Michael Witte

In my recent research for holiday card illustration, I found this illustration done by Michael Witte at theiSpot.com.

In further searching, once I found his work at the iSpot, I found that he does have other portfolio sites like Workbook and Rappart, as well as his own domain name at michaelwitte.com . His style is very caricature based, humorous, and witty. No pun intended. I really like and appreciate the style in many respects. I don't think that it is a style that I would pursue though. I have always had a very difficult time imagining how a caricature artist chooses the features of a person to exaggerate. I tend to see thing very literally and feel the need to reproduce things as true to real looking as possible. Perhaps that is why I've always been so discouraged with my drawing skills, because what I end up with is rarely as close as I would like it to be to the real object or image. When I do create something that closely resembles my subject, then I'm happy with it. I suppose I need to either broaden my horizons, or learn to accept my own flaws.

Rory Kurtz Illustration

Rory Kurtz is a self-taught 34 year old artist. He is a native of Milwaukee who actually worked in photography until this career came to an end a few years ago. He was encouraged to get back to his childhood root passion of drawing. Once he did, he became very popular where ever he showed his work. I found his work in the Sept / Oct 2013 issue of Communication Arts magazine.

The details in this first one just blew me away. I love the details in the buildings. Even the skyscraper behind the giant robot has detailed perspective lines as if it were a glass window tower in Chicago. 

When I saw this boy in his Spiderman tank-top, I got a deep feeling of Norman Rockwell. 

The same for these last two. I just feel Norman Rockwell surrounding them and love the beautiful style of Rory Kurtz. There were more illustration shown in the Communication Arts article about him. You can see that his style is consistent, soft, intentional and extraordinary. See more at his website. 

Screen Printed Gig Poster

Dan Stiles is a designer and artist who combines design with illustration. He is based in Portland Oregon and has used his unique style to create everything from identities for major corporations to gig posters for indie bands. I found this gig poster created for Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros in the September 20013 issue of Computer Arts magazine. See more of Dan Stiles work at his website.

Brad Pitt!

"This piece [for film magazine Little White Lies] had very tight criteria: an image of Brad Pitt's face made of leaves. Restricted to one colour on black, this became about capturing Pitt's essence as simply as possible, with no space for fancy stuff"

Joe Wilson writes in the July 2013 issue of Digital Arts magazine as he describes the intention behind this amazing illustration.

Another example of the trend resembling a Renaissance toward days past when hand-crafted and curves were in vogue. See more of Joe Wilson's work at his website. 

Flowerhead

"His body of work teems with figures whose faces, beards or bouffant hairdos are comprised of organic matter: lyrical clusters of flowers, rivers, birds and fruits".

Tiffany Meyers writes in a terrific in depth article about artist / illustrator Olaf Hajek in the July / August 2013 issue of Communication Arts magazine.

His illustration work is incredible. It's intricate. It's simply amazing. There are several pages of his illustration work in the magazine. I highly encourage you to checkout this issue of Communication Arts. I find his style to be romanticized and an obvious example of the Renaissance happening today, heading back in the direction of detailed, handcrafted, and nature inspired artwork resembling that of the Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau periods. Visit the website of Olaf Hajek to see more.

Sketch This Out!

I found these in the July 2013 issue of HOW magazine. I found the pair of images to be an intriguing combination of type and illustration. Chicks & Type is the name of the series that Simone Massoni has done.

Check out more about Simone Massoni at his website. He lives and works in Flourence, Italy and has moved around in discipline's from children's book illustration to more recent exploration of digital media and motion graphics. 

Don't Worry, Be Happy!

Another semester comes to a close. I won't be able to say that very many more times. The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter. The things that I have learned over the course of my time in college have been uplifting and inspirational. In this Spring 2013 semester, we have created a campaign for the graphic design show, a letter press event poster, an alphabet book, creative layout versions of a classic novel, and a two page magazine layout.

Don't wait until you know who you are to get started.
Step away from the screen. Use your hands.
Keep a morgue file.
Side projects and hobbies are important.
The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing the rest of your life.
Make friends, Ignore enemies.
Garbage in, Garbage out.
Stand next to the talent.
Keep a praise file.
Keep a log file.
Keep everything.

