Best Use of Typography by Me!

Date: December 16th, 2009

Time: 12:00

Place: My Brain

Well, here goes my last post. I think my best use of type this semester was my set of type specimen posters, but the middle one especially. I tried to make the text interlock and work together on the page, and with a lot of fiddling around, I think I made it work. I think I managed to make a cool poster that really catches peoples' attention. This was definitely my favorite project of the semester.

Interesting Typography Found in Sharadin

Date: December 11th, 2009

Time: 1:30 AM

Place: My Room

So, I had this in my room, but I originally found it in Sharadin (last year). It's a student-designed flyer for Tom Warburton's "semi-triumphant" return to Kutztown. I really like this flyer as a whole, but I feel that the type really pulls it together. The bright fill color and obvious stroke help to contribute to the cartoon theme, which is appropriate for the cartoonist, Warburton. The font, which seems to be some sort of stylized brush display font, adds a sense of urgency and excitement, heightened by the lightning in the background. Although I don't usually like this style of design, I feel that this is flyer is very effective and relevant to its purpose. However, without the unique headline, it would be much less interesting.

Most Interesting Type From a Package Containing Food

Date: November 29th, 2009

Time: 9:00

Place: My fridge

I didn't really notice anything interesting about this V8 bottle when I first looked at it, but when I examined it more, I noticed how well designed it is. I especially like "V-Fusion"; the way it is portrayed reflects characteristics of the juice. V8 is organic and healthy, and the font has a flowing, clean, organic style (almost like it was formed by a thick brush). I think, though, that the "s" is the most clever. It is formed out of two curved shapes, which swirl and "fuse" together, evoking the very word that the letters are creating. The "s" reminds me of a Ying-Yang symbol, which I usually associate with organic and natural ideas. Also, I don't know if this is intentional, but its negative space seems to form the silhouette of a branch with a leaf. All of these aspects combine to create an incredibly subtle but very effective logo.

Type as Art

Date: November 29th, 2009

Time: 7:00

Place: "History of Graphic Design" pg. 392

This is a clever example of "type as art" I found in my historical survey book. It is a double page advertisement from Woman's Day magazine, encouraging the the reader to "Go out to get Woman's Day." To emphasize this action, it uses the two perfectly round Futura o's to form the tires of a bike. It is a simple but clever idea that helps to make the ad very effective.

Rebus/Icon Incorporated into the Type

Date: November 19th, 2009

Time: 9:00

Place: "History of Graphic Design" pg. 344

I found this excellent example of a rebus in my Historical Survey book. It is a poster for the Office of Emergency Management. It has strong visuals that tie in very well with the headline: "America's Answer! Production." The "o" in Production is represented by a bolt that the giant productive American hand is screwing in.

Inspirational Typography

Date: November 12th, 2009

Time: 9:00

Place: My room

This interesting chunk of type is taken from a Trader Joe's brown paper bag, which my Grandma gave me. I really wish I could make something like this. It seems like they are trying to evoke the late 1800s, but also try to include the warmth of Christmas. I also really enjoy how well all of the phrases fit together in the space.

Good Type Gone Bad

Date: November 5th, 2009

Time: 11 PM

Place: Dixon Hall, 2nd floor

I found this mousepad at my friends room in Dixon. Although Trajan is a beautiful and well-designed font, it is misused here. Trajan implies that the subject is ancient, Roman, or somewhat epic. A mousepad about recycling is definitely none of these things. This just seems like a desperate attempt to make recycling more exciting. Also, Trajan is already overused, so that just makes this situation worse.

Good Use of a Ligature

Date: October 30th, 2009

Time: 3 AM

Place: World Magazine

I found this example of a good ligature in a World Magazine. The letter "i" and "r," in girl and airplane are represented by the "ir" ligature. I like the feel of this ad. The tightly-kerned serif font looks clean and classy. However, the text would never be able to kerned so tightly if the ligature was not used.

Bad Kerning

Date: October 22nd, 2009

Time: Evening

Place: My Room

This isn't really an exciting example of bad kerning, but it works anyway. If I was kerning this poster, I would have moved the A (in Auction) a very tiny bit closer to the U. At an art school, they really should have known better....

"Bad" Typography

Date: October 14th, 2009

Time: 9:30

Location: My room

This is a flyer for the Dixon Creamery that I have in my room. Besides the logo, it is actually well designed. However, the logo is beyond horrible. The word "Dixon" is the worst offender. It is repeated on top of itself four times: red in back, then white, then black, and then the front, which has four different colors. I will give them credit for following through with the unreadability, though. They also made the "o" a thinner weight than all the other letters and stretched the "x" to a ridiculous width. Also, to add to this mess, "creamery" is in a completely different font, with a thin red outline floating over it.

"Good" Typography

Date: October 7th, 2009

Time: 7:00

Location: My dorm room

I've had this poster for more than a year, and I've always been impressed by the Godfather logo. However, I can appreciate it a lot more now. The font (called "Corleone," appropriately) is very unique. It has a very tall x-height, paper-thin serifs, and huge brackets. The long pointy beaks and barbs on the font also give it a Benguiat-esqe gothic feel.

What makes me really love it, though, are the little adjustments: the "T" and "h" are welded together, the bottom of the "e" curves up to rest against the "r," the "G" extends to meet the "d" and give "The" a solid resting place, and the "th" in "Godfather" ramp up towards the hand. I also enjoy how the text and image interact.

Hand Rendered Typography

Date: October 1st, 2009

Time: Noon

Location: Hallway of Dixon

I found this recycling poster on the wall near my dorm room. I thought it was a good example to use: not too simple, but not too flashy. This poster actually isn't too bad, but I think that the creator got excited and tried to use a different font/color for every word.

In the word "recycling," I really have no idea what's going on. About half the letters have serifs, half do not, and every single letter has its own unique stroke weight, width, and height. It is quite a diverse word.

Historically Influenced Typography

Date: September 23rd, 2009

Time: Noon

Location: The wall of my dorm room, Dixon

This is a poster I brought back from Colorado. It is for the Silverton Jamboree, which was a weekend-long hippy blues festival. I didn't actually get a chance to see it, since we weren't in that area during the festival.

The headline of this poster is clearly influenced by typography from the Psychedelic Art period. It is not quite as trippy and confusing as most examples, but it is still organic and swirly.

Naturally Occurring Leterform

Date: September 17th, 2009

Time: Late evening

Location: The courtyard of Dixon Hall

This was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I found this letterform just outside my dorm. The armrest/leg of the bench forms the letter "S." It looks slightly distorted, sans serif, and much taller than a regular "S."

My First Post

Welcome to The Rusty Capital. This, obviously, is my first post. In a week or two I am going to start my type journal, so.... stay tuned, I guess.