Fonts In Use: Grafika in Madrid

My good friend Mark Simonson recently alerted me to a very interesting use of my most recently released font Grafika. He found it Behance’s online portfolio for Spanish designer Vicente García Morillo. It was used to produce a flyer for Phil Asher, a UK DJ/Producer performing in Madrid under the guise of “Phlash”.

What piqued my interest about this particular usage was the fact that Mr. Morillo used Grafika in ALL CAPS—something I had never anticipated. I usually recommend that this font be set in upper and lowercase. But I have to admit that seeing this flyer has changed my mind.

Fonts In Use: Veer Picks PowerStation

Today I was surprised to see that Veer, one of my font resellers, had selected one of my fonts—PowerStation—to use throughout it’s current online and print promotion “The Super‑Incredible Activity Book for Creatives“.

They actually used PowerStation as the basis for major graphics on over 15 pages throughout the 100 page book.

Veer selected both PowerStation Solid and PowerStation Solid Wide to feature in this promo.

I was pleased to see that they used this font in a variety of different layouts, demonstrating its flexibility—despite the fact that PowerStation’s layered typesetting features or faceted letterforms weren’t used.

Thank you Veer . . . and thank you Joe Newton!

Le Train Bleu @ Bloomingdale’s

While in New York City to give a talk at the Type Directors Club Laura and I stopped in at Bloomingdale’s. I hadn’t been back to Bloomingdale’s for many years, so while there I thought I’d check to see if some signage I had designed for their “Le Train Bleu” restaurant might still be in use. To my utter amazement, my work was there—still in use after 30 years. The restaurant itself is a stunning recreation of a vintage dining car, and has been virtually unchanged inside since the day my work first adorned its entrance.

The Original “Le Train Bleu” was a luxury French night express train which carried wealthy and famous passengers between Calais and the French Riviera from 1922 until 1938.

Back in 1980 I had designed and painted art for two panels that were to bookend the stairway leading up to the restaurant. The challenge, as outlined to me by then Bloomingdale’s Creative Director John Jay, was to design a poster reminiscent of the great transport posters of the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s,—but in an extremely thin vertical format: almost a 4 to 1 height to width ratio. Also the design had to be able to mirror itself so that it could appear on either side of the entrance. Designing the piece so that one had almost a bird’s-eye view of the train which was letting out a very art-moderne steam stream seemed like a natural for the format.

This was not a typical project for me at the time because I had never executed a painting like this before. In addition the typography played a much smaller role in the design, and in the end was much more toned down than in most of my other work.

Above is the menu cover I designed as a companion to the stairway panels. It depicts the same train as in the panels from the more traditional “heroic” viewpoint seen in many transport posters of the time. I redid the lettering, but kept it in the same moderne style—only in a lighter weight. And unlike the panels the art for which I had painted in gouache, I did the menu cover as pre-separated mechanical art—much more akin to my current work which is usually done in Adobe Illustrator.

Additionally I had designed the “Le Train Bleu” seal or monogram that appears in relief outside the restaurant and on printed materials. This was much more akin to the type and letterform-centric work that I’ve become known for, and was designed to be very heraldic in nature. To my surprise this large monogram in relief was also still there, looking as fresh as the day it was first mounted in the vestibule of the restaurant at the top of the stairs.

For those who are interested there are prints of the Le Train Bleu vertical format artwork available on my ILLOZ site. These prints are finely produced, hand-crafted 12 color fine art lithographs that are virtually identical to the original painting.

Back to the Future

My friend Jed Davis, for whose recording company Eschatone Records I had designed a vinyl record label, recently asked me to design packaging for an unusual project. While most people in the recording industry are trying to figure out “what’s next”, Jed was asking the question: how can I get back to basics? What came before MP3s, before CDs and Casettes, before 8–Tracks, and before 33, 45 and 78 RPM records? The answer: wax gramophone cylinders, of course!

So Jed decided to release one of his own recordings not only as a digital download but, hoping to reach the untapped centenarian demographic, also as a limited edition, signed wax gramophone cylinder. But unfortunately, as Jed was to learn form The Vulcan Cylinder Record Company, it had to be made of hard plastic instead of the traditional wax. Undaunted, Jed decided to move ahead declaring that since it would be hard plastic “it will never degrade, no matter how many times you play it on your family Edison”. He also decided to accommodate all those without gramophones by including a free digital download together with the purchase of the cylinder.

When Jed asked me to design the labels for the cylinder, I thought “Well, I’ve designed covers for LPs, for cassettes and for CDs. This may very well be my last opportunity to design a gramophone label.” The title of his release was “Yuppie Exodus from Dumbo”, and Jed gave me free reign to design both the wraparound label and the round label for the top of the cylinder container:

When the labels were finally printed by Vulcan, the colors came out a little differently from what I had designed, but I have to say that I’m pretty much OK with it. I think it does give it a slightly more vintage feel that’s appropriate for this project:

This is a signed (by Jed and by me) and numbered edition limited to 50 cylinders. Hear the song and purchase the cylinder/download HERE—before it’s too late!

