Everything Together Carefully Descending

Carefully Descending

This latest work – Carefully Descending – was created in three days for the second Go Font Urself* exhibition. It was inspired by an E.E. Cummings poem titled Somewhere I have never travelled and by textures and detailing of hand-drawn maps I found in some cute little books in Berlin. After mapping out the initial lettering the time spent illustrating the individual characters was made more entertaining by watching around 17 consecutive episodes of Seinfeld! The work has been at Peer Gallery, Sydney this week and will be at Dont Come gallery in Melbourne until June 25th. 

Go Font Urself* 2

Go Font Urself* 2 is back for its second show after its popular debut earlier this year. The exhibition, curated by Marty Routledge, kicked off at Peer Gallery in Sydney last Wednesday night and will open tomorrow night in Melbourne at Don't Come. This time round the fish tank was filled with floating letters and the giant foam Gotham characters survived the last show and were back again to be joined by silver helium alphabet balloons. There was definitely a greater focus on type and lettering compared to the last show with a cohesive collection of both digital, video and hand-generated works from 16 international graphic designers, graffiti artists and typographers. Some of my personal favourite pieces were Peter Sunna's Past/Future featuring beautiful pastel-coloured 3D type, Douglas Lee's 'bathroom-hand-rail-type' Hard and Toko's perfectly symmetrical maze on a T-shaped canvas. 

I had an artwork in this round of the exhibition and have included some process pics in a separate blog post above. While I thought the fine point pen detail in my piece was time-consuming, this was nothing compared to the amazing patience which must have been involved in Old Kent Road's Shanks for Nuthin'. The work was neatly illustrated with lead pencil without a smudge mark in sight. 

While I'm quite fond of Jim Parry's art direction in Dumbo Feather, Pass It On, in the work his pink and grey extruded type didn't really add much interest to the moderately funny play on words of the 1980's Indeep song: Last night a BJ saved my life. I however did quite like Luca Ionescu's lettering and ornaments in Peerless painted on what appeared to be an old-school wooden desk top. The easily recognizable work of Mike Perry was also quite fun and Emil Kozak's Acid Rain was simple yet effective. 

Whether the reference was intentional or not, I'm sure I wasn't the only one who thought of the 'Chk Chk Boom' girl when viewing Nicolas Alexander's work, Boom. Thankfully the absence of the "Chk Chk" and the comic-book-aesthetic appeal will give this artwork popular longevity beyond that of the Sydney bogan who coined the phrase last month. 

Overall the show was a successful and diverse collection of artworks which embraced letterforms as their main mode of expression. Peer Gallery was once again packed with type enthusiasts and gallery-goers who I'm sure – like myself – are looking forward to the next installment of Go Font Urself* later in the year. Hopefully those in Melbourne who see the show this week will be equally impressed. 

Types they are a-changin'

TYPO Berlin Body Setting

Mrs Eaves in Berlin

Hallo! TYPO Berlin begins this Thursday with  my presentation on Saturday (see full program here)... but if you're in Berlin tomorrow look out for a different  kind of body text setting around town :-).

Ampersand Castle

The ampersand is usually the object of experimentation and creativity in type design. More broadly it often become a source of excitement to designers and readers alike, with "sweeping curves, flirtatious finishes and bold statements" as Huw Wilkins at Smashing Magazine describes in "Ampersands with Attitude". There's a blog dedicated solely to the ampersand, House Industries' cast-iron ampersand and Stephen Banham's book which shares the name and of course the neat article posted last year by Jonathan Hoefler with a concise history of the symbol and stories behind some of the finest.

But if it's not cast in metal, flowing from the nib of a pen or from a collection of pixels, how else might an ampersand take form? On the plane of the beach and constructed from sand, the ampersand castle could fulfil all your outdoor-lifesize-conjunction needs. The first prototype is reminiscent of Jason Walcott's Cabernet with bulbous ball terminals which take on a new form from the material of their creation. Unfortunately the first trial was unsuccessful, with the thinner strokes constructed with sand unable to hold their shape when the mould was removed.

However, if you're in Sydney for Summer 09/10 look out on the Eastern beaches as I will hopefully have mastered the creation of my ampersand mould (or collection of moulds) and will be creating numerous ampersand castles in the early hours of the morning before the beaches get packed with sun seekers!

