stitched adage

It would be remiss not to feature an L on this ultimate day of lurve, so here’s a swirly, hand-stitched one by the Ma(x) half of Luma.

I wanted to embroider a gift tag a while back (not actually for St Val’s day), but freestyle stitching wasn’t working out for me – a font trawl turned up the rather lovely Adage Script, designed by Jason Walcott of Jukebox for Veer.

That L was a challenge to stitch over, though probably a lot easier than the upper case G… I kind of got away with it, but the end result didn’t really do the font justice – I won’t be giving up the day job. L is for… labour intensive ideas.

On the plus side, what a purty Valentine’s font Adage Script is. And how good does felt look in extreme close up??

the day job is safe

barbalala l

You can’t say we don’t pick some unusual Ls. We didn’t actually choose this one – it chose us. We’re getting to know the wonderfully surreal world of Barbapapa through a new project we’re working on.

As bonkers as Barbapapa is (see Youtube), it is massively enduring (the first book was published in 1970… you can tell); pleasingly fluid (not only can the characters morph into anything, it’s probably the most laidback style guide we’ve ever encountered); and it transfers beautifully to product thanks to its bright and graphic qualities. A character range that can transform into anything must be pretty much every licensor’s dream – see Amazon.

So here we have the lovely Barbalala, who loves music and can transform her body into a harp, all manner of other musical instruments and also the letter L. Useful.

P.S. Is that MC Solaar rapping at 23 seconds into the French opening credits?

barbapapa alphabet

bantjes l

We got some great books this Christmas – Simon Garfield‘s lovely Just My Type, the latest 8 Faces (not technically a book), and I Wonder by Marian Bantjes – an exquisite treasure chest of a book, which coincidentally features a great rant about the letter L:

“WHAT… the fuck… is that? Surely no two worse letterforms exist than these duds – I mean, c’mon… two lines and a line? (…) This is what happens when Modernism is allowed to run rampant.”

Well, aside from making us laugh, that rant pretty much sums up why we started this blog in the first place. It was a real struggle to find a letter L that we liked enough to take prime position in our company logo.

L is possibly the most neglected and under-explored letter in the alphabet so, in 2011, we’ll continue to put on a pedestal that rare, exciting and elaborate beast we know as ‘one hell of an l’… beginning with this intricate Bantjes illustration.

Happy New Year!

i wonder

blue and red Ls

Shame on us. We’ve been so busy, we’ve neglected our L gallery and missed out on some corkers in the process. Timing is everything.

To make up for it, the L God brought us this wondrously simple and striking piece of bona fide charity shop gold – the L-Game by psychology supremo Edward de Bono. What’s more, it’s from 1969 and was still sealed!

The game claims to be “the simplest real game ever invented” and “can be learned in seconds and played for hours”. The object of the game is that you have to use your L, as well as your wits, to block your opponent from moving his or her L. Instant win if you block them in.

We haven’t tested it out yet, mainly because the whole game is so simply and beautifully designed, we’re scared to touch it. It even gets a “selected for the Design Centre London” stamp of approval on it.

charity shop gold

And what about those Ls? What a find! See some more photos over on flickr.

Our only complaint is the ragged copy on the game sleeve. Would it have hurt to bring that ‘and’ up to the second line – or lose the word ‘real’? But hey, it was 1969…

draw pilgrim l

Christmas is coming, tra la la… before you know it, December 24th will be here and you’ll be wondering why you didn’t start pressie shopping a bit earlier.

So, with that niggling thought in mind, we hopped onto Etsy for some handmade goodness and came across this vibrant L print by the very talented draw! pilgrim.

We love her blog – such a feast of colour – and we love that she has created a printable colour-in pilgrim picture especially for those who stumbled on her site expecting instructions on how to draw a pilgrim! Were there really that many of them?