These are just a few of the great phrases that Austin Kleon, the author of "Steal Like an Artist" presents in his book. The book is small in physical dimensions but huge in inspiration and motivation. I love the way the cover feels in my hands and it is a great book to just thumb through from time to time. I have spent time practicing numerous pieces of advise in the book. The morgue file, and using my hands are probably my favorite right now. I have actually spent much more time in the library reading books than ever before. There is a quote in the book about spending time in the library. It's not the book you start with, it's the book that book leads you to. That is where the magic is.

There is a lot of magic in the book. A sudden epiphany when you realize the truth in one of the many statements. In my daily life, my work, my education, my experience; These quotes and phrases and bits of advise are invaluable. The book was a requirement of my Graphic Design III class blogging assignment, and I don't know that I would have found the book otherwise. "Steal Like and Artist" is fantastic to read and even more wonderful to live. The book reminds me of a song that came out in 1988 by Bobby McFerrin called "Don't Worry, Be Happy"

Letter Press font found

So, due to some research in the homework this week, we found a new font that is freely available for download and installation to your computer to use an abuse. This semester I had a project using "Letter Press" that really peaked my attention. I attended the Wayzgoose annual festival last year in 2011 in Two Rivers, WI and was enlightened to the old style of letter press. I have been infatuated ever since. This font does much of the effect, although to the trained eye, it still reveals that it is still a fake.

The beauty of this font is that it represents the letter press style pretty accurately. The fault is that no letter press letter repeats itself identically. But this is a fantastic reproduction of the overall effect is it is required in moderation. Another flaw of this installed font is that it doesn't appear to contain simple punctuation such as apostrophe's and comma's. 

Kelly Services Wordmark

I had taken this photo on my phone weeks ago. I'm not sure why I haven't used it yet. I think it is just a time management issue with this blog posting thing. Sorry to let all of my classmates down.

I have always liked the way that the KELLY temp employment services word-mark looks. Years ago, when I first arrived in Champaign county, this was my first stop and they worked tirelessly to get me in the door at Plastipak where I worked for ten years. Unfortunately, even they can't assist me in new employment other than manufacturing. I haven't even checked back with them in quite a while now though.

Anyway, I have always been attracted to their word-mark and I haven't ever really analyzed it before now. I ran my image through What Font Is and the results weren't extremely clear. However, they did suggest that perhaps ITC Kabel was an influence in the design of the letter-form.

The problem in Kabel is in the diagonal's of the "K", the center arm of the "E" and the "Y". But the diagonal slant at the end of each arm of the "E" and the base of the "L's" is a great match. It could be that I didn't get the photo taken straight enough. But, I'll try to keep an eye out for something more similar than the Kabel.

Fake it till you make it.

Here is another great page from Austin Kleon's Steal Like an Artist:

Have you ever heard of dramaturgy? It's a fancy term for something William Shakespeare spelled out in his play As You Like It about 400 years ago;

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts.

Another way to say this? Fake it till you make it.
I love this phrase. There are two ways to read it:
     1. Pretend to be something you're not until you are—
         fake it until you're successful, until everybody sees
         the way you want them to; or
     2. Pretend to be making something until you actually make something

I love both readings—you have to dress for the job you want, not the job you have, and you have to start doing the work you want to be doing.

I also love the book Just Kids by the musician Patti Smith. It's a story about how two friends who wanted to be artists moved to New York. You know how they learned to be artists?

"You start out
as a phony and
become real."
–Glenn O'Brien

Greg's Truck and Auto

Recently, my project 2 design flopped as the company that I was designing a wordmark for is named "Timpone's". It is an Italian cuisine restaurant in Urbana on the University campus. In working on my design, one of my concepts ended up appearing as "Limpone's" or aka Limp one's. So, that kinda blew it for me. I can't seem to look at the word in any way now without seeing it incorrectly.

I was driving this weekend and saw Greg's Truck and Auto and noticed how awful the design is. It's just an all centered serif word mark / logo. I pulled in and grabbed this shot of it and I plan to rework this for my project two word mark. I met the owner as he was curious why I was taking a picture of his sign. I explained that I am a graphic design student at Parkland College and working on a project to rework a logo / word mark. I told him I would bring my work back to him and if he likes it, he will be able to use it.  He looked like he thought that was a pretty great opportunity for him.

I wondered what font was being used already. I think it would look better as a sans serif word mark. It could be much sportier and auto like. I took the image to whatfontis.com and got the following result.

I think this is about as accurate as it can get. The letter-forms were a nearly perfect match. 

Climb Your Own Family Tree.

