iQ font – When driving becomes writing.
When two type designers, an interactive artist, and a professional race car driver got together… a font was born.
The creativity behind the creation of this typeface is really inspiring. It’s rare to get a glimpse at what goes into designing a typeface and I really enjoyed the documentary.
I love the classic style of these humorous and playful vertically designed posters by Omar Tehawkho outlining the keys to being a man. His works include Skills A Man Should Possess, 5 Step Plan For Making Your First Billion, 3+2 Things A Man Oughta Do in His Lifetime, Top 5 Male Occupations, and The 5 Key Steps of a Proper Shave.
Source: siljagoetz.com
Nothing reminds me more of the Caribbean or of South America than this ad for Havaianas sandals. The photo contains in my opinion the perfect colour combination for creating a kitchen that makes you smile every morning at breakfast. Of course it might not make you smile if you are not a morning person.
“By reflecting Brazil’s easygoing personality, its soul and culture, we’re building a unique identity. Transforming a simple rubber sandal into the first truly Brazilian global brand.” ~ AlmapBBDO
HP – invent from Tom and Matt on Vimeo.
An innovative short film shot by two Kingston University graduates in response to a callout from HP to “Present an idea which promotes HP workstations ability to bring to life anything the creative mind can conceive.” Not only is it a great advertising piece for HP but also a solid piece of portfolio work for the graduates. A win/win for both the individuals and the corporation.
Have you ever had the problem where you go to save a file for the web in photoshop and the preview doesn’t look the same as the original window? Well here are 5 simple steps to fixing the “Save for web & devices” issue:
Further learning:
Inspired by the thought behind the video “Art” I posted earlier today, I decided to take a little time with a good friend and work together on a abstract art piece. It reminded me that it is often easy as web designers to get lost in our digital medium and forget the ties that bind us to real things. Things where we have to be prepared to get our hands dirty, covered in paint, mixing mediums, playing with type, using charcoal. The result: a plethora of visual creativity, laughter, collaboration and something Photoshop can only dream of emulating.
As I have been working more on deepening my knowledge in the field of typography this year I’ve been steadily studying a broad swath of common typefaces. This week I chose to focus specifically on “Arial” which is almost ubiquitous on the web today. My aim in studying this typeface was to understand its origins and history so that I can better recognize when it is acceptable to use this typeface and when it is not. Surprisingly, Arial appears to be a complete knock-off of Helvetica (which, unless you are a type nerd you might not know) and has stolen both its proportion and weight. Arial has become a success on the web and also in print mostly as a result of Microsoft adopting the typeface early in development of Windows 3.1 as a method to reduce costs and not pay licensing fees to the creators of Helvetica.
When Microsoft made TrueType the standard font format for Windows 3.1, they opted to go with Arial rather than Helvetica, probably because it was cheaper and they knew most people wouldn’t know (or even care about) the difference. Apple also standardized on TrueType at the same time, but went with Helvetica, not Arial, and paid Linotype’s license fee. Of course, Windows 3.1 was a big hit. Thus, Arial is now everywhere, a side effect of Windows’ success, born out of the desire to avoid paying license fees.
Source: The Scourge of Arial
After reading the source cited above, I discovered in particular that despite its pervasiveness, a professional designer would rarely use Arial. Apparently to professionals, Arial is looked down on as a not-very-faithful imitation of a typeface that is no longer fashionable. One might even go so far as to say that Arial has never been fashionable with the elitist typography fashionistas who were familiar with its origins.
Additionally, I also found an excellent article on recognizing the visual distinctions between Helvetica and Arial.
No longer using Arial for body text (check).
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