Type: Movies, Mad Men, and Lemonade Stands

The "Mysterious Mr. Moto", in an American kind of Chinese.

Today's post is a set of shots I've been collecting over the past few weeks, so I decided to post them in one, big, fat, font post. Yay! 
The first example comes to you via the Movies! channel, courtesy of the classic movie Mysterious Mr. Moto (1938), with Peter Lorre. I'm a sucker for cheesy pseudo-Asian fonts, especially authentically retro ones like these, redolent of a white guy made up in poorly drawn Chinese eye makeup; it fools no one. A fine specimen of typecasting gone wrong, and cultural appropriation. Please to enjoy!

Uh oh. "Devil's Island". That sounds bad, in a good way.

The map is cartography perfection, though. Nothing wrong or off here. A gorgeous movie opener, overall.

Good advice!

The next type sample comes off the back of a coupon I clipped, now expired, and then flipped over to reveal this gem of a tagline from your friendly neighborhood advertiser. Sage advice, indeed.

Organic is just good all around, type included.

This fontography sample came to me from the fridge one fine morning, friendly and inviting, with the perfect cheerful "Good Morning, Sunshine!" message facing me from the back of a hastily placed half and half carton sitting on the top shelf. It really is a beautiful piece of typesetting, a complete type block set right, and it's interesting, too. That's how you do "inviting" and "pretty" with black display type: it's a gorgeous piece of work on it's own that also fits the artwork just so. The former (M)ad Man in me is pleased. I'm not alone in my cause for good, healthy products, and you can see that the designer cared enough to take the time to craft a package the consumer can enjoy and also feel proud of, through an organic purchase that can feel unjustly costly at times. Nice job!

Classic Americana: the homemade lemonade stand sign, now discarded on the sidewalk, like a kid's dreams about money and enterprise

Like a children's toy abandoned in a yard, this discarded lemonade sign I saw on the sidewalk one afternoon took me back to my own childhood in the country, boringly slow and stingy when it came to money and Scout badges. We never earned enough to justify the time we spent on our pursuit, because there's one car every hour or so on Hudson Valley back roads, which is a good lesson in of itself. It served me and my brother's well when we entered the supposedly hallowed and sacred halls of Big Business in the Big Apple, which is actually our second home, thanks to our very own "Mad Man", our Dad (shhh...don't tell anyone our big "secret"). We don't waste time, because time is a commodity you can't buy or get back once it's gone, like your health. Clever, right?

The infamous Saul Bass, in movies now and forever.

I grabbed my fine, photo-taking device when this famous Saul Bass opener flashed across the t.v. screen, again from the classic movie channel. It's simply one of the best graphics I've ever seen in my life, and you should see it very, very soon. Google Anatomy of a Murder, and be dazzled. It's a humbling piece of art because it really is perfect: on posters and packaging, as motion art, as a set of static images, and a shining example of the power a great graphic has: simple and unforgettable.

"Bye bye", translated into jazz hands and Oscar worthy graphics.

Many a graphic design student feels awe seeing it for the first time, which is why I'm so glad I was technically an Illustration major while at R.I.S.D.: "flawless" can be so very daunting to a youngster taking it all in, trying to learn and keep up at the same time you're desperate to figure it all out: how can I be an artist? What is my style? Will I ever be capable of doing something like that? Dare I hope and dream, even with hours of studio time and practice? What about all that money spent? IS it (and am I) worth it?! We didn't know what awaited us in the world or how it comes together for us as designers, thinkers, intellectuals, and dreamers, and that's a scarier prospect than any business meeting could ever be, on any given day of the week.

The oft-avoided bestseller (for obvious reasons), but the book is set well.

Finally, here's a nicely done chapter opener, something I don't often do as a book designer and art director, because covers are huge, colorful and expensive marketing pieces that take up most of my time, but I appreciate their quiet strength when I see them just the same. When I do find myself in a position that affords me the time to typeset a page that goes with my cover design, I relish it for the synchronicity I so often don't find in business, because of the conflicting production schedules we have in trade publishing. Sigh....oh, well.

