A Letter A Day

{112509} Slabby

2009-12-06T09:59:00.000-08:00

{112409} Last Boston

2009-12-06T09:57:00.000-08:00

One more sketch for the Boston Naked logo...

{111709 - 112309} 2Ds

2009-12-02T16:39:00.001-08:00

Lately, I've been working on a top secret logo that I guess is not so secret anymore. I'll either be using two D's or the '2D' combination. Either way, here are a bunch of wood type sketches of both characters.

{111609} More Boston Naked

2009-12-01T20:28:00.001-08:00

Boston Naked Sketches

2009-11-29T20:29:00.001-08:00

Working on a new logo for my sister's website right now. Here are a few rough sketches for Boston Naked.

{110609 - 111109} So Many Gs, So Little Time

2009-11-20T14:52:00.000-08:00

What can I say? I just love me a lowercase 'g'! So many ways to connect the strokes. So many components and pieces. Lately, I've been trending toward drawing full words for these posts, but it's really nice to focus on one letter and really explore formal qualities without getting too technical and anxious about consistency, rhythm and rules.

{110509} Nutstachio

2009-11-20T13:49:00.000-08:00

Nutstachio... It's like a pistachio with more salt and 10% more pure nut flavor. We have it every year for Thanksgiving. That's crazy talk! I found some of these letters on a sign in Prague. They could very well be an existing typeface, and I could be a total fraud. But I love the 'o' and would be interested in exploring some other alternates in the same vein.

{110409} Fat K

2009-11-20T13:46:00.000-08:00

Here's a lowercase 'k' with an eating problem and a serious gut! Adapted from a very fluid, cursive alphabet to become another strange experiment in marrying sans serifs with script lettering.

{110309} But SERIOUSLY

2009-11-15T15:44:00.001-08:00

Here's a heavier version of the last letters I posted.

{110209} Seriously

2009-11-11T16:28:00.001-08:00

Here's another script experiment, adapted from some letters I found in my signpainting book. Stay tuned for "Seriously Part 2: But Seriously"...

{110109} That's My Name

2009-11-11T16:24:00.000-08:00

That's me! Aaaaand... We're back in business. Kind of. I've got a sketchbook full of hand drawn type that I'm working my way through, so I'll be posting retroactively as I digitize them. This kind of lettering produces some very mixed (and often scary) results for me, but I'm really enjoying the freedom of working with painterly letters and handwriting.

Excuses...

2009-10-26T19:37:00.000-07:00

Oh, I'll just go ahead and admit it... I am a bad blogger! But seriously. I had to take some time off to pack up my (beautiful) apartment in Durham and move into my new (two-bedroom) house in Raleigh. And then of course I unpacked and decorated in less than a week. What Your OCD Can Do For You - Coming soon to a bookstore near you! I digress... So I'm going to spend the last week of October (OMG) getting the type requirements for a few side projects organized. Expect huge things in November.

{100109 - 100409} More Saucetoberfest

2009-10-05T18:39:00.000-07:00

Having finally committed to a date for my housewarming party (despite the fact that I haven't moved yet), I decided that I really wanted to finish this lettering project and design an invitation for the event. I don't know that I'll have the time (or more than five dollars) to print the invitations, but I'm really glad I followed through. I'll post the final artwork on saucebomb in the next day or so and link to it from here. And who knows... It could eventually become the cover art for the top secret book I plan on publishing entitled What Your Trackball Can Do For You.

{093009} Saucetoberfest

2009-10-04T18:49:00.000-07:00

And here are the rest. I definitely have some work to do on the 's,' which feels far too thick compared to the rest of the letters. There are some weird things happening with the 'r' to 'f' as well, but for the most part, I'm liking this so far.

{092909} Back in Black

2009-10-04T18:47:00.000-07:00

I've been working on some special lettering for an October event I'm hosting. This is one of the alternates.

{092209 - 092809} A Very Tasty Week

2009-09-28T19:28:00.000-07:00

One of my good friends is working on opening Tasty Beverages, a unique beer store and bar in Raleigh, and I've been asked to help out with the branding. Here's a healthy handful of type sketches for part of the logo.

Bright Young Things Final Artwork

2009-09-28T19:26:00.000-07:00

As promised, here's the final poster for the Bright Young Things show on October 10th. I didn't want to interrupt the consistency of the black and white imagery on this blog, so click here to see the full color version.

{091409-092109} Bright Young Things (A Week in Type, Part 2)

2009-09-23T19:13:00.000-07:00

These drawings complete the set of assets I'll be using in the new Bright Young Things poster. I redrew the main title and added some decorative elements. Not quite sure how all of the pieces are going to fit together, but again, I'll post the final artwork once it's finished. I'M SO TIRED I THINK I MIGHT BE SWERVING WHEN I WALK.