Adriana

Wander in Reverie

Filming begins

America's Merriest Magazine Type Collage

Three reasons to attend agIdeas

agIdeas is happening in Melbourne from May 4-7th 2009. With conference presenters including Stephen Banham, Stefan Sagmeister and Tobias Frere-Jones, design workshops and studio visits, it should be a fantastic four days.

Where have you been all my life?

Ditto

Moleskines revisted

I think you're neat, like Helvetica Light!

Roses are red,
Daisies are white,
I think you're neat,
Like Helvetica Light.

Pardon my ignorance,
I should have been coyer,
And checked how to say,
Helvetica Neue!

Thanks to Eye Douche (see comments below) I now have a poem that actually rhymes (sigh!) and has been re-sent to all my Valentines. They will all now also know the correct pronunciation of Neue!

Here's the original post for those who want to see Mrs Eaves' font faux pas:

Despite the fact that Valentine's Day was over a fortnight ago, a little love in general is allowed on any day and if it's a love of type even more so! I forgot to post this earlier, but on February 14th I sent this little poem...

Roses are red
Violets are blue
I think you're neat
Like Helvetica Neue.

In response to this I received...

Letters best read
When printed in blue
The fleurons are pretty
And so are you!

Arial's dead
No matter the hue,
Mrs Eaves still rocks on,
And I dig you too.

Oh you're so sweet,
Like a strawberry lollipop,
I'm your Illustrator,
And you're my Photoshop.

But of course my favourite one, was the least complimentary

Roses are red,
Violets are blue
I think you're boring, overused and cold
Like Courier New.

How lovely.

Reading into The Reader

Yesterday I saw the award-winning film The Reader and – without giving away too much of the film – in one of the most pivotal scenes I couldn't help but find myself jumping into font-identification-mode. Sans...geometric...the ascender of the lowercase 'h' sitting just above cap-line of the 'T'... it's an easy one...Futura. Futura Medium(1927) for the title and I'm guessing the lighter weight body-text is perhaps Futura Book (1932)?

The novel is Anton Chekhov's The Lady with the Dog (referred to in the film as The Lady with the Little Dog). It was published in 1899 with the first translation from Russian to English published in 1903. So obviously it's not intended to be the original English version (pre-Futura-era!) but one between this and the latest editions released in the Penguin Classics series. Anyone have more insight?

The book covers (Michael's and Hanna's copy each slightly different) may have been made as a variation of the actual copies, specifically for the film?

It is an amazing film but I think I can safely say that for the five minutes following this scene, my mind was occupied elsewhere.

I Moleskine Therefore I am

Go Font Ur Self*

Last night was the opening night of Go Font Ur Self*, "an exhibition exploring type based artworks that reinvent the uniqueness of our alphabet" at Peer Gallery in Glebe. It was definitely an exhibition to tantalize all typo-senses of any font fanatic: giant foam letters lurking around ever corner, a typewriter at the bar with a unique script typeface, and a fish tank with the words "& Chips" overlayed. If only the Krispy Kreme's served on arrival been custom made into Fat Face letterforms.

As Peer Gallery's debut show it seemed a fitting venue for a type-related exhibition. The space is also home to Peer Group Media, and seemed to be the perfect playground for blurring the lines between the traditionally commercial craft of typography and art. The blurb on the show's website was a little dubious with phrases like: it "is common for the written word to lack personality," and "over time, their(i.e letters') simplicity has out ruled unnecessary detail due to their need for direct functionality." Nonetheless I appreciate the concept for the exhibition and the was impressed by the enthusiasm for the first of a series of Go Font Ur Self* shows.

With a roll call of 13 artists, Dave Foster's work titled A-Z was definitely a standout. Among many illustrative pieces where type appeared to be an after-thought or a token inclusion, his work was a visually striking composition formed by interconnected letterforms which made you look twice to recognize the alphabet. With letterforms as the primary subject matter it responded aptly to the notion of "reinventing the uniqueness of the alphabet" grounding it firmly as an artwork distinct from a functional typeface or poster design. Andreas Linnell's Helvetica Regular was a nicely-resolved look into the internal workings of a capital A and the simplicity of Roach's Hollywood put it among my favourites.

Despite the apparent absence of type in Edward Woodley's untitled work, the sneaky presence of the N,D and A from the Honda logo in the left corner cleverly reiterates the ability of the human eye to recognise letterforms from very little information and the power of branding and visual identity. The wall-mounted wood type which became interactive stamps were fun but perhaps more successful if their arrangement was more considered.

