Industry

This book design is possibly my favorite design I could find. The design on the cover shows an example of industry in our world, while creating movement in the title by moving the "I" with the crane. The back of the book has a very neatly typed synopsis of the book with the title and author repeated. Hierarchy is found again in the title and author on both the back and front of the book cover by having a large bold sans serif text for the title and a smaller white sans serif text for the author. The only problem with the cover is that the large back text seems a lot heavier than the smaller white text. There isn't as much of a weight problem on the back because the black text isn't out numbered by the white text. The spine of the book is very simple. It is a white spine with the title and author in black font. This is a simple design for the spine, but it works very well on this cover. All in all this is a great design for a book and the techniques can be transferred to other genres and designs.

The Wave

The Wave by Julie Myerson has  a really simple and well done book cover. This cover has a very nice style throughout the entire piece. The texture style of both fonts and the wave lines all give a hand-drawn chalk-like design. This creates a simple and easy to understand design on the cover that grabs the interest of the audience, while keeping the title the main focus of the design. The title is given importance by using a larger bulkier font, while the author's name is in a thin sans serif font to create hierarchy. All of the waves create motion and connection to the back of the book and even the spine of the book. The back has a quick synopsis of the book, while the spine has nothing but connecting illustrations. I think this is a great design and it is a great example of how to create a great design, while keeping simplicity. This is a technique I want to use in the future with book cover designs.

The Psychopath Test

The Psychopath Test written by Jon Ronson has a very interesting book cover. First of all, the colors on the right side are very very noticeable from first sight. The split in this cover is a great idea. It shows both sides of the human mind; both normal, and psychotic. The rabbit also gives an element of calm design, while the cheetah makes things chaotic and creates motion. The font on the right is a little distracting, but for the design I think it works. The font rule is followed here by having three different fonts, but different font styles are used to create difference in appearance and hierarchy. I think the colors on the left make the book look like a school textbook, while the right side looks like an 80's comic book. The title and author also show that they are of higher importance to the reader by either being typed in a different font size or by using a different font style. Hierarchy is used well in this cover. I want to use this kind of hierarchy in my work.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

This book cover for the book "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" is made using a very simple illustration. The cover is a hand that has all of the typography in the handprint. Personally I like the color choice, but thats about it. The title is hard to read since it is rotated 90degrees clockwise and are on the fingers of the hand. After the title is the authors tagline, then in HUGE type is the author's name. At first glance the only thing I really read is the author's name. I think that maybe a better illustration for this could have been a silhouette of New York City; or the skyline made out of text. I think that this is a good idea, but it gives off a narcisitic vibe by making the authors name the size of half of the cover and by making it two times more noticeable than the title. I think that this could be reorganized without destroying the choice of illustration. Some may disagree with me, but I personally do not think that this illustration was a good choice.

Red Dog

I really like the cover of the book "Red Dog". It has a very simple color scheme and uses very formal font type. The title is sized well so that it almost aligns with the authors name. A thin line and a small illustration are located in between the title and author to provide division while still providing organization. The additional comment at the bottom of the book cover is in the same color as the background of the cover. A dog is running on the illustration and is the same color as the title and author text. The title, author, and tag are all in different sized fonts creating hierarchy by keeping the more important info larger. I think that the uses of these three colors repeatedly makes sure that the cover doesn't get too complicated or distracting. The text is  balanced well and the cover looks great while not overcomplicating the design elements.

P. Eggleston

P. Eggleston is a designer who creates illustrations and works on branding, promotions, and advertisements for Target. The illustration below shows an add for Target's pharmacy and its vaccination program. This illustration works well for a few different reasons. The first being that the bandaid is the only illustration within the piece and gives the audience something to associate the ad with. The second good thing about this ad is that the words are very balanced on both sides of the bandaid. Once you begin to look at the word "vaccination", you begin to realize that the add also splits the word and shows the "nation" in red. This matches the bandaid and creates a uniformed look, but also expresses that the program is available nation-wide. There is great hierarchy within the ad and it is very clean, clear, and concise while also displaying a well done minimalistic illustration.

Dave Foster

Dave Foster creates not just illustrations, but also the type that goes into it. He is an independent designer in Sydney, Australia. The picture above is of one Foster's typographical fonts. This is not just an impressive design or idea, but is very well carried out. This requires a lot of font manipulation, planning, sketching, and clicking of the mouse. In this map there are more than 380 tribes in their respective places. This is one of the most eye-catching pieces I've seen and provides the audience with plenty of content to appreciate. Foster has created his own set of type called FosterType which is a package of 8 styles of serif fonts in 4 different weights.

