My Top Ten Fonts

My top ten favorite fonts 

i will review each of my ten favourites.

why i like the font [&&.]

the usability of the font.

one. Callie Hand by Callie Renee Kaiser

callie hand has a nice soft free flow style that i like, 

the characters being curved make it have a feminine  feel.

I think this font would be suitable with other fonts that are simple 

like times or tieing in with similar fonts alike this. 

its mainly suitable for decor and maybe sub headers but for lines of 

text this may be too much for the eye or not all to clear.

Two. USIS 1949 by Lukas Krakora

I like how this font has actually been based on real type when
 they used typewriters on American documents in the 1940's, 
this gives a true authentic typewriter feel, this suits its suitability
as when used it automatic gives this feel and would work well textures,
like ageing paper etc.

Three. Capture it by Magique Fonts

This font won the Best Overall Font 2008 award.(by Fontologist's Society)

I like this font how bold and outstanding it is that it automatically grabs your attention 
and cant be mistaken when read at a distance.
This type of font would work great for making a statement or a sign
(depending on the what the sign is for etc.)
It would be perfect for a stamp or branding.

four. Century Gothic Regular Font by Sol Hess

source: http://www.ascenderfonts.com/font/century-gothic-regular.aspx

i like how this font has been developed for print in the 1950's and how 
it still looks modern today with the round sans serif characters,
proving true outstanding typography design it can be used on all 
aspects of print being clear and legible when applied to 
just about anything.

five. Fangtasia by SpideRaY

I like this font, its taken from the logo of the bar from the tv programme
 'true blood' it has a quirky bold sans serif, that has a hand written look that stands out 
and is quite unique font.
The usability of this font would suit for display and headline.

six. Special Type by Gisela Caruso

i like how this font has the characters as serif font which makes the ornate to 
the design of the characters work with the swirls that make this elegant,
modern and quite in the current trend.
The usage of this font would only suit as brand name,
sign or display being more of a display font being so detailed/intricate,
it would have to be used at a certain point size to appreciate the font
as it would not be liable as a everyday used font to write in.

seven. Black Jack by Typadelic

what i like about this font is that it has a real happy,springy, 
rounded handwritten feel to it characters that makes this font diffrent and unique. 
This gives off a feminine outlook because of the shape of the characters and its style.
it would be usable in terms of a display font and would work in to many categories
 for what it could be used with when choosing this font to design with but will only be 
suitable to used as far as being a decor font.

eight. Sweet Confusion by Vinz

i like this font because its quite modern and seeminly this style is trending alot as i see it 
used all the time, simple font but the corner shapes to the font gives it character.
i think the usability would suit signs,logos, highlight of a text in a magazine.

nine.RetroVille NC by Jayvee D. Enaguas

i like how retro and raw this font is, it really feel like its taken out of the 1980's.
i think this could be used on retro designs like posters, gaming covers. 
This could be used for either decor/display or short text paragraph. 

ten. Edo SZ by Vic Fieger 

i like how this font has a quirky paint brush feel, 
how rough and raw it looks that it gives a grungy feel.
Its relatively similar to the font used for louis vitton's monogram 'graffiti' design.
I think it would work against a very simple white background grungy poster or 
for a brand something where only a little amount of this font will be required as 
it is more of a display/decor type.

fonts sourced from dafont.com

'50 Totally Free Lessons in Graphic Design Theory'

"While many of us can create something that looks good in Photoshop or attractive when spliced into CSS, but do we actually understand the design theory behind what we create? Theory is the missing link for many un-trained but otherwise talented designers. Here are 50 excellent graphic design theory lessons to help you understand the ‘Whys’, not just the ‘Hows’."

this tells you everything you need to know and worth a read, from typography,grids and colour and alot more info.

This is very useful site that can help me have a better understanding of graphic design theory that i may not have grasped and hopeful can help improve in my designs from this as a result.

source:http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/web/50-totally-free-lessons-in-graphic-design-theory/

AD10 technique and processes-illustration

The penguin design awards where students design for puffin book cover for adult book or childs book, this yearschoices of 2 books to design for:james and the giant peach or 100 years of solitude.

i had my mind open to both of them but found 'the hundred years of solitude' hard to work with only knowing a little abit it and not of had read the book. so i did james and the giant peach since i knew the plot and had more knowledge on this book.

the brief for james and the giant peach:

(http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/uk/0/minisites/penguindesignaward/puffin_brief.php)

"students are invited to design a whole new cover look for this iconic title, reinventing it for a new generation of readers, encouraging children (and adults) to revisit it and ensuring that it remains an integral part of childhood for the next fifty years.

