Esquire (full page typographic design)

Illustrator Sean Freeman's full page typographic design for Esquire magazine NY. Although these designs don't directly link to my own typographic experiments, Freeman's work fits within my design philosophy of 'clean yet messy'.

The Guardian Romantic Poets

Based in London freelance Illustrator Sean Freeman created this typographic piece advertising a series of guides to romantic poems commissioned by The Guardian.

Although this typographic approach isn't in line with my way of working with letterform, I recognise that this is the kind of commission I would like in the not so distant future. I do take inspiration from the elegant curvature of the letterforms which is something I hope to take on board within my own work.

Tess Management (Identity)

London based modelling agency Tess Management identity was created by Mind Design. The idea was to create a logo type inspired by art-deco that can use several aesthetic variations yet still keep the modular system it is based on. Keeping the logo as big as possible one one side of the business card designs work effectively well. It has a kind of 'bam' in your face kind of feel yet subtle at the same time. The subtleness carries on, on the back with picture frame esc triangles in each corner.

Tess Management (Newspaper)

As well as designing the identity and stationary for Tess Management, Mind Design designed a newspaper to publicise the launch of the agency. The newspaper folds out into an A4 format and is held together by a paper band displaying the Tess logo. The type used for the logo works effectively as headline type next to body copy and photographs of models etc..

Tess Management (Typeface)

Mind Design developed this type based identity for a London based model agency called, Tess Management. The idea was to create a logo type inspired by art-deco that can use several aesthetic variations yet still keep the modular system it is based on. The concept and the delivery of the project is simply cool. The way Mind have used colour and shape make this logotype unique. I wouldn't mind giving this concept a go myself to create something that is interchangeable and different every time yet retains form and function.

Monograph Series for Tate

This set of publications containing work from various artists were designed by Nick Bell Design to be sold in the Tate galleries. Each publication typographically displays the initials of each artist with their full name written inside their initials. I admire clean typography however I seek something else, something quirky something more than just putting the name of an artist within some oversized letter. Having said that a simple design / grid that can be applied to multiple sets is something I like.

Sound Scale

Sound Scale is an electronic/digital font created by London based design studio, Mind Design. There are similarities with my type work and Mind's approach, we both seem to work to a basic grid yet restricting grid in order to craft out each letter form. As well as this I am trying to bridge the gap between headline type such as Sound Scale and body copy (see below). Mind do this by successfully complimenting Sound Scale with a serif font.

Sound Scale was created for the catalogue, Sound Art.

Muggenburg Grotesk

Created by design studio Mind Design, Muggenburg Grotesk is inspired by the fonts used on old cinema posters. The typeface was designed specifically for a jewellery company called, Belmacz which was used on a promotional poster.

The style of Muggenburg Grotesk is similar to the font I created in November (German Luftwaffe font). I want to develop this font and this style further to create bold in your face kind of type.

Modo

Modo is a typeface designed by design studio Julia that was used in the eleventh issue of the Royal College of Art publication, Ark. I admire the combination of the straight and curved lines which create the letters. The typeface in a strange way feels a bit french and a bit elegant..

"Modo was born from the need to have a stronger identity in the magazine. When designing it, we took care in bringing a graphic feeling as that particular issue had great amounts of text and not many images. Our way to achieve this was to design a type family that allowed mixing several variations in each title while still achieving a harmonious look" (www.julia.uk.com).

When displayed in the publication, Mono appears to be the kind of font that needs a lot of space around it to breathe (similar when you use helvetica bold). It seems like it doesn't need a lot of line spacing nor does it need much space between each letter.

Herman

Herman is a typeface designed by London based studio, Julia. It was designed to specifically be used as a guest typeface for the first issue of the magazine, Weird UK. I find the idea of merging a square and circle together to create a set of letterforms intriguing. I tend to stick with straight lines and square shapes when creating my own typefaces - this kind of work gives me the confidence to work with rounded letter forms rather than sticking to rigid right angles.

"Herman is both a display and a text typeface. It looks very different when it is printed in big or small sizes, once the arcs are made of lines designed to print as curves when reduced. While big sizes look square, small sizes print round. It also holds a very decent legibility when used in small sizes" (www.julia.uk.com).