Laurensius Adi - Design and Lettering

Why you should use free fonts

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 15:07:00 +0000

The typeface you use shows who you are. Whether it's a website, app, prints, branding, etc. Many of us trying to find a font by seeing what others are using. Let's take Instagram website as a sample, they use Proxima Nova as their primary font.

Ah, that looks nice, let me use exactly like that one. When you decided to take a look at the price tag, it's a bit pricey — according to a junior designer like me, living in a third world country. The price of 144 fonts: $734.00 on desktop only, or if you buy only one font of the family, $29.00. You're not gonna buy only one font right? At least 3-5 fonts, so that will costs you around $100. Or $1,101.00 for 144 fonts for a website, or $7,707.00 for 144 fonts on an app. You won't really pay for 144 fonts, but you get the idea.

"It's just a font, how is it different from Arial, or Comic Sans (meh) that we got free installed?"

Designers spent a lot of time designing typefaces, it could be a year or several years. Sure he deserves a good pay for all the bills and time spent. I'm a typeface designer myself too and I know how tricky it is to make a good font.

"I still really need that font, and I don't think I should pay that much."

Some of us decide to pirate those fonts, try to free download those 'paid' fonts. Not a good move. First, you don't respect the designer, and we can't live without money.

Luckily there are many ways to get free fonts. For web-fonts use Google Fonts which is awesome, and there are a lot of websites like fontsquirrel.com that provides free fonts for real - not 'paid' made free.

Free doesn't mean it's not as good as the 'paid' ones. They got a lot of awesome hidden gems if you could find them! Just to name a few:

Open Sans ( Google Fonts | Download )
Source Sans Pro ( Google Fonts | Download ) and Source Serif Pro ( Google Fonts | Download )
Droid Sans ( Google Fonts | Download ) and Droid Serif ( Google Fonts | Download )
PT Sans ( Google Fonts | Download ) and PT Serif ( Google Fonts | Download )
Roboto ( Google Fonts | Download )
Fira Sans ( Google Fonts | Download )
Playfair Display ( Google Fonts | Download )
Lato ( Google Fonts | Download )
Montserrat ( Google Fonts | Download )
Work Sans ( Google Fonts | Download )

Quick tip: Use a font with four styles: Regular, Italic, Bold, and Bold Italic, but even a style will do according to how you use it. So good luck finding what you think suits best you needs and respect to typeface designers!

Hand Lettering Process From Sketch to Finish

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Sat, 16 Jul 2016 12:56:00 +0000

It's been a while since I made 'serious' piece of art. So I decided to make a blog post for the whole process. This one is a bit longer than my usual process, so you can clearly see everything.

Tools used:

A5 Paper
Pencil 2B
Eraser
Microns Sakura (0.05, 0.1, 0.3, 0.8, Brush)

Step 1

Every piece starts with a random quote I found on the internet, or a quote I relate with at the moment.
I write them down, start making a thumbnail, and see what shape will it take.

Step 2

Make grids, decide spacing, kerning, and font type (sans, serif, script etc.) or just make everything sans, then decide later.

Step 3

Iterate and corrections. I change a few elements here. Seeing what fits what doesn't. It took a bit experience to determine which style to use. And just refine everything, work on the details.

Final Step

Inking and you're done!

Hand Lettering : February 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Thu, 10 Mar 2016 05:40:00 +0000

Here's a few lettering I've done on February as a challenge for myself and a thank you for this set of Microns pen. Best set of tools ever.

Follow me on Instagram : @laurensiusadi_

Livewell - Free Font Download

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Fri, 15 May 2015 07:53:00 +0000

"There's just to much digital content, lines are perfect straight, we need more curves."

Update: This font got featured on Typography Served!

<< Download Livewell Here >>

Leave comment or share below.
Thanks!

Tutorial : Simple Gold Texture

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 08:13:00 +0000

I'll show you how to make Simple Gold Texture. Easy to follow step by step with pictures. Time required : 15 minutes. Difficulty : Easy. Program used in tutorial : Adobe Photoshop CS6.

What you'll be making in the tutorial :

Here's the piece I made recently on Instagram.

Vectorized version from last post. I'd love to screen print this one. Would be great isn't it?

