I Heart Art

Just sayin’

If ever there was a goddess of type …

 
This would be she.
 
In the German promotional movie Write here, right now, which was made to promote legal graffiti walls, Gemma O’Brien aka Mrs Eaves was set into the world of type stardom with her hand-drawn-type covered body. After this campaign, the FontShop invited her TYPO 2009, the 14th European Design Conference in Berlin, where she spoke and then did some more body art for this video.
 
I love the concept and execution of the movie. I think it does a great job of showing just how much she loves type. I found this video though simple searching of type sketches that people have made since lately I have been doodling a lot in my various sketchbooks. It also made me realize that over the past few years of sketching type and letterforms that I have become so much more aware of movement throughout letterforms and type.
 
It’s also made me realize what makes being a type nerd so great: you can sketch until your heart’s content and have some really great drawings without actually knowing how to draw. At first, it’s the non-artists art form in a sense. It can be flowy and ornate or solid and ridged, but it still is a letterform that basically everyone knows how to draw at first. But like anything else, the further along you go, you start to see that it really is an art form once you leave the beaten path and begin to explore and accentuate lines and curves or terminals and spurs.
 
Who knows? Maybe one day I will be good enough at sketching letterforms that I’ll have the confidence to draw them out on my body. If only I was as sexy as Ms O’Brien.
 

Letterpress for the first time — Awesome!

 
Well, after the second day of hanging out with Bob Giles from B&S Letterpress in Eugene, I am hooked. I have been geeking out on type/letterpress/design for a while now, but I had never had the chance to do any presswork myself, and today, my friend Evan and I finally got to.
 
I found Bob after doing some searching and emailing to a few other pressmen around Oregon. Turns out he is located just minutes from me and has one of the best kept shops, I would guess, in the country as far as equipment, supplies, machines and expertise. Bob comes from a long line of letterpressmen, which include his father and grandfather — all three were linotype operators.
 
The experience of setting my own type was just incredible. Being limited only to what handset type that Bob owns, which is a lot, and what the linotype machine can produce helps you focus more on the design and layout as opposed to digital where you can have an infinite amount of sizes and spacing. I know this is something that I will always want to do. It will also have a great influence on my digital design work as well.
 
I took about 11 gigabytes of video while we were there and I am going back for more so check back for the video hopefully soon.

adam werbach rocks the house

Today in my green brand strategy class, Adam Werbach from Saatchi S rocked our world, or just mine anyway, with this quote: “Don’t talk about green; talk about functional value.” Brilliant thinking. His book is well worth read, btw.

Mobile blogging from android

I’ll be leaving for SXSW soon, so I wanted to get all set up to live blog from the event.

I’m taking my new Motorola Droid so I should be able keep the blog updated every few hours.