Your cover design needs to include all the cover copy as supplied and be designed to the specified design template 

(B format, 198mm high x 129mm wide, spine 12mm wide)."

i wanted to keep the book recognisable as james and the giant peach, being an iconic book, i wanted  to use iconic scene that would do that and use some similarities to the current cover design like the blue background and the spine setting of the text with the way the 2 fonts are used together.

i had a certain style in mind from the image styles i put with my initial ideas ideas so i knew what kind of style i was going for but i wanted to experiment with different mediums for the best outcome.

My idea for my design uses the scene where the peach grows giant after the magic crocodile tongues incident and james climbs in to the peach and i used the title of the book incorporated in to the illustration by having each letter of the title appear like peaches growing off the tree and the word 'peach' was not fitting on so taking part of my idea from my initial ideas i made the word 'peach' appear like it is carved in to the peach.

 i found my illustration worked best in a fine liner but it needed colour, it was the least appealing to my target audience without the colour so scanned my image in and found that using the brush tool with the option of different brushes,hardness being soft like a feather or solid hard for the brush, to colour in the image worked very affectively and that the soft like feather of the brush was really good for blending tones together, which can be seen on the peach. so i decided this would be a perfect way to use colour and did the whole image in this way.

This style gives a child friendly,bright and vibrant with colour that will appeal to children being a double spread of the one image gives a different look that can stand out more than the usual design to each front and back cover designs that has been previously been used.

It took a few goes to get the problem solved of the colour and font used on the text trying to fit it to tie in with the illustration, which you can see tried in my development numerous fonts but they where not working it for the design. 

I finally found that an arial and motoroil (a font of which i downloaded from dafont.com) worked really well together being a sans serif font , rounded font and easy to read but outstanding at a distance with being a bold font and the ariel being a relatively similar font but just not as bold.

The colours  i tried where orange, to carry on from the peach but it was not standing out much, so tried a stroke on this but appeared too much, and not working in to the design well, so after a few colour trials i found the white and black worked best for the majority for the peach just down to the front cover with text placed on the peach was having the same problem aswell, so to follow the carving of the the word 'peach' in to the peach for 'roald dahl' carrying on the same style and for rest of the text of the front, i made this white, this follows the text colour scheme from the spine and the back cover.

I also had the text which is placed on the peach, shaped around the peach, to keep consistency.

The text on the spine was done in the same way as the current cover on the book with the two fonts worked in together, where the 'and the' is a different font.

if i was to do this again the only thing i would change is to move the design over a few inches, so that more of the tree fits in on the front cover.

Overall i think this project went well i was able to pull everything together despite some problem solving of the text which was nothing really, the outcome has turned out quite well and peers have commented on it saying how they liked my design and thought it was good. The only negative feedback i had got was that the front cover with the tree could be moved over half an inch which i agree i think that doing this will be slightly beneficial as it will show a bit more of the tree, which is one of the main features in the imagery however it still works affectively. 

I handed my project on time and i even managed to finished the project a day before the hand in date.

Final james and the giant peach book cover design

SWOT Analysis

•   Strengths - What did I do well?: i made a final that result in being child like but also appealing to other audiences older than children.
• Weaknesses - What do I need to improve? To improve on my design placement the (anarchy),
• Opportunities - What do I need to do to build on my strengths and weaknesses?  
• need to think of the design placement more careful when planning it so that it follows through easily through the development process.
• Pulling the text together with the positioning of the image for a full page spread of the image that will be used on the book cover.
• Threat - What could stop me achieving my goals?  if i don't think about the anarchy the design could go wrong. 

