graphic design, art, typography and architecture

graphic design, web design, fine art, typography, design news, architecture

Aug 5, 2007

Creative Fix — July 2007

It has been a while since my last post. I won’t bore you with the details/excuses; suffice to say, it’s been a particularly busy month.

Anyway, my Google Notes is full of inspiration. Here is just a taste of things that caught my eye/inspired me in July:

Typography:

Type the Sky by Lisa Rienermann is a composite of photographs whereby the silhouette of buildings leaves the shapes of letters on the sky. I love this idea, and it’s inspired me to think of other Photo-Type projects. Do you know of any similar projects?

This next piece is fascinating, particularly for those of you who use Adobe InDesign. Benedikt Groß and Julia Laub have been experimenting with generative typography and layout–that is using scripts to automate type and grid design. Some of the results are great. The InDesign scripts that can be downloaded from Benedikt’s site. If you use these scripts to generate your own designs, please let me know, and I’ll showcase them. I’ll post some of mine at a later date.

You can learn more about scripting in InDesign over at the Adobe web site.

I recently discovered the wonderful Ace Jet 170 blog. The idea behind the blog is simple: the author, something of a typoholic, posts examples of type he finds just about anywhere.

Now, if you do a lot of signage stuff perhaps this is run-of-the-mill but, quite frankly, the sight of 1000pt 3D Clarendon is more than enough to get my heart pumping.

A man after my own heart. Head on over to Ace Jet 170 for more typographic inspiration. I’m always taking photos of type, and Ace Jet 170 has inspired me to start my own blog along the same lines. It will be at www.ilovetypography.com, and I’ll just be posting photos of type that I take–from magazines, street signs, labels, to, well, just about any example of type that catches my eye. When I launch, I’ll let you know.

Video:

A “real” desktop:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/688382/reality_desktop/

Architecture:

Would you like Spinach with your house? The winning entry for the Cradle to Cradle (C2C) Home competition is from Matthew Coates and Tim Meldrum.

Not only does the building run a photosynthetic and phototropic skin made with spinach protein, but it also produces more energy than a single family’s needs, allowing the excess to be distributed to neighbors.

The aim of C2C is to actually build competition entries, and inspire more architects and designers to design and build with sustainability uppermost in their minds.

Web:

Lauren Marie (cue trumpet blasts, angels singing, etc) has finally started a blog. Creative Curio already has a great post entitled Get in Line, Now!, a piece in praise of the humble line. Be sure to subscribe to Creative Curio, or you might miss out!

Photography:

Here are a few of my favourite photos for July:

Art (well, almost):

I haven’t sketched for a while, but did this while “working” in my favourite cafe:

And to my embarrassment, the Cafe Manager took a photo of me mid-sketch. They even blogged about it (Japanese only).

Well, I aim to post weekly from now on, so be sure to come back. To ensure you don’t miss the next post, why not subscribe now!

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9 Comments, Comment or Trackback

Randa Clay

Good to see you back! I had been wondering where you had gotten to. That cafe sketch is cool - wish I could draw like that.

Aug 5th, 2007
LaurenMarie - Creative Curio

Hey! My first trackback! Angels singing… lol. You’re cute, John. Glad to see you’re back!

That Type the Sky is amazing! I’m glad you shared it. Reminds me of Love Letters.

Hehe, I like that desktop video. That would be good to show to those unfamiliar with using a computer. Helps them to relate to things they already use. The Common Craft videos that do this are great. Lee LeFever has a real talent for teaching.

I love your cafe sketch. Everything about it is beautiful. Did you use any tea in it?

Booo… with changing my contact info, website and adding the Creative Curio tag to my name, it’s going to take me forever to climb back up the ranks to Top Commentors on the blogs I frequent!

Aug 6th, 2007
inspirationbit

Huh, that was more like creative “overdose” than a “fix”
Glad to see you back, John.
That sketch of yours is superb. What is that place on your sketch? What other “tools” but pencils did you use there?

Aug 6th, 2007
johno

Randa
Thank you, and thanks for the compliment.

Lauren
Well, the angelic chorus was only fitting;) Those “Love Letters” are good aren’t they.
The Common Craft Videos are great. What a wonderful idea. This could be really, really useful. To those who aren’t so IT literate, it’s sometimes a real chore trying to explain concepts like RSS and WIKIs–thanks for the link.

And no, I didn’t use any tea, just a little coffee (Latte, but black coffee is best).

Please take a look at my “Top Commentators”; you have been fixed. For anyone else who’s interested in remedying this, just use this structure:

update TABLE set COLUMN = replace(COLUMN, ‘OLD_VALUE’, ‘NEW_VALUE’);

so, in my case, I ran these three statements:

UPDATE wpblog_comments SET comment_author = replace( comment_author, ‘LaurenMarie’, ‘LaurenMarie - Creative Curio’ ) ;

UPDATE wpblog_comments SET comment_author_url = replace( comment_author_url, ‘http://laurenmarie.net’, ‘http://creativecurio.com’ ) ;

UPDATE wpblog_comments SET comment_author_email = replace( comment_author_email, ‘the old email address’, ‘the new email address’ ) ;

The default name for the table is wp_comments; and I didn’t include your email address here for obvious reasons. Just remember to backup any table that you intend to alter in this way!

Vivien
Thank you. I used a pencil to sketch; when I’m happy with the line, I use those fine ink pens (0.25, 0.30) in different colours. The pens I used are sold under the “Pilot” brand; they’re called “HI-TEC-C”–not sure if they’re sold outside of Japan (I guess they or similar are…).

Aug 6th, 2007
Tara: Graphic Design Blog

Hi,

Good to have you back. I love your sketch, fab. Do you exhibit, I’m sure you could sell loads.

Aug 6th, 2007
johno

Tara
Thanks. I’ve exhibited paintings and screen-prints, but never sketches; problem is, I never keep my sketches. Those that don’t find there way into the dustbin, I give away (like the one in this post). I would love to do some more serious sketching, and some larger scale pen and ink with light water-colour washes–just don’t get the time, sadly.

Aug 6th, 2007
LaurenMarie - Creative Curio

Oh, wow! Thanks John! I didn’t expect you to change that. I enjoy commenting on people’s blogs and I don’t do it for that kind of recognition (but I do appreciate it and it’s nice to see who joins in the conversation often).

Aug 6th, 2007
Horrorwood

Welcome back JDB.
Some great stuff here - I think we should also try our hand at the fonts from the environment thing.
However, I have a feeling the whole typograhy thing may be getting a little out of hand… Healthier than toys though perhaps…

Aug 7th, 2007
johno

JH
Thanks. Yes, the “Environmental Type” thing could be interesting, especially if one expands to Hiragana/Katakana.

Oh, and you shouldn’t have mentioned Typography and Toys in the same sentence…got me thinking about TypoToys…

Lauren
You’re welcome. It’s the least I could do for a loyal supporter.

Aug 7th, 2007