More Art with Words

This week I have to show off something a friend of mine made.  I was working on a project for ART 223 with the aid of a friend when he brought out his sketchbook to show me some of his drawings.  He had some hand-drawn text that I thought was very nice and I wanted to use it as my example this week.  He gave me permission.

"Faith" drawn by Roger Hills

This example is actually a crop of a larger part that was a name for a possible tatoo design.  After running it through WhatTheFont, I could find NOTHING that even remotely came close to this design.  I really like this particular image because it's very old-fashioned while still being very creative and artistically beautiful.  

"Jennie with the e cropped out" Drawn by Roger Hills

I tried running this one through What The Font and it didn't even register the characters correctly.  So I'm not sure if there is a similar font out there somewhere.  I'll have to do a bit more research.  However, this one reminds me a lot of stained glass and I really like it a lot.

Both of these examples could really only be used for artistic/display purposes as the readability on them is somewhat difficult.

Many thanks to Roger for allowing me to use his work this week.

Research for Project 3

Let's go find some crystals....or something..

Hello fellow typography fans, it's another Thursday which means another wonderful look into words in the world around us.

I hope you'll permit me to fly my geek flag this week as I examine the type of Final Fantasy titles.

This image is the title screen of my favorite game of the series Final Fantasy VIII which was the second of the series to be available on the orginal Sony Playstation.  It was one of the first of the series to also include Full Motion Videos (FMVs) for scenes in the story that were computer animated.  They are not the most advanced now, but they were at the time the game was released.

Thanks to WhatTheFont.com, I was able to identify the typeface as Runic MT Condensed.  While my adventures in font identification have had me skeptical thus far, I do believe it's an exact match.  (If not it is VERY close.)

The title screen is mainly informative. It tells anyone watching the screen at the time the title of the game (In case you forgot or something).  It's meant to be pretty, but still very readable.

As far as I can tell, the title screen of every major title in the series uses this typeface.

Meijer, a midwestern original and typography example

Disclaimer: This is a make-up post for the week of March 4th. 

A bit of background: I grew up in a small town called Belding in Michigan.  The next town over (about 10 minutes away by car), is Greenville Michigan.  This is where the Meijer Superstore was born.  In Michigan there are Meijer stores all over the place.  The town I lived in was between the birthplace of the store, and another town Ionia to the south which also had a Meijer store.  Imagine my happiness when I moved to Champaign-Urbana and found that I can still shop in such a familiar store.  It's the only place I can find a few specific items that are mainly sold in my home state (Faygo soda! Granted I can only get 1 flavor in diet in a 20 oz bottle in the store's gas station...but it's more than I can get anywhere else in this state!!).  Yes, I love Meijer.  I'm weird.  I'm aware of this.

Some time in the early 2000's, Meijer underwent somewhat of a typographical makeover.  For most of my lifetime growing up in the Great Lakes State, the Meijer logo looked like this:

Their color scheme was mostly just red.  Now with the newer logo (shown above), their color scheme is a mixture of red and blue. 

About the type:
According to Whatthefont.com, the older logo is closest to Dragon TS-Bold however, the dots on the i and j are the wrong shape and the serifs on the Es are wrong.  The newer logo appears to be Linotype-tetria-black. 

How it's used:
It's the graphic identity for the store.

Where it can be seen:
In Champaign or Urbana on the store and within the store.  Also on any printed materials put out by the store.
Fun Fact: My father used to work for a company that had a contract with Meijer and used to do the land surveys for land where new stores were going to be built in the Midwest. 

Word Art - (Not the Microsoft version)

In a slight departure of the usual anaylisys of type I find when I'm out and about, I bring you something a friend shared with me on facebook today.

This is a picture called "Cat and Mouse" by Margaret Shepherd.  I found the image on Neatorama which was linked by my friend.  This image uses calligraphy to form the words cat and mouse into their respective animal forms.  It's a very neat image and I thought it should be shared.

The fonts on the bus go round and round?

It's CUMTD week here in the Typography garden! I spent most of last weekend wandering around Champaign-Urbana taking pictures of text for a project in ART 223. After taking some pictures of the text on CUMTD signs and the buses, I decided to use these pictures to study the type that the CUMTD uses. I have a few different examples.

This particular type I couldn't identify with either identifont or what the font. The closest I could get was Etelka Wide Text Pro Bold Italic, but the lowercase m and a are all wrong. This is the type that's used on most all the current buses for identifying it as the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District.

Though, my husband brought it to my attention that this was not always the type for this. On the older buses, if you happen to spot one, there is a strange script font. My husband spied on earlier this week and managed to snap a picture with his iphone, so the quality isn't that great.