A photo posted by Laurensius Adi (@laurensiusadi_) on Feb 6, 2015 at 9:44am PST

Step 1 : Prepare Your Lettering

Make sure you make the lettering on different layer, name it 'Text' and the other one 'Background'

Step 2 : Add Gradient

Fill layer 'Background' with dark color, navy, maroon, grey or black. I'm using #1c1918.

Open Layer Style by double-click layer 'Text' or right-click then Blending Options. Then choose Gradient Overlay. Set Angle to 145.

Click the Gradient color bar (default black and white) to open Gradient Editor dialog.

Click the bottom color stop, and then click Color at the very bottom of the dialog to change the color. First color : #e0b06d Second color : #865e31. Then click OK. If gradient is reversed, check Reverse. Then click OK to close Layer Style dialog.

Step 3 : Add Noise

First, you have to rasterize layer by right-click on layer 'Text' - Rasterize Layer Style. Then the Effects will disappear and blend with the layer and layer 'Text' is still active.

Go to menu Filter - Noise - Add Noise.
Set Amount: 15%, Distribution : Uniform, and check Monochromatic.

Hit OK and you're done! Simple isn't it?

You can add further effect like Bevel & Emboss (Style: Outer bevel, Technique: Chisel Soft) and add some textures on background like this.

If you have any questions, just leave a comment below.
If you have followed my tutorial, I really want to see the result, so post it on your Instagram and mention me @laurensiusadi_ with #texturetutorial.

Share if you find this helpful!
Thanks!

99designs : Why You Should Try and When to Stop

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 06:06:00 +0000

Perhaps, it's the most popular design crowd-source platform with over 300k contests and around 90 million dollar payouts to date. But why? Haters gonna hate? Yes.

I'm an amateur designer, a self-taught designer. I learned by seeing, entering courses, read books, and spend most of my time exploring. It was all started at high school. I wanted money so bad that made me search all over the internet to find how to make money. And I found 99designs.

At the time I just started to know about graphic design. Because I attend my school's extracurricular. 'Why don't just give it a shot?' I tried once and it doesn't seems alright. My design was poor, and luckily I noticed. There are many people out there do not. So I learned a lot, everywhere, Behance, Pinterest and other inspiration website. Until the eleventh trial at 99designs, I won a contest and my last year on high school. It feels so great. The first time you 'make' your own money

Graphic designer work seems so easy. Because I'm still lacking of knowledge. And then it starts to grow when I find out more about design world later on my first year of college. After winning over a thousand dollars, I quit. Because they said professionals will pay higher than 99designs contest holder. But what it takes to be professional?

You have to qualify. I believed there are self-taught professional designers out there, without formal education at design. So here's how to be qualified according to my experience.
Learn the basics, sketches first then software skills and build a portfolio. I found out Instagram is a good way to show what you got. Make them look good, and have a conversation with the community. Following people with good design taste will also help. The final step is hard, find your own unique style.

What's the deal with 99designs? Many of them - I can say about 80 percents - of the designers are poor, I mean real bad. They don't have what it takes to be a good designer, they don't know what they made. Luckily the contest holder knows what best, but some still don't. The other 20 percents is either platinum designer or they know what they're doing.

It's a place for early stage designers. 99designs helped them to start their own career. They have some of them that more than qualified - name it talented. The stage after it is the professional one I believe. I haven't reach somewhere near professional either. I got several client request some design work, but I only get paid less than fifty bucks for a small job. Professional design agency get paid more than $100 per hour, or maybe way more than that.

99designs have their own way do differentiate the talented one with the rest. They make the title platinum designer and posting the top designers list. So you'll know who's in the game.

Why you should stop? It's a waste of time for some of you. Your time has more value than it looks. You can't replace time with money, you can't buy time. But you can make money with time. The present is assets for your future. If what you're doing in the whole month makes you a millionaire next month, then it's your value.

You can start learn more, read books, take courses and learn more and more. Make your day more productive. It doesn't mean making something everyday, learning is a precious progress, enjoy it. Start a Behance portfolio is also good. Just wait until someone hire you, or make them hire you! Make a good personal branding and internet marketing will do the rest.

Anyway, it's quite a lot of money going to someone everyday. It's a decision over arrogance. You can still try if you think you got what it takes.

