Typographic Blog

Aspired to inspire - I will be posting websites and type designs that I find inspiring and talk about why ❣️

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Kitbull by Rosana Sullivan 

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I criedddd

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🤣 #forevermood

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I felt the typography.com website had so much to offer in terms of content and blogs that in my continued exploring I came across the article talking about office fonts. “Office Fonts from H&Co allow everyone who speaks for the brand to use the same consistent voice”. They can help with every organization’s need to brand proposals, statements, presentations, reports, and more. The fonts were specially designed for users of Microsoft® Word, Excel®, Powerpoint®, Pages®, Numbers®, and Keynote®, the business software that runs typography’s last mile. It is comforting knowing important documents and software is consistent in font usage, especially fonts designed for such. People like fonts that are easiest, look best on the page, and behave in predictable ways. Users consistently describe these fonts as friendly, compatible, and familiar.

I especially like this because I experience it first hand. Working in some of the programs office fonts were designed for, I appreciate that it was a deliberate effort to keep the fonts in the specific family. The cleanliness really appeals to me and I can see a consistency and recognized between documents. After all, people find comfort in the familiar.

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“Designed for diversity instead of homogeneity, Ringside brings to the modern superfamily some of the charming individuality of the potluck sans serif.”

When scrolling down typography.com ’s main page, I found this link to an article talking about the font family Ringside. This new font family is made of many different widths and due to its popularity began driving some of the worlds most colorful san serifs into extinction. Font families didn’t exist before Helvetica so this spin on modernism was a blessing for typography. Ringside works to avoid the bland plasticity of digital type and instead of relying on restrained, typically, Ringside follows its own design decisions in each part of the family to ensure that every style is visually distinctive.

I found myself really admiring this font family because if its simplicity and, like the article said, the unique take on shapes apposed to what the world is used to. Now you may look at this font family and say “now wait a minute, aren’t these just our normal every day fonts?” - yes they are. But have you ever stopped to look at how they look, where they came from, that they are actually a part of a big family group? I have a new respect for the typical fonts used in everyday life of the digital age.

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Now for a little glimpse into my personal life and journey through typography and design ~

This semester, my school, Biola University, held their annual Torrey Conference which focused on the Biblical passage Matthew 3:1-3; the Kingdom of Heaven. Many incredible speakers were flown in from all over the world to deliver their knowledge to us students. In honor of such, I decided my notes should be artistfully taken. For each session, I would take notes within the giant letters of KINGDOM, using invented smaller fonts as the actual notes. This way I could also practice my typography creativity. It was really fun and helped me narrow down the important ideas, proving to be a successful way of note taking.

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Not only is the website name pretty sweet, but the purpose of the blog is to feature typographer’s original work, creating a friendly, and inspiring cult! The name might make you laugh, but the Letter Cult is a prosperous web of designers showcasing their prized pieces for the world to see and be inspired by. 

After looking around on different tabs and at the “Custom Letters” contests, as the blogger calls them, I found some eye candy in the 2011 Day One submission of pieces. Kale (the first two photos) first caught my eye due to the enticing label design. Jordan Jelev designs labels, specifically involved in wine labeling, and the typeface for them. This particular piece immediately speaks royalty and class due to the fancy lettering, gold colors, and crown symbol. Another type face which caught my eye was Marcelo Schultz’s coffee lover (third image). The colors and depth of this piece is so smooth and can capture any coffee lover’s heart. Not only is the beautiful, swirly text appeasing, but once you see how the text is floating in a steamy, deliciously and beautifully drawn cup of coffee it will leave you craving more. The last artist I found was Mat’s Ottdal who designed the Evolution (fourth picture) type face. Not only is this font beautifully crafted, but his entire web page of work is truly one you can get lost in following bunny trails of incredible product designs (*secretly want his life*).

These three selected typographers, and the other thousands of submissions posted on the blog, have successfully communicated creativity and inspiration to the viewers. Thanks to the Letter Cult, I can move forward from my 27 minute observation obsession as a more inspired and world-ready designer. 