{090709-091309} Bright Young Things (A Week in Type, Part 1)

2009-09-21T18:01:00.000-07:00

Here's what I've been working on for the past week or so... A new show poster for Bright Young Things that's all typographic, pulling from signpainting traditions digitized from paint and paper. Hand lettering at large and small scales is always fun, but digitizing those specimens is surprisingly difficult. Sometime in the future (so vague, I know...) I'd like to take some time and really work on digitizing some consistent alphabets based on my handwriting, but for now I think these will do for the purpose they were drawn for. I'll post an image of the final poster as soon as I finish it later this week.

A Letter a Day on OK Great

2009-09-11T08:18:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the shoutout from the great folks at Flywheel Design in Durham! Their blog, OK Great, features the work of some amazingly talented and inspired designers, illustrators and photographers and is one of my "must check" daily stops in Internet Land.

Hiatus

2009-09-11T08:13:00.000-07:00

Perhaps an explanation is in order... I'm currently working on a new poster for Bright Young Things, which is all typographic and includes a number of little custom "pieces." Very vague, I know, but I don't want to give away the surprise by publishing too much too soon. The poster should be done within the week, and all secrets will be revealed!

{090609} Hey Pretty

2009-09-06T11:09:00.000-07:00

Love this 'S'! So far, I feel like I've been drawing letters with future direction in mind. By that, I mean I'm looking at forms and thinking about how those qualities could be carried out over an entire alphabet. It can be stressful taking on that kind of mental commitment so early in the game, and this letter reminded me how much fun it is to just draw something pretty. I guarantee there will be more to come...

{090509} A-E-I-O-U

2009-09-06T10:29:00.000-07:00

This got a little out of control. I started with a found 'a' and 'i' which seemed very disconnected to begin with, and this is the result. Weird, no? I think in general, it's very difficult to establish rhythm in an alphabet that has such strong patterns in their round shapes. What do you do with the rigid forms? Similarly, when the repetition is established in the rigid shapes, it's a real challenge trying to get the round letters to feel comfortable with their peers. Just something to think about... later.

{090409} Now I'm a Big G

2009-09-04T11:01:00.000-07:00

And a SCARY one. And a testament to my need to work in hand lettering and digital drawing concurrently. This letter looked beautiful in my sketchbook, and after seeing it digital, I'm fairly certain I'm going to have nightmares about it.

{090309} Kickin' it Old School

2009-09-04T10:58:00.000-07:00

I remember my Independent Study like it was... a lot longer ago than just yesterday. My friend Critter and I had a great time "working" together designing original typefaces. I was feeling nostalgic, so I spent some time flipping through some of my old sketchbooks and reminiscing about good times. Here's an idea that didn't quite make the cut.

{090209} Second Marriage

2009-09-02T15:42:00.000-07:00

Here's another take on script qualities integrated with sans serif rules. This one is italic, which is surprising because I tend to gravitate toward upright forms when I explore this general idea. I like the abruptness of the terminals in this example, and I have some more ideas I can elaborate on when I have a chance to revisit the inspiration for this.

{090109} Still Scripting

2009-09-02T15:36:00.000-07:00

Apparently, I've really got lowercase script letters on the brain. Here's an 'a' from today. Traditionally, I think this form is used for italics and lowercase letters, but with the exaggerated loop I think it would make a nice capital.

{083109} Q & No A's

2009-09-01T21:14:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about a rope-like script for a while. And by "a while," I mean... years. Something about the marriage of sans serif rules and geometry with script fluidity still has me daydreaming of possibilities. Here's one idea for a 'Q.' Would all of the letters be constructed with a single stroke? How could this idea of overlapping stroke ends be carried out and applied to the full alphabet? Thinking... Thinking...

{083009} Ess Ess Y'all

2009-09-01T21:08:00.000-07:00

Getting caught up on typography after a very strange few days is feeling a bit overwhelming, but I'm excited to see a pattern developing here... Lots of lowercase script 's' letters in my sketchbook! I love writing in cursive by hand, and while drawing some of these forms goes against what feels natural to me with the strokes and fluidity of the letter, the exercise opened up some interesting doors for expanding on a habit I've maybe become too comfortable with.

{082909} Star Karaoke

2009-08-29T15:18:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not... I take A LOT of notes and make A LOT of lists. In my planner, which is 1 of 6 active sketchbooks I use (OCD), I try to use special calendar events as guinea pigs for lettering experiments. This was one of the more successful attempts, and if anyone cares to know, the actual event was very successful! I sang so many songs... In a private room of a Korean karaoke bar... MAGGIE!

