Stylize Designs

C-F

2010-03-27T21:46:00.001Z

Alphabattle

2010-03-26T16:23:00.000Z

Back in February saw the first submission date for Alphabattle 2.0, with many people sending in their custom letters using different mediums. It's not actually a battle, though - it's just a place for us typography geeks to show our own stuff, inspire, and be inspired.

So far there have been some awesome entries and I can only assume it'll get better as we get through the alphabet. Check it out here to see what people have been sending in, and for details on submitting your own.

My own entries so far:

You can also fave them over here at Letter Playground if you like them!

Weekend Work..

2010-02-28T20:52:00.002Z

A quiet one this weekend, which gave me time to do a few bits of work!

I've seen a few posts around lately about 3D typography and it's had me itching to give it a try. Unfortunately for me, it's something I've never done, so I took to google to find out a few tips on software etc, and ended up following the basics on a tutorial on using the 3D side of CS4.

I had no plans to make anything of use, I just wanted to see what I could come up with, and for a first attempt, I'm pretty pleased!

It's given me a bit of a push to think up something creative which includes a bit of 3D type, so I'll be hoping to start planning something soonish (when I get some time!)

Another piece I've been working on lately - A friend bought me a moleskine for my birthday a few months back, I've wanted one for a while (mostly out of curiosity, I'd never used/known anyone that'd used one but I'd read good things about them!) and he bought me it to encourage me to work more on freehand drawing. So I set myself the task of trying to fill it up as and when I can with illustrations.

When I was doing print outs for my contextual studies book a few weeks ago, I came across a couple of paintings which I quite liked.

The first was "A Night at Saint Jean-de-Luz" by Man Ray:

I decided to "rework" the piece in my own style. It was enjoyable, and took me a couple of weeks to finish due to only being able to do a small amount each day, but I'm really pleased with how it looks.

I'm not sure whether to work on this digitally or not, but for now it's an extra something for the book. As for the second piece I liked.. I'll post it when I've finished my version!

Take Two Words: Double Vision.

2010-02-21T12:16:00.002Z

Font: High Five - Click here for free download.

Blue Branding

2010-02-20T14:32:00.001Z

Before christmas we got our first taste of branding, which I wrongly decided I hated from the start. It took a while to get into but I was happy enough at the end of it (See Joose images in a previous blog entry)

The first half of the term gave us our next branding project which seemed to cover the whole subject - we were paired for research, we had to do our own customer research and although I usually hate that side of things it helped alot when it came to the final design side of things.

We were given a colour - Blue - and told to do as much research into it as possible. From this, we had to decide on a company which would be named Blue - we picked airline (because Blue represents trust and reliability, you need to have trust in an airline!)

I finally got this finished today, but I'm not 100% happy with it. I had an image in my mind of how I wanted it to look, and although it does pretty much, I think I expected myself to be able to produce something professional looking that you'd expect to see in use. Putting too much pressure on myself only leads to being let down when the outcome isn't how I expected! But I think I've done well for someone at the stage I'm at.

So, back to the branding! The unique selling point for my airline was that we are UK based, providing executive flights between all major UK airports. We were aiming to sell to business within the country.

I wanted to incorporate the Union Jack (cliché!) into the logo and after deciding on the logo I would go with, I thought it fitted fairly well.

Final logos

I liked the idea of the "B" being part of the company identity - so there wasn't always a need for the whole company name to be used. Particularly for this type of company where the brand would be put onto airplanes - the "B" would fit better on the tail of the plane than the whole logo.

Business Card.

Front

Back

Compliment Slip.

Letter Head.

Once I Caught A Fish Alive..

2010-01-30T14:55:00.002Z

My first type print! I love the effect of hand drawn fonts so decided to make my own print.

All completely hand drawn - then scanned and redrawn in Illustrator.

Prints available Here

Helvetica v Comic Sans

2010-01-16T14:26:00.001Z

BATTLE OF THE FONTS
Helvetica V Comic Sans

Helvetica is a Sans Serif font which was designed in 1957 by Max Miedinger. The font was originally named Neue Haas Grotesque, it was then renamed Helvetica in 1960 (Latin for “Swiss”). Helvetica was designed with the intention of competing with Akzidenz-Grotesk in the Swiss market. The aim was to create a simple font which could be used in many ways.

Comic Sans is a Script typeface designed in 1994 by typographer Vincent Connare. The font was originally designed to imitate comic book lettering which was only intended to be used within MS Bob. Connare drew inspiration for the font from two comic books he had in his office – “The Dark Knight Returns”, and “Watchmen”.

