Spelling Change just emailed me about their new project involving Obama-inspired letters, Obama supporters wearing letter T-shrits, and the fun way you can put them together. (The about page explains it best, actually.)
The site allows you to write Obama-related phrases (or anything you choose) using their fun politically-inspired alphabet (or make your own letters!), then you can embedd it on your webpage or purchase a T-shirt, sticker, poster, or postcard with the word you’ve created.
Fun!
Click on the images above or the links below to see some of my favorite blog-finds this week! Remember to right click to open in a new window! Have a wonderful weekend!
The Seven Rules of Astronomy from Iamstillalive.net
(handset wood type letterpress poster, 13×20, $30)
“Two Semesters of intensive astronomy distilled into seven handy rules” (IAmStillAlive.net).
I took an astronomy class and absolutly loved it. Had I been an astronomy major, I hope that someone would have bought me this print, written “happy graduation” on the back, and then put it in a nice frame with white matting. Actually, I kind of want it even though I didn’t major in astronomy.
I’ll end the week with a minimalist lunar calendar from KabaProducts. While I have no reason whatsoever to track the phases of the moon, I love how this calendar communicates moon phases: via line weight — the thicker the number, the fuller the moon. Clever, clever, clever! (And only $5.)
Have a great weekend, and, if I can keep myself away from the computer, I’ll see you on Monday!
xo
Maria
Chocolate (my favorite, btw)! In beta (what?!)! With cute packaging (yeah, I’m a sucker for that, too)!
I can’t wait to get my tongue all over this piece of crafty genius I saw at trendwatching.com. While Tollhouse or Hershey’s pride themselves on using really old recipes that have been around the block, Tcho has chosen a different route wfor creating their specialty chocolates (read: not the same as the stuff you by for 85 cents at Rite Aid).
Tcho crafts and re-crafts their chocolate with all the feedback they get along the way. They’ve been releasing “beta” versions of their chocolate bars (available for purchase online only) and eventually they’ll release the chocolate in version 1.0.
“From our first batch, we’ve improved every aspect of “Chocolatey” again and again, including the progression of taste over time (attack, sustain, and decay), the sweetness, and the mouthfeel” (Tcho).
They’re in version .99 right now, so the chocolate has got to be pretty awesome, plus you can send Tacho your feedback right away to help create version 1.0.
The chocolate is a little price-y ($10 for a two pack), but you’ve to remember this is specialty chocolate, and from all the reviews I’ve read online, it’s delicious.
Bonus: look at that pretty packaging! The earthy brown suggests natural flavors and the simple typography with a single splash of color indicates an elevated design-sense above and beyond that lowly pop chocolate I’ve been buying at the supermarket.
Oh-la-la! Hungry now?
Threadless T-Shirts - Spoilt Print by Oliver Moss
I have always loved this T-shirt print from threadless, which spoils the ending of about every movie and book with a surprise finish.
I’m super-excited because today Threadless made the T-shirt availible as a large poster/print! This is a pretty amazing graphic, and a great example of typographic success. The artist uses each film’s special font, yet all of the different fonts come together to form a cohesive whole.
Out of all of the things I post and covet, I might actually purcahse this one!
So, a summer-fun post to end the week. As usual, I’m going to attempt a blogging break over the weekend. So, until Monday, enjoy the heat (especially you East Coasters like me)! Also, a reminder to subscribe to the Stickers & Donuts feed if you want (it’ll be fun, I promise)!
We (royal? blogosphere?) were all very excited when Veer created its Very Secret Order of Creative Understanding which included secret booklets, secret widgets, and secret handshake wallpapers. Those of us who got pretty booklets in the mail were extra-excited.
This summer Veer has a new treat for creatives: the annual Veer Summer Fun Activity Book (with extra online goodies!). Though the book can be downloaded in pdf, it would definitely be more fun to get your hands on a hard copy.
And, if you can’t get a hard copy, there are enough free web-goodies, no printing required, to go around. These include wallpapers (very cute!), games, and the ability to create a doodled world full of doodled creatures (this is actually very cool). Look above to see the world I’m working on.
One of the funniest parts about the Veer’s summer fun extravaganza is the printable Kernie monster and the accompanying contest encouraging you to take pictures of the Kernie doing all kinds of human things — or just standing next to badly kerned signs. How adorably dorky!
A colorful page from Nylon magazine, with added commentary from a co-worker (given to me because I wear a lot of bright colors, and would probably “wear all of this at once.”)
The front page of a 2001 Rolling Stone article about author and Merry Prankster Ken Kesey. I love the frame, typography, and brackets (and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is one of my favorite books).
Mini-postcard from Danish artist Bo Bendixen. (My mom was born in Denmark, so I have a special place in my heart for the bold primary colors and simple lines of Scandinavian design.)
