Michael's Blahg

Bolt!

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 01:51:00 +0000

At least once a week I stumble across the website of some designer, typographer, or illustrator (or combination of any of those three) that makes me realize that I am clearly not doing enough with my craft.

Take for example, Martijn Rijven's BOLTgraphics. His style tends to get a bit cartoony sometimes, but hot damn he knows how to work those illustrations with typography. I mean, check out that header graphic on his blog. Sweet.

Oh, the irony

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:51:00 +0000

Um... Of course it's in stock if you've got it. Duh.

Mobile Blahgging

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:55:00 +0000

Checking out the mobile blogging feature of Blogger. How does it look?

FontShop's Top Ten

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 22:52:00 +0000

FontShop has finally released their Top Ten Typefaces for 2007 list. They've got a good list going, and I'm not really surprised (nor disappointed) to see Meta Serif in the list even though it was just recently released in November. They also have a few distressed typefaces from Rian Hughes' Device studio, of whom I'm a fan despite my reluctance to use any typeface designed as distressed (similar to handwriting fonts, a distressed letter will always look the same when it shouldn't - I prefer to use regular typefaces and distress the design using Machine Wash filters from Mister Retro).

Stefan Hattenbach's Anziano (of MAC Rhino Fonts) got a spot on the list even though it comes in as number eleven (so does it count?). Anziano is a great lookin' typeface (you can download small caps for free) but I prefer his Oxtail set:

I had a brief encounter with Stefan from the Typophile forums a few months ago. He's a nice guy and fairly considerate, which goes a long way. He also has four typefaces available for free at his website. Go wild.

Michael Bierut talks about type

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 14:14:00 +0000

I found this little gem on Quips yesterday, (via Typographica). This is my preferred method for receiving information from someone else, if engaging in a conversation with them is not an option. Printed articles and interviews are fine fodder when that's all one can have, however live action videos are most fantastical.

This is a good time to also look at the Hillman Curtis videos. Great discussions with several notable designers.

I love the internet.

Hubba Hubba, Meta Serif

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 03:30:00 +0000

This is one post that I've been itching to make. I became a very large fan of the FF Meta typeface when doing some extensive research for a recent project. For a sans serif, Meta offers impressive readability for body/text copy. So when I heard that there was work on a serif version, I drooled.

And now, just recently, it's here: FF Meta Serif. The FontFeed is keeping track of some of the reactions across the inter-web regarding the release.

On Slant Six Creative, Armin provides a guest post with his prediction for the trends of 2008. He focuses on sans serif typography and even cites Meta as a popular choice for the coming year. While I enthusiastically agree with him, I think Meta Serif is going to surprise everyone with its surging popularity.

A great '08!

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 20:12:00 +0000

I really need to hang out with some new friends, because conversations with my current friends don't go like this:

"Last night, after the clock struck pumpkin time, conversation turned, as it often does, to handwriting and type design. Who's a continuous stroke 8 writer? Any snowman-style two circle drawers? Should the bottom and top circles be the same size, or should the bottom orb be bigger? What shape should the counter be: perfect circle? Tall oval or fat oval? Tear-drop? And thus, the search began."

Head over to the Chicagoist and let them know what your favorite 8 is.

Oh yeah: Happy New Year y'all!

i love typography

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 16:41:00 +0000

One of the fantastic things to come out in 2007 for designers (or anyone really) who love type is a blog called i love typography. For one, it's beautifully designed. Second, it's a phenomenal unbiased resource for typography developments around the world. Sure one can go to Veer's Ideas, the FontFeed, and Show & Tell but since they all sell fonts, it's a good guess they'll mostly focus on stories about the fonts they sell. There's nothing really wrong with that as it's expected and I know I'll get good info on their respective fonts at their respective sites, however an unbiased resource is a great thing to have.

This already impressive site by John D. Boardley contains book reviews, tutorials, font reviews, interviews... many things that a type lover would want to have in one place, and now we do.

Thanks for the site John.

Saul Bass & Associates

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 19:20:00 +0000

Lookee at what Santa brought me. I've had my eye on this book for a while now thanks to the recommendation of my friend DM. To date, this is possibly the most comprehensive Bass book around. It's found a spot on my book shelf between Paul Rand and Tibor Kalman, which is next to Paula Scher.