{082809} FX

2009-08-28T18:51:00.000-07:00

Here are some extra letters I drew while I was working on the most recent Bright Young Things poster. I love the 'f' but I'm not too sure about the 'x'. I'd definitely like to draw some more of these and figure out how to create rhythm in this alphabet, especially since the BYT lettering ended up taking a different direction and this could be a separate idea.

{082709} Fountain Fountain

2009-08-28T18:43:00.000-07:00

Eons ago, when I first started thinking about my portfolio website, I had originally wanted to emphasize typography and lettering over everything else. I stumbled on some old sketches where I tried to illustrate the tip of a fountain pen with calligraphic strokes and swashes, ultimately using my initials VW to form shape of the pen. Here's a digitization of an idea I recently formalized from those rough drawings. Clever, no? Not really that clever. But experimentation is a major point of this project.

{082609} R What?

2009-08-26T17:53:00.000-07:00

So I'm uhh... not really sure what's going on here... I knew I wanted to draw some more letters with my chisel nib today. Hehehe... Wait... I'm not actually sure why that sounds so funny. But anyway, I think I was trying to add swashes to letters that didn't feel like they accepted swashes. And this is what happened. Lesson learned. Or not.

{082509} S-S-S-Signpainting

2009-08-25T19:41:00.000-07:00

Must. Learn. Signpainting. I actually drew this letter with a calligraphy pen in my sketchbook, but I'd really love to do some experiments with brushes on big paper. I started my design education as a fine artist, drawing and painting large scale portraits, and I think it would be exciting to see how my hand as a letterer would either change or persist with such a huge scale change.

{082409} Ampers&nd

2009-08-25T15:23:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd change it up a little and start looking at other types of characters. I love drawing ampersands when I'm writing or taking notes by hand, and with so many intersections and opportunities to break the single stroke, I think there are a lot of possibilities to make these characters special. Can't wait to do some more!

{082309} Blackletterocity

2009-08-23T20:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this is looking pretty wack, but drawing blackletters was a totally eye opening experience and well worth the confusion. And there was so much confusion. For instance, what are the patterns for drawing round strokes? How do I decide which kind of terminal to use? All questions and no answers so far, but definitely looking forward to giving this another shot.

{082209} Legs!

2009-08-22T19:46:00.000-07:00

Dear Legs... Digitizing ribbon scripts is turning out to be much more fun than I thought it would be! The inspiration for these letters came from an antique tin I found at an amazing flea market in Berlin. There's a lot of repetition in the lowercase, but I think I'd really love to keep exploring this style and see where I can go with the rest of the capitals. Love, Sauce.

{082109} Milk

2009-08-21T10:33:00.000-07:00

I found the reference for this in a book about vintage advertising. I guess at this early stage in the project, I'm feeling more comfortable working from images I've found, but I think this is valid. Honestly, it's been a while since I've drawn original type from scratch, and it feels good to get some vector drawing practice in before I make that leap.

{082009} VW

2009-08-20T19:30:00.001-07:00

I've been working on a logotype and website for my sister's jewelry design studio for quite some time now. I haven't been able to settle on a final direction, but here's the latest sketch for VanDubs.

{082009} Old New

2009-08-20T18:50:00.000-07:00

After the several hours my mom and I spent walking around the building and running away from the security personnel pursuing us for taking pictures, I managed to find a very rough, hand drawn version of these guys floating around in the Old New Synagogue in Prague. A great deal of my inspiration for decorative display typography comes from the catalog of images I collected during my study abroad trip in Eastern Europe. The region is undeniably reflected in the typography; both characters rooted in tradition with elements of modernism determined to push through. Prague may have been our headquarters and my main muse, but trips to Cesky Krumlov, Krakow, Berlin, and Budapest provided a wealth of typographic inspiration that is sure to find a voice here on this blog.

Hi Ho Silver!

2009-08-20T18:40:00.000-07:00

This month I saw the movie Julie & Julia, laughed my ass off, and, amazingly, only cried once. Like Julie, who vows to spend no more than one year cooking every one of the 500+ recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, I thought it might be a good idea to set some short-term design-related goals for myself. So I've started yet another blog, where I am requiring myself to draw and post at least one new letter, numeral, mark of punctuation, or decorative element every day. The rules of the game can be found on the left side of this page and are, of course, subject (and expected) to change. I can't wait to see how the project evolves and if the path it takes will eventually lead to something bigger.