Jeff Rogers

Jeff Rogers creates some great typographical posters for different types of events. His Dylan Sneed poster uses different font sizes and color to create one uniformed block of text. This is a really clean looking design that balances well. The "Dylan Sneed" title is inside of an off-white square that aligns perfectly with the block of text at the bottom of the page. This works well to balance out the weight of both text areas while leaving room in the middle for the illustration.

Another poster by Rogers is for "The Best Night on Earth". He uses different sized fonts for typographical hierarchy within the title, while using different fonts for the address, times, and date. At first glance I thought that Rogers broke the font law by using more then 3 different fonts on the right side, but then realized that they were probably the band's logos.

Rogers' work is simple, yet well thought out. He uses balance and typographical hierarchy well and blends typography into real life pictures and art.

There Is

Immediately after seeing THIS IS' website my first thoughts were "I WANT TO WORK WITH THEM!". THIS IS is an East London based and lead by Art Director, Sean Freeman. THIS IS has been the recipient of numerous awards and provides illustrations for companies like NIke, Maxim, Sony, Penguin Books, and many more. Freeman has focused the studio on creating great looking illustrations that use typography to tell a complete story within a matter of seconds. The illustration places the audience in the world of the story or advertisement, while the typography is fused into the actual elements of the design to tell even more about the story. 

In this illustration for The NewYork Times Magazine, the scene of destruction is shown and understood immediately, but it is not truly felt or appreciated by the senses until it is seen written out in the burning ashes of that same destruction.

THIS IS is recognized on their website but 20 publications, 45 clients, have offered 6 exhibitions, and have won 13 awards. I really enjoy the work they do typographically and I think that THIS IS is a great design studio who truly looks to create a story by the visual effects of the word, not just their definitions.

New Life to Helvetica

Oded Ezer designed Helvetica Live. When a designer looks at helvetica they see the most simple sans sariff font out there. Taking advantage of this simplicity, Ezer has looked outside of the box and created a Frankenstein-esk version of the font. I love the use of font manipulation, while also maintaining the simplicity of this sans sariff font. With this manipulation the font has also become the illustration. This is an easy way to create an illustration and send a clear message to the audience.

Marcelo Schultz

Marcelo Schultz is a freelance Graphic Designer and Illustrator who creates different Typographical art for t-shirts, notepads, and poster. My favorite of his designs is the Lost Empire Illustration he created using Illustrator and Photoshop. This has a Great Gatsby feel to the design, while it brings in elements of the old Roman Empire. The "Lost" creates motion and takes up most of the empty space of the poster, while the "Empire" has a stronger feel and creates balance to the illustration. The only problems I can see with this illustration is that the circles and implied motion in can get a bit distracting and the type blends in with the actual illustration due to the color choice. Other than that I think this is a great example of typographical art. Marcelo Schultz's work can be found at his website (http://www.marceloschultz.com/20928/work). Schultz doesn't share much about himself as a designer other than the fact that he has customers from the US, Australia, Dubai, The Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, England, France, Brazil, Honduras, Argentina, and Germany.

Typography in Motion

Although typography is appreciated mostly within printed illustrations or articles, typography can be seen and expressed artistically in motion. After googling "typography" many images of type can be found at first glance; and while images is where you can find some of typography's greatest milestones, youtube has been collecting a museum of typographical motion. I searched on youtube for examples of typography about which I could write, and found the user, Kinetic Typography 101. The videos I found on this channel drew me in immediately. The videos contained on this channel used typography to explain different topics such as Procrastination, America's excessive use of Corn, and much more. After I saw the chains of connection that were used between different fonts, different style types, different colors, and even different motions and directions, I found that this motion is creating LIVE typography. Using typography in motion does constrict the designer to creating videos, but I believe that this concept of motion can be translated back into static, non-motion illustrations. Using the basic elements of art such as implied lines, angles, and shape can help create the idea of motion in printed illustrations. I found later that the user's true name is C.J. Yeh, a painter, author, web designer, teacher, and virtual artist. According to C.J.'s website, he currently teaches interactive media at the FIT and Pratt Institute in New York. C.J. has also published five books about design and art, and continues write about art and display art in local museums.