Top Ten Type Crimes...

Ilene Strizver, founder of The Type Studio, is a typographic consultant, designer and writer specializing in all aspects of typographic communication has written an in-depth article for Monotype Imaging in regard to the Top 10 Type Crimes, excerpt from the article:

Are you a type criminal? Don’t be afraid to confess; the type police won’t come knocking at your door in the middle of the night. Even the most seasoned designers can commit an occasional type crime, by accident or inattention. If good typography is important to you, knowing and recognizing the “ten most wanted” type crimes will help make your projects stay on the right side of the law...

I highly recommend you read the in-depth article for yourself, here - perhaps you've been committing type crime(s) without evening knowing it! ;)

Cheers!

Happy Birthday Mr. Peters!

Happy 55th Birthday Rob! Wishing you all the best, on this day and the rest! May all your birthday wishes come true! Peace, love, and happiness always... cheers!

Image: ASCII portrait of Rob prepared as part of my e-card birthday greetings.

COOL! Font Game...

A little over a year ago I blogged about The Rather Difficult Font Game... well since then, the game has been updated with some additional fonts for you to challenge, as well its now being hosted on I Love Typography. Give the game a try for yourself and see how well you do, here - I still can't seem to manage to get them all, my best is still 33/34. Perhaps, I'll give it another shot later. ;)

Thanks for the link Beth!

WICKED! Type War...

Too cool. This typographic animation/ad was created by Optix Digital (Hamburg), for Inlingua Business English schools. Watch the video embedded above, on YouTube or via Motionographer, here - enjoy!

Thanks again to Mr. Simpson for the link - cheers!

COOL! Micrography: Text Art and Typography...

Image: Obama word portrait by Jeff Clark.

Wikipedia says "Micrography, also called microcalligraphy, is a Jewish art form developed in the 9th century, with parallels in Christianity and Islam, utilizing minute Hebrew letters to form representational, geometric and abstract designs. Colored micrography is especially distinctive because these rare artworks are customarily rendered in black and white.”

View some beautiful examples of this art form, here - enjoy!

Thanks to Mr. Mark Simpson for the link - cheers!

COOL! Graphic Design - The Forgotten Web Standard (Video)...

Graphic Design: The Forgotten Web Standard on Vimeo.

The following video was played as part of Mike Kus' talk at FOWD London 2009. It's sped up footage of Mike designing his slides for his talk. Mike thought that it would be interesting to show it because he thought it would interesting to see the design process he went through whilst making them. It also features a footage of slides being designed that never made it to the final slide deck... it's quite neat IMO.

You can view Mike's presentation at FOWD London 2009 , here - enjoy! Thanks to Davin Greenwell for posting the link to the GDC Listserve - cheers!

COOL! Book Cover Archive...

A very cool and handy website to share, www.bookcoverarchive.com - is a website dedicated to the appreciation and categorization of excellence in book cover design (all covers are the copyright of their respective publishers).

Browse covers via designer, book title, genre, etc., - go and check it out for yourself at http://www.bookcoverarchive.com/ - enjoy!

Thanks to Ian MacCausland and Rob Peters for the link! Cheers!

Recommended Viewing | 99DS.net

From the website:

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99DS.net is a collaborative exhibition featuring artwork digitally illustrated on the Nintendo DS handheld game console by local Wellingtonian artists Greg Broadmore and Christian Pearce. A shared, public exhibition showcasing the first two completed collections is scheduled for the 1st of February 2009. Each collection exhibits a series of full-colour digital sketch artwork - as prints, in books and on screen. Animated reels revealing the illustrative process behind each piece will be on looped playback throughout the exhibition. Housed in custom-made containers in Wellington's Civic Square, 99DS aims to show a fun and frivolous way art can be created on the digital media available to us today, free of symbolism, metaphor and manure...

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All the artwork was created using Colors! (a digital sketching/painting program) on the Nintendo DS! If you're familiar with the DS, these pieces are amazing to say the least... go and check 'em out for yourself!


99 Dodgy Slips by Greg Broadmore...


99 Deadly Sleds by Christian Pearce...

Very cool stuff indeed! If you're curious to see what some other artists have been creating using Colors!, go and check out the gallery over at the Colors! website. Thanks to my good friend, local designer/illustrator, and fellow Guardian Dojo Karate-ka, James Gillespie (KALAMAFRAZ) for the heads-up on this one! Cheers!