Large bumper-sized sticker from a Harry Potter sticker book (”beware of the DARK ARTS”).
Another graduation card, this one from KOCO New York. I especially love the quote: “There are only four colors, ten digits and seven notes; it’s what you do with them that’s important” (Ruth Ross).
A quote I wrote down while reading Oscar Wilde’s A Portrait of Dorian Gray: “It’s the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution” (Oscar Widle).
A little comic I drew in indesign about cubical and shared-office life.
The 2008 Shoe Mini-Calendar from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2009 calendar shown above).
In the end, the walls of your office might define you more than the walls of your home. After all, these are random bits collected, taken down, put up again, transported from job to job or office to office. These little pieces mark who you are when you aren’t carefully matching frames with prints with the walls of your home. They just might be a sneaky way to understand the things that move you, and somehow help you get through each day.
Technorati Tags: time out new york, letterpress, typography, cubicle, decorate, postcards, graphics, calendar, card, graduation, Bo Bendixen, harry potter, sticker
Today I offer you a tour of the walls of my office cubicle. A cubicle is always an interesting amalgamation of quotes, articles, and postcards — usually little reminders of what life really means, of things you might enjoy if you weren’t at work, or your own personal version of motivational posters or cynicism.
A beautiful letterpress graduation card from Hello Lucky. (Love the typography!)
A Frida Kahlo card featuring the image above, from the Frida Kahlo ArtBox.
An Edward Gorey postcard (”Donald imagined things.”)
A 2008 Frida Kahlo wall calendar.
A postcard featuring the 2006 National Poetry Month poster design. Love the poetry & graphic design combo!
The “you’re-loved self-esteemizer” availible for download as high quality pdf from Time Out New York. (Another example of great design, and very funny!)
So, I just got the newest issue of PRINT magazine in my mailbox (which is totally dedicated to typography, yay), and on page 14 I found TypeIsArt.com. (You know, so if I’m tired of Bembo’s Zoo, making fonts free online, and creating word clouds, then I have something else to do.) Type is Art states that:
“All letterforms are composed of 21 distinct parts. Most commonly these parts combine to form the characters of our alphabet. Type is Art allows for the experimentation of forms beyond this typical character set.”
You can see these “distinct parts” on the above poster from the Type is Art web-page.
Anyway, the best part of Type is Art is that you can create your own art online, for free! You can twist and turn letters and make them bigger and smaller. Most importantly, you can waste hours of what should be “work time.” And, really, that’s what the internet is for, isn’t it?
Click more to see my own Type is Art creation!
Since I’m having a typographically-oriented day, I’ll just add that the August edition of PRINT Magazine is dedicated to type and form.
I especially like this article, availible online, called “Good Type Gone Bad” about typography meant for one thing being used (unsuccessfully) for something totally different.
I cannot stop playing on Wordle, a site that lets you use delicious tags or text to create an artsy word cloud like one above made with my delicious tags (in fact, you can put in anyone’s delicious user name to create a word cloud). The more times a word appears, the bigger it is (look how big the word “design” is!). You can change the font, colors, orientation of text, etc.
The site is free, and you don’t even need to sign up!
Technorati Tags: wordle, words, text, typography, graphics, fonts, delicious, tag cloud, design, beautiful, fun, art
Roar! Check out Bembo’s Zoo for an ABC’s worth of animals made out of the letters that spell their name! I guess I’m on a typography kick today.
(A lion above and a turtle after the jump, but visit the web-site for the full effect of the letters moving around to create the animal!) (more…)
Check out this article from the New York Times about designing your own font online! The best part? The service, run by font giant FontShop, is FREE (to create and use as an actual font on your Mac or PC) and you can look at tons of cool, new creations in the gallery. As soon as I use it, I’ll be sure to post a comprehensive review!
Not ready to make your own font? Download free fonts at one of my favorite font web-pages, or brush up (ie learns lots of things you never knew) on your typography skills with these fun, detail-oriented lessons on quite a pretty little web-site. If you are a typography nut like me, you can also check out all of the Stickers & Donuts posts related to typography.
Technorati Tags: new york times, article, font, online, web-page, web-site, creative, free, typography
David Fincher’s (director of Fight Club, Seven, etc) newest film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is coming out this Christmas, and I’m already getting excited. The film is based on a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald that’s now in the public domain. Which means you can legally read ugly versions of it on your very own computer.
Lucky for us, Jonathan McNicol at Never Mind That, Never Mind That Now is making a pretty, typeset pdf for all of us lovers of good literature and good typography! So far, he’s got the first two chapters out. Thanks Kitsune Noir for alerting me to this!