Overall, my predisposition to excessively loving typography leaves me just a tiny bit dissatisfied. I would have loved to see just a few more letterforms in the works and more in the same vein as work on the blog. However, solely typo-centred shows are few and with a huge turnout to Go Font Ur Self* I'm optimistic about a Sydney which will now be filled with more people obsessed with those 26 shapes that occupy 98% of my attention.














































































































































I am, however, still unsure of the meaning of the asterisk after Ur Self* in the title, perhaps its means *male artists only, or *if you don't like type, come for the free booze....

Let me lick your ligature

Type Gun & the B B Bird

Diorama Drama opened on Wednesday night at Somedays Gallery. The B B Bird diorama was accompanied by this type gun made from metal type from a Ludlow & Linotype machine, wood type letters, dress pattern paper, a 'G' trigger and a pencil sharpener for the barrel: all to scale & size of a Glock 22! Get out of town! Any type criminals, bad kerning culprits and Papyrus-lovers should beware. The show is on until the end of February so be sure to check it out if you're in Sydney. 

Typewriter on material

Two too cute types & Valentype

Two too cute type discoveries! Firstly, I bought a some sewing machine patterns last week and opened it to find transfers for letters for embroidery enclosed. A lovely little surprise :-). Second is this gorgeous little invite for an exhibition which starts tomorrow night at China Heights. Oh! There is only a day left to enter the FontShop's Valentype competition! I'm going to have to put my type-love hat on and get to it! You should too....

B is for...

You're not my type

Typographic pick-up lines, love letters, hate letters and lots of kerning. These little gems were printed in the COFA letterpress studio on handmade paper made by my grandmother. They are part of a small collection of sweet cards to be made just in time for Valentine's Day. There was no apostrophe in the metal type font of News Gothic on You're Not My Type so an upside-down full point had to suffice. Nothing like Morris Fuller-Benton's neutral early 20th century typeface to deliver the message straight ;-). 

Back in the Letterpress Studio...

Typo-rama

Diorama Drama is a group exhibition being held at Somedays Gallery through February 2009. It belongs to the program of the inaugural Glorious Undead Festival. As part of the show I will be creating a life-size diorama...an imaginary world of type and lettering. More progress to be posted as I go. The show opens in Sydney on February 18th. Let's start with a journal...

Beach Type

Giant Type

Who knows the typeface? Or better yet, the location....

A year of type

Happy New Year! 

TYPO Berlin 2009

See you at TYPO Berlin 2009

Holiday Type

Phonetic Alphabet Project: Alpha

The start of the phonetic alphabet project. The original letterforms based on the alpha symbol. More coming...

Leitura Display Swash 'H' for Afternoon Tea

FontShop just released their top twenty typefaces for 2008. I made an H cake from my personal favourite – Leitura designed by Dino Dos Santos. Still to be iced.... Yum! Now, a week or so after posting this I received a peculiar Leitura letter in the mail...from Dino Dos Santos or an avid reader of for the love of type? Have a read below...

(A message from Dinos Dos Santos)
The Swish Swash Cake

Mrs Eaves, O Mrs Eaves,
I see that you did bake
A wonderful, yummy, golden, buttery
Leitura swash H cake.

You acknowledged me, Dino Dos Dantos,
But Mrs Eaves, O Mrs Eaves
I'd rather have a piece of the cake,
For this I am truly aggrieved.

Surely you would have sent me a piece,
In prompt and efficient manner,
My typographical friends agree
Even the famous Zuzana.

I sit here in Matosinhos,
Waiting for cake to come,
But Mrs Eaves, O Mrs Eaves
I've received not yet a crumb.

Then suddenly the answer came to me,
To this perplexing paradox,
You probably did send some swish swash cake,
In a FedEx courier box!

Human Typewriter Project

A friend of mine recently ran this awesome type project.
When each person's assigned letter was hit, they had to
run, jump and stamp their inked up letter onto a 20m
ream of paper. I was there to take some pix. The best!

Mrs Eaves in Action

The poetry book Dead Dad Bye/Soul Healing Afoot which I designed is being launched this Sunday in Brisbane. Typeset in Mrs Eaves (which recently had a Bold Italic weight added to the family). Can't wait to see the final printed copies :-).

Same Same but Different

Same poster, different text...6 times as big.