Worth reading : Get Over It, Haters: 99designs Has Tipped , How I Quit Working for 99Designs, Crowdspring and Mycroburst

Marsala, Pantone Color of The Year 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Sat, 06 Dec 2014 12:09:00 +0000

Goodbye Radiant Orchid, and maybe you already forgot about the Emerald. Welcome Marsala, Pantone Color of The Year 2015.

"While PANTONE 18-3224 Radiant Orchid, the captivating 2014 color of the year, encouraged creativity and innovation, Marsala enriches our mind, body and soul, exuding confidence and stability," said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®.

Color information for Marsala :

Pantone: 18-1438
CMYK: 25, 77, 64, 11
RGB: 150, 79, 76
HTML: 955251

"Much like the fortified wine that gives Marsala its name, this tasteful hue embodies the satisfying richness of a fulfilling meal while its grounding red-brown roots emanate a sophisticated, natural earthiness," Pantone announced this week.

It’s here! The @WSJ announces the Pantone Color of the Year for 2015 is #Marsala #ColoroftheYear

A photo posted by PANTONE (@pantone) on Dec 12, 2014 at 9:39pm PST

This hearty, yet stylish tone is universally appealing and translates easily to fashion, beauty, industrial design, home furnishings and interiors.

Leatrice Eiseman. Executive Director, Pantone Color Institute^®

This year's shade appeals to men and women, and is flattering on many skin tones, "a great go-to color for beauty," Pantone said. Within a few weeks of the announcement, the color typically begins to pop up on products from evening gowns to coffee makers.

A rich contrasting color, Marsala is ideal for use in graphic design and packaging. Eye-catching, but not overwhelming or bright, consumers are immediately drawn to the hue, making it an alluring shade at point-of-purchase. As packaging becomes increasingly more artistic, Marsala will be a natural fit for both high- and low-tech materials, including on-shelf periodicals as well as printed assets, like calendars and stationery.

Source : Pantone, CNN, USA Today

Realize How Blessed You Are

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Sun, 16 Nov 2014 17:43:00 +0000

Been a while since I posted something on my blog. I've been exploring many things, distracted by the ordinary daily life. Sometimes, it just have to flew that way. And sometimes, it just hard to keep yourself creative, live it the extra-ordinary way. You may feel empty, just a blank page without knowing your own life. At that time, realize how blessed you are.

This is my latest Instagram post. You can use it as daily reminder, on your desktop, or other gadgets. Available for download as wallpaper. Download 1920x1080

Tutorial : Textured Hand Lettering Using Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Mon, 08 Sep 2014 14:32:00 +0000

This 7 steps tutorial will helps you make hand lettering placed on top of pictures. Easy to follow step by step with pictures. Time required : 20-60 minutes. Yeah that's a long process!

What you'll be making :

I've been exploring hand-lettering further lately. Shot a picture, and give touches on it, colors, and effects on it. So I posted it on my Instagram.

So I'll give you the way to achieve those kind of style. Results may differ through the process.
You can check my previous post for some texture resource. Please note this tutorial is not for absolute beginner on Photoshop, at least you know the interface, tools and menus. The version I'm using is Photoshop CS6 and running on Windows.

Step 1 : Prepare your lettering

After you finished your hand lettering, you can scan or just take an image using camera and edit it on Photoshop. Don't worry if your letters not perfect or imbalance, we will take care of it. The goal of this step is to get the shape of the letters. That's a one quick lettering.

You can take a picture of your letters, or even better scan your work in black and white mode. The picture above is taken using my smartphone Xperia ZR.

Step 2 : Getting Pictures ready on Photoshop

Open your Photoshop, File - New, then set Width: 612px Height: 612px Resolution: 300dpi (or up to you). Then drag your photo or scanned file to the work space, position it on center and press Enter.

On the Layers panel, right-click the active layer - Rasterize Layer.

Step 3 : Black and White

If you're using scanner you still have to do this to make the image better but it's easier since the paper is plain white instead of shades of grey like on the photo.

Go to Image - Adjustments - Levels (Ctrl+L). Now using the black and the white slider, try to make the black just plain black, and whites just plain white. You should experimenting on this.

Step 4 : Selecting

Go to Select - Color Range. And choose highlights as selection option.

Then white area will be active as selection. Press Shift+Ctrl+I (Select - Inverse). And the selection now active on the text.

