Speedball Text Book

While doing more research into the sign painting trade, I was looking for useful books and came across the Speedball Textbook for Lettering and Poster Design. The Speedball pens are not sign painting tools they're for lettering and drawing using ink, they are often used by calligraphers as their 'C style' nib can be used to create thick and thin lines depending on the angle which the pen is held. This book looks like a very useful resource, it gives advice on layout, brush stroke direction, has a lot of illustrated alphabets which would be excellent for reference imagery. The book is currently in its 23rd edition as far as I can see, I might decide to purchase it online but a lot of its pages are displayed on the web already so I will probably look for a free PDF version to download if theres one knocking around.

Learning a new skill // Calligraphy

Following the inspirational and relevant presentation  from type designer and calligrapher Seb Lester, I looked in all the art stores and high street stationary shops to try and find some of the tools Seb had told us were good for beginners. I found a pen by a company called Manuscript which kept my interest going but the nibs that came with it were very small, I was looking for a pen with a good size nib around 3-4mm. One of the pens Seb suggested in the talk was the Parallel pen by Pilot. I could not find these in any local art stores but found some of the internet so I ordered 3 with different size nibs and  a box of black refill ink (and some fineliners to bump the price up to get free delivery) from Ken Bromley Art Supplies

 The three pens I ordered have width sizes of 2.4mm, 3.8mm and 6mm. They each came with a black and red ink cartridge, a nib cleaner and a converter to wash the pen unit.

 Also included in each pack was an information leaflet showing how to maintain the pens, how to do the gradient effect which the pens are capable of, and this sheet of alphabets showing the direction you should draw each individual line which is quite helpful.

Holding the pen at 90 degrees and drawing a line straight to the left or right gives a thin edge, and holding it 90 degrees and drawing a line straight down gives a fat edge. 

I tend to hold the pen between about 30 and 45 degrees when drawing, as you get nice bold lines going down to form stems and thinner lines for crossbars and other appropriate areas.

In a nearby art and craft store I found a useful book which had quite a lot of attractive alphabets which looked quite simple, I didn't have £12 for the book at the time so I took a few snapshots of things I liked and would help me gain a basic knowledge of calligraphic letterforms.

Here are some of my first attempts using the parallel pens. Looking at these I can see that for now I should focus only on letterforms and getting everything evenly spaced, layout and letterforms and forget about flourishes and fancy additions, once my letters are looking good I'll start to give that sort of stuff more attention. I will also try and use alphabets as reference more while I'm learning, as I looked at a couple then starting doing my own thing which is probably going to lead me down a creative road block.

Mahas Classics By Saira // Final Visuals

Portfolio Building // Grenade Poster Revisited

As port of my current module 'Portfolio Building' I have been going back to pieces of work I have previously produced and tweaking/developing them to a higher standard so they can be used to create a professional level portfolio.
Here I have revisited the Alternative techniques module in which I created a promotional poster for a music event. When I was looking at my original design there was little blotches of colour that looked out of place and were really getting on my nerves so I was glad to get rid of them, by using the Clone Stamp tool in Photoshop I simply selected an area of colour I wanted to replicate and painted over the rogue patches of colour. I also darkened the corners of the background as I thought it would make the white type more prominent and more of a focal point. Finally I brightened up the green areas using the Levels histogram.

Mahas Classics By Saira // Brief

'Mahas Classics By Saira' is an independent fashion brand that fuses traditional Indian dress, luxurious fabrics and detailed hand embellishments with contemporary western styling.
The client came to our studio asking for a complete branding solution including a logo, business card, letterhead and flyer that will be distributed at trade events.
The brand was described as 'Classic, sophisticated, individual, pret a porter, day meets night, womenswear for all occasions.'

As the logo is basically the face of the brand, it is important to portray the characteristics given by the client visually with the logo. I will carefully consider use of typography, color, and other graphic elements to produce 2 suitable logo options for the client

Once I have developed the logo, I will design a business card containing the clients contact information, and a brief description of their services.

I will then produce a flyer to be distributed at trade events, which will describe the clients services and have space for any promotional offers such as the reduced price on the 2012 Fashion Show Collection which is shown in the clients current flyer.

Finally I will create a letterhead which will fit the style of the business card and flyer.

The deadline for this project is Tuesday 30th so I will work on it in at college and in my spare time at home.

Seb Lester Talk & Presentation

Seb Lester is a type designer and calligrapher from East Sussex, who specializes in letterforms and typography. Today he came into Newcastle College to give a talk to the Creative Industries department.  I had already heard of Seb Lester before he came to the college as I had seen his calligraphic prints in a gallery called Electrik Sheep in Newcastle, and as typography is an area of design that greatly interests me I found his presentation very inspiring.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4spmdX5DDcc&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1&safe=active

He showed us several videos, firstly something he created at University as an animation project which is a music video to Super Sharp Shooter by The Ganja Kru. I enjoyed this video as it's a drum and bass classic, and it was an interesting way of seeing music represented through use of animated typography.

While employed at Monotype Imaging, Seb developed typefaces for brands including Waitrose, British Airways, The Daily Telegraph and more. He has created typefaces such as Neo Sans, Soho and Soho Gothic, and has an extraordinary talent in the form of calligraphy. He has produced work for Apple, Nike, Penguin, Ministry of Sound, Maxim.

A saying that is used in one of his videos, and he also said in the talk is being a calligrapher makes him a better type designer, and being a type designer makes him a better calligrapher. This shows he is very passionate about letterforms and devotes a lot of time to experimenting with them. 

At the end of the talk I was very keen to start experimenting with calligraphy, but in the past I have been interested and not been able to find anywhere that supplies materials. So when Seb said he had a post on his tumblr for people wanting to get into calligraphy I had a look and now know what equipment is good for beginners so I will purchase some in the near future.

Sign Writing

While browsing through MountainDewie's flickr, I found this photograph of a hand painted sign in a barber shop window in San Fransico. With developments in computer aided design hand painted signs are becoming a dying art, which is a shame because they can add a lot of character to businesses store fronts, vehicles and menu boards etc. After seeing this picture I remembered seeing a sign (hand painted as a matter of fact) near the Sunderland General Hospital for a signwriters in the area, which led me to think if there was much opportunity for careers in this line of work in the North East so I looked online and found a few specialist companies who offer a traditional hand painted sign service. Two of those were Ron Carroll Signs in Sunderland, and Opus Signs in Newcastle both hand painted sign specialists. It seems that there are not many specialists left in this region and it looks like something I would be interested in doing. From here I might decide to contact one of these company's to see if there are any opportunities for work, but I will definitely be getting some wood to paint on, or look in charity shops for cheap mirrors or picture frames to paint.