Type Sharpies

I recently saw this lovely Sharpie which writes in Helvetica and I hope I get a few for Christmas. Turns out Microsoft has jumped on the bandwagon and released the Arial Sharpie. Doesn't quite have the same effect unfortunately. 

Broken Blogger Type

Blogger isn't letting me upload videos and it is making me angry.

Australian Decorative & Fine Arts Scholarship Exhibition

Paper Pen Scalpel Scanner

Light Type

Advertisements

A sneaky homage to The Fleuron (the journal of typography edited by Stanley Morison in the late 20s) with the "Advertisements" title page placed in Tharunka, the publication sans ads! Plus, some backwards back-cover letters and a marker running out of ink to write the theme "global" on the cover.

Type Scandal

Who knows who stars in Gill's woodcut? There is a a hint in the second spread from The Fleuron (1930).

Rainbow type

Long Time No Type

Sexually Healthy Type

Spinal Type

Soft Swift

A variation on Unger's Swift Heavy Italic made from rose petals.

Milky Type

Taking Hoelfer Titling Light Swash from Hoefler Frere Jones for a test drive with a projector and a viscose milky, coffee substance...

Hand-drawn floral type

Get with the times, new roman

This is making the rounds on the web, but I LOVE it (this is where the title of this post comes from)! Or if you're planning a type holiday...maybe travel to Type City by Veer. For anybody who can read German, here is an interesting discussion from a couple of days ago on FontBlog about for the love of type. Here is the English translation of the original post:

Amateur designer has sex with letters

"She calls herself Mrs. Eaves... like Zuzana Licko's typeface. The new Eaves seems to live in Australia, where she recently started publishing an anonymous, unstructured blog with the title "for the love of type": not much text, many pictures, one page. She calls her slim legs "descenders". Nothing on the page is new or original, but it seems to be discovered with love. More than 170,000 visitors saw her YouTube video of in which she writes on her own body. The production quality and cut is professional.

If Mrs. Eaves were a designer, she would have hosted a blog on her own rather than using Google's Blogger platform. For a design student, she copies too much and experiments too little. Stefan Sagmeister seems to be her model.

I think, Mrs. Eaves is an attempt to start a viral campaign. But for what? Edding tatoo pens? Dymo label printers? The Melbourne subway? (Inspired by Macnews.de)"

I think blogs are a fantastic medium for showcasing inspiration & experimental work, and this one was created for exactly what its title suggests – for the love of type. As for the anonymity of Mrs Eaves, well perhaps I should post more details here in the future...in the mean time my recently released book will have to suffice, Things I have learned from my blog so far.

MISTD

Last week I found out my submission to the International Society of Typographic Designers was successful and today I received my new membership letter in the mail, including the latest issue of the ISTD journal TypoGraphic. Some good reading over the next few days.

And God said let there be Futura Light

One of the typographic decorations at my recent come-as-your-favourite-typeface party was this light. The best-dressed was the lovely Vi who came as Gill Sans Ultra Bold, and for those who forgot – or were too lazy – to dress up, we had some old faithful Helvetica shirts on hand.

Nerves & inflamed muscle type

Guess the typeface...

write here, right now (part 3)

These posters supplemented the teaser element of the Write Here, Right Now campaign. They were to be placed in bus stops which would later be converted to temporary writing spaces including whiteboards & magnetic writing walls. A map highlights the locations of the permanent legalized graffiti walls and includes mark making tools for the customized bus shelter ads.

Australian type

for the love of Linotype

I found this lovely surprise at an antique store near Byron Bay yesterday.

Everywhere-but-the-body type

If only I'd thought of doing this instead of writing all over myself :P...

write here...write now (part 2)

Spider web type

Interactive type by Stefan Sagmeister. For more... http://www.sagmeister.com/

write here...right now (part 1)

Sagmeister..permanent marker..typomania...body text, display face...descenders

Hand written type...

Helvetica is in the water

Drain type! This is how you know when a typeface is overused...it gets into the water stream. Awesome type installation by Jessica Tresser at College of Fine Arts in Sydney. All cut out by hand!

Two-Dollar Magnet Type

Screw metal type and wood type - bring on the two-dollar magnet type revolution!
Join the revolution:
YOU WILL NEED:
(1) Bag of kiddy alphabet magnets (available at all good supermarkets)
(2) Ink
(3) A creative brain to think of any words which use any letter of the English language only once! (Pseudonym is my favourite!)

