Andreas Scheiger

Andreas Scheiger is a designer based out of Vienna, Austria who's work focuses experimental typography, letter sculpturing, and vintage information rendering. He explores the craft of etching, engraving, and letter design through science and graphic design of the Victorian Era. His book, Evolution of Type, is an ongoing sculptural letter series side project, in which he explores letter communication by arranging basic elements. He is inspired by Frederic W Goudy one of the most famous type designers who wrote The Alphabet & Elements of Lettering in 1918. (Designed Goudy Old Style serif typeface.) From studying excerpts from Goudy and researching in his own work, Schieger believes letters are full of life and organisms and typefaces are species who share evolutionary characteristics and anatomical features with living objects. 

Scheiger depicts the immortal nature of the written word in his Exhibit 16/1-9 (which is part of his Evolution of Type) by turning typography into a metaphor for evolution. Just how fossilized specimens are covered in amber, Scheiger takes his own anthropological look by casting balsa wood letters he creates into polyester glass resin. Scheiger states, with digital print processing, letterpress letters indeed become something like ancient species.

In his created alphabet, he sculpts letters realistically to look as though they are made out of muscles and marrow. He sculpts using polymer clay, wood, and carved chicken bones.

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Creating Type With Shadows

The dutch designers of the company Underware, created a series of workshops around the world that experiment with typography.  One of their 2008 workshops, Darkmark, uses shadows to create type.  This allows them to create type anywhere using a variety of objects.  The workshop first creates a variety of sculptures , paying close attention to lighting,  and with these sculptures they use either natural or artificial lighting to create the shadows.   Darkmark wanted to express the relation between 3D and 2D,  the bond between object and image.  You can read more about Darkmark and see the progression from idea to final result on their site Typeworkshop

The Death of Handwriting

As a kid I remember trying to decipher the secret code of swoops and flourishes that my parents left each other on their notes. I was amazed that squiggles could could have a finite meaning. It wasn't until third grade that I was taught that those squiggly lines were words written in cursive. Ever since then I have been captivated by cursive handwriting and have been trying to reach the uniformity and grace that is seen in old hand written letters. To this day I still take notes in cursive, preferring its faster, flowing letters to the rigid, stagnant sans serifs of print.

Technology is on the rise and students and public schools are changing. Handwriting notes is considered out-dated, slow, and less useful compared to taking notes on a computer, and cursive is almost a lost art. Cursive's downfall started in the 1920's when teachers determined kids should be taught to read print because that is how books were printed, not in cursive. TIME Magazine has an article mourning the death of handwriting, the author says that people born after the 80's have writing that is a "little bit sloppy, a little bit childish and almost never in cursive" because keyboarding skills are taught. The full article is here. ABC News also has an article that poses the question, "Is it the end of cursive?". Studies have shown that handwriting activates more parts of the brain resulting in greater knowledge retention than typing, and cursive activates more parts than writing in print.

Writing in cursive is something that very few people still do. Penmanship that was so common in the 1800's is now rarely seen and its a shame. Every person has a unique way of writing and is every person perfected their penmanship like they did in the 1800's we would have a myriad of different and gorgeous cursive fonts.

Anamorphic Art - Type

Anamorphic art has always been a form of design that has fascinated me. One of my teachers introduced the 3D pavement street art to me freshman year, and ever since then it has blown my mind. I have used the concept of anamorphic art, which is a type of optical illusion that only works at certain angles or perspectives, a few times for projects but it has never been as successful as the following works.

Felice Varini was one of the originators of this form of architectural installations, but his work is more focused around abstract shapes that take up an entire room, or even an entire location. His work has influenced many along the way that have taken this idea of anamorphic art and now portray it in a typographical solution.

Joseph Egen, along with Hunter Thomson, recent graduates of Chelsea College of Art and Design in Britain used the above and following images for their senior project which really grab my attention. It is not your typical type set on a page. It pulls it off a 2D piece of paper and bring type to life in a fun way.

There are many examples of anamorphic art including the above image by Stephen Doyle for a New York Times article where he uses tape to portray the type imagery. This way of showing type will always capture my attention and it's a nice way to see type in an enlarged scale where you normally wouldn't expect type to be. Only from the correct viewpoint will one see the desired solution.

Lost Type Co-op

http://losttype.com

About:

The Lost Type Co-Op is a Pay-What-You-Want Type foundry, the first of its kind.

Founded by Riley Cran and Tyler Galpin, originally in a whirlwind 24 hour adventure to distribute a single typeface, Lost Type has blossomed into a full fledged foundry, distributing fonts from designers all over the world, with its unique model.

Users have the opportunity to pay whatever they like for a font, you can even type in '$0' for a free download.

100% of funds from these sales go directly to the designers of the fonts, respectively.

Lost Type takes no cut of sales, and holds no funds.

These are some really fun and interesting fonts for free (or pay if you're feeling generous).  While they aren't as plentiful such as on sites like dafont, they are much more professionally designed.

They have their own blog too to show off how their fonts are being put to good use. So you can check that out and follow it to get even more inspiration.

http://losttype.com/blog/

Oldschool Calligraphy

Today most people use fonts in their design, or draw their own. However, the classic art of calligraphy has pretty much died out. Typographers tend to opt for the mouse, pen, or pencil over the fountain-nib pens that provide a distinct calligraphic uniqueness. The website I found shows tips on how to recover the lost art of calligraphy and how to make really interesting type with the various available pen-nibs.
Guide to Hand Drawing Typography

For starters, selecting a pen-nib is crucial when doing calligraphy. Each pen nib creates a different effect and can come in a variety of sizes.


Knowing which way to hold the pen and what way to move the pen also is important. The image below shows a diagram of how to move your pen.


The images on the page also show all the different kinds of typefaces that you can create with a pen., including ornaments and detailing.

I really love drawing typography, and I wanted to get more into drawing type. Hopefully this will help all you guys try out and experiment with different techniques as well!

ESPO: Keeping the Love of Hand-done Typography Alive

Steve Powers (otherwise known as “ESPO: Exterior Surface Painting Outreach”), while not categorized as a typographer, works with typography in larger-than-life ways. He began creating art in the form of graffiti writing in the late 90s but became a studio artist in 2000. Since then he has created numerous works of sign art, murals, and other forms of public art. In his murals his typography is large, bold, and takes a life of its own. Many of his works seem to bridge gaps between typography, illustration, and public art,

A good read about Powers' transition from graffiti writer to mural artist can be found in this NY times article.

Powers has created murals and public art all around New York and he also has created a mural serise by the name of A Love Letter for You located right here in Philadelphia. The serise is meant to express the complexities and rewards of relationships. You can find more information about it and see photos of the murals on the official project website.
Take a ride down the tracks of the market street line around West Philadelphia and you will see many of these murals. 

These murals are meant to tell a story through typography and minimal image. If you take a closer look at some of them, you'll notice that some humorously relate to the businesses that they are painted on (such as the "I'll Shape Up" mural that was created on the side of a barber shop). Even without much image, they seem to convey a sense of love and comfort just through the typography.

There are many murals in Philadelphia that are much better-known, so these seem more like hidden jewels in our city. What do you think of this form of public art? How do you think they compare to the better well known and more historical murals found in Philadelphia? Do you believe that it's important to create public art or other forms of art that incorporate hand-done typography?


These murals are very impressive in person; I highly suggest you all take an afternoon to go out and see them.