Talk at the Type Directors Club

If you’re going to be anywhere in the vicinity of New York City in late July, then I’d love to invite you to the talk I’ve been asked to give by the Type Directors Club. I’ll be talking about my work, both new and old—and more specifically about all the influences I’ve had over the years that helped form my aesthetic sensibility, especially those that worked on me as kid growing up on the streets of Brooklyn. So is it “Nature or Nurture”? You be the judge!

I’ll be in New York to attend the opening night festivities at Cooper Union on July 20th for TDC² 2010 – the show which honored my Deliscript fonts.

My talk will be held on Thursday, July 22nd, 6:00–8:00 PM at the Type Directors Club: 347 W. 36th St, #603, NYC.

Please RSVP to the TDC by Email or call them at (212) 633-8943 to reserve your spot.

Help the LA Food Trucks!

Because of my involvement with the design of the Canter’s truck, I’ve just heard about the attempt by the City of Los Angeles to severely limit where food trucks can serve the public. They’re trying to do this by prohibiting them from parking at meters in commercial zones. Without providing adequate, alternate parking areas, this would effectively put many of the trucks out of business. If you, like me, feel that these gourmet food trucks are adding to the culture and vitality of the city, and don’t want to see them gone or severely curtailed, then please sign this ONLINE PETITION. And please let others know!

Paris Loves Letters

I’m just back from a stay in The City of Light, and just wanted to share an impression I had that typography and lettering are admired and extremely well respected there—possibly as much or more than anywhere else in the world. If nothing else, Paris is a city where history permeates everything, and you can almost trace its history through the many layers of lettering and signage that stretch back over many decades. I say respected because so much of it has been preserved, and not painted over or replaced just to be up to date. In fact, many shops kept and preserved the lettering from previous incarnations, even though the name and nature of the business had changed. It was refreshing to see that just about every business that had a public face, from the smallest boutique to the largest high-end stores, all took great pains to maintain an artful, thoughtfully designed appearance. Aesthetics on every level are a part of the culture, and an understanding of the importance lettering and typography seems to be universally understood and encouraged. Here is a small sampling of some snapshots I took while strolling around the city:

My new favorite restaurant in Paris—not so much for the food, as for it’s graphics and interior.

The mosaic floor of one of Paris’ many arcades.

A sandwich shop. I love those colored bottles!

Metro signage – not the typical art nouveau version everyone’s familiar with.

Paris’ Wax Museum . . . an Art Déco Extravaganza

A confectionery shop with signage that dates back . . . who knows how long? Still in perfect condition.

Contemporary tile work in the Metro’s Concorde Station. This incredible project was begun in 1989 and contains the text of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This typographic work covers the entire arched wall and ceiling of the station.

And finally, (please excuse the shameless plug) while walking the streets of the Marais, I happened across a shop called “L’Art du Buro” which had my QWERTY pen displayed front and center in its window. Certainly an ego boost, if ever there was one!

Please Note: New URL for Alphabet Soup Blog

Our new URL, effective immediately is: http://www.alphabetsoupblog.com Please add this as the new replacement bookmark. New posts coming soon!

The Alphabet Soup Collection: on Sale at Veer

Just up on Veer, this all-inclusive collection of my fonts is on sale at 30% off the total of what they would cost if purchased individually. Veer’s special promotion will be ongoing until the middle of May.

Art Imitates Life…Imitates Art (Canter’s Truck #3 of 3)

SignQuest was the company that RoadStoves had recommended to “wrap” the truck with the graphics I had designed. They produce large scale banners and signs as well as vehicle wraps. One interesting project they were recently involved with was wrapping the Hollywood Sign for the “Save the Peak” campaign. The goal of this campaign is to raise funds to purchase the land adjacent to the Hollywood sign. Hopefully this would prevent commercial development that would permanently mar the view of the iconic sign and the world-famous silhouette of the hills that frame it. Wrapping the Hollywood Sign was a complex project, but wrapping a truck properly is also difficult and time consuming.

Getting it right means placing the many strips of 3M Controltac vinyl film in the right positions:

Louie Navarro is seen above carefully positioning the vinyl on the service side (the side from which the food will be served) of the truck. He must carefully gauge where to position the film at the back of the truck so that the graphics end up at the right spot by the time they reach the front.

Over on the driver’s side, Louie positions the main graphics. There are many ins and outs to the truck surface, and the Controltac film is flexible enough to conform to them all, ending up looking very much as if it had been painted on. It’s pretty amazing.

Here’s one photo of the driver’s side. I’ll post more photos from different angles as they become available.

In the meantime the  Canter’s Truck has begun cruising the streets of LA with Bonnie Bloomgarden at the helm. To find out when they’re going to be in your area you can follow them on Twitter.

Photo: Adam Stein