Now go to Select - Refine Edge (Alt+Ctrl+R). This part is a bit tricky since there is no defined way to make this just right. Lots of experiment I must say.

First, choose View Mode - View - Black and White. Or you can try other options.
Next just move the bars till you get the best result. I usually put it like this :
- Smooth : 2-5px. It will make the object bit smooth on pointed edge.
- Feather : < 5px. You can increase them and the contrast to make the object thicker.
- Contrast : < 40px. Increase them not too high, try too get rid of blurry edge, but don't make it look jagged or rough.
- Shift edge : 5-10 %. Increasing or decreasing the selection.

After you click OK button. It will turn back as Marching Ants active selection. Leave the selection active as it is.

Step 5 : New Object on New Layer

Make new layer by pressing Create New Layer button on bottom of Layers Panel. Or Shift+Ctrl+N for shortcut. Then click on the Layer 1 (just created) too make sure it's active (blue background panel). And Hide the layer contains previous picture by pressing eye icon on the layer.

Now you got Marching Ants selection with no color on the workspace. Press the Paint Bucket Tool icon on left tools panel (shortcut G) and fill the selection with color Black or White (can easily change later by pressing Ctrl+I while layer active, but I prefer Black first). Now you get a nice clean text object on a new layer with Selection still active for next step.

Step 6 : Applying Texture

With the selection still active. Make new layer Shift+Ctrl+N. Fill this selection on new layer with patterns (check my previous pattern post). So I'm using Pattern Stamp tool with big brush to fill all selection. After fill them, press Ctrl+I to Inverse Color.

Hold Ctrl then click Layer 2 (on the name) and still holding Ctrl click Layer 1, release Ctrl. Both Layer background will be blue means both active. Right click on one of them, Merge Layers.
Then change the Layer blending to Multiply.

Step 7 : Placing Pictures

You can get your free image online on unsplash[dot]com or pexels[dot]com, or maybe using your own. Drag you image file to the workspace. And place the image layer beneath the text.

If you want the text White, press Ctrl+I while layer active (it's gone!), you have to change the Blending Mode to Screen. (Remember! Black - Multiply, White - Screen)

You can add noise pattern. Many free on Internet, buy at creative market, Ian Banard's textures is one of the best and easy to apply. I got some mine HERE. Put it on top layer, Invert (Ctrl+I), then Blending Mode to Screen. Use Ctrl+L to adjust the size of the noise.

Also check out this free noise texture from Medialoot.

And you're done!

There you go. I tried my best, hope you doing well following my tutorial. Sorry if something's not clear or I'm doing it the wrong way. If you have any questions, just leave comment below.

There is an easier way : Put you image, make it black and white, invert (Ctrl+I), blending mode screen, put image, done. But without noise or texture.

It's not the picture that makes the lettering looks good, but practice does. This is just a way of presenting lettering.

If you have followed my tutorial, I really want to see the result, so post it on your Instagram and mention me on the comment @laurensiusadi_ with #texturetutorial.

Share if you find this helpful!

Thanks a lot guys!

What Happen Lately?

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 17:16:00 +0000

It's a big question, for myself. What happen lately? What really happen? Life seems not standing on it's own, flowing like a dead fish on the river.

What I need? Plan, sparks and strong will.

Who doesn't have plans? Everyone does have, even just one, short term ones. I do have, a lot. I plan them before summer holiday starts, 2 months ago. And now, it's coming to an end.

Holiday is no longer here. I ruined it.
~~Swimming~~, ~~web coding~~, ~~restore old motorcycle~~.
Playing? Everyday. Not in a good way.
I play on my smartphone, not cool.
Playstation on laptop, not cool enough.
Watching YouTube, bit entertaining, but it hurts my eyes.

I should play physically, basketball, soccer, or something else. I sit all day in front of my laptop doing, most of them, useless things. I don't gain any body weights, instead, skinnier. I don't really know why, but I tend to not enjoy eating.

Sparks - is a term for ideas, inspiration that boost me or kick me in the ass so I got enough will to work on something. Spark? Checked.

I got them from Instagram! By seeing others' works, I feel like 'I should make more lettering too!' And another big spark is from Casey Neistat's YouTube Channel. He got awesome videos to watch, so inspiring, and make me wanna live like he does! You should check him out!

