graphic design, art, typography and architecture

I'm always interested to see how type is dealt with in other scripts, whether that be Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Chinese, etc. So I'm pleased to learn that there is a contest open to all with Greek typography as its theme. Deadline is May 31. In order to capture current trends in the design of Greek alphabets, the 3rd International Conference on Typography and Visual Communication and backpacker.gr invite Greek and foreign type designers to participate in a typographic exhibition, where the "Greek alphabet" (εα) is the leading actor. The participants are asked to design Greek characters in order to set ... [more]

How would you go about teaching typography to children? Well, the graphic designer and author Rene Siegfried has published a beautiful solution, a typographic landscape: The Serif Fairy The Serif Fairy, ‘a clever little letter-fairy’, has lost her left ‘magical’ wing, disabling her ability to fly and to perform magic. She sets off in search of the lost wing, wandering through the Garamond Forest, the Zentenar Gate, the Futura City, and finally to Shelley Lake where, after falling into the water, she finds her lost wing and flies into the air, a revived magic fairy. Source: Grady Harp Every illustration in the ... [more]

This great little book (it only measures 6.1 x 4.7 inches), Helvetica: Homage to a Typeface arrived in the post a couple of days ago. It's divided into two sections: the first comprising examples of the typeface used in advertising by graphic designers, from newspapers, posters, stamps, magazines, books and perfume bottles to the logos of Muji, BMW, Evian, Intel, Toyota and scores more; the second, examples of it used and abused in everyday life - stencilled onto garbage trucks, used in no-swimming, no-smoking, no- (just about everything) signs. Helvetica's proliferation during the past 50 years attests to its ... [more]

The inimitable graphic designer (aka type-god) Jonathan Barnbrook will hold his Friendly Fire UK exhibition at the Design Museum (June 15 to October 10), and will be a great opportunity to see the development of his work, especially in experimental typography. If you've been in a coma for the last decade (the only plausible excuse for not having seen his work), then take a trip, via a click, to his studio's website. It wouldn't surprise me to hear than Barnbrook is married to a font (now there's a thought), such is his love affair with type - and it really ... [more]

Well, I can't say that I've given much thought to Iranian typography before - until today, that is. The Basel School of Design is hosting an exhibition of '50 Years of Iranian Typography' from today. Professor Renner says: We do not have to work hard to find links between the typographic arts of Iran and Switzerland. I'm not quite sure how Prof. Renner defines "hard work"; I think you'd have to do a lot of really hard work (e.g. labour in a Soviet Gulag) to find anything but the most tenuous of links between the typographies of Switzerland and Iran. He also says: We ... [more]

She's been with us for 50 years. We see her just about every day. We often use her, perhaps sometimes abuse her. Sometimes she's fat, sometimes she's condensed; she's understated, but still looking good for her age. Helvetica a documentary film by Gary Hustwit celebrates the birthday of this icon of type and, not only follows the proliferation of this font, but looks at typography in many mediums and contexts. The film is screening only at events in the US right now. It should reach Europe and the rest of the world later this year. In the meantime here's a ... [more]

Most will be aware of some unwritten rules about the number of fonts/typefaces one should use when designing. I seem to recall (and I may well have dreamt it), that one should not use more than three fonts on a single page. Now, perhaps that is too restrictive, but here's what happens when you attempt to use half the fonts in the known universe on a single page: It's easy to see how the page loses any fluidity; rather than modular sections that click together, we're faced with what the Cartoonist Daryl Cagle describes as a ransom note (Cagle's own web ... [more]

One of my favourite areas of design is typography - type for type's sake and the use of type within graphic design and illustration. Often times type can make or break a design; sometimes type is the design - I'm thinking David Carson here. I'm hoping to start a blog/web site devoted to typography, so I'm scouring the Internet and magazines for good resources. I'll also be recommending some good books on the topic. If you're newly interested in typography, a very good place to start is the Wikipedia entry for typography. There's also an excellent article from Mark Boulton, entitled ... [more]