Happy New Year

Just created this C4D wooden, Happy 2010, typographic sculpture. Quite pleased with it actually. This year I will master Cinema 4D (and blog more often)! Have a great 2010 all.

Gift idea: Miniature Vintage Video Game Cabinets

Well, this post was intended to be about my love of vintage video game cabinets, and the seductive typography of those game logos: Galaxian, Defender, Donkey Kong. These were the logos of my childhood and without realizing it at the time, I was really affected by them… even today, they get my heart racing.

But since it’s that time of year, and fun gift ideas are always in demand, here’s something pretty cool for you. Miniature vintage video game cabinets! Lovingly and painstakingly made with great accuracy by Justin Whitlock, who’s stated philosophy is “There is no charge for awesomeness”. Damn right! You can see them all on his flickr page here.

The cabinets are about 5 inches tall, and he’s got a fantastic range of games covered. All the pricing and shipping info is explained on his Flickr page as well. They are very affordable – between $20.00 and $30.00 per cabinet. I want one, and I want it now! Galaga is mine.

A paper train journey

I recently heard about this amazing bit of stop motion/paper art. It’s an ad for the New Zealand Book Council, animated by London based, Anderson M Studio. I can only imagine how long it took to pull it off.  The pages of the book (entitled Going West) literally come to life as intricate cuttings into the paper surface, reveal three dimensional shapes and structures, all relating to a railway journey.  You can see the full video below.

iVictrola

This is one of those “damn, I wish I’d thought of that” ideas. In fact, I kinda did think of this once (really!), but not in such a super cool, old world meets new world kind of way. I found this amazing thing on the Design Within Reach website, and it got my heart racing. The lovely Magnavox logo that sits on the vintage metal horn is my excuse for this (industrial design) post on my type blog, but it’s really the object and the idea itself that I love. It uses no electricity, simply amplification through the base, up and out through the horn. Love it.

Here’s a caption from DWR website: Designer Matt Richmond’s iVictrola merges turn-of-the-century technology with new-millennium gadgetry. The steampunk aesthetic of this new fangled contraption belies the simplicity of the design – place your iPhone in the indented “dock” in the walnut base and turn on some tunes. The sound is carried from a hole in the base, amplified by the metal Magnavox horn to fill the room.

Vintage Luggage Tags

I recently got back from 8 weeks away in the US directing my first documentary film, called Alfred & Jakobine, check it out. Anyway, we covered over 4000 miles of US roads (it’s a roadtrip documentary) but also by air. Now that I’ve flown home to London, it seemed like an ideal time to do a “catch up” post about “travel”– specifically about airline luggage tags, with a vintage slant.

Last year I stumbled across an old collection of my father’s personal luggage tags in a drawer. He was on the road (or in the air) a lot during his career, and as someone who had a very romantic notion of travel (as do I) he kept loads of his tickets, tags, slips, etc. He loved trains for the very same reason.

Anyway, here’s a random selection from dad’s collection. I love the random typographic combos that result from airport code names: YYZ (my hometown Toronto), BEY, YAM, YOW, as well as the colour combos that likely resulted from available card and ink colours more than anything.  Amazing how many of these airlines are no longer around. Below is an oh-so-boring, computer printed, modern luggage tag – mine from my trip back to LHR from ABQ via DFW (I miss all that colour).

Type that dances

Well, I haven’t done a post in a while, so here’s something new from me! I just completed this animated teaser for the Montreal Bach Festival. I kinda liked the idea – the various bits of information are all built into a 3D dancing figure and as she spins and the camera moves around in space, we’re able to read what we need to read, bit by bit. Created in Cinema 4D. You can see the full video below.

The ceramic typography of Stephanie Dearmond

I recently stumbled across the lovely work of Dutch ceramic artist Stephanie Dearmond, but judging from all the press she’s had in the past two years, I’m a bit late to the party!  At any rate, seeing her work, I knew instantly she would the subject of my new post. Her ceramic typographic objects are gleaming white with floral images set onto the surfaces – sometimes on the faces, and sometimes into the extruded depth of the 3D forms. Beautiful!

Kanye West – Paranoid

A nice homage to vintage, thriller title sequences (or actually vintage, thriller trailers) is to be found in the video for Kanye West’s new track Paranoid featuring Rihanna. The video directed by Nabil Elderkin owes a lot to a LOT of references, but I guess that’s what homages are all about.

Lets count them, shall we! Start with Nosferatu, add a little Fallen Angel (thanks Art of the Title Sequence ), toss in some Sin City, and all those great ’30s-’50s sci-fi and horror thrillers. The story line is a little weak, but the typography, production design and referential, l0-fi styling is lovely. There’s been a trend in hip-hop videos in the past few year that likes to “visualize” the lyrics with on-screen typography. That stuff is usually pretty arbitrary, decorative and dull, so it’s refreshing to see it here, with an unexpected historical slant (as well as some relationship the theme of the tune… uh, I think).  Not sure if Kanye “art directed” – apparently he often does.

Glow’s slinky logo

A few weekends back, sitting in a cafe in Knightsbridge, I spotted this lovely logo across the street in the window of  Glow, a local spa. Quite elaborately crafted, its “slinky” like shapes are really well realized. I wasn’t quite sure what a slinky had to do with a spa, but upon visiting their website, I realized it’s not slinky at all, but rather bulb filaments (that glow). Of course.

Pulp Fiction, the typography of thrills and chills

Though well before my time, I absolutely love the graphic tradition of pulp fiction novels. Apparently, they drew their nick-name from the cheap paper they were printed on, always intended to be low-cost, high-thrill, mass entertainment.

Spanning the 20’s to the 50’s in their pure, original form, their cover illustrations were as sensational as the stories inside , but I would argue that it was the cover typography that imbued much of the tension and thrill these covers seem to be charged with. The type wobbled and vibrated, exploded and arched, it was vibrant and colourful and aggressive. The choice of words didn’t hurt either – “Tension, Jolting, Amazing, Crime, Phantom, Death…”. EC (Entertainment Comics) was one of the leaders in this edgy fare (see above), who specialized in shocking, unexpected endings . EC would continue to push harder and harder (graphic in more ways than one) until censorship pressures forced them to finally shift their focus to humour comics instead. They then went on to create MAD Magazine, that has become an American icon -  I read monthly as a kid.

Exciting and often sexy, the pulps’ subjects spanned every genre from crime to sci-fi, science to the occult, chilling accidents to freaks of nature, and the design, illustration and typography of their covers is pure, seductive, visual entertainment.  Unlike many of its competitors, EC would proudly publicize its artists who were all widely respected at the time, and encouraged them to push the boundaries. The result is a body of graphic design work with amazingly unique, and high-impact lettering design. Time to head over to eBay… I’m inspired!