Strong will? Lack of it. Something's missing, something big is missing from me. I heard this quote somewhere *forgot : 'If internet is your number 1 thing, your life is in a big trouble.' And it is. I mean, it's digital not really real, social but not so social it is fake. You need something physical, you can touch and interact with. Friends and journey it is.

I spend my middle high school in the city I was born, the capital city Jakarta. Then spending 3 years senior high school on Central Java, small city called Muntilan near the great Borobudur Temple. And now I'm studying college at Surabaya, the second largest city after Jakarta, located at East Java.

I don't make much friend on middle high, and I got more friends on high school. While at home, I don't have much friend to hang out with, almost none maybe. Maybe I need a community. I can spend my time alone going through the city, with public transportation, but not cozy and safe enough. But probably I should try it!

Over the last month, I don't make much hand lettering. I'm interested in leather craft. Hand lettering still my main hobby but the percentage will reduce over time since leather craft seems making more money than lettering does - I haven't make any money from lettering yet.

And about this blog. I will post more about design and lettering, for sure. I got a tutorial on draft and thinking about making free textures and fonts.

But above all, try something - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Stay in touch. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram : laurensiusadi_ (both)

Thanks!

Top 5 Free Texture Packs For Lettering

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 18:56:00 +0000

I'm really in on hand lettering lately. I've been exploring some retro style, the offset printing look, aged style, grunge. To achieve the kind of look that I wanted, I look for nice textures, but the one that's great always premium which mean I should spent some money. I'm still in college, I don't have to much money to buy those textures on online markets. So I google hard, try to find some good textures. I'll share with you guys. So here is the list to download texture pack.

1. Free Halftone Pack

Freebie from Dustin Lee. Don't forget to check his shop!

Download

2. Free Subtle Brush Pack

Freebies from Jack Fahnestock. 15 Photoshop brushes; sizes range from 750-950px. Free for personal and commercial work.

Download (Use Dropbox link)

3. Subtle Photoshop Brush Set

Freebies by Liam McKay.

Download

4. Texture Pack Vol. 1

This one is paid to free packs by Rob Brink on Creative Market.

Download

5. Subtle Grunge Vectors

Freebies by Nick Pagano. The best part of this one is vector, not raster.

Download

Thanks for stop by and mind to follow my Instagram.

Learn Something : Web Design

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Sat, 31 May 2014 06:18:00 +0000

There's must be something out there interesting enough to learn. So do I. I love design really much and I want to make myself better and better. Learning also creates new opportunities in the future. You won't know till you need some sort of skill someday. Try to learn as much as you can, little by little everyday.

I choose web design as my new learning material to step further in design. I already got a blog since 2009 but it's just ordinary content and ordinary design. Recently, I often look for good designs around as an inspiration that makes me feel, you know, I got the 'taste' of design.

I also read some book, many articles, many tutorial, watched many videos, it took time as it self-taught - I mean by not attending special class or real course.

You'll be boring if you're not challenging yourself. Get up and learn some new skills. Adikun Creative

I wanna share with all of you who wants to try learning about web design. It's not an easy one. Just to learn the look of web design is tricky since many aspects involves to make a good one. Typography, colors, images, content, layout, and much more details.

The right way to start is to get the idea of the latest trends, or you could even make your own. Awwwards.com is a great place to explore web design trends.

To get things done easier we need tools and that's the CSS Framework's job. Framework provides well built, structured, and responsive CSS classes that easy to be used. There are 2 latest dominant CSS Framework : Zurb's Foundation 5 or Twitter's Bootstrap 3.1.1. I found a nice article about both of them.

Download some ready template is also helpful. You can see how they're built by seeing the HTML code and learn how they styled with CSS. You can find some clean HTML template by googling or a nice website here or here.

Will be updated soon as I'm going through the learning process.
Thanks!

Be More Productive : Get Up Early

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Wed, 21 May 2014 20:39:00 +0000

It's been a while since my last post about my own hand-lettering, life's been busy these few months. I was really inspired by this Spreecast and this Seanwes' Podcast. I decided to get back on track.

Zachary Smith and Sean McCabe are the best motivators. They really inspired me to do so. The quote make me realized, that it's been quite a while since I get up early and enjoy the morning. I've been a Night Owl these months, start to sleep like 1AM or 3AM, and that's really disturb my all day activities.