Anyway, forget the white Christmas – grab a load of her psychedelic L and many other great letters and prints from her etsy store and get ahead on the Christmas game while you’re at it.

more draw pilgrim

spot the l

We’ve wanted to feature a font created on Fontstruct for a while – that cool place where anyone, however new to the game, can build and create their own font. Anyone apart from us, because we haven’t got enough hours in the day…

Fontstruct recently had its sponsorship by Fontshop extended for another two years – brilliant news, as it’s a great place to play and also to see typography trends being toyed with.

One of Fonstruct’s most prolific ‘fontstructors’ is Em42, or Emilio Ignozza – a designer with a passion for making fresh type. His Dioptical, a font worthy of op art status and with a mind-bending L, was turned into the beautiful laser-engraved leather moleskine cover seen on the left.

See more of his studio’s work on Behance, and read an in-depth interview with Emilio over on Fontfeed.

When you’ve done all that have a go at creating your own fonts, paying special attention to your Ls…

desirab-l

veer L

Veer is a lovely place, populated by helpful and friendly people – we have evidence, we spoke to real live humans there once! Shock horror.

Anyway, to prove how nice they are, they’ve started an interesting campaign – download free stuff and you get entered into a weekly draw to win very cool prizes. It starts this week with a $5,000 spending spree at the Apple store; culminating in a few weeks with a $15,000 trip around the world. Part of the deal is that you have to tell your friends and gather enough interest to unlock each freebie. Pretty clever.

Fittingly, their lastest freebie is a set of ‘social media avatars’ forming an alphabet and made using images and fonts found on Veer.

That letter L – we’re all for a splash of colour, but doesn’t it look a bit ‘easy’ compared to the other letters? That was always our beef with Ls – are they the neglected letter of the alphabet? Typographers, tell us it isn’t so…

love luma

little ben l

Big Ben has been transformed into a ‘little ben’ L for a striking new project that’s cheering up the building site that is London’s Victoria. Those talented folk at Hat-Trick Design, who are just up the road from us, were commissioned to do the project to brighten up some dull hoardings.

The result is an alphabet of large-scale, illuminated, experimental typography, which has a striking impact on the local environment. Each letter tells a story that’s linked to the local area and, from a distance, they make meaningful words. Plus it’s all in a fittingly regal shade of purple!

Let’s hope the commuters appreciate the huge amount of careful thought and effort that’s gone into the project.

You can read more about it over at the Creative Review blog.

Thanks to Hat-Trick for the L!

victoria's alphabet

banana l

It’s about time we had a banana-based L on here, we mused. Then, lo and behold, along comes LouLou & Tummie‘s amazing cut, fold ‘n’ stick cubic fruit! It’s from a range of paper toys available to download for free! We had a lot of fun putting our banana L together, especially as we should have been doing something more important instead.

LouLou & Tummie are a Dutch illustration duo with a passion for creating colourful and graphic characters, a penchant for vinyl toys and a portfolio of impressive projects. Most of all, they look like they have a lot of fun.

We’re suckers for their Tummie Friends – especially Mr Sprinkles and his elegant ‘tache. Anyone who creates a world with a location called ‘Chocovalley’ and an L-shaped banana sporting a sweatband is seriously okay by us!

paper toy

jessica hische l

We’re getting a bit behind on our L blog lately, but it’s all for good reasons. That and a lack of hours in the day.

It’s about time we had a Jessica Hische L on here as we pretty much admire everything she does, without exception – and this particular one is just so purty and autumnal.

If you love typography, you’ll know who Jessica is. If you’re not a type geek, she’s a freelance typographer and illustrator working in Brooklyn who produces work with meticulous detail, great elegance and good humour, too.

You can read more about her in the great 8 Faces, which is still available for download, or on her site.

For more Jessica goodness, check out her new font, Snowflake, which is making us long for Christmas; view more of her fabulous Ls on her letter-a-day blog; and buy her stuff in gorgeous letterpress form, too!

hische poster