From the Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon: Marcel Duchamp said, "I don't believe in art. I believe in artists." This is actually a pretty good method for studying—if you try to devour the history of your discipline all at once, you'll choke.

Instead, chew on one thinker—writer, artist, activist, role model—you really love. Study everything there is to know about that thinker. Then find three people that thinker loved, and find out everything about them. Repeat this as many times as you can. Climb up the tree as far as you can go. Once you build your tree, it's time to start your own branch.

Seeing yourself s part of a creative lineage will help you feel less alone as you start making your own stuff. I hang pictures of my favorite artists in my studio. They're loke friendly ghosts. I can almost feel them pushing me forward as I'm hunched over my desk.

The great thing about dead or remote masters is that they can't refuse you as an apprentice. You can learn whatever you want from them. They left their lesson plans in their work.

HONDA - Once an underdog, now an icon

I heard a story one time about the man named Honda who started the car manufacturing business that we now know. In brief, it went something like this. Mr. Honda had machinist experience and wanted to sell his piston rings to Toyota. They refused his piston rings numerous times. Mr. Honda built a motor for a bicycle. The idea caught on and before long he was building motorcycles and was becoming well known. Then war broke out and his factory was destroyed. Mr. Honda got his people together and gathered up useable materials to rebuild with. They gathered gasoline cans and other materials that were left behind in the war. Before long the business was back up and building motorcycles and then broadened out to build small cars. It is a remarkable story and I'm probably doing it no justice. To hear the story makes you think of a success story of an immigrant to America.

I have been a Ford guy all my life. I learned to drive in a '56 Ford F-250 Truck. I drove a '72 Ford Gran Torino in H.S. and I performed all of my firsts in my Gran Torino. I remember seeing the little Honda's buzzing around. I didn't care much for them. Of course my Father was and still is a very big Union Pro guy. So, to drive an import was quite scandalous in his eyes.

Later in life I got a job at an auto parts store and began to notice that people who came in for parts for their Honda were only replacing wiper blades and light bulbs. I ended up buying an old '87 Honda Civic hatchback. It was a 4 speed and I taught my wife how to drive the standard transmission in that car. We would get 40 - 44 mpg in that little car and it only once left us stranded. That was because I failed to have the timing belt replaced on time. I bought another Honda, this time a '92 Accord. I've had the car for over 12 years and it now has over 220k miles on it. I love the car and wouldn't give it up if you paid me.

Shweeeew!  Sorry. A little windy. What typeface is used for the logo / word-mark?

 

What the font had two versions of Clarendon in it's lineup of potential matches. I tried it out and it is pretty darned close. It wouldn't take much to make it right. Add the tab to the top of the "A" and probably squash the height of the letters and you've pretty much got it. The logo letters appear to be a little fatter too. I don't know if altering the letter height would change that too or not.

Chickenfoot Logo Typeface Search

In my other class, Graphic Design III, we're creating a "Gig Poster". I chose to use Chickenfoot as the band represented in my poster. I thought it would be very simple to find the text used in their logo because it is sans serif and pretty square looking. Well here goes.

The first stop was with What the Font. It said that the closest match was called Bank Gothic Medium.  I think it's pretty dang close. The "C" is obviously not correct, but the designer could have cut off the ends of the "C" in outlines. I managed to find a free download of the font, installed it for comparison and here it is.

Not a bad match.  The top text is the original logo type. The middle is the Bank Gothic Medium as typed. I then created outlines and decided that the "O" would make a better candidate for the "C" than the "C" itself. It appears that it is wider than the typeface really is. I cut the right side off of an "O" and voila. Reversing the "K" to finish it up and I think I've nailed it for the most part. Just a little grung-ing and we're rockin'. 

By the way, if you are an 80's hairband rocker, give Chickenfoot a listen. It is a Super-Group organized by The Red Rocker Sammy Hagar. Joe Satriani, Chad Smith, and Michael Anthony join to create one of the greatest sounds that rock has heard in quite a long time. 

Easter is already available at a retailer near you

Time flies by so incredibly fast. It's no wonder why really. Retailers and our consumer driven Capitalist society shoves the next thing down our throats before we have even had the chance to observe the last thing let alone digest it. Anyway, I'll step down from my soap box and share what I found in Meijer the other day.