Rob Liefeld sucks

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 18:16:00 +0000

A friend sent me a link a few weeks ago pointing to this entry at Progressive Boink that provides a scathing yet very accurate critique of comic book illustrator Rob Liefeld's work. My friend sent this link to me because he knows that I think Liefeld is the worst popularized illustrator in the comic book industry. The worst. I can't emphasize that enough. The. Worst.

In the early 90's Liefeld began in moderate obscurity until Levi's was running their campaign "What do you do in your Levi's" or something like that in which Liefeld appears in a commercial directed by Spike Lee. There he is in his Levi's with a white t-shirt and a backwards baseball cap sitting at his drawing table talking about drawing comics in his Levi's. During the commercial he proudly states that he's never had a drawing lesson in his life. The irony is, it shows. Even now, nearly two decades later the only real improvements in the comics he touches is what the colorist can do with Photoshop.

I will say that I laughed myself silly reading the critique. Nearly all the bases are coverd except the X-Men #245 cover in which Longshot is drawn with five fingers. Longshot is an alien who has only four fingers. It didn't take a die-hard fanboy to know this, just a decently skilled and talented illustrator who knew how to do his research. That cover was the early tale-tale sign for the legacy of illustrative style that is Rob Liefeld.

There are many more that can be found on this Google results page. As you can see, it's no secret that he sucks. His continued popularity (diminished as it is) is still a mystery to me, but I suppose there's no accounting for bad taste.

After several years with Liefeld at Image Comics, Todd McFarlane even came out and said (paraphrasing here) that he'd "never work with that kid again." Lovely.

Blowing off the dust

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 23:18:00 +0000

So... it has been a long time since I last posted here. Things have kept me busy and I've put this little thing on the back burner — until now. I just finished a major project at work and now I should have a little more breathing room to blow off the dust and spend some time here with more frequent posts.

One noticeable thing I've made a change to is adding the Google AdSense space. I'm not doing this because I'm money-hungry (because that whopping 14 cent check will comfortably pad my checking account), but rather it's upon the recommendation of my friend Vincent and I figured "why not." I don't like the idea of advertising on my own blog (the irony is noted) but since it's not obtrusive or obnoxious I'll see how it goes. Whatever revenue I get from it will go to my daughter's savings account, so at least there's a positive spin to this.

I'll also begin the new year by recapsulating some of the more notable things that occured in the design industry in 2007. Really just things that I wanted to post anyway and make comments on.

Logo vs. Clip Art

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Thu, 24 May 2007 12:41:00 +0000

On the topic of being published, I discovered that there is an online article at Designorati where I am quoted several times.

Every now and then I Google my name for kicks, just to see what comes up. This time the Designorati article popped up about a third of the way down the results page. My quotes were taken from some posts that I made for a topic on using clip art for logos in a Yahoo graphic design mailing list. Obviously, I was strongly against using clip art for logos, as illustrated by my comments.

Word It

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Thu, 10 May 2007 04:31:00 +0000

Well this is a little exciting for me. I'm published. In print. My name and work is out there. Yay me.

The book is called "The Word It Book" which is a collection of monthly Word It submissions to the Speak Up website. Speak Up is a design blog and Word It is a monthly excercise of taking a word (in this case the word was "blah") and providing a visual interpretation of it.

What's actually the neat part about this is, unlike other trade magazines that run annual design competitions where an entry fee is required (essentially paying your way in), all the entries in this book were hand selected by the authors.

And yes, I took the name for this blog from my own Word It entry of nearly two years ago.

The book:

The best page in the book:

The index to the best page in the book:

The 300

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 13:25:00 +0000

"It's a great freakin' movie."

I don't know how else to begin this post. There's no way for me to really ease into it. Everyone has heard about it, most everyone has seen the trailers. What else is there to cover except that it's a great freakin' movie?

Well, there is the historical significance. When I talk to people who have also seen it, they say words like "great visuals" and "full of testosterone" and "wonderful colors" but then there's nearly always "not much of a plot". And no, there won't seem to be much of a plot unless you understand what the movie really means.

The last stand of the 300 Spartans is actually much bigger than 300 soldiers fighting against a million other soldiers in waves of 10,000 to 20,000 (and incredibly defeating each wave). This Persian invasion takes place just before Alexander the Great conquers all of Asia and then the birth of Roman Empire. This is incredibly important to keep in mind.

