Handpainted

Another post that could fit under a few different categories, this time "Graffiti" and "Logo". This is an image taken from a LeSportsac bag, with a pattern designed by the French grafitti artist Fafi. The story behind this bag is sort of the opposite of the "Luxe" idea behind my blog. Rather than taking high art/design and making it available to the masses, the brand of designer bags LeSportsac took street art and made it palatable and available to those willing to spend over $75 for a fabric purse (or to find one on sale for less than half of that at Filene's Basement, like yours truly). I think her signature here sums up the relationship well, it's handwritten, a little scrawled and messy, but also has an element of being fancy, ornate, and pretty. The cursive letters also work well with Fafi's imagery, which tends to be a combination of frilly but tough girls, soft lazy monsters, and fairy tale plants and backdrops...all of which come to mind for me when looking at her loopy, delicate, messy, expressive writing.

Graffiti

This is a section of Australian street art from 2003 by the artist Dmote, from an anti-war piece. The artist started working in the streets, then was embraced by the underground art scene. This image comes from a calender purchased in the U.S., and the artist actually lives in California now, puts on exhibits, and even designs for corporations, but still is a part of underground graffiti culture. I like the pure abstract beauty of this piece. It totally changes the way I look at the letter forms of my own language, in a way that few things have, outside of studying Middle English (my ninth grade history class read a big chunk of Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales", and it took a while to adjust your eyes to seeing the shapes as English letters). I actually had better luck with Chaucer, as I've haven't been able to figure out what this piece says. It's like a subculture has been slowly developing this alternate language, starting with the puffy or angular graffiti letters in the 80s, and growing into these massive, amorphous, beautiful, secret words today. These letters have a sense of being 3-dimensional, overlapping with each other, sprawling out in all directions, growing arrows. I also think the colors are gorgeous.

Asian

This image comes from a reusable shopping bag made by the company Blue-Q. They have a great assortment of products, mostly makeup and toiletries, but all distinguished and covetable for their exquisitely detailed packaging. They seem to create a whole new, very twee world for each new brand/theme they come up with. This bag is no exception. It was part of a tongue-in-cheek, vintage Asian-inspired line, which includes Chinese characters in the design. I think the scale and colors do a good job of making the typography part of the design, giving a somewhat more authentic look to the images (some of which remind me of vintage Chinese propaganda posters in terms of color and image choices). Seeing the characters/alphabet from a language I don't read or speak makes it so much more obvious how much typography can be integrated into and contribute to a design, without the distraction of reading the words, and the words in English seem quite bland in comparison. Though I do wonder what the bag says when I carry it around.

Logo

This is the logo from a Pennsylvania beer called milk stout (yes, milk is somehow involved in the brewing process. I don't know how, I just know it's delicious). I love the type here, bold and strong, just a little rough and rugged, filling the space, no fancy serifs or loops, dark brown and cream colors that are a mirror of the stout and its head, when poured correctly. It actually reminds me a little of those fruit crates from my last post, and yes, this is also from a box scavanged for the move that I couldn't bear to throw away. Oh, and how can you not love the crazy cow head forming the center the "O"? It's not a ridiculously expensive beer, but I think they did a great job of getting across the feeling of being a "stout" microbrew, and a definite original.

Historical Reused in a Contemporary Setting

This is an image on a cardboard box scavenged from the grocery store for my last move, but I've kept it around because I just love the design. My mother had a friend who used to collect antique fruit crates and their labels. If you look on ebay or even do an image search on Google you can find some gorgeous examples, all of which are far more pricey than my free box. This one reminds me of 1940s Florida, the pretty orange blossoms to the right, the swanky concept and typography of "Pure Gold", and the big slice of orange. Actually, the big slice brings a bit of pop art into the mix, which makes sense since Warhol was openly inspired by commercialism and logos. The designer Todd Oldham has a collection of HUGE prints of ice cream which apparently were once used to advertise at soda counters and are now worth loads of money....supposedly having influenced Warhol and Wayne Thiebaud. Ah, I could do an entire blog on food in art and advertising.

Historical

This post could also have fallen under the "Industrial" and "Logo" categories of our assignment, but I thought "Historical" was the best fit. This is the logo and description on an old vacuum. It's not quite quite as old as my grandparents' Hoover "Constellation" model, which was actually round and shaped like something between a satellite and a ringed planet, bringing the ideals of the space age right into your living room. I've also seen an older Electrolux logo from the late 50s that used a kicky loose script which emphasized the "Lux" part of the brand's image. I think this image has more to do with the "electro" portion, it just seems clean and "modern" (for the time), especially with the added utilitarian, sans serif "POWER NOZZLE" beneath the logo.

Typography links

A few typography-related sites and blogs that change the way I think about design on a regular basis.
1. http://new.typographica.org/ -which I just enjoy in general
2. http://www.typophile.com/- a forum to eavesdrop on current thoughts and arguments
3. http://www.3point7designs.com/blog/2008/11/25-sites-that-use-typography-as-the-only-design-element/ - I haven't explored this site in depth, but the list of twenty-five sites is nifty
4. http://www.blogcatalog.com/blog/i-love-typography - the title speaks for itself. Generally has good ideas and resources, and is entertaining to boot.