Wasn't Valentine's Day just last week? Isn't Easter after St. Patrick's Day? That's why I can never keep the spring holidays dates straight. Anyway, I looked up Russell Stover's logo on several of the font identifier sites. The nearest I came up with is called Ladybird Std at What Font Is. The other sites couldn't even get that close. It is a script and probably a hand "Lettered" font designed just for this purpose. The text also has a bevel and emboss treatment applied to it, which could be further confusing the image identifiers.

Easter wouldn't be Easter without these little peeps. Personally, I don't care for them. But the little rascals have been around since before I was ever here. As I suspected, this logo typeface is probably a custom creation. Interesting that Korinna popped up on What Font Is search, but it isn't correct because of the capital P and the lower case e for obvious starters. Numerous other typefaces came up, but they also had no true identifying features, or only one character, but not the others. 

Who doesn't like a KISS? These little classics are just melt in your mouth good and aren't only for Easter. I knew this was going to be difficult. Again, no luck on KISSES. It is probably hand drawn. "Milk Chocolate" on the other hand appears to be District Pro Demi according to What Font Is.

I'm a sucker for peanut butter and chocolate. This is my all time favorite flavor in the "Sweets" category. Reese's is yet another trouble causing logo typeface that isn't recognizable by any of the online font identifiers. I'm sure it too is probably a hand lettered version of something inspiring. 

This is going to be soooooo Cool!!

The difference between Type and Lettering

Once again, in the effort to clear my head and get some inspiration all at the same time, I find myself with a minimum of 16 browser tabs open. Is my head clear? Probably not. But I did find this fantastic article written by Joseph Alessio for Smashing Magazine.

The comparisons in this article are like strolling back through my art history and graphic design history classes. I wanted to post this so that I can easily reference it later and to share with classmates who will no doubt find it useful and interesting.

Write what you LIKE

Austin Kleon explains on page 45 that if you write what you like while you are pumped about it, you are much more likely to write something interesting about it. The traditional advice is to write what you KNOW. Austin argues that this leads to mundane and boring lifeless crap. The idea (if I'm interpreting him correctly) is to do what you are passionate about, while you are passionate about it. When you know something inside out and backwards, up side down and polka-dotted, chances are that it just isn't interesting anymore. Or, at least it would be much more difficult to make it interesting to others because you will skip and miss simple things about what you know with the assumption that they already know those simple details and would be bored with them as well.

Goin' da school

Further reading in Austin Kleon's Steal Like an Artist leads me to page 19.

School Yourself.

School is one thing, Education is another. The two don't always overlap. Whether you're in school or not, it's always your job to get yourself an education.

You have to be curious about the world in which you live. Look things up. Chase down every reference. Go deeper than anybody else — that's how you'll get ahead.

Google everything. I mean everything. Google your dreams, Google your problems. Don't ask a question before you Google it. You'll either find the answer or you'll come up with a better question.

Image courtesy of  Public Domain Images

I try to practice this at all times. If there is one thing that I carry away from my time in college, it is that I realize I will never know everything. But, I have learned where to go to obtain the information that I need at any given time. This practice has helped me from feeling like a bonehead and asking an unnecessary question. I recently visited the Larry Kanfer Studios in Champaign and there was a beautiful photograph of an impressive and very recognizable structure. I wanted to guess that it was the Taj' Mahal, I wanted confirmation and was just milliseconds away from blurting the question to the people standing next to me observing the same image. I managed to choke my words back and get my phone out to google it for confirmation. I was right and I was not embarrassed. And actually, it did indeed prompt an even better question that I also managed to answer by searching the internet. It feels good to be self reliant.

Purdue logo and wordmark

Today coming into school I saw a Purdue window sticker and wondered what the font was that the school uses in their wordmark logo. I thought for a brief instant of taking a photo of the window sticker, but decided that it may appear invasive. So, I have gathered a few images from web sources.

This first one is very similar to what I had seen in the window of the car. It is a very three dimensional letterpress looking font. When I searched the internet for the Purdue University font though, many images arrived. I found it interesting how much change and variation can occur between the "logo / wordmark".

This Sans Serif logo appears to be the more official logo / wordmark, while the three dimensional version is likely used for sports and school spirit.

It's interesting how much difference is apparent even comparing the two visual logo pieces. The font changes there as well. 

Garden shed has type too

Miracle-Gro has had a place in my garden shed for many years. It helps to keep plants growing strong. Strength keeps them more resistant to drought and other threats. My roots are deeply embedded in the garden. I have enjoyed it both professionally and as a hobby for nearly all my life. The packaging of

Miracle-Gro hasn't changed much if at all, but its interesting to now notice the specific traits of the font.

