIT

2010-12-28T16:23:00.001Z

Some nice posters for the new Coen Brothers film, True Grit. Based on a novel by Charles Portis, there's also a 60s John Wayne version - but this one excites me a tad more. Nice bit of type; designed by BLT & Associates. Their website has a rather cool navigation system to peruse their portfolio of film posters. Have a look.

I SINK THEREFORE I AM

2010-12-23T17:47:00.005Z

I sit down to do some work, and this happens...

LESS IS LESS

2010-12-22T21:02:00.001Z

Design agency Antrepo has a website which is definitely worth checking out. They've produced some refreshing and sometimes challenging work, which I'm sure some of you will recognise. Their latest project is about 'simplicity'. As a design exercise to push minimalism in big brand packaging, the guys at Antrepo have stripped down the graphics on some well known products.

Which variant do you prefer? Head over to their site and let them know.

PHOTOSHOP RAP

2010-12-19T14:35:00.001Z

When I first saw this link on geeks are sexy, it didn't fill me with much hope, but it's actually pretty pretty pretty good.

MAKE AN IMPRESSION

2010-12-17T16:01:00.004Z

I heart letterpress. Everything about it. The sounds and smells of a print room, the tactile hands-on nature of composing movable type, the texture and warmth you get from a print compared to an offset digital print. Lovely... This guy seems to like it too. What a rewarding work process, I shall have to keep an eye out for Studio on Fire's work.

Video found on one of my favourite website, Gestalten. Their videos are available free from itunes, or watch them all here.

POWERPOINT SUCKS

2010-12-16T21:28:00.004Z

Sweet little presentation made with google docs. Thought it was worth sharing. Slideshows don't have to be boring.

SPOILERS

2010-12-10T16:50:00.018Z

A series of postcards I've been working on. These are the first batch. Hand-drawn from 19th century woodcut type specimens. The next ones will be tweaked and improved, and silk-screen printed for a nicer finish... I may also produce a letterpress set, to get a slight debossing.

[click for hi-res]

DANGEROUS CURVES

2010-10-05T12:49:00.004+01:00

I realise it's been an eternity since I last posted, but I stumbled across this image recently, which led me to a book which I think would appeal to JAM Blog subscribers.The logotype below looks (i think) amazing and has been the inspiration for some of my preliminary stationary design for my wedding.

The designs come from a book called Dangerous Curves:Mastering Logotype DesignThe spreads look detailed and informative and are the brain child of Donald Young. Buy the book, see his fonts and other work here