Definitely not a Type Designer

Okay, it's been a rough couple weeks. I took my preliminary sketches (see older post) and tried to translate the design into a fontstruct. No Go.

So back at the drawing board, I created the individual letter forms in Illustrator. I got less of the 'instant gratification' and more of the' appreciation for what type designers do'. So after a grueling mess of hours in front of the Mac, I have a few letters to show for it.

The assignment is basically done, until my final revision, and I'm reading tutorials throughout the weekend. Go higher education!

My favorite designer blog, Bittbox.com, has a tutorial using FontLab Studio and an fun typeface created by its readers (conglomerfont).

-Cheers, sim1

I am not a Type Designer...

...but, I love typography, so I'm throwing my hat into the type-designer ring.  

Here's the background, my typography professor put a challenge to me, 'create a typeface that is elegant, clean and expressive'. He means expressive in a stark, modern, and modular sort of way.  

Well, it's an assignment, so I can't say no. I'm armed with my love of typography, some background notes on the client, a whole book of gridded graph paper, my MacBook, and this awesome website!

I've got a week, this is my uppercase "F" and lowercase "C".

Portfolios That Inspire: JJAAKK Design

This is a love story for
Typographers,
When B meets G

Jjaakk has a very diverse portfolio showing  print, packaging, concept, and environmental design.  The online presentation is clean and intuitive(this matters).
I really liked the full portfolio, but fell in LOVE with the packaging, so the samples I show below represent my favorites.

Take a look and get inspired:

Membership: Does it have it’s privileges?

As a designer two years out of undergrad--soon to be fresh out of grad school—I’m a member of the premiere organization for professionals in this field. I’m also a member of the secondary org, and a couple groups that have nothing at all to do with graphic design whatsoever. When I made my first dues payment, I wondered if it was worth it. I’m sure many new designers wonder about that too. My mentor, Bob Shelley, put it into perspective for me.

It’s important to network within your field, but it’s more important to network outside of it. While graphic design firms may not search the AIGA member rolls to find the newest member of their art department, groups of architects, contractors or physicians are more likely to search their associate members listings for freelancers.

The professional organization membership also allows you to take classes at reduced rates, enhance your resume, get preferred pricing at annual meetings and conventions, and get your name out to t broader audience. So when it’s time to renew, consider a membership in an organization outside of design.

In Love With Amazon

I love Amazon MP3 downloads. They're cheaper than the other popular download site--even if only by a few coins per album. My most recent purchase saved me over $2, took a few minutes, and was the easiest thing I've done all week. I plan to dedicate my next art project to Amazon MP3 downloads!.

grumble grumble

I have had it up to here with ATT! The service is horrible, calls get dropped constantly and I still have a monster bill. The customer service staff--while often nice and helpful--are too busy trying to cover every item/add on/and feature in their script to be very efficient.  I'm going to scream, then I'm getting rid of ATT.

The Vector logo resource

I found brands of the world a few years ago and it's been invaluable in my student work. Simply type in company name or a key word and it list pops up. No more tracing in Illustrator using bad bitmap images of logos for school.

Antigua HouseRental

This winter I got the chance to stay at my aunt and uncle’s awesome new house in our village. Now, back in the states, they’ve challenged me with creating a web site for their house. I’ve gone back and forth on the design and learned a few things in the process.

The more people stay at their vacation home, the more work I get to do. For now, page is a work in progress; there's always new blog posts to add/edit, and images come at varying speeds during the year.

“Good Hair” Newsletter

I actually got excited for the first time about my hair! I have had a natural since I was about 18–after my 4 year experiment with perms. Now I’m a 29 year old grad student in Baltimore with a fro and yet another reason to love my hair. In my Editorial Style class our final project is to create a newsletter targeting a certain group/niche audience and write for them. The actual physical newsletter ends up being an afterthought when the writing-editing-re-writes are done. Since it’s a group project I latched onto the group with the topic that held the most interest for me; it turns out that a fellow student had recently embarked on the journey to natural, healthy, nappy hair and wanted to share her experience. Thus, the hypothetical quarterly “Good Hair” was born.

In writing and researching my 4 articles, I found several resources that I had neglected:

• youtube how-to videos
  
• natural hair blogs and forums
  
• salons that cater to unprocessed crowns
  
• books that advise and support
  
• other women with kinky dos willing to share their knowledge
  
• information, information, information.
  

I got excited again. The attached jpegs are 4 newsletter pages. They are student work and contain ultra-low res borrowed images.

Fitness UB Magazine

Awesome new year, awesome new projects. February has Groundhog Day, MLK Day, Prez Day, and Now Fitness UB Day.  My new zine all about health, fitness and nutrition for women launched on the 14th. It's a peach, here are a couple sample pages.