I tried to upload my  image to the sites. Nothing came up. I tried going through the endless questionnaire at Identifont, but nothing valuable or certain came up there either. Finally I just googled "typeface used miracle gro logo" which led me to this forum post at Typophile. So, to verify that the unconfirmed answer on the post was accurate, I searched for the font by name and found that it is probably the origin of the logo.

I think that the font may have been used as a starting point for the Miracle-Gro logo, but the logo appears to be stretched vertically. Three solid selling points in supporting this are the upright "M", the "G" with no horizontal bar as well as the form of the lowercase "r" and "a".

My List.ly list of Tools to organize your mind

Tools for Archiving, Morgue Filing, and Organizing

View more lists from Burke Stanion

Save it to the Morgue

p21-22  Steal Like an Artist — Austin Kleon writes:

Save Your Thefts For Later:

Carry a notebook and a pen with you wherever you go. Get used to pulling it out and jotting down your thoughts and observations. Copy your favorite passages out of books. Record overheard conversations. Doodle when you’re on the phone.

Go to whatever lengths necessary to make sure you always have paper on you. Artist David Hockney had all the inside pockets of his suit jackets tailored to fit a sketchbook. The musician Arthur Russell liked to wear shirts with two front pockets so he could fill them with scraps of score sheets.

Keep a swipe file. It’s just what is sounds like — a file to keep track of the stuff you’ve swiped from others. It can be digital or analog — it doesn’t matter what form it takes, as long as it works. you can keep a scrapbook and cut and paste things into it. or you can just take pictures of things with your camera phone.

See something worth stealing? Put it in the swipe file. Need a little inspiration? Open up the swipe file.

Newspaper reporters call this a “morgue file” — I like that name even better. Your morgue file is where you keep the dead things that you’ll later reanimate in your work.

Image courtesy of Michael Hewitt

Once I read this, the term "Morgue File" rang in my head. I google searched it out of curiosity and found Morgue File. This is a really great site that has eluded me until now. Of course then, I had to search for even more sites that would be useful in archiving all of the bits and pieces that I find as a day goes on. I have been using (or trying to get good at using) Evernote and Mindmeister. Both of these apps are free and appear so far to be very useful to me in keeping my thoughts and finds organized & searchable via tagging.

So, as far as stealing things and saving them to your "Morgue File" goes, Evernote has a "Web Clipper" plugin that enables you to simply and easily clip a page or portion of a page to your Evernote notebook. I used to use Del.icio.us to keep many bookmarks to pages of interest. Then I started using Google Bookmarks. I just recently discovered Listly, which allows you to curate and compile lists of things and webpages for social rankings as well as comment and social contribution. Also, Pinterest has become a great tool to record things that I find useful and inspirational. As far as having ONE ALMIGHTY Morgue file somewhere. I don't know if maybe one of these apps would out perform another or become a sole keeper of information. Each one has it's merits.

Another well known tool brand

DeWalt is another well known tool brand. They are best known for their power tools. I had an easier time finding the font for this one though.  I did upload an image to WhatTheFont, as well as WhatFontIs.  I came up with many choices to further narrow the search from. Finally, I decided to settle on one that is close. But, I don't think I have it solid yet.

The uppercase "W" has a slight widening taper at the top of each outer stroke and a flat topped center hump. The uppercase "D" counter shape is nearly a perfect half circle. The uppercase "E" has nearly equal length arms, but not quite and they are very close together. It is a stout bold strong sans serif font. I'm not sure about CFB1 Shielded Avenger Normal as being the correct choice though. Especially because it appears to be a web font rather than Open Type or True Type. But, it's close. Finding out what font is used in a particular application is a very challenging endeavor.

An American Classic

Ever since I was a boy learning to tighten the chain on my bicycle, I've known, trusted and used Craftsman tools. The lifetime warranty is dependable if you ever need to even use it.

I don't know how many questions were in the series when asked by identifont. It took a while though because I only have 8 uppercase letters to identify with. I don't think this is entirely correct yet, but this is what identifont displayed.  I'll look into some of the recommended options as well.

This Manifesto font is similar, but the "S" isn't right. It almost looks like they could have adopted the Z for the S and created uniqueness in the logo that way.