I tried to use What the Font on this one, but I came up goose-egg.

This type is used on most of the schedule signage and on the schedule books. According to What The Font, It appears to be Meta Book LF-Roman.

I'm not sure if this is the same as the type on the buses. I compare the images in Photoshop and it seems that they could be the same. Imagine my surprise when I ran this particular picture through What The Font and I managed to get a match! Handel Gothic Regular.

About the Usage:
It's used to provide route information and to identify the transit system's vehicles.

Where I saw it:
Well you can see CUMTD buses all over the area, but these pictures were taken mostly at the Lincoln Square Courthouse stop.

My favorite band

The Font:
According to What The Font, The font is closest to this one is Jean Splice Lorite.It's close in that it has a lot of the same letter shapes and strokes (as can be seen in the V) but it's not the same.  I find myself wondering if it were somehow specially designed for the band.

About the usage:
It's a fancy display type used for the band and album name.  Given that Evanescence is a sort of Goth Metal-ish band it is an appropriate type.  I think it's pretty, but it's not good for a lot of text.  From the album art that I have, it's been used on pretty much all of their studio albums.

Where I saw it:
I own 3 of their studio albums, (Fallen, Anywhere But Home (the one pictured) and The Open Door.) I was running out of ideas and cleaning up the office when I decided to go with this.  Maybe I'll do more musical artist typeface research, it's something that seems interesting to me.

Week 4 - Paul Rand

In the process of looking up images for a project in my ART 223 class, I came across a graphic designer named Paul Rand.  I found a few images that I thought were intreguing, but this one is one that stood out to me. 

The different letter designs and colors seem to emulate a sense of playfulness.  I believe that this is used as an advertisement for an IBM event of some kind.  I found this image in the ArtStor database. 

Week 2 - Typography in the word - On the road

The Font:
According to What The Font, The font is closest to Interstate Bold. The actual font is not one you can purchase, as it was commissioned specifically for Interstate signs and I couldn't find more information than that.

About the usage:
Obviously, this is used to communicate information about location, direction, and the road itself. White lettering on green backgrounds. Most signs now are also made of reflective material, so that they are easier seen at night. I've always wondered about fonts that you see every day, but you never really think about.

Where I saw it:
This particular example kind of speaks for itself doesn't it? Okay, maybe not. I was on westbound I-74. Obviously I was not driving. :P

Berkley Oldstyle Copywriting - For Project 1

ITC Berkley Oldstyle is based off of a design created originally for the University of California Press at Berkley back in 1937. The font continues to be an important part of the University’s graphic identity. The original face was created by type designer Frederic W. Goudy. Goudy is the creator of many other fonts including: Copperplate Gothic, Goudy Old Style and all the other typefaces that bear his name. He has worked as a type designer, author, and teacher of calligraphy.

The ITC version was created by Tony Stan in 1983. Stan is a more contemporary designer who took on the project from the ITC eagerly. While Stan’s version is not an exact copy, it retains much of the original style and so was credited in name as Berkley Oldstyle.

References:
http://identity.berkeley.edu/guidelines/typography/
http://www.itcfonts.com/Fonts/Classics/Berkeley.htm
http://www.linotype.com/396/fredericwgoudy.html
http://www.linotype.com/555/tonystan.html

Week 1 - Student Activites Poster

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the student activities group that created this poster. I respect their group and their members. I'm just using these images as an example of typography that could be improved upon and to give an honest critique.



The Font:
The font of the logo is ShowcardGothic. The it appears to be a modern, sort of funky font. It's being used to advertise for the particular student group and I assume it's used to grab the eye of someone walking by. As far as it's use, it seems to be fine, but I don't like the use of black on such a dark green color. The color of the background should be lighter, or the color of the text should be brighter.



My sticking point with this poster is that in this image, you can see a close-up of some important points. Reasons why students should join the group. I understand they were using for emphasis, but really a blocky, bold, funky font like this should be restricted to logos and large headings. A cleaner sans-serif font with possibly brighter colored text or a brighter colored background should go here instead.

I saw this in the C-wing of Parkland, I've passed by it many times, and it always kind of confused me. I couldn't read much of the text well, so I had to get very close to it in order to read it properly

With a few modifications, I think the poster could be much improved.

Start post

Every good blog has to have one right?

Yeah, this blog is for my GDS 110 class at Parkland College. I'm supposed to post examples of typography and discuss them for the class. We're to start next week.

So, just hang out until then okay? Thanks for stopping by!

Jennilee Benda

ETA: Today is my birthday.