Design is hope made visible.

 That's it for now. See ya next time. Y'all come back now, ya here? 

Type: Seasons Greetings and Holiday Reunions

I hope so! It was my Christmas gift to myself!

For Holiday Blues, Post-Holiday Blues, and Other Familial Horrors.

Cards from a recent trip to the city.

I'm writing about type again (so soon?!) because I built up a nice collection of examples over the holidays that I've been wanting to post: big, bold white type on a cheerful red package that was a gift I gave myself, a really nice book cover atop a table at the local library, and a couple of cards I picked up on a recent trip to the city to see an old college friend. Good times ;)

Type: Time/Travel

Titanic Sans Serif: big, clean, eye-catching, well-spaced for easy reading.

I saw the bulk of this monster special one night streaming video online, because the title caught my eye. I thought it was another gloriously bad SyFy monster movie of the week. Even better, we go back in time millions of years, when actual living monsters roamed the earth. It's got plenty of wacky humans though, if you desire that same level of human engagement typically present in the modern day scifi flick. Here's a tip: poorly dressed scientists hunting snakes in the wild. 'Nuff said. Check it out. It's gross and scary and awesome.
http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/sc/web/full-episodes/titles/16708/titanoboa-monster-snake

For the armchair traveler: "Come on in and take a look."

The next excellent type sample came through the mail, in the form of a travel catalog. It's a simple but extremely effective form of visual communication; a seemingly average piece of printed information that masks an underlying intellectualism that's quite keen and very sophisticated. It's warm, inviting, and friendly, asking a timeless question to its' audience: "If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would that be?" The expectation is thus: some practice winter flight, a panic brought on by the cold and the snow, indicative of someone who is at odds with themselves and their locale. Many will see the high price tags and be satisfied with a cheaper (and easier) form of travel that's available to the armchair traveler; a wishing and hoping that's a pleasant form of dreaming not needing actualization to have a lot of value to the viewer. Still others, would-be adventurers and wealthy donating alumni surely, want "in" immediately, for their future. What kind of trekker are you? Think on it, and dream.

 http://www.pinterest.com/mariedoucette/travel/

Type: Ye Olde Printers' Shop

Foundry type.

Years ago, printers set type by hand, using complicated blueprints from designers as a guide. It seems like something from the 18th century now, because that's how fast technology moved has forward, but when I first became an apprentice in publishing, I still did some mechanicals (the schemata for books that go the printer: http://astoundingartifacts.blogspot.com/2011/03/original-science-fiction-artwork-pt-4.html) by hand. We used "stat cameras" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stat_camera) that made "repro", terms from graphic arts from a time gone by the was only in the 90s. Some people are nostalgic for hand set type, but rest assured, it was a long, slow, tedious, repetitive process best suited for temperaments that didn't change quickly. I wouldn't design today if I had to do it.

Plates for printing.

We separated into cover designers and interior designers for books because the rapid progress sorted out brains into those who could absorb computers well and those would couldn't, and most of the time it became the difference between the flash of art on the cover that drew in buyers in 3-5 seconds (which is how fast we take in information visually), and those we preferred the pace of turning a page slowly one by one. Oh, I know crossovers who can do both (yes, I can), but for me, this type of nostalgia has become about those who can merge left and right brain tasks, with the stereotypical "artist" or "designer" who thought our work was really about one task, and one task only, in the dust. For masters, it never really was. Welcome to the new world, global thinkers. Stretch out and grow (and think), because this is our time to shine (once again). 

Read it and weep....for joy:

http://www.pinterest.com/mariedoucette/reading-writing-books/.

Art: MoMa, Oldenburg, and Other Works

Did you like Mickey Mouse as a kid? OK, I'll ruin that for you.