Helvetica soon became one of the world’s most popular fonts thanks to its clean lines and slick designs; it was a font that could be used for almost anything. It became the choice font for many leading brands, including American Airlines, Staples, Jeep, Nestle, Post-it, Tupperware, and Evian, to name a few.

Comic Sans was not designed for formal documents or logo designs. It was eventually included in Microsoft 3D Movie Maker, used in the pop up windows and help section. Later, it was also included with Windows 95 Plus! Pack, and then became a standard font for the OEM version of Windows 95, before becoming one of the default fonts for Microsoft Publisher and Internet Explorer. Comic Sans was ideal for design for children or designs relating to comics, which is where it is still best used now.

Comic Sans was soon seen to be used inappropriately in business or professional work, and was beginning to appear almost everywhere. This spurred on two graphic designers from Indianapolis to start the “Ban Comic Sans” motion in 1999, after an employer insisted they use Comic Sans in a children’s museum exhibition.

While Comic Sans has never been popular amongst designers, the font has been used on several products, including Beanie Babies, in The Sims video games, and the 2004 Canada Day 25 cent collector coin. However, the typeface has become more known for its inappropriate uses around the world, from address labels from the Passport Office, to grave markers, writing on commemorative benches, and government job applications

While Helvetica was never as hated as Comic Sans, the popularity of the font soon brought the downsides – because of the widespread use, the font soon became an anonymous, generic looking font. Many people who had once embraced Helvetica soon came to spurn it. Whilst the hate campaign against Comic Sans shows no signs of slowing down, the demise of Helvetica is nowhere in sight; some have even gone so far to call it the official typeface of the 20th century.

Projects Pt. 1

2010-01-03T16:53:00.000Z

There's only one more day until I return to college, and I'm a little excited about the projects I've got coming up. Especially when we finish our lectures in 6 weeks and focus on animation and web design!

The last term was pretty difficult and our work load to deadline ratio was ridiculous, but most of us managed to pull it off and I personally am pretty pleased with how I've managed.

Most of my work has been done digitally, whereas some of the others have chosen to work by hand, or mix digital with traditional methods. My hand stuff isn't too good but I'm a bit of a perfectionist so I'll never like it! I've definitely noticed progress in my work from when I started up to now.

Typography - A6 Abstract Composition piece.

"Blur" - Julian Opie Inspired, A3.

Identity - A3 illustration of "Beauty and the Beast" - Egyptian style.

Dreamstate - Advertising poster campaign aimed at encouraging people into Higher Education. 1 of 4 (others unfinished)

Branding project - Logo ideas.

Branding project - Fruit Characters.

Branding Project - Final proposals.

Typography 001 - Hand Drawn Type

2010-01-03T14:41:00.002Z

I love typography but have a bit of a weakness in Hand Drawn type. It's unique, and a great form of art. It has become alot more popular recently, being used in advertising and is really inspirational for designers.

Here are a few great examples I've found over the internet.

Carson Campbell

Kayceislost

Bampop

Nate Duval

Brandon Plummer

Lines In The Sky

Matt Lyon

Tad Carpenter

Andre Irobu

Chris Piascik

Chris Piascik is a Boston based Graphic Designer. His illustration style is inspiring and he produces some excellent work. Go to his website here to check him out for yourself, and keep an eye out for his daily drawings.

For a bit of related reading I'd recommend the Hand Job: A Catalog of Type book by Michael Perry, which you can buy at Amazon - or indeed any other bookshop!

It contains a huge range of fantastic hand drawn typography work and is presented with a short biography of each typographer, and the work shown.

Illustrator Tutorials

2010-01-02T22:46:00.000Z

Since I'm still learning as I go with Illustrator, I still look at tutorials to help me get a feel of the different tools I haven't used before, or could do with help on.

I wasn't always a fan of using tutorials to understand and work software, if you know the basics you can pretty much work it out from there with a little practice. I find that following a tutorial can help you understand how to work and get the most out of the software. I really need to brush up on pretty much everything other than the pen tool in Illustrator, so I plan to work my way through the list of tutorials in the link below.

30 Tutorials That Will Teach You Illustrator

Of course, if you need to know how to draw in Illustrator, I'd send you here:

YouTube - Pen Tool Tutorial

I'll be using this mostly to keep everything I like/find interesting and helpful in one place. And to document my own journey from student to designer.