Typeface Decider from Julian Hanson

Typeface Decider from Julian Hanson
04/29/10

In every industry there is some dumb, stupid and pointless topic which has no correct answer that for whatever reason is discussed and argued about ad nauseam.

For a designer like myself that topic is Typefaces. Yeah! Fonts. You know Times New Roman, Arial, Century Gothic. Most people spend their entire life just caring about which font makes their 8 page paper appear to be 12, but not us. We define them, give them personalities. Use words like contemporary, trendy and distressed. Ascender, Decenders, Serifed and Sans Serifed. We kern them, we lead them. We stretch them, we slice them. We know which ones work well together and which ones don’t work well at all (ehem… I’m talking to you Hobo and Comic Sans!)

I only use this. How dare they use that. IKEA is switching to what!?! It goes on and on.

I’m guilty. We all are.

But this nice illustration/map/chart called “So you need a typeface?” from Julian Hanson might make at least the whole decision process a lot easier.

It also give some good justifications for why to use a font, which is applicable to both designers and the average lay person. Takes you through the whole process.

Take a look and follow the yellow brick road to you ideal typeface.

Fun work

Martin Luther King Tribute
06/1/10

I wanted to attempt this style  in February, and being Black History Month I chose the Rev. as my muse.

His face is made up of the words of his epic Lincoln Memorial “I have a dream…” speech.

Take a look. I am having it framed as I type.

Smoking Goat Branding
04/1/10

I like beer.

Beer high in flavor, alcohol and price. I brew at home, but wouldn’t consider myself very good at this point. I’m working on it.

We have friends in Louisiana who I would consider really good. I designed some branding for their forthcoming brewery down there.

The Smoking Goat will hopefully be amazing, especially if I get some good beer out of the deal.

Have a look. Then drink a beer and have a look again. Continue this process until the logo looks awesome.

New Poster
02/4/10

This is a poster I made for my buddy Dustin.

A classic quote from him as we drove by Effingham, IL’s infamous and huge cross.

I thought it would look good in his new apartment.

Sheltered Perceptions
01/6/10

I recently got the chance to work on a project for the Humane Society. Given the fact that every time I walk into an animal shelter I have to be talked down from taking home every animal in the place, I was happy to help in anyway I could.

With the majority of pet buying in the United States coming from breeders, mall pet shops and unfortunately mills, animal shelters (specifically the Humane Society) are left overflowing with pets that need loving homes. They are running into a perception problem however, and many misconceptions about shelter pets are accepted as fact, and often repeated as such.

To get past this, we decided to take the problem head on, and address the most common misconceptions individually.

Here is where we landed:

Lauren and Dan sit’n in a tree…
01/5/10

My good friend Lauren is getting married in July, and though I am extremely jealous of her fiance Dan (don’t tell my wife), I made their save the date cards.

I use VistaPrint to print these types of things. Though the quality suffers, and the rumor is that they are destroying local community printers nationwide, for the price they can’t be beat. Check them out next time you want to customize your own holiday card or invitation.

Here’s how Lauren’s STDs turned out: