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I mentioned yesterday that Orbitron has been accepted into The...

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:00:14 -0800

I mentioned yesterday that Orbitron has been accepted into The League of Moveable Type, so I’ve been working to finish everything up. I just wanted to post an update. I’ve added a lot to the typeface since I first submitted it. It now has a full lowercase set, 4 full weights, small caps, and 3 stylistic sets (meaning a ton of alternate characters). My goal is to have it online sometime this week.

Yes for Orbitron!

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:40:54 -0800

Yes for Orbitron!:

The League of Moveable Type has accepted Orbitron into their library of typefaces. I just finished tweaking the Medium and Bold weights tonight. I’ve got 2 more weights to finish, then it’s time for release. This was the post on their blog by the way:

Yay, our very first round of font submission voting has come to an end, and the out come was an overwhelming vote of yes for Orbitron! Good job to our newest League contributor Mr. Matt McInerney.

The perfectionist that he is, Matt is currently working on last tweaks for the font, but you shall see his typeface on The League’s site in the very near future, so stay tuned!

Thanks everyone for participating, we’re glad to have your input on this. See y’all next time!

Above is the logo I designed for an original folk opera called...

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:14:22 -0800

Above is the logo I designed for an original folk opera called Truth about the African-American abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth. I got involved because my mother is one of the producers of this opera. All the type in the logo above is completely custom. I designed it to look like stray letters gathered from old sets of wood type, printed years ago and worn.

The opera is currently raising money through Kickstarter and offering thank you gifts for different levels of donation. If you’d like to support this original production, click through, watch the video, and donate.

About a week ago I submitted my typeface Orbitron to The League...

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:07:00 -0700

About a week ago I submitted my typeface Orbitron to The League of Moveable Type. Since then it’s received 75 votes, about 95% of which have voted for it to be included in The League’s growing library of typefaces. I’ve been thrilled with the response so as a thank you to everyone, I’ve designed a lowercase alphabet for Orbitron. The voting continues, so I encourage you to go vote if you haven’t already. If you have, thank you. I’ll continue to work on Orbitron through the voting period and you can look for it’s release soon.

Orbitron is a typeface I’ve been working on the past...

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:15:00 -0700

Orbitron is a typeface I’ve been working on the past couple of months and I’ve just submitted it The League of Moveable Type for possible inclusion in their library of free and open source fonts. You can currently vote for Orbitron on their blog, so if you’d like to see the typeface above released for free through The League, please go vote Yes.

And if you have never heard of The League, I’d advise you to go check it out. I decided to submit Orbitron there before I did anything else with it because I’m really interested in what they’re doing.

This is the follow up to my previous post about redesigning the...

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:15:00 -0700

Scrabble Package Redesign

Folded and Unfolded

The Board and Tiles

Cover Image

Front and Back

The Board/Inside

This is the follow up to my previous post about redesigning the Scrabble logo. This is the entire academic project: my concept for redesigning the Scrabble packaging. My design strips away the need for a box to hold your board and instead turns the package into the product. This new Scrabble board functions more like a book, featuring the logo and instructions on the outside, with a board on the inside that’s revealed as you open the package. The two pieces/boxes that make up the package and board are hollow and features tabs at the top that can be opened. This is where you’ll find your Scrabble pieces and tiles. To keep the package shut, I embedded two magnets in the material on opposite sides of the board.

The new package is only about 10 inches tall, so it can fit comfortably on a bookshelf, no need to stack it on top of or underneath other board games. This package also cuts down on materials used to make the game. There’s no need to put a box or slip around this, the cover serves as a display for the product on store shelves. If you’d like to see higher quality photos of the project you can check them out on flickr.

This is just one part of a larger academic project in which...

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:29:00 -0700

This is just one part of a larger academic project in which I’m taking the Scrabble packaging (the board, the tiles, the box) and re-imagining & redesigning it. One of my first steps in the process was redesigning the wordmark. In case you weren’t aware, Scrabble rebranded in March 2008, ditched the iconic logo that I’m sure we all remember as kids, and moved towards a slicker, more contemporary looking wordmark. There are a few elements of the wordmark that I think are good, but for the most part, I don’t like it. I think it abandons too much of the original wordmark’s character and I think dropping the ‘S’ especially is a mistake.

So I tried identifying exactly what I like about the old and the new, pointing it out, and redesigning from there. I wanted to revive some heritage and clean up some problem areas. Above you can see some of the process and the result.

I’ll post pictures of more process and final results soon. Also a quick note: this isn’t an official change, this is my own take on the logo for academic purposes. Feel free to reblog it, but I think that’s an important note to include with it.

This was my submission to the recent Ambigram Challenge. The...

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:25:00 -0700

This was my submission to the recent Ambigram Challenge. The theme was resurrection. This one says ‘ashes to dust.’ Unfortunately it didn’t win. The winner was submitted by the great ambigram designer, John Langdon.

I mentioned the ‘Game’ typeface I worked on while at Pentagram...

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:52:32 -0700

I mentioned the ‘Game’ typeface I worked on while at Pentagram about a month ago. I just found this video of Drew Carey on the Late Late Show. He brought on some bumper stickers designed by Pentagram, featuring that typeface. Check out the video above starting around 3:00 to see it. It’s the first time I’ve seen any of my own work on national television. I was pretty excited.