Then stick it down, ink it up and print! It will be reversed when printed so scan & flip (or read it in the mirror :-))

West End Type

Research book of signage & type in west end. Was the lady really painting that on her house?

Apathetic Type

Clarendon Medium and Futura Demi Bold met last thursday and decided to fight apathy, then kinda just decided to not. P.S Elephant key ring was based on Elephant designed by Matthew Carter which was later renamed Big Figgins. Carter's digital type foundry should be up an running soon.

Fruity Type

Recording the conversations of the store holders at the fruit market...on a paw paw. 

An elephant never forgets...

Wax prototype of ampersand key ring... can anyone pick the typeface influence?

Typographic Expression of Anger

Last week FedEx failed to deliver my ISTD submission from Australia to London. They had my package in their store all week and failed to notify me that it had not been sent! So, along with a letter of complaint, they will receive the box (which never got sent) covered with hand-drawn type expressing my anger. Typomania at its worst!

International Society of Typographic Designers Submission

My summer of typography involved making this book – it's a submission for the ISTD and is in response to a brief involving researching the links between 1920s and 1930s typography and contemporary practice. Its main focus is the connections and departures between New Traditionalism and the New Typography. Yay for Stanley and Jan!

Wood Type

String Type

Name the Type Designer...

The first person to name the typographer in this lino cut will win a wonderfully typographic prize. Here's a hint: he once said A type which is to have anything like a present, let alone a future, will neither be very "different" nor very "jolly".

Ambroise

Ambroise is a beautiful typeface! It was designed by Jean Francois Porchez in 2001 – there is an interview with Jean-Francois on iLt at the moment. His latest font Sabon Next (OpenType version of the 2002 face) was released by Linotype in December last year.

Carbon Paper Poster

Univers Extra Black Italic printed on carbon paper. Mass production heaven!

Dancing Ampersand

Tasty Type 2

Font Clock

Font clock by Sebastien Wrong. Apparently on one day of the year all the digits and letters line up in the same typeface!

Seeing Double

Today at the train station I saw this Virgin Blue credit card billboard. Standing only a metre away from the sign, I became slightly dizzy when I noticed there were two layers of type, one offset slightly above the other.

After reading the ad I realised it was intentional – alluding to the fact there are two credit cards which accelerate your points.

Clever idea ... but it's hard to distinguish from a far distance and up close it just makes you feel ill!

Tasty Type

I made these chocolate cupcakes with type cut (with as much precision as possible) out of hard icing. The type size is 180pt - perfect for cupcakes with an approximate diameter of 60mm. Can you name the typeface?

ILT Phone Wallpaper

Cute new phone wallpapers from I Love Typography.
Fi fi fi in Le Monde Livre Classic with an Anziano ornament.

Concrete Poetry

Experimental type poster/concrete poem based on For Someone - a poem by Paul Dobbyn. Made as an AO poster.

Reject Wood Type Prints

Made this book (A5) out of the reject prints from experimenting with wood block type and a stamp pad today.

Geotype brings the Bug to Life!

Perhaps inspired by the Bembo zoo, I made these typo-poems with Geotype transfers (Venus Bold Extended 96pt), my label maker and Tiffany Demi (11pt) & Heavy Italic (50pt). It's actually a poem I recited when I was 9 or 10 years old! The poem is called My Brother's Bug.

Checkout Letraset's type transfers

For the Love of Topography?

It was a sad day for typography when I saw these incorrectly labeled books in Borders recently.


















I sent the Store Manager a suitable irate letter and the label was changed within 24hours. Another victory in the fight for type!

My diary for my research project on typography in the 1920s & 30s.

Serif & Sans Serif on the Street

Yesterday I came across something very peculiar on a Sydney street sign.

















The "L" in Liverpool St is a serif typeface, while the remainder of the word is sans serif. The peculiarity appears on both sides of the sign as well.










Thankfully, the error was exclusive to this particular sign, while the others remain all the same sans serif typeface.

So did someone steal the "L" and the Council appeared to be out of sans serif "L's" for the replacement? Seems odd.

I shall investigate and see what happened. Keep you posted.

Which company's logo lived here once?

Today I bought a mini label maker. Best toy ever!

Melbourne Museum of Printing

These are photos I took while visiting the Melbourne Museum of Printing.

Wood Type & Helvetica Light

The bus driver really disliked the typeface on these street signs in St Kilda, Mebourne.