COOL! 1934 BMW R7...

Curious member of BMW's classic division were pleasantly surprised in 2005, when they opened a crate in the archives storage to find this gorgeous bike, 75% assembled.

Now fully-restored to showroom/working condition, this bike is a truly an object of beauty. Read the original story on Cool Hunter, here - cheers!

2009 RRC Creative Arts Open House...

On 7 May 2009 the Red River College Creative Arts Department held their annual open house show. Student portfolios and sample works were on display at the Princess Street campus as local industry professionals mingled.


Eric Crone, MGDC unveiled the award winning poster design for the inaugural Bruce Gillespie Collection Scholarship - designed by Melissa Archer, GDC Manitoba's *NEW* Activities Chair. Melissa will be taking over my role as the Manitoba Chapter's Activities Chair, I'm very excited to see what she's got planned. ;)


Rich Roat from House Industries was this year's guest speaker. You can view more pictures from the Open House and Rich's presentation on my Flickr, here - enjoy!

Congratulations again to the graduating class of 2009! Cheers!

Recommended Viewing | How to Destroy Civilization with Nanotechnology...

How to Destroy Civilization with Nanotechnology.

Slowly-but-surely, I'm starting to make a dent in my '2B_Blogged' folder residing on my desktop. ;)

This little gem of an animation was sent to me a while back by my friend, Paul Kletke... I thought it was quite well done. Watch the embedded video above or check it out on http://www.5min.com/ - enjoy!

Thanks Paul for sending me the link! Cheers!

Recommended Viewing | Modern Samurai...

You have to watch this amazing Japanese video showing Modern Samurai - Isao Machii (I think my jaw was on the floor for the entire duration of the video). Amazing would be an understatement.

Check out the embedded video above or watch it on Youtube, here - enjoy! Thanks to my brother Ashley for sending me the link - cheers!

12welve...

Congratulations to the University of Manitoba's 2009 Graphic Design Thesis program graduates. This year's graduating class show was dubbed 12welve (in light of the fact that there were only 12 students in the thesis program), and was held at the Martha Street Studio.


The exhibition space was packed with people... in some areas, attendees were literally shoulder-to-shoulder.


This set of posters was one of the first things that caught my eye when I stepped in through the doorway... my first reaction was "WTF? When did the GDC have a presentation on Design and Ethics? How come I've never heard about this..." only to realize shortly thereafter that it was a poster assignment... LOL. Good job! It totally fooled me. ;P


There was quite a few pieces on display that I thought were very well done... I particularly enjoyed this poster (designed by Tess Vincent) about Morse code. You can see a few more pictures from the event on my Flickr, here - enjoy!

Congratulations again to the 2009 graduates! Cheers!

May the 4th Be With You - Happy Star Wars Day...

(WARNING: Video may not be suitable for minors and is potentially NSFW - view at your own discretion)

Apparently, today is Star Wars Day... or, one of many Star Wars days/events which honours the epic Star Wars franchise. Well, in light of that fact, I offer you the above Youtube video, originally seen on Gizmodo.

May the 4th be with you... ;) Cheers!

Recommended Viewing | Design Edge Magazine May/June 2009...

I highly recommend that you check out the latest edition of Design Edge magazine. If you've never heard of Design Edge magazine... well, you should sign up for a subscription... it's free to Canadians. This issue is definitely one of the more memorable ones (IMO)... could it be because I recognize some of the folks who are featured within? Perhaps... ;)


Congratulations to the folks who I recognized/have met through their regular contributions to the GDC Listserve and/or their contributions to the GDC in general. In the 'Creative Sidelines' feature article you'll recognize:


Nancy Wu (I've blogged about Nancy before, here)


Davin Greenwell (who I had the pleasure of meeting in person at this year's GDC National AGM held in Winnipeg)


Brian Branch (a regular contributor on the GDC Listserve)


and Craig Medwyduk (also a regular contributor to the GDC Listserve)...


...and in the 'Newsmakers' section we have Vancouver's Design Ambassadors... ;D Mark Busse, Marga Lopez Orozco, Rod Roodenburg and Matt Warburton.

Awesome! Congrats again. Cheers!