The US Bid committee is currently having a ‘Stick and Win’ contest featuring these bumper stickers. If you want to get one and stick it someplace notible, check out GoUSABid.com.

This ‘Murphy’s Law’ ambigram was suggested by Nagfa. Nagfa runs...

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 11:39:00 -0700

This ‘Murphy’s Law’ ambigram was suggested by Nagfa. Nagfa runs his own ambigram blog where you can see a bunch of his work. He was also recently interviewed by Ambigram Magazine. Since he knows a thing or two about wordplay I thought I’d take his suggestions and give it a shot. I resisted the urge to check out his take on this adage until after I finished. But now that I’m done, check out Nagfa’s Murphy’s Law design and compare.

The first round of suggestions was fun, so let’s try another round. What word or phrase would make a good ambigram?

Physical and Digital Distribution Concept

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 10:34:00 -0700

The crossroads we’re at between physical distribution and strictly digital distribution is one that plenty of media distributors are dealing with right now. Rather than approach the entire problem, I wanted to try solving one specific problem. If the solution proves to be a successful one, hopefully the concept can be abstracted or re-purposed to solve other problems.

The documentary film Objectified is about manufactured products and the people who design them. One of the topics the film addresses, and one that has stuck with me, is not just how we use these products but what happens to these products after we use them. When I saw the film, I was lucky enough to catch a screening with director Gary Hustwit in attendance, so we were able to ask questions after the film. One of the things Gary expressed interest in was being able to distribute the film in a way that wouldn’t further pollute the world with products that can’t be easily recycled once they no longer serve their purpose. Since then he has announced a limited USB edition that comes on a flash drive that can be reused once you drag the film onto your desktop. He’s also announced that Objectified will be released on iTunes as a digital download.

The idea of combining the digital download of the film with something physical that can reused got me thinking. While the digital download is the least wasteful of all, I can still imagine that there are plenty of people who want something physical, something designed, something they can bring home with them. Much like when you go see a concert, you know you can download that band’s album on iTunes later, but there’s something about the experience of bringing home that album that still serves a purpose. So the question becomes: How can one bridge the gap between physical and digital distribution, serve a secondary function, and create as little waste as possible?

My idea is to combine the concept of the iTunes gift card, where one scratches the card like a lottery ticket to reveal a code, and an iPhone/iPod stand. The combination would allow someone to see a screening of the film, walk home with a copy of the film, and use the package that copy came in to watch the film.

The execution is pretty simple. I created a dieline, I’ve chosen the size of a business card so it will fit in your wallet, I printed a design on it, and included a space for a code that can be redeemed in iTunes in exchange for one copy of Objectified. The dieline is based on an instructables how-to, but with modified angles and tabs added to make the stand as sturdy as possible.

The way the card works for the user: Scratch off the code, download the film, sync to your iPod/iPhone, fold the card along the dotted lines, place the device in the stand, watch your movie.

The card could be printed on a recycled/recyclable card stock for minimum environmental impact. You can use the stand for as long as necesary, then simply recycle the 2x3.5 inch card.

This is just a concept at the moment, but if anyone would like to make use of the idea please get in touch with me.

I designed this ‘Dave’ ambigram after a post on Typophile this...

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:34:52 -0700

I designed this ‘Dave’ ambigram after a post on Typophile this morning. I thought it’d be fun to try to come up with some ambigram ideas on there, while I wait for the results of the resurrected ambigram.com challenge. Perhaps I’ll just put the question up here: Any suggestions for a good ambigram? And has anyone else on tumblr been designing their own?

Because Studio. Graphic Design.

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 06:54:50 -0700

Because Studio is the freelance graphic design practice of Loz Ives. A ton of great work.

The Forgotten Interrobang

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 10:52:37 -0700

National Punctuation Day Reignites Interrobang Passion

Lawrence Weiner

Thu, 15 May 2008 19:57:52 -0700

I don’t necessarily agree with him, but I find this short film very interesting. It is funny that Hillman Curtis uses Helvetica for the credits though.

typeSQL

Mon, 12 May 2008 17:39:46 -0700

Typeface connection visualization tool

twistori

Mon, 05 May 2008 04:32:11 -0700

Beautifully simple wefeelfine-inspired twiter app.

H&FJ on The Ampersand

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:34:03 -0700

I'd been hoping Jonathan Hoefler would write this one...

The Ampersand

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 09:31:18 -0700

"When creating a new typeface, a designer can inject the most artistic flair into the ampersand character."

Type City Gallery

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:11:39 -0700

Explore the streets of Type City.

Thirty Tables of Contents

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:05:05 -0700

A collection of well designed Table of Contents pages from Design Observer.

The Rather Difficult Font Game

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 10:25:21 -0700

How well do you know your fonts?

Things I have learned in my life so far

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 13:47:11 -0700

Hillman Curtis just posted his new video about Stefan Sagmeister.

Foam And Typography

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:14:18 -0700

Very interesting use of foam to create letterforms.

Pilcrow & Capitulum

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:10:18 -0700

"how much fun can it really be to draw a backwards P?"

Helvetica Serif!

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:29:14 -0700

FontFont have decided that April 1st is the perfect release date.

9 Must Install Textpattern Plugins

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 14:17:53 -0700

A great list from Sam Brown.