Extraordinary Craft in an Unexpected Medium

First, some inspirational creative type blogs that got my research started. You can never have enough inspiration…

http://www.hypefortype.com/blog/2012/10/22/mem-type-system/

Inspirational Creators

Ben Johnston http://www.behance.net/benjohnston

Ben Johnston caught my eye simply because of his skateboard typography engravings. The skateboard has become a very strong part of our culture, maybe not you but me, and the canvas it creates is very interesting. I have seen everything from tattoos and illustrations on the bottom to typographic engravings to sculptures. It blows my mind tat people don’t take advantage of all of these strange mediums that live in our world everyday.

I find interesting mediums done in out-of-the-box ways to be the most compelling. This is what I searched for my blog post. Inspiration to further my knowledge of random shit to build from, whether its wood, vinyl engravings, computer generated images to look physical, or even paper crafted 3D typography.

http://www.designworklife.com/

The first piece by Lobulo got me thinking of physical type and how unbelievable it is to see a finished product that feels like it took years to create. So from here, I started searching for physical type inspiration. To me the importance of craft is what sets apart designers, especially when it comes to type because when thinking of type design, we usually don’t jump to a physical poster or pop-up. We think flat 2d poster design or catalog or script, at least I do.

So, after searching and searching I finally stumbled upon something amazing!

http://www.behance.net/lobulo

http://lobulodesign.com/

My favorite designer…

Christian Helms of Helms Workshop http://helmsworkshop.com/

http://vimeo.com/45074309

After watching this video, my creative juices began to flow! This design studios entire portfolio was the start of my entire restaurant identity. Craftsmanship is my pet peeve, I feel as if this is a necessity in the design life. Not just simple clean-cut lines and perfectly squared corners, but thinking outside of the box and creating something that will blow somebody’s mind. To me, if you create something that you don’t like and tat doesn’t go above and beyond your own expectations then it isn’t worth doing.

With that said, I found myself thoroughly impressed with this mans independent work…

http://jordan-metcalf.com/

Jordan Metcalf kind of gave me the extra comfort of knowing that if you do what you love, you can be successful wherever whenever however.