It's been a while since my last lettering, I'm lack of ideas to make one. I only have enough energy to walk the day. If I'm not in my best condition, I feel like I don't have creativity. I'm lucky to stop by those to talks and find myself once more.

As always, I start my lettering with a rough sketch, try to find a good composition of these words.

It seems messy, but it's okay. Try to refine it on a new paper, try to use grids, it helps you a lot.

And here is the finished version.

Thanks! Mind to follow my Instagram.

Top Typographer : Zachary Smith

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Wed, 21 May 2014 04:42:00 +0000

Zachary Smith is hand lettering artist and designer, based in Savannah, GA. This awesome hand-letterer is a former designer on Sevenly for about 8 months and the Founder of Know Where Co.

Drawing and lettering has been his interest since on middle school. But his father who is a paint brush artist is the one who give big influence on him. To quit Sevenly is a hard choice for him, and then he moved to Georgia. Alongside his younger brother they found Know Where Co.

The most productive people are the people who get up early Zachary Smith

For more about him, check out this conversation with Diane Gibbs.

He got a nice works on Instagram to be followed.

Also follow his work on Behance and give him your appreciation!

Adobe Helps You Practicing Typography

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 02:31:00 +0000

Recently (Apr. 16), Adobe Typekit launched a new website called Typekit Practice. This website helps you practice typographic skills, via a series of lessons and resources.

There are no born masters of typography. Jan Tschichold

Fonts are great, but using them well can be hard. Volumes have been written about typography, yet every good designer will say there are no rules; there is no magic formula for success. Typography simply takes practice. Typography is a practice.

Aimed at being a learning resource, visitors can expect to find featured lessons, like “using shades for eye-catching emphasis”, and a helpful list of online references and books on typography.

“Whether you’re a novice or an expert in any medium, good decisions take practice—and great ones stand on a solid foundation,” wrote the website. “Typekit Practice is a collection of resources and a place to try things, hone your skills, and stay sharp. Everyone can practice typography.”

"For example, John Downer explains why sign painters shade letters to the lower left, Nick Cox reviews Typofonderie's Ambroise, and Typekit's own David Demaree ruminates on Hi-DPI typography. We're working hard to accurately cite the sources of references, so that readers have a starting point for further research."

It looks like Typekit Practice could evolve into a useful collection of hints and tips for those starting to play with typographic technique, and for others looking for some well-researched information on the discipline.

The Practice site is designed and maintainted by Elliot Jay Stocks, Tim Brown, Bram Stein and the Typekit team.

[via Typekit Practice and Typekit Blog]

Top Typographer : Nathan Yoder

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 14:00:00 +0000

Nathan Yoder is an illustrator and designer from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Currently located in Orange County, California, he specializes in pen and ink illustration as well as hand lettering and branding.

Enjoy The Process from Nathan Yoder on Vimeo.

---
INFO
I had the honor of working with Brandon Wall and Mark Anderson in the making of this short film on the idea of enjoying the process. I couldn't have asked for two better guys to work with in the effort of pushing this message forward. It was such great time and the ideas that they brought to the table took the project far past what I had originally envisioned. This film is also the official announcement of my new portfolio site, www.yondrstudio.com. You can pick up a signed print of the original piece created in film at www.nathanyoder.co.

---
CREDITS
Directed by: Brandon Wall and Mark Anderson
Art / Written by: Nathan Yoder
Music: Andrew Bird "Lit From Underneath"

Check out his great works on Yondr Studio and Instagram

Intel Clear: A New Brand Font for a Digital World

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 13:48:00 +0000

A first in its 45-year history, Intel has created a proprietary, global font to be used across all communications. Called Intel Clear, the font is the new, official Intel typeface as of April 2014. The font represents Intel's continued commitment to leading innovation in all areas of technology. With the average person spending 9 hours a day reading from a screen, Intel intends to help make the experience as clear as possible.

It looks similar with the font Clear Sans on Fontsquirrel, but it is not the same font. Look closely on both of them and you can notice the difference.

Designed by design agency Red Peak Branding and font studio Dalton Maag, the typeface is meant to work across all writing systems and media platforms.