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I hopped onto the website Type Theory and was immediately greeted with exceptional typography sketches and journaling’s. This grabbed my attention because through my Typography class we are assigned to fill a sketchbook with inventive and creative expressions of type so we can become familiar with fonts. Here was something I could relate to.

Type Theory is a “journal of contemporary typography featuring news, views, reviews and interviews.” Ty Wilkins, a graphic designer, founded the type blog in 2009 and features the type journals of any individual’s work that catches his eye. The home page has type news listed as well as a featured blog post by Mandy Collins. She posted several pictures of Steven Hellar and Lita Talarico’s Typography Sketchbook which is a collection of creative type drawings illustrated by hundreds of individual graphic designers. Each page is filled with colorful images and brief paragraphs about their creative process. The sketchbook is designed to inspire artists and designers all over to create type designs with creative twists, styles, and techniques, expressing their philosophy through art and design.

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I was surfing through the blog listings on Fonts In Use and ended up in the movie category. Now, this website has records of many different things (from advertisements, to movies, to books) and exhibits the fonts they use in each, providing links to the designers. It’s almost an insiders look behind the scenes of the world of type. 

Back to the movie category, I was scrolling down the list and came across one of my new favorite movies recently released in March 2018. Ready Player One, directed by Steven Spielberg, made a gross of $41,700,000 opening weekend and ranked #1 in over 4,000 theaters. The story takes place in a dystopian world which made for some exciting challenges and creative spots for typographers working on the movie. 

The two fonts that were listed under this movie were Shentox and Drandal. These two fonts can be seen specifically in the movie cover and popular poster. Shentox was used in the titles and Drandal made up the smaller text of the poster. They also appeared in the end credits. Both fonts were designed by Pentagon, which is the world’s largest independently-owned design studio. They did an excellent job with Ready Player One’s type face, grasping our attention and upholding that futuristic, dystopian look.

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New Brand Identity & Packaging Design for Tulura by Build — BP&O

Logotype, branding and package design by Leeds-based studio Build for New York luxury botanical skincare brand Tulura. Opinion by Richard Baird.

Scanning through the logos on bpando.org once again, a modern website caught my eye. Tulura is a luxury botanical skin care product that former model Eileen Feighny created. The Design face of her products is clean and serene, matching the natural path her product takes. To make her brand “inspire and motivate women and beauty enthusiasts”, the packaging and logo needed to be simplistic and clean with an honest approach.

With Tulura being a small and independent business, the design allows it to find uniqueness against larger, similar brands. The logo design works to balance “a clinicality with a personal touch”, using a form of sans-serif. It is noticed that the logo is “expressed through structural design and labelling, [where] positioning is clear and straightforward,” an important key in branding. 

The logotype fits very purposefully on the packaging, giving a pristine presentation, fit for any user. The entire prestige of Tulura inspires all, making this business one of success.

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Branding for APartMENT by UMA — BP&O

Wordmark, signage and facade by UMA for property development APartMENT in the new creative hub of Osaka's Kitakagaya area. Opinion by Richard Baird,

When searching through the logos found on bpando.org , I came across a logo and architecture that spiked my designer interest. Growing up in an artistic family, and my mom being both an architect and interior designer, I easily fell in love with design, especially rustic and industrial. Meaning this APartMENT complex is of highest inspiration to me. 

APartMENT is located in Osaka’s Kitakagaya, Japan. The 8 artists who designed the face of the building went for an industrial look with refurbished materials found common in the area, trying to revolutionize while keeping it’s industrial past. They found a way of creating a “mix of past and present, continuity and contrast, the bold and the more nuanced, utility and flourish, and makes the most of form, colour and material”.

The name and logo itself is also creatively done. The relationship between the uppercase letters and the italicized, smaller “art” put in the center of the bolded word gives an interesting ‘pause and reflect’ effect on the eye. They say the logo is not particularly sophisticated but that “there is a communicative clarity in its expression that is rooted in the building’s past and its present repurposing”. Bringing the future of design into the historic community has been accomplished beautifully in the logo and architecture of APartMENT.