Breviario Magazine

In my search for nice editorial design, I came across this Erik Spiekermann issue of Breviario magazine, and was just in awe of theses spreads. Since the issue is over Spiekermann, one can only assume the type and design would be outstanding. I really enjoy the oversized display sans-serif that is used for most of the headings and callouts and its paired opposite in the serif of the body text. I find myself being drawn to editorial design that does something more than just a basic head line and article. The way the text is interacting and hierarchically ordering the information is a skilled technique that I hope to accomplish in our exhibition catalog. This is a nice example of a strong grid system as well.  The magazine is designed by Boris Vargas Vasquez. 

Sympathy for the Devil

The aspect I found most attractive in this specific catalogue were the way in which they displayed the photographs, and how the designers added great variety just by doing so. I enjoy the way the played with the grid and found new ways to draw interest to each individual spread.

Grid Girls

Below is the grid system chart we created during our meeting on Wednesday. With the information we were able to see the following pattern: there is no pattern.

In our group there were two types column styles. Two catalogs had a one column (two column span), and two had a two column layout.

Another design decision we found our catalogs were that some had an index and others did not, we noted that if they were present the grid system got significantly smaller.

Below are some spreads from each of our catalogs:

Grid systems are an important part of the designing process. We agree that choosing that system and how it works for your design is completely up to you as the designer.

Thanks for reading!
Whitney, Raven, Laine, & Mia-Sara

Type the Sky

I was browsing through a few different typography blogs and came across this really interesting typeface constructed from the interior spaces between buildings. I researched a little more about the project and found that it was actually done by a University of Essen student, Lisa Mann Riener, who was studying abroad in Spain during the summer of 2005. It started by her discovering the letter “Q” while standing in the middle of a Barcelona courtyard and staring up at the sky. She spent a few weeks searching the city for the rest of the alphabet. After finding the other 2 letters, Lisa turned the project into a booklet with a fold out poster that slowly reveals the phrase “will you look at me?”.  This project was awarded a certificate of typographic excellence by the Type Directors Club New York 2007. It’s extremely inspiring to think that we can find type in almost every area our eyes can see. It’s also a reminder that some of the most unconventional beauty can be found in the negative spaces of life. 

Typography in Fine Art

I remember an art history professor briefly mentioning Wayne White in a lecture a few semesters back, and was surprised after looking over his body of work. His incorporation of typography and letterforms into his fine art pieces adds an interesting deviation from the typical painting.

Brief bio from his website:

“ Wayne White is an American artist, art director, illustrator, puppeteer, and much, much more. Born and raised in Chattanooga, Wayne has used his memories of the South to create inspired works for film, television, and the fine art world. After graduating from Middle Tennessee State University, Wayne traveled to New York City where he worked as an illustrator for the East Village Eye, New York Times, Raw Magazine, and the Village Voice. In 1986, Wayne became a designer for the hit television show Pee-wee’s Playhouse, and his work was awarded with three Emmys.

More recently, Wayne has had great success as a fine artist and has created paintings and public works that have been shown all over the world. His most successful works have been the world paintings featuring oversized, three-dimensional text painstakingly integrated into vintage landscape reproductions. The message of the paintings is often thought-provoking and almost always humorous, with Wayne pointing a finger at vanity, ego, and his memories of the South.”

Here are a few examples of his works:

http://waynewhiteart.com/index.php?/project/word-paintings/

Sure Be Cool If You Did

I’m not sure how many country music fans we have among us, but since this week is an open topic, I thought I would share a little bit with you all. When searching for songs on YouTube, the majority of the material consists of about 1,000 different “lyric” videos that simply stream the audio and run the lyrics on a generic slideshow—zero conceptual points for them! I came across Blake Shelton’s “Sure Be Cool If You Did” official lyric video, which adds an exciting twist to normal lyric videos and exerts an emphasis on typographic design that most others lack. I initially thought it was interesting due to the fact that very few artists actually put out an “official lyric video”. They usually leave it up to the amateurs of YouTube that guess at half of the lyrics and present a video that is, visually, unappealing to look at.

The typography choices applied to the lyrics help set the tone for the song and act as a visual enhancement to the settings of each shot. All of the typefaces have a country or “bar-scene” theme and help to develop the mood of the song. I appreciate the deviation from the normal, boring lyric videos and enjoy the complimentary relationship between the visual appearance of the words and the lyrics they are portraying.

Here are a few highlights from the video:

And here's the link if you're feelin' a little country:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUX2YIpH0r4

Harper's Bazaar

Because I am somewhat of a magazine hoarder, I brought down my stash from the closet and began hunting for nice typographic design and interesting typefaces. Interestingly enough, I realized that when flipping through magazines for fashion and light reading in the past, I have a tendency to overlook beautiful design and nice layouts. SO, going back through old magazines I have put away for crafting projects, it was nice to, somewhat, “re-discover” the elements that make the magazines beautiful and nicely designed.

I chose to pull and few examples from Harper’s Bazaar Magazine to highlight their use of well-designed typographical additions to articles. A cohesive, binding element, of the magazine is their use of Bodoni. This typeface has been allocated to most titles, headlines, and paragraph openers. This seems to be the “go-to” typeface for a major chunk of today’s high fashion magazine, it’s also been recognized in Vogue, as Whitney mentioned in an earlier post. This modern typeface is great for these types of editorial, high fashion publications; for it mimics the expensive feel of the clothing it draws attention to.

Here are a few examples I found appealing:

In the above example, I was drawn to the repetition of the “V” letterform. I enjoyed how they used the shape of the letter and incorporated it into their overall layout of the spread. The article is also about veganism and an emphasis on vegetable intake so I thought this was a wise choice to emphasize this certain letter. 

I also enjoyed the use of the intended emphasis on a chosen letter from the next 2 articles. It adds a level of interest to an otherwise, somewhat plain title made up of extra large letters. The choices to change the color and enlarge these selected letters really draw attention to the titles of these sections.

Fonts In Use – Cyclone

Hey everyone! I'm loving this typeface, take a look!

Typeface: Cyclone

Classification: Sans-Serif

Date of Creation: 2004

Designer: Hoefler & Frere – Jones

During my browsing session of fontsinuse.com, I realized that it’s quite the informant. The site provides tons of examples of typefaces used in an abundance of designs, as well as sharing the designers, foundries, etc.

Lately, I’ve found my eye being drawn to throwback, “old-school” typography and have really grown to love a little touch of vintage in design. I came across “Cyclone” and I could instantly imagine it being used in this style. I loved the way it was used in the above examples, and would like to incorporate it into my future designs if applicable. I will definitely be visiting this site for more inspiration!

-Raven