HELLO

For a glimpse into my personal work as a student. Head on over to hello mark hall. Become a fan on facebook for regular updates. Cost effective freelance design work, specialising in typography is available, and soon posters, prints, and postcards for sale. See you soon.

Typographic Wedding Invitations

I thought I would share with you 'Jammers' the design for my wedding invitations. A mix of 'buffet script' and 'Vag rounded', printed on hammer white, finished with pink mounting on black pearlescent card.

They have taken an age to design, print and hand make, but I feel are well worth it. Not a floral pattern or vector in sight.

CHART WELL

I love ligatures. The merging of two characters within a typeface to create a more confortable spacing and natural flow for the readers eye. Something practical and strangely beautiful. Even the non practical ones; some seem totally unnecessary, but I love them even more.
Now here is a really innovative use of the ligature system within OpenType fonts. Chartwell, "a family that explores the use of OpenType to interpret and visualize data." Type in numbers - get an infographic. Genius.

It's also not a bad typeface. Head over to TK Type for more info and to buy your copy.

LINE O' TYPE

The new trailer for the Linotype film looks rather nice. Should be an interesting watch - looking forward to it. They've raised more than their target via kickstart. Good for them.


"Linotype: The Film" Official Trailer from Linotype: The Film on Vimeo.

It's horrible to think about all those machines being thrown out and destroyed.

ALPHABET SOUP

Great little interview from Myfonts with the 'seasoned scriptmeister', Michael Doret. He talks about influences, experience working with Ed Benguiat, and his working process. If you're not familiar with his work, Metroscript would be a good place to start. Read the interview here.

FONTS IN USE

Fonts In Use is an independent project from Sam Berlow, Stephen Coles, and Nick Sherman; all fairly respectable names in the world of fonts. Their new website showcases pieces of design, identifies the typefaces, and has a little critique of the work. I love the idea, and their mission statement excites me.
"This blog is a prologue of more to come. Behind the scenes, we’re building a searchable, sharable archive of typographic design, all indexed by typeface, industry, and medium."
Go have a look.

THE LEAGUE OF MOVABLE TYPE

I don't know how I've only just come across this. I was searching for some nice alternatives to Din and Univers, and discovered The League of Movable Type. Now, I'm all for paying for my typefaces, but I would also never turn down anything free. Here is an excellent collection well-made, open-source, and @font-face ready typefaces. My hat goes off to them.

SPOILERS

A series of postcards I've been working on. These are the first batch. Hand-drawn from 19th century woodcut type specimens. The next ones will be tweaked and improved, and silk-screen printed for a nicer finish... I may also produce a letterpress set, to get a slight debossing.

[click for hi-res]

DANGEROUS CURVES

I realise it's been an eternity since I last posted, but I stumbled across this image recently, which led me to a book which I think would appeal to JAM Blog subscribers.The logotype below looks (i think) amazing and has been the inspiration for some of my preliminary stationary design for my wedding.

The designs come from a book called Dangerous Curves:Mastering Logotype DesignThe spreads look detailed and informative and are the brain child of Donald Young. Buy the book, see his fonts and other work here

TYPODARIUM

Daily inspiration with 365 fonts from 180 foundries and designers from 30 different countries, all packed into a neat little calendar. Nice. Get yours here.

WELL ROUNDED

I love din. German efficiency at its best. But I know what you're thinking... 'It's nice, but it's a bit too sterile and  utilitarian for this particular job'. Then how about DIN Rounded???

Albert-Jan Pool and his team redrew each letterform to maintain the structure of the original. This ensures FF DIN and FF DIN Round will work well together in logos, slogans, price tags, etc. as compatible parts of advertising campaigns and corporate identities. FF DIN Round is not only a good companion to FF DIN, its smooth and friendly curves make it work on its own for branding strategies for family cars, bikes, household appliances, sportswear, shoes, or medical products. It’s also very legible on screen and available in Web format. Get it here.

A POINT WELL MADE

Dear Futura, I love you - but you can seem a bit too starched from time to time. Justin David Cox seems to agree. I'm guessing it's meant to look like an envelope, but if not I still like. He adds "Please note that calling Paul Renner lazy is supposed to be so absurd that it can’t be taken seriously. That said I still think the C is the weak point of the most beautiful typeface ever created." Check out his blog here.

IN THE LAND OF THE BLIND

I've wanted to make this for a while, not really sure why... Should it just be the able-sighted who get to enjoy varied families of a typeface? Introducing Braille Sans! Ta-Da! I'll work on the serif version next. Click on the image to get the full gif.

STEREOTYPES

Curvy, chunky, friendly, unusual... No, not my fiancé, St Mika of course! One-man-font-foundry Sascha Timplan has forged a rather quirky but undeniably usuable opentype font avaible from myfonts for a mere $25.90. Grab yours now.

WHAT'S YOUR TYPE?

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, 'If I was a font, what would I be?'. I can tell.
Well now you can find out, with Pentagram's What type are you?
I was/am Perpetua Titling Light...

"Designed in 1928, this font is influenced by Roman stonecutting, “with a very measured differentiation between its thick strokes and thin strokes, and with delicately bracketed period serifs. If you're a quiet, old-fashioned sort of person who'd secretly prefer shoed stability to barefooted liberty, Perpetua Titling Light is your type.”

I saw myself as more of a Lubalin Graph, but I'll settle with Eric's work.

Find out yours here. (if you need a password, it's character)

BURGERVETICA

Yes. Another Helvetica t-shirt. I know that's what you were all waiting for. I'm as happy as you are. From threadless this time, go buy yourself one here! Tastey.

Designed by David Schwen. See more about him here!

EVOLUTION OF TASTE

INGREDIENTS

Was killing some time in the ol library the other day, flicking through some design magazines. Found something I definitely need more of in my life - t-shirts covered in Helvetica! This one is pretty quirky.

Really cool idea. People seem to be going nuts at the moment over what's in their food. Nutrients, fat, salt, is it organic, how many e-numbers. All that nonsense. Do you think all those health freaks know there's a certain amount of Arsenic inside their little pedantic bodies??? I didn't. Buy yours here. Only twenty quid I think. Bargain. More from the same designer here.

Running with that theme. I was recently in Iceland (very cool place), and wanted a souvenir.

It says 'I don't speak Icelandic'. It's one of the few places I've been where people don't automatically assume you're a tourist and speak to you in English. Mine's in red!

I WANNA C-U-P

Twas on a plane back from Iceland the other day (which, by the way, is an awesome country). I was busy sleeping and trying not to choke on my own knees, while my girlfriend was taking advantage of the free bevvies. I woke to find she's nabbed me this sexy little number.




She knows me so well. Shame it got a bit bashed. Daisy thought it was helvetica, In my sleepy state I thought some form of Din... Maybe Akzidenz? Either way, nice idea, cool little cup.

TIMES A CHANGIN'

Oh my lord. I almost just bust a nut over an e-mail I just received! Frutiger, Sabon, Trade Gothic, Optima, Palatino, Eurostile, Avenir, Univers... I spent three years in a studio without using much else (apart from the obvious). And what's gone and happened, they've updated them all to have opentype features, extended family weights, true italics, small caps, and with a slightly more modern cuts and feel to them. Amazing. Better yet, they haven't been totally basterdized, and still keep the true and original look from the great designers that made them (hats off to ol' Herman). All availabe in LinoTypes Platinum collection.







Click ere' to check it out.