Cooper Union Typography

All about Typography, well, mostly about Typography.

July 2, 2009 • 3:22 am 5

Erik Nitsche

This post is less typographic, and more graphic.
I just think Erik Nitsche’s work deserves more exposure.
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Filed under: Illustration, Reference, Typography, Erik Nitsche, Nitsche

June 29, 2009 • 7:01 pm 5

Fiodor Sumkin

I’ve been meaning to write a brief note about this Russian-born illustrator I came across some time ago. I really like the use of lettering in his work. Give it a peek.

Check out his website, and also this set of fake magazine covers, which began as a set of Esquiresque logotypes: livejournal.

[UPDATE] Fiodor’s lettering is similar to the work featured on dailytype, which is an (almost) daily blog of lettering. (thanks Sam Potts for the reminder)

Filed under: Lettering, Links, Typography

June 17, 2009 • 12:54 am 0

While reading an article in this past Sunday’s “New York Times Magazine”, I was intrigued by two illustrations in it (1, 2). The caption said: Illustration by Bryan Christie Design. Which led me to the portfolio of the studio, which in turn led me to his blog. At which point I saw these three astounding images. I am a sucker for old New York storefronts (as evidenced here). So naturally I loved these illustrations. Would love to see Bryan continue making these. (Click to see larger.)

West Houston Street near Varick Street, New York, NY

1265 Broadway (890 Sixth Avenue), New York, NY

West 125th Street at Morningside Avenue, New York, NY

Filed under: Links, Typography

June 16, 2009 • 9:00 am 1

The “CHAIR/CHAIR”

Eric Ku chair

Stumbled across this great idea for a chair made out of the word chair. Not sure if this is a rendering or a physical prototype, either way it is a nice piece of design.

Designed by Eric Ku, a recent SVA grad, this is what he says about it:

CHAIR/CHAIR
An inspiration from the American contemporary artist Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chair. Instead of giving new definition, I redefined the concept of a chair by using alphabet. One is able to construct a chair by assembling the redesigned alphabets.

Link to the project: Mission No.2. Look at some of the other projects on the site, they are quite interesting.

(found via: wired.com)

Filed under: Links, Typography

May 6, 2009 • 9:00 am 0

Design Process Videos [Updated]

process

I’ve recently seen a few video which document the process of designing publications. It is an intriguing idea, and hopefully something that deserves more attention. It would be nice to see other designers leave a trace of their process. In HD please.

[Update]: I also came across an interesting section on the SPD (Society of Publication Designers) website. The section (a blog really) is called The Process, and is dedicated, seemingly, to lifting the curtain off the publication design process. It’s a great idea and makes perfect sense that SPD is doing this, (most of the videos posted below also come from SPD). The first series of posts chronicle the design process of a feature article on Charlie Kaufman for Wired magazine, written by Wired creative director Scott Dadich.

Read the posts for yourself: The Process
Wired’s website is also cross-posting them: Storyboard

Some of the process videos I found are collected here:
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Filed under: Links, Reference, Typography

May 1, 2009 • 10:53 pm 2

Lettering Parsons

Just found this video on hand lettering. It’s interesting to see the process of hand painting typography.

Filed under: Typography

April 27, 2009 • 6:27 pm 1

Font as Construction

bricks

Since the days of the invention of movable type, type has always served as an elements in the overall construction of the page. The type slugs (or sorts) were set in lines, and those lines were framed together into a forme, which then went onto the press. So the idea of using type as form has always been an integral aspect of typography. Phototypesetting allowed the designers to treat type in new ways; it could now be overlapped, distorted. New photo-typefaces were designed to accommodate the new whims of the designers. Think of Avant-Garde with its extensive ligature set, especially in the hands of Herb Lubalin. Digital typography has pushed the boundaries even further. The studio of Richard Niessen & Esther de Vries take the notion of type as construction literally, and create beautiful, playful and refreshing designs. Richard refers to his approach as typographic masonry, and at one time called his studio exactly that.

Following along this train of thought I was curious what fonts were out there that played with this notion. Not simply symbol or dingbat fonts, but fonts that could be used to construct design; fonts which exploit the formal possibilities of type. So I collected together what I found.
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Filed under: Typography

April 2, 2009 • 11:10 pm 0