to Choose Oh to Choose

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/ /

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for Life of Pi, that is.
are three absolutely beautiful typefaces
from [ Hoefler & Frere-Jones ].

b | d | i | f

Every thing I found on this page amazed me. To the point of no words.

Inspirational : in a nutshell.

:| butdoesitfloat |:

I could literally scroll forever.

Thanks Ryan & Marta.

Helvetica Is The Neue Black

You know where I’m going with this.

Check out this fabulous two-sided journal. Now you can hate Helvetica and love it and scribble down your brilliant thoughts, all at the same time.

Who needs a “World’s Best Boss” mug when you can have one of these?

Let’s not forget the Helvetica scarf.

And the shirt. And the pin.

And last, but certainly not least, the Helvetica Sharpie. Urban legend claims it will transform your drab, average handwriting into the pitch-perfect strokes of everyone’s favorite typeface.

We are designers after all.

Type: The Collection

Here’s a collection of lovely type samples from FontShop.

Awesome, right?

New Masters of Poster Design

This book is huge.

It’s packed with dozens and dozens of incredible posters, each profiled under an individual or a studio. You’ll see work from Little Friends of Printmaking, Patent Pending Design, Cyan, Fang Chen, Studio Boot, Thinkmule, and Modern Dog (Seattle representing), all packed in a lovely book where even the cover unfolds into a poster.

Here’s what the author has to say:

“The loss of a medium that served as a perfect canvas for creativity simply could not be tolerated. A determined group of designers once again turned to the poster for personal work and as an outlet from more restrictive media; their goal was to prove the poster is still a powerful tool in communicating their clients’ messages. The resulting groundbreaking has brought the medium back to prominence.”

Trust me, you will love it.

New Wilkinite Print

Yay! I really want this one.

Get yours at wilkintie.com.

Si Scott, Master of Line Art

I love Si Scott. Just feast your eyes on this work for a few moments, and you will understand.

“I always start by picking a font I feel fits the brief or works with what I am trying to achieve the piece and then will play around with different page layouts for a while. The next phase is to just bring the piece to life,” he says.

“I think I came to make this kind of work through my love of drawing, type and design and trying to do something that encompasses all them together.”

“Most of my inspiration comes from music,” he adds. “I am constantly listening to music while I work and the lyrics especially. I’m really into words.”

He sites his favorite fonts to work with as Helvetica, Akzidenze Grotesk, and Pagan Poetry. See his entire portfolio at siscottstudio.com and art-dept.com.

Let the inspiration flow.

Typography, Threadless Style

Check out some type treatments I found at the favorite for community-based apparel design, Threadless. Hold your mouse over each image to see the title and artist.

And, my personal favorite:

What say you?

Dan Black

I recently re-discovered a crop of artists that do their work by hand, and it is incredible stuff. Their design pieces show the mark of the artist, which makes each one a glimpse into the process of design, rather than the sleek, seamless finished product. Mistakes abound. The mayhem is apparent.

All this said, you may have noticed my mention of Daniel Black in my post about Hand Job, but I thought he deserved an entire post.

Mr. Black runs a mini-firm with Jessica Seamans and Matt Zaun called Landland, through which he produces some amazing album and poster art. “We are a small collective of graphic designers,” he says, “illustrators, screenprinters, relatively decent advice-givers…”

“…semi-amateur sink and wall constructors, art makers, big talkers, ex-9-to-fivers, listmakers and clean fighters, among many other things too innumerable to mention.”

“We make these things,” he adds, “with computers and scanners and photocopiers and drawings and fun printing techniques and whatever we need to use to get the job done.”

What now, you ask?

Since you are newly familiar with Landland and Dan Black, I imagine the question on the tip of your tongue is “Where can I buy this stuff?” It’s a good one. Here’s a quick list, just in time to miss Christmas:

Posters — allthosetwos.com
CDs & Records — stay-and-stay-said.com
More CDs & Records — myspace.com/treehouserecords

Art prints run at $30, posters from $8 to $20, and albums a mere $4 to $12.

Hand Job

It’s a catalog of type, and, I might add, one of the most brilliant collections of hand-drawn goodies around. 

Compiled by letter enthusiast Michael Perry, Hand Job includes selections from the likes of Tyler Askew, Daniel Black (who sells his stunning hand-printed promo posters for cheap), and Jeremy Dean. Also be wowed by Deanne Cheuk’s watercolors, witness the wit of Adrian Johnson (need a sophisticated color palette? He’s the man), et cetera, et cetera. 

Basically, just get your hands on this tome. You can find it almost anywhere. 

Also, check out Mr. Perry’s stunning portfolio and buy his work at www.midwestisbest.com.