The agency worked on the project for a year, coming up with a cleaner design that exemplifies its values of openness and friendliness through rounded strokes and soft angles. “If you look at the way the lowercase ‘a’ terminates, there’s a nice feature in the bottom of the stroke, a little like calligraphy pen lettering. We wanted the characters to have a human, friendly quality,” said Maag.

One of the challenges was ensuring it looked modern across different scripts. Another issue was ensuring it was optimized for different screen sizes and resolutions, from smartphones to tablets and computers. The third concern was having characters that meet the height restrictions of bounding boxes on gadgets; characters needed to be generous and relaxed to avoid looking too cluttered on small screens.

Work is still in progress on ‘Intel Clear’ and it currently has Latin, Greek and Cyrillic scripts available.

[via Design Taxi , Creative Review and Intel Newsroom, video via Intel]

Recent Hand Lettering #1

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Sun, 23 Mar 2014 03:21:00 +0000

I really have to find time to make these lettering. I'm busy with my college and sort of things. Even only 5 minutes, I sketch, or just ink a letter. But I make progress.

These Inspirational Typographic Quotes comes out of my mind, mixed with popular quotes, song, movie or anything became the inspiration. Most of them talk about Life which is not easy to described. Life is complicated and yet, try to live it happily. These words also encourage me when I'm in a hard time and spice up my life.

Thanks!

Check out my Instagram

How to : Hand Lettering

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Tue, 25 Feb 2014 17:40:00 +0000

I've been making hand lettering for almost a year now, so I decided to wrote my own hand lettering tutorial. Basically hand lettering is a composition of word written with the taste of art of typography. Everything start with an idea in my mind. I'll try to make small steps for this tutorial. Hope you can follow it and make something out of this tutorial. Share yours!

First Step : Keep Your Ideas

Ideas sometimes just shown up and disappear in your mind. I find myself easy to get ideas when I'm already at bed and try to sleep. You have to write it down, take notes in case you'd like to make it as a lettering. Try to find beautiful phrases or sentence, about 5 - 10 words.

Step Two : Sketch

Make a rough sketch out of your phrases. This one is my original quick messy sketch. I just make it without think to much. Try to make a square or rectangle shape from your words. Don't worry if it looks bad. This way makes your brain thinks easier of the composition rather than just try to think of it. You can use same fonts, all sans, all script, but it is better to mix them together. Graphical elements such as ribbons and lines also help the composition to look good and balance.

Step Three : Refinement

From that messy sketch, make another one with better composition. Use guidelines for outer and across the middle of the paper so it will looks symmetrical.

To make a curved phrases at the bottom, make a curve first and then put each letter perpendicular to the curve. For script font, like on the top and second from bottom, thickness of the stroke is the key. When the stroke goes up it have to be thinner than the stroke that goes down.

At this stage, I do a lot of revision on it, try to make it looks better. Use a 2B pencil or maybe the less thick one so you can erase it easily.

Step Four : Ink

Start to ink when you feel the sketch good enough. Start inking on the outline with small pen (0.1), so you can correct the shape later with larger one.

After you finish all the outlines, erase the pencil work done before, or it will tore apart the paper after inked.

Do the inking part carefully because you don't have "Undo" button here. You can add thickness and ornaments, but not to erase or make the font thinner.

That one is my finished lettering. Make yours now and share it with others. Thanks!

Step Further on 99designs : Platinum Designer

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 17:13:00 +0000

So, short story I was promoted to be a Platinum Designer and just won a Platinum contest. Thanks 99designs!

Here is my bio :

Just in case you don't know 99designs. What is 99designs?

The question is How do I become a Platinum designer?

And 99designs answer it like this : Simple: just focus on producing great designs!
Well, that's a bit confusing, and sometimes great designs is a matter of perspective, it can be great, good, or not good enough. But according to my opinion, that's what going on to me.

I've been joining 99designs for 1 year and 9 months till now, and it's been a while since I won my last contest, 7 months. What I've been doing on that 7 months?
I learn and learn all day till I think I'm good enough.

I feel shame if I won a contest without a great design. I'm not blaming anyone here, no offense. But I found some "not quite good enough" winning a contest. It should have been better than that. Designers supposed to solve problems and make the world better by giving creative touches onto it.

