Michael Bierut talks type for TheAtlantic.com.
(via typographica)
To celebrate today’s Earth Day, I am reposting this.
Eames demetrios, grandson of Charles and Ray Eames presents a rare glimpse of the Solar Film produced by graphic designer Saul Bass.
The film was commissioned in 1980 by Robert Redford.
The Road Less Traveled (watch the video) takes its inspiration from American folk tunes from the likes of Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan. Studio Volume One worked with Fletcher C. Johnson to write the song.
Fletcher and I sat down and I gave him some general direction. I knew I wanted the song to be about an ophan/misfit kid from Appalachia that travels around playing songs and leaves his home town to explore the world. I also liked the Seeger/Guthrie idea of the banjo/guitar as a weapon for social change to bring about a new way of thinking.
I have been really into the typographic work of Ed Ruscha and inspired by the typography that appears on old fruit crate labels. Both have a very “American” feel to me just like the song. I decided that I wanted the actual words of the song to be the hero of the piece and set about sketching out different words.
I decided to draw all of the type in Illustrator so that I could more easily break the type apart and animate it later. Needless to say its not easy to make dimensional type in Illustrator and even harder to make all of them look good. After a few months of work I had drawn all the words and started to design the overall look of the piece. The end product for the Road Less Traveled is a 3 minute video of the song using the graphic components below. Along with the video I also printed 9 postcards as mementos for the piece.
(via QBN)
Rhett Dashwood, Creative Director based in Melbourn just informed about this interesting project:
Over the course of several months beginning October 2008 to April 2009 I’ve spent some of my spare time between commercial projects searching Google Maps hoping to discover land formations or buildings resembling letter forms. These are the results of my findings limited within the state of Victoria, Australia.
Joe Wassell, Form (left) and Michael Place, Build (right)
Type and Wallpaper* invite you to have some graphic fun and at the same time help support the St Bride Library, London – one of the world’s most important resources for the graphics industry.
THE BRIEF
We would like you to design a type-tart card either for a typeface or a letter of the alphabet. If you are unfamiliar with these things, tart cards are the means by which London prostitutes advertise their services. So pervasive are these things, and so curious is their typography, images and copy writing they are now regarded as items of accidental art and have something of a cult following. Once on the periphery of design, the cards have influenced the work of many mainstream artists including Royal Academician Tom Philips and Sex Pistols designers, Ray and Nils Stevenson. Perhaps they can inspire you too? Maybe Sabon would invite you to caress its counters, or Palatino would advertise its ‘Mega Serifs’. Bodoni boasts some magnificent finials, Baskerville’s swash can really inflict some pain, and Century Schoolbook would undoubtedly keep you in after class.SPECIFICATION
A6 (105 x 148 mm) landscape or portrait Typographic, illustrative, photographic: or a combination of techniques of your choosing hand- or machine-made; single- or full-colour. Side 1 – image and text; Side 2 – sign and date. Supply hard copy only, electronic versions will not be accepted. Please remember to supply your full contact details when you submit your work.THE RESULTS
Wallpaper* will carry a feature on the project it its July issue. All entries will be exhibited in London in July 2009, to coincide with the Wallpaper* issue. It is intended a book of the Project will be published, profits’ to be donated to St Bride Library. At the end of the Project the collection will be donated to the St Bride Library. Prizes will be awarded for the top 3 entires, which will be assessed by a panel of judges from St Bride, Wallpaper* and Type.SUBMISSIONS
All entries to be sent to Type LLP, 1st Floor The Toll House, The Bond 180-82 Fazeley Street, Birmingham B5 5SE.Closing deadline extended to 30 April 2009.
