Typography | Sad Bird Design

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Sad Bird Now Fits In Your Wallet

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

I ordered our business cards with a couple different options. I can’t imagine not ordering more, as I’ve always thought business cards or calling cards are cool. These are the first of, I’m sure, many to come.

Sad Bird Design StandardIssue/1

Its all printed with the bird, our physical location in the world, and our footprint on the web.

Sad Bird Design SpecialIssue/1 (also seen in first image)

I also got a bunch of blank cards to stamp the bird and name on. It makes for a cool look. The bird, alone, sitting in the empty void of the card, is showing us his sadness. Then, on the reverse is the name and locale.

The blank cards actually came from the idea of hand writing each card as I gave it out. I still think it is a cool idea.

-Rich

Tags: Business Cards, Rich
Posted in Graphic Design, Logo Design, Typography | No Comments »

Postcards For Harmony EyeCare

Sunday, June 27th, 2010

Working hard this week on a few postcards and website bits for Harmony EyeCare. The doctor requested a set of postcards to remind current patients that they can order contacts on the site.

Updated on 07/10/2010 with final design.

Front:
harmony eyecare postcard front

Back:
harmony eyecare postcard back

Might put another contact lens case design into the pattern. We’ll see. The website currently has a callout for ordering contacts in the left column below the main navigation (see www.harmonyeyecare.com). After approval of this concept the callout will need to match the postcard for a proper connection between the two. And probably needs to be moved to the header. Gotta keep things consistent.

Another postcard will go out soon reminding patients of their next check-up. I’ll be using a similar pattern as this one but with other elements dealing with eye exams. Update coming soon after feedback from client. Updated with images below.

Front:
checkup-reminder-front

Back:
checkup-reminder-back

- Randy

Tags: Graphic Design, Randy, Typography
Posted in Graphic Design, Typography | No Comments »

August: Version 2

Saturday, January 9th, 2010

In my earlier post I talked about version 1. After much research I began to work on version 2. So far the uppercase alphabet is in rough draft. Currently working on lowercase and numbers. In the meantime I am getting some professional feedback on the uppercase.

Here is rough version 2:
augustv2

A few of the many changes include:
1. 20% wider
2. Thin strokes were thickened
3. Serifs extend left and right on most glyphs
4. Height of crossbars were lowered
5. Any round letter sits just below baseline

Sample words:
august1

august2

august3

Sample header/body text:
august4

Lowercase coming soon.

- Randy

Tags: Randy
Posted in Graphic Design, Typography | No Comments »

Business Plan Book Design

Monday, December 14th, 2009

Completed. Printed. Delivered. It all started here: Working On A Grid. We decided on 6×9in. and adjusted the grid accordingly.

Book details:
1. 6×9 Portrait.
2. 48 pages.
3. Saddle stitched.
4. 14pt baseline.
5. 9pt Gotham Light for body copy.
6. 36pt Gotham Bold for section titles.
7. Pantone 295 C for cover/title pages.
8. Printed on 80# matte paper.
9. Cover on 100# matte paper.
10. Written by Sam Paasch.

Download the PDF here. Also available is the grid system used.

Photos of book:
bplan6

bplan5

bplan4

bplan2

bplan

bplan3

Printing this book was a pretty good battle. We saw a company online that will print books for cheap. Gave it a try. Round 1: came back purple instead of blue (my fault) and glossy cover, yuck. Round 2: came back missing half the pages and terrible dark lines in the blue title pages. Round 3: switched to matte cover, fixed color issues, and all is well. Just for giggles we went to Kinkos and was quoted $60 for a 48 page book. Ha!

I need to invest in a toner printer.

- Randy

Posted in Graphic Design, Grid System, Typography | 2 Comments »

Revisiting The Font: August

Sunday, December 6th, 2009

I’ve decided to revisit a font created in my last semester of Graphic Design. Project was to create a single weight font (not technically a family) that included numbers and symbols. I had a little less than a month to complete the project. Turned out well for the time I was given, but I’ve been wanting to tweak each glyph ever since.

Font Details:
1. 77 glyphs in total.
2. Extreme thick/thin lines.
3. Technically a slab serif, though they are nearly hairline thin.
4. Created using Adobe Illustrator and FontLab as a working TrueType font file.
5. Manually kerned each glyph, admittedly with many mistakes.

Poster:
font2

Glyphs:
font3

Close up of x-height:
font4

So what do I plan on tweaking?
1. There’s actually too much consistency between each letter. Giving more character to certain letters will help.
2. Each glyph needs to be a bit wider.
3. The transition between thick and thin is harsh and will be softened with curves for a more natural look.
4. I was never happy with the uppercase Y, needs a completely different style.
5. The x-height will be the biggest change. Needs to be lowered.
6. Lastly, I need to work on proper kerning. Lots of research will be required.

I’d like to use this font for headings in future projects. Paired with a sans-serif body text sounds like a good idea. Stay tuned for updates!

- Randy

Posted in Graphic Design, Typography | 1 Comment »

6 Panel Book From Graphic Design 1

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

I believe this was the last project from my Graphic Design 1 class back in the Community College days. I was young, naive, and knew pretty much nothing about typography. I think Goudy Stout was my favorite font at the time, but I’ve since matured.

Anyway, here are the details:
1. No computers! Couldn’t touch em during the semester.
2. Use two different magazines to combine an image with text.
3. 6 square panels including cover.
4. Black and white only.
5. Only tools were photocopier, xacto knife, and rubber cement.

My best guess is that each individual panel needs to convey the message (in this case, love) as well as when all six are combined. I’ll be the first to admit my craftsmanship needed improvement. I was a freshman, give me a break!

The 6 panel book:
panelbookall