Back to my 7 months. Other than learning design, I was preparing to begin studying on college. I need some times to adapt with new environment, new city, new routines, new friends, and many other new things. After I feel enjoy with my new life, I continue to joining contests. Not a stressful process, but try to win a contest is not easy though. I've tried several times and haven't won any.

In the middle of "trying" contests, 2 weeks ago, woke up in the morning, checking my email, and I got and email from 99designs "Great News - You're a Platinum Designer". I'm surprised cause I haven't won any contest lately. I was wondering why. Maybe the Community Manager have seen my last winning and some on my portfolios. I think, it was based on opinion.

Despite my confusion, I try a Platinum Contest right away. I followed the brief, sketch some ideas, working with some fonts, and submit my design. With some improvements, corrections, options, and the Contest Holder satisfied with my job, so I won the contest.

The contest prize is big enough for me, not to boast, $600, I think I can buy new laptop cause this one pretty old, or maybe save up and buy other things later.

Lessons I got these days : learn and never quit, be better and better, don't give up.

I learn all things just from internet, it provides my everything, and I can call myself a self-taught designer. Not a real one though (real project, not a crowdsource contest). This is just a one way to get extra cash. Everybody can try what I've done. I hope all of you inspired to do so. Thanks.

The Color of Your Brand. Choose Carefully!

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 12:41:00 +0000

When consulting with my clients who are starting up a new company or are ready for a brand overhaul, one of the first aspects of their brand we discuss is the selection of their company colors. We ask them how they want their customers to feel about…

Pantone's Color of 2014: Radiant Orchid

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 13:45:00 +0000

CARLSTADT, N.J., Dec. 5, 2013 – Pantone, an X-Rite company and the global authority, today announced PANTONE® 18-3224 Radiant Orchid, a captivating, magical, enigmatic purple, as the color of the year for 2014.

Each year the company selects a colour which it says will sum up the 12 months ahead. Pantone says it ‘combs the world’ for influences, looking at films, artworks, technology and sport events.

Color information :

Pantone: 18-3224
CMYK: 19, 70, 0, 0
RGB: 200, 107, 168
HTML: B163A3

More : http://www.pantone.com/pages/index.aspx?pg=21131

Radiant Orchid reaches across the color wheel to intrigue the eye and spark the imagination Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®

Pantone says Radiant Orchid has potential for use in beauty and interiors, and is already being used by fashion designers for their 2014 collections.

The Oscars Reveal New Logo

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 09:27:00 +0000

Recently (Dec. 17), The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, more commonly known as The Oscars, introducing their new logo which will be used for the 86^th awards, due to be held next March.

The rebrand has started as a thought two years ago and became reality with the help of agency 180LA.

"We developed a visual identity that's as inspired by the Academy's heritage as it is by our future, including the much-anticipated opening of our Academy Museum in 2017", said The Academy Chief Marketing Officer, Christina Kounelias.

The new logo spotlights the Oscar from above – creating a triangular shape and uniting the "A" of the Academy with our iconic statuette. This design gives the Academy a presence in its own logo for the first time and underscores our efforts to support creative arts and sciences year-round.

Richard Harrington, head of design at 180LA, says the ‘A’ mark ‘visually pulls the whole brand together’. He adds, ‘We can invite other artists, photographers and film-makers to interpret the A shape as a visual constant through everything from poster design to magazine covers right down to something as simple as a business card.’

For more : http://www.oscars.org/imagination/

Animated Short On Typography

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Fri, 27 Dec 2013 09:18:00 +0000

Well, it appears that I have been absent for a while and haven’t updated on my sweet thoughts on design…rest assured I am back. Back in June, I went to the HOW Design Conference and had the most amazing experience in my career. Why? I don’t know…

Hand Lettering : These Days

noreply@blogger.com (Laurensius Adi) — Sun, 15 Dec 2013 06:43:00 +0000

Even though I'm not studying design, I'm still loving design world. I'm trying really hard to get some lettering done. After the idea came to my mind, I start to sketch and if I get enough time I'll continue it to inking. My lettering' ideas got so much influence by my life stories. I need some motivation to continue studying in university, and I want to spread my spirit with my friends. I've posted my lettering on Instagram

My life changed a lot these days, but something stays the same, hand lettering. AdiKun Creative

So here it goes.