300 Spartans held a million Persians for 3 days. Their sacrifice inspired and bought time for the rest of Greece to build and prepare the rest of their armies to face Xerxes (and then stop his invasion). If Greece didn't have that, then it's highly likely that they would not have been ready to face Xerxes and therefore would have been defeated. Which means... Alexander would never be known as Great. The Roman Empire might not have ever been born (or be as empirical as it was). America as we know Her, and Western civilization and philosophies, most likely would not be what they are today.

So as you can see, there is actually a very very large plot in the movie, it's just not covered in the dialogue or narration. That last stand of 300 Spartans is momentous. I'm going to see it again, this time at the IMAX. I already have the graphic novel, but I'm going to buy the DVD when it's released. And then... I don't know, but I'm sure that I'll still be quoting lines from the movie.

Top 10 Things

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 05:02:00 +0000

This is a great top 10 list posted by Michael McDonough over at the adzilla blog:

The Top 10 Things They Never Taught Me in Design School
by Michael McDonough

1. Talent is one-third of the success equation.
Talent is important in any profession, but it is no guarantee of success.
Hard work and luck are equally important. Hard work means self-discipline
and sacrifice. Luck means, among other things, access to power, whether it
is social contacts or money or timing. In fact, if you are not very
talented, you can still succeed by emphasizing the other two. If you think I
am wrong, just look around.

2. 95 percent of any creative profession is shit work.
Only 5 percent is actually, in some simplistic way, fun. In school that is
what you focus on; it is 100 percent fun. Tick-tock. In real life, most of
the time there is paper work, drafting boring stuff, fact-checking,
negotiating, selling, collecting money, paying taxes, and so forth. If you
don’t learn to love the boring, aggravating, and stupid parts of your
profession and perform them with diligence and care, you will never succeed.

3. If everything is equally important, then nothing is very important.
You hear a lot about details, from “Don’t sweat the details” to “God is in
the details.” Both are true, but with a very important explanation:
hierarchy. You must decide what is important, and then attend to it first
and foremost. Everything is important, yes. But not everything is equally
important. A very successful real estate person taught me this. He told me,
“Watch King Rat. You’ll get it.”

4. Don’t over-think a problem.
One time when I was in graduate school, the late, great Steven Izenour said
to me, after only a week or so into a ten-week problem, “OK, you solved it.
Now draw it up.” Every other critic I ever had always tried to complicate
and prolong a problem when, in fact, it had already been solved. Designers
are obsessive by nature. This was a revelation. Sometimes you just hit it.
The thing is done. Move on.

5. Start with what you know; then remove the unknowns.
In design this means “draw what you know.” Start by putting down what you
already know and already understand. If you are designing a chair, for
example, you know that humans are of predictable height. The seat height,
the angle of repose, and the loading requirements can at least be
approximated. So draw them. Most students panic when faced with something
they do not know and cannot control. Forget about it. Begin at the
beginning. Then work on each unknown, solving and removing them one at a
time. It is the most important rule of design. In Zen it is expressed as “Be
where you are.” It works.

6. Don’t forget your goal.
Definition of a fanatic: Someone who redoubles his effort after forgetting
his goal. Students and young designers often approach a problem with insight
and brilliance, and subsequently let it slip away in confusion, fear and
wasted effort. They forget their goals, and make up new ones as they go
along. Original thought is a kind of gift from the gods. Artists know this.
“Hold the moment,” they say. “Honor it.” Get your idea down on a slip of
paper and tape it up in front of you.

7. When you throw your weight around, you usually fall off balance.
Overconfidence is as bad as no confidence. Be humble in approaching
problems. Realize and accept your ignorance, then work diligently to educate
yourself out of it. Ask questions. Power – the power to create things and
impose them on the world – is a privilege. Do not abuse it, do not
underestimate its difficulty, or it will come around and bite you on the
ass. The great Karmic wheel, however slowly, turns.

8. The road to hell is paved with good intentions; or, no good deed goes
unpunished.
The world is not set up to facilitate the best any more than it is set up to
facilitate the worst. It doesn’t depend on brilliance or innovation because
if it did, the system would be unpredictable. It requires averages and
predictables. So, good deeds and brilliant ideas go against the grain of the
social contract almost by definition. They will be challenged and will
require enormous effort to succeed. Most fail. Expect to work hard, expect
to fail a few times, and expect to be rejected. Our work is like martial
arts or military strategy: Never underestimate your opponent. If you believe
in excellence, your opponent will pretty much be everything.