I was cleaning off my iPhone to make room for the new iOS update, when I found a bunch of old pics from a trip to MoMa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Modern_Art), back in the Spring. I'd gone to see the infamous painting "The Scream", by Edward Munch (http://mariedoucette.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-scream.html). It sucked. So did this big weird Mickey Mouse flag (totally creepy) and an installation piece by Claes Oldenburg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claes_Oldenburg. Useless, and so much time and money spent on it! I'm no snob, and I have a wide range of artistic tastes, but I'll admit I have a bias towards beauty. That's the nature girl in me.

For weird stuff, I'm usually looking for a sense of humor, but all I found in the big dumb Mickey Mouse head installation that I walked through were a bunch of sandwiches made out of clay and stuff, painstakingly recreated for God Knows What, when a real sandwich would have made me so much happier. Not big on the whole tongue-in-cheek hipster rich kid Pop Art scene. I don't get it. Why blow your time and money on this?!

Barbara Kruger and The American Identity. Who the @$ck are you?!

Other works were as powerful as the first time I discovered them, like designer/artist Barbara Kruger (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Kruger#Career_in_magazine_design), and her graphic works that take a searing bite out of American Commercialism. Now that's irony I understand because, you know, it actually says something meaningful.

Riffing off type. Cool! I dig it.

Years ago, I did a freelance stint for a museum, and it gave me a keen appreciation for exhibition graphics. The coolest shots I got were abstractions based on wall graphics for various shows. And that's why I design books, I guess.

Oldenburg exhibit wall graphics.

What jazzes you? 

Take and look and see: http://www.pinterest.com/mariedoucette/art/.

This week in TYPE

It was a rich week for me with type. 
I found great examples almost everywhere I went: the label on a cute stuffed animal, crafts displayed at the local library, the nameplate of a dentist at a professional office building, and 
a killer edition of ESPN magazine devoted to the sports of boxing, MMA, and wrestling. What's NOT fun about Lucha Libre?!

 

What kind of 
visual week did you have?

 
Yo, check it: http://www.pinterest.com/mariedoucette/type/.

Street Art: Beauty

You are beautiful.

Random art happens, and sometimes it's there just when you need it, like say, your local bus stop. Every day I fight the good fight to stay in an industry that could care less about whether I live or die, because a business isn't an actual person with a soul, a conscience, or however you define the human experience. Cruel? Perhaps, but I also come loaded with some very powerful weapons of my own: my history, my life stories, my background, my expertise, and a strong portfolio. 

Weapon of choice for the day's errand.

Still, every little bit helps when you're meeting for the umpteenth time a rich, white man with more privileges, advantages and money than you, smug in their role, trying to make you feel that they hold your fate in your hands. The Hunger Game can be a really powerful head trip, and like any other business, publishing comes fully loaded with a lot of huge egos, of people who let it go to their head. So when I see a little shining sign that reminds me who I am, of who I can still choose be (and so can you), it helps. Thanks.

I need all the help I can get, thank you.

Type: Everyday, People.

Exit, stage left.

Every day you see intelligent typography and sophisticated typesetting, from the lowly sign to the most rarefied art book in a museums' collection. If you can read text, you're looking at graphic design. Well done!

If you also enjoy type and typesetting, from the rare and divine, to the humble and working class, join me in my quest on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/mariedoucette/type/.

Design: Heading in the Right Direction

"This Way!"

Design can be made to seem like it's a rarefied thing that other (richer) people do, some where out there in T.V. Land, like decorating large pricey penthouse suites, or making fancy, elaborate wedding cakes for expensive affairs, instead of the much more mundane reality: we do street signs, too. 

"Stop Now!"

In fact, almost everything we have in our human world was (and is now) designed specifically for you to use, by every day (but not average) people just like me, to help you live better (and more). 

Sometimes it's just so humble and simple, we fail to see the signs that are placed right before our eyes. Take a good look around this weekend. What do see?

Around the Way: Hand Lettering

Jazzy poster at Barbés
http://www.barbesbrooklyn.com/