SMART 

•    Specific - Well defined: i want to improve on my anarchy and getting the text right with the design.
• Measurable - Know when it has been achieved: this will done through the design process of a project from the idea generation,development and the final outcome.
•    Achievable – Are the goals achievable: It will be achievable if i follow this through and use my self study time.
• Realistic - Within the availability of resources, knowledge and time: i will look at how the anarchy is used in designs, this may be found on the internet,magazines etc. for support.
•  Time Based - Enough time to achieve the goal:Ii will monitor this by next deadline date.

useful design sites and blogs

Here are some useful sites and blogs, that may help bring some inspiration and creativity :)

itsnicethat.com

iostateminor.com

ffffound.com

swisslegacy.com

ifyoucould.co.uk

makenzine.com

oobject.com

thecoolhunter.co.uk

socialfiction.org

feedmecoolshit.com

tetsouille.fr/blog

dazeddigital.com

arkitip.com

sleevage.com

printclublondon.com

typographicposters.com

netdriver.net

woostercollective.com

brandsoftheworld.com

graphic-exchange.com

septemberindustry.co.uk

graphicache.com

The science of creativity

http://www.thescienceofcreativity.com/

lots of styles,designs and unlimited inspiration, as this site looks at all aspects of creativity.
the particular page that caught my attention was the illustration section.
(thescienceofcreativity.com click here for the illustration page.)

Here are some fine examples from this page.

Kristian Hammersad 
Homecoming. Illustration 

uses a style this style i have seen before in a few places, 

its quite diffrent and striking as the subject of the illustration uses beauty and the 

internals of the human body together, gives a striking look.

Nelson Boles

short illustration clip

orfeu TRAILER_1 from nelson boles on Vimeo.

illustration in this short clip has a nice feel


Philippe Baudelocque

i love this, using different patterns in black and white to create the giraffe,
whilst still giving shape and depth of the giraffe realistically

Great site for any kind of inspiration needed, it can be found on there.

Rik lee illustrations

Rik Lee is a illustrator fromMelbourne, Australia. 

He has worked for a range of clients including Nylon, Vodaphone, Telstra, Vibe, Vice, Clandestine Industries, Hurley, Honour Over Glory, Stussy, Lee Jeans, and Oyster magazine. He works with grey lead pencils, textas, watercolours and his computer. 

-source http://riklee.wordpress.com/

Here are some fine examples of his work.

See the rest of his work at http://jackywinter.com/artists/rik-lee

I love Rik lees illustration, he always uses a nice bright pastel colour pallette with his subject matters being young,fresh,fashionable and current, appealing to many people of the similar young adult age.

20 Examples of Beautiful Typography Graphic Designs

These are some examples taken from a post at bestdesignoptions.

The whole 20 can be seen if you click here.

Craig ward design

The designs are imaginative and fitting its exact replication, something that is not easy to do, which takes skill and patience.

These designs could be something i could think about in my ideas for my current illustration project with the style of how they create a illustration of subject or object with typography

Taken from the source: bestdesignoptions.com

exquisite corpse exhibition

'Exquisite Corpse takes it's inspiration from the surrealist parlour game of the same name, a visual game of Chinese whispers, where an image is created by a series of artists each creating a part of the overall artwork.'

The exhibition brings together an international group of designers and illustrators who have had their visual conversations brought to live in a large scale graphical installation.

Exquisite Corpse has been curated by Newcastle based design studioSUMO.'

- http://www.exquisite-corpse.co.uk

Close up of lizard illustration  from above this image,
showing the intricate detail

It featured a variety of artists work, that showed many illustrative styles and ideas, each different to each piece exhibited.
The idea of the work being like chinese whispers is a unique concept and creating a outcome of interesting and very diffrent pieces of illustration for each time it changed over.


looking at some the illustrations, i was particularly impressed with the lizard as how much detail has went in to its creation, using many rounded corner rectangles and low opacity to work the shapes underneath in and create this amazing outcome.


The other pieces where very or a bit more simpler in detail with block colours or uses black to set the image off in the foreground.
 majority of them being vector graphics with only a few having a more raw hand drawn feel


what i mainly like about this exhibition the most is not what was featured but the design of the flyer, it had me intrigued, being folded in a certain way to reveal the image shown on the front change when opened, following its chinese whisper theme to the exhibition.
i would to do something similar in the future when designing a flyer to have this same kind of design  .