9. It all comes down to output.
No matter how cool your computer rendering is, no matter how brilliant your
essay is, no matter how fabulous your whatever is, if you can’t output it,
distribute it, and make it known, it basically doesn’t exist. Orient
yourself to output. Schedule output. Output, output, output. Show Me The
Output.

10. The rest of the world counts.
If you hope to accomplish anything, you will inevitably need all of the
people you hated in high school. I once attended a very prestigious design
school where the idea was “If you are here, you are so important, the rest
of the world doesn’t count.” Not a single person from that school that I
know of has ever been really successful outside of school. In fact, most are
the kind of mid-level management drones and hacks they so despised as
students. A suit does not make you a genius. No matter how good your design
is, somebody has to construct or manufacture it. Somebody has to insure it.
Somebody has to buy it. Respect those people. You need them. Big time.

Pulp Typography

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 12:31:00 +0000

A very large—and very menacing—catalog is in production that is taking up a monstrous portion of my time currently. Once that book is out, I'll be making better efforts to update this "blahg" more frequently.

In the meantime, check out this video of the infamous scene of "What does Marsellus Wallace Look Like?" from Pulp Fiction. I don't know if it's my affinity for the scene, the wonderful use of a slab-serif typeface, the harmony of the colors, the rhythm of the living text, or if it's just that everything was put together very well, but I love this.

Credit goes to Jarratt Moody for the Pulp Fiction Typography, but it's spread all over YouTube by at least a dozen folks.

Design Ranch 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 06:37:00 +0000

Even if I weren't on the board for the AIGA Austin chapter, I'd still be pimping out this event. By reputation, Design Ranch 2007 is by far one of the best design conferences in the country. Only a few other AIGA chapters put on the Design Ranch, and proudly Austin is one of them.

It's not cheap, but it's good and it really is one of the better priced conferences that you'll find. Sell your liver or a lung (you've got two, right?) if you have to, but find a way to make it there. You can find registration info here. AIGA members can register before March 17th and save forty bucks!

Kudos to Mr. Carnegie for always successfully getting this off the ground.

And the award goes to...

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 05:53:00 +0000

I've decied to begin a new tradition with my blog. Each January I will award a particular font as the Most Overused Font of the (previous) Year. The candidates will mostly comprise of stylized fonts and not target certain san-serif fonts (otherwise Helvetica Neue or Gill Sans will always win). Even certain text serif fonts will be excluded (such as any Garammond family, Bodoni family, and yes even Mrs. Eaves). And most definitely all system fonts will be excluded.

So without much further ado, I will announce the winner.

It's Adobe's Rosewood.

"There were many typeface designs based on Clarendon letterforms seen in type catalogs from 1866 to 1875. Adobe’s Rosewood, released in 1994, is modeled after a chromatic design from William Page in 1874. (“Chromatic” or multicolored typefaces were first created by carefully registering and overprinting two or sometimes three versions of each letter in different colors to produce a flamboyant appearance). Rosewood’s Regular version is designed to overlay the Fill version for two-color printing."

If you watch fonts in publications like Donald Trump watches his hairline, you'd have noticed the proliferated use of this slab-sarif typeface in both it's styles throughout the year. (Yes, it's a shame I don't have any examples of the dozen or so examples that I'm referring to but if you paid attention like I said you should, then you know what I'm talking about.)

Have I mentioned how much I love Linotype's FontExplorer X? It's what is used to display Rosewood in my screenshot (in case you were curious).

*Incidentally, if I were doing this award for 2005, Rosewood would have won for that year also.

Color sounds like...

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 03:16:00 +0000

Showing that having a monopoly on the graphic design industry's tools doesn't make them lazy, Adobe's Adobe Labs is continuing it's innovative prowess by unvieling kuler. For those (of us) that are colorically challenged, this is a great new tool to add to one's arsenal:

Discover a "kuler" way to create color palettes with this web application from Adobe Labs. Quickly explore and get inspired to create and share your own harmonious color themes.

Brand New!

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 05:19:00 +0000

Leave it to Armin and Bryony to always keep an eye on the expanding horizon. With the continuous growth of Under Consideration, they've launched yet another blog: Brand New.

