local font find #31 i love this lettering!

This was spotted during Dickens of a Christmas over in Wellsboro, Pa. Not sure the bank name, but it is right on the main street. Anywho, the lettering is awesome. The font below is killer as well. Love the wide "c's" and the dot under the small "c". This sign would hand in the living room!!!!

a new version of tee shirt for WildFly Charters

I have been drawing nothing but lettering for the past few months. At some moments, I really feel like I am getting it. Wow, is it difficult to get it "just so". The slightest mistake is usually punching you in the face. There is no middle ground with type. It either works or fails. I am pushing myself with all kinds of tools and styles to get the right look of every project. My brother, Capt. Gregg McKee, of WildFly Charters, is tough to find gifts for. I just try to keep him in interesting variations of tee shirts for his business. 

I like the mix of type styles and the weights of it all. When I squint, which it almost constantly as I draw now, it felt right. The space is just as important as the letters. I think so much differently now about Art in general. My expectations are much higher but the focus of those expectations are in far different places and on elements like "space" and "movement" and "emphasis". When I was young, it was on realism and more realism. That is gone. That is good. Art is becoming much more fun because of it.

version #2 of hand drawn lettering always tastes better

Been super busy as of late but had time off over Christmas break. Merry Christmas to all (by the way) and hope all is going well. This idea, though silly, never seems to be far from my mind. I can't shake it. And when I can't shake it, I doodle it. The many doodles have lead to this.

I look everywhere for well-used vintage book covers. The color and level of abuse are usually the deciding factors when found. They work well for what I have visioned for the final products of certain ideas. All of the color was printed using Styrofoam sheets and then scanning in. I do not use Photoshop Actions or pre-packaged apps to get my weathering.

Happy New Year as well.

hand drawn type and web design - what a process

A few years ago, I met some fine gentlemen that were working on a game design. They needed someone to draw what was on their minds (and some stuff that wasn't). I knew, when I met them, that their talents were great and that I wanted them to appreciate my skills in their future. That intro brings me to the now. I was asked about a month ago to design a layout for a website. Calob Hess is a computer geek (geek is used here to mean super smart / ultra-talented person in his/her field) who needed some design help. I thankfully got the call. He has started a web design company but was in need of a landing page and internal experience.

Not knowing half of the terms listed in his "skills" column on his current website, I was at a loss for where to start my designing. Creating visual interest with a webdesign company usually results in photographs of the design team sitting around a fancy hipster table in a high end conference room (probably in Portland). Not that there is anything wrong with Portland, but this is north central Pennsylvania and we are not hipsters. I did not want to design something standard....predictable. 

My first thoughts were toward his logo. Good starting point since he had one already.

pics of logo and color bands

I liked the colors but it didn't strike me as something compelling or memorable enough to lead me in an artistic direction. I needed an image.

As I teach young students all day, I am constantly attempting to boil things down to the "element" level. I though about the purpose of his business. "Move other people's businesses forward." Pretty simple. Showing this is difficult but I knew I wanted a single image to get that across. I boiled the sentence down further to just "forward" and an arrow came to mind. I went outside to my garage and found some of my children's sidewalk chalk and began to draw an enormous arrow that I would photograph from a ladder leaning on my roof. As I was finishing it, I thought maybe my son would pose for a picture so it would look like he was finishing it. It was sunny....perfect weather for this shot.

orig pic of matt

The shadows were great and the sweater was interestingly simple. I made sure I was high enough on the ladder that the viewer would not see his face. 

I still wasn't sure if a kid drawing an arrow would work for a web design site so I set out to work on the word "forward" in the mean time. 

pics of forward tries

Finally, I stumbled upon a solution for the type. I overlaid it on the picture of my son and it just seemed right.

pic of matt and type

Now...how to make a whole website based on the look and feel of this image. I shot the image over to Caleb and he shot it around to some of his trusted friends. The feedback was immediate and positive. It was working for them so I ran with it.

I set out to simplify the other three pages he needed at that point and had to boil them down to a single image and single typography concept. Since the arrow was not perfect and made to look as though a young person drew it, I purposely used hand drawn type to impact the viewer first. "Seriously whimsical" were the two words I kept present in judging my designs. I wanted it to show that even when dealing with simple solutions, the business is serious about your business. I did lean toward hand drawn type because I love it, but, if it didn't fit, it was out!

Luckily, it seems to fit.

Often Design has limitations. This stinks. I like design to go as planned. Many of my wood projects have been less than my mental picture of the final project due to some of those limitations in the wood. Web design has some inherent limits that are not there in print. BOOO HISSS!

We will see how it all goes but the whole process sure is fun. Learnin' lots and lovin' the new venture.

local font find #30

We visited Corning, NY the other day in search of some gifts. Any time I go to Corning I am in search of some old typography. The city has an interesting history and much of it has been preserved and still promoted. 

We stepped into a local glass shop and whammo! There it is. 

Exactly the kind of thing I am looking for. An historically important part of Corning's past and an inspiring part of a Font Geek's present. The sign is huge. About 10-12 feet wide. It is dimensional. Carved out letters with a textured background. Great bird logo above...WOW!

The sign is in rough shape. That is fine by me as I think we should experience it as life and the elements have delivered it to us. It tells a more intimate story in this state. A special "thank you" to the person in charge of displaying it. They had the insight leave it be. Also, the entrance to this building is beautiful. Old, stately doors. Plenty of glass. Great railings on the staircase.

If you are ever in the beautiful city of Corning, head to Market Street on the Wegman's end of town. Check it out. (if the company was as good as the sign, they were mighty good!)

great artwork you don't see in art history books #5

During a random search on the Internet I came across an image of a tree. It was incredible. I immediately went to look for it's creator. I traced it to a man by the name of Eyvind Earle. An interesting fellow with a great personal story. He is worthy of a look.

The picture below is what has me typing this post. Of all his work, with many of his paintings superb, this painting of a series of barns has stuck with me. I think of it often. There is something about the angles, perspective and the position of the viewer that keeps me coming back.

There seems to be a whole lot happening with so few objects and so little detail. I love the dark shadow that falls across the lower right roof. It keeps pulling my eye around. The blast of light across the grass shoves you left over to the steep roof which start you back right. Wonderful movement. I always love an image that feels as though I would have never come up with the composition no matter how long I lived. Mr. Earle does this with regularity.

the Air Force 1 by Nike still rules as an impeccable design

I have always loved the look of this shoe. Nike came out with it in 1982. I was 12 (you do the math). I never owned a new original pair but bought a used pair of size 11 1/2 off of a friend (I wore a 10). They were a bit to expensive for a sixth grader. My love of their look has never faded. EVER! I have found that I am not alone with this belief/disorder. To show my love of the shoe and also my love of certain artists/illustrators, I set out to draw a serious doodled right shoe that drops in hints of illustrators that have influenced me.

Many of the marks are just whimsical ideas that happened as chance. As illustrators, cartoonists, or artists jumped into my head, I carved out a place to fit 'em in.

My owl from a graduate school poster project.

The whale squashed into the darkened sole was just a drawing of a whale. No influences. Just thought it would fit in the space.

Sorry about the image quality. Hope it doesn't detract from the time spent drawing this up. Sure was fun to stare at an Air Force 1 for hours at a time.

Sharpie on thick railroad board.