"It is our pleasure to announce the first official Speak Up spin-off: Brand New. A blog devoted solely to the monitoring, discussion and critique of brand and corporate identity work in all its manifestations and across all categories. With new work being created consistently – and Speak Up not being able, or willing, to accomodate every single new logo that comes out – we wanted to offer a space that would showcase this work and allow the design community to stay plugged in to the ever-evolving saga of identity work."

Now all of us brand-conscious designers have another resource for feeding our addiction.

Heller of a website

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 03:49:00 +0000

Thanks to Veer for pointing this out earlier in the week (gotta love The Skinny). Steven Heller now has his own (and long overdue) website.

Happy Birthday to you...

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 12:42:00 +0000

Here are several birthdays for the month of October:

Zuzana Licko - October 2nd
Paula Scher - October 6th
Peter Saville - October 9th
Rudy Vanderlans - October 10th
Joe Pemberton - October 26th
Ed Benguiat - October 27th

And for November:

Hermann Zapf - November 8th
Rick Valicenti - November 20th

Fantagraphic!

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 05:46:00 +0000

Yet another reason that the Seattle, WA, area is a cool place for designers to be. Fantagraphic Books is opening their own bookstore in the Seattle neighborhood of Georgetown on October 21st:

We've been keeping this under our hat for awhile; you Flog! readers are the first to hear this news: this weekend in the happenin' Seattle neighborhood of Georgetown, we are doing something we've wanted to do for years. We're opening our own Fantagraphics storefront. The store unofficially opens Saturday. I say "unofficially," because although it will be open to the public effective this weekend,it will be a "soft" opening as we continue to fine tune, add signage, fixtures, etc. But the books will be there and the doors will be open this weekend.

We will really pull out all the stops beginning in November, with a grand opening in early December. What I can tell you now: The store will contain everything Fantagraphics has in print, including our soon-to-be-legendary damaged room, featuring discounted and often out-of-print books unavailable anywhere else. The space also has room for exhibitions, which we'll have more news about very soon.

We'll post some pictures at the end of the week along with more details. But the store has an exhibition space as well, and look for a lot of great shows and events to come in 2007. Start making your Seattle vacation plans NOW, and if you have friends in Seattle that might be interested, please pass on the news.

Here's the 411:

FANTAGRAPHIC BOOKS
1201 South Vale Street
Seattle, WA 98108
Mon. - Sat 11:30 - 8
Sun 11:30 - 5
206-658-0110

If you're a designer and a fan of illustrated literature, then you'll love what Fantagraphic Books does. Check 'em out!

Pantone on the walls

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 05:03:00 +0000

Finally. I mean it: finally! Designers of all pedigrees can finally paint the walls of their homes with PANTONE-color interior wall paint:

Through a relationship with Fine Paints of Europe, designers, architects and discerning homeowners can now confidently specify and match Pantone's color standards in paint.

Quick drying, easy-to-apply and eco-friendly, PANTONE-matched paints from Fine Paints of Europe represent the pinnacle of the Dutch art of paint making. These real Dutch paints are formulated to the highest quality standards using expensive resins combined with high concentrations of finely ground pigments. Tinted by a unique proprietary tinting system and product-specific colorants, PANTONE-matched paint provides superior color accuracy, enhanced color depth, and excellent coverage for long-lasting value.

With over 3,000 designer colors to choose from, the new PANTONE matched paints yield the depth and vibrancy of color to dramatically enhance any environment.

Art vs. Design

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Holdren) — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 02:47:00 +0000

I know there's a lot of confusion between artists and designers amongst the general public, as well as some designers themselves. The way I've always tried to sum it up is this: artists create works for themselves as a form of expression, whereas designers create solutions for their clients using a form of communication.

Veer is doing something new by doing "portraits" of designers. Armin Vit is the first to be exposed in such a way, and Corey Holms is the second. So far, they are the only two, however I would keep my eye on their site to see who else they use in the near future.

In Armin's interview, he discusses his view on the separation of art vs. design.

I love it.

Veer: What differentiates art and design?

Armin: They’re completely different things. I hate when designers say, ‘I’m an artist.’ No you’re not. If you were an artist you would have your stuff hanging at a gallery and you would make a lot of money selling it. Instead you’re at a computer, you take requests from a client, and you make things on their behalf. And we’re not even commercial artists because it’s not art, it’s communication. It’s type and images put together, and eventually you do something - a brochure, a logo, a web site, a report. None of that shit hangs in a gallery.