Letters, lots of letters.

I think I've found a deep love for drawing letter forms. As I have been working on a font for senior thesis this coming semester (that's a whole other blog post in and of itself), I am slowly realizing how intriguingly complex the design of a letter form can be and just how much work is required to make a good one. So many things need to be taken into account. Balance, weight, over-all consistency and the simple factor of whether or not all the letter forms look good and work well sitting next to each other, are just a few things to consider. All of these elements that need to be considered seem to create a complex equation of sorts that can only really be solved fully by eye-balling it and going with your design gut.

I don't know why I found I like to draw letters as much as I do, maybe I'm getting older and find a deeper appreciation for the more subtle design cues that can be found in individual letter forms, that either make or break an entire font. Maybe it's because a little bit if the inner OCD in me gets to shine through in the process, or maybe it's just because I'm back to drawing again like an excited little kid, something I have sadly been growing away from. Whatever it is, I feel like I am just that most of the time while I am drawing these little letters, an excited little kid drawing pictures. Isn't that what it's all about anyways?

Here's a preview of just one of my upcoming fonts that I'm designing for my senior thesis. I'm extremely excited about this upcoming semester and all the things I have planned, I don't think I've been this excited about a project in good long while, that's saying something. I plan on posted a lot of blog entry's all along the way, so keep checking back for progress updates and preview shots of what I'm working on.

Hand lettered Christmas cards? YUP!

Christmas is probably my favorite time of year, even amidst all the chaos. This year I really wanted to do something different and slow down a little bit from school, work and pretty much just life in general and take the time to do something a little more personal; hand lettered christmas cards.

This is one that I did for my wonderful girlfriend Ashley's parents. Granted, it's not my best work, nor is it perfect in any way, but it has something that I don't normally get to put into my pieces; good old fashioned pencil and pen hand drawn type. It makes me kind of sad to know that in today's day and age it's not only hard to find the time to do hand drawn lettering such as this, but to find people who actually appreciate the extra time and effort put into it. However, I am realizing just how beautiful hand draw lettering can be and how much fun it is to do. I love all the imperfections in hand drawn letter forms. It's such a breath of fresh air after pretty much all of my work is edited and aligned to perfection in the computer. It's something that I feel just adds something special to a design, the beauty of the imperfections left by the human hand is something that I have grown to love and respect greatly.

Website is officially online!

This is indeed very exciting news for me. I've wanted to have my own portfolio site for a good long while now and I finally have it up and running. It took a lot of work that I couldn't have done without the help of my good friend John Bibbo who is pretty much the master of all things web. It wouldn't be nearly what it is now without his help. Yes last night was a long night, but I think it all paid off in the end! I still would like to do a few thing to it whenever I have some left-over time to put into it, but over all this was exactly what I was envisioning to represent my web presence. Anyways, feel free to check it out, browse around and contact me anytime!

Here's the link

Website re-design

It is time for me to attempt to tackle the web yet again. A fully designed and operational portfolio website is due at the beginning of class this coming friday. I must say however, that I am rather excited for it. I've wanted to have my own website up and running for some time now, so this is as good of an excuse as any to really buckle under and make it happen. I had a website designed at the end of last year, but it really didn't function all that well (if at all in some browsers) and wasn't very polished. I plan on changing that and adding a bit of a fresher look to it. The snap shot at the end of this post is just a bit of a teaser for everyone of my new site. Keep checking back for a link to the finished site in the near future!

Senior Show and Celebration

Just recently finished the Senior Show and Celebration project, now it's just a matter of printing and mounting all of the work for presentations on tuesday this coming week. Thought I would leave a  teaser of the final for all to enjoy, I will post the project as a whole after presentations, so keep checking back!

Busy busy busy

This week seems to have dumped me a whole lot of work all of a sudden. A new round of projects have just been handed out in some of my classes and I'm still working on finishing up some projects that are due soon. Should be interesting. I see a lot of late nights in my near future...

Holy cow that was a day and a half! Artist Gail Anderson visited PCA&D today for a lecture in the morning, then held a workshop for all the junior and senior Graphic Design majors. From the time we got to spend with Gail and her lecture, she seems like an incredible woman and an incredibly talented artist. Simply listening to her lecture was so inspiring and motivating. She has had a long, successful career in the field of graphic design and has so many words of wisdom.

In the afternoon when Gail spent some time with the junior and senior Graphic Design majors, she gave us all the assignment of creating a poster for Pennsylvania College of Art & Design's 30th anniversary. However, we were to create this poster in no more than 3 hours and could only use vector images of old wood type that she provided for us. There were literally hundreds of letters to choose from. Even through all of that, myself and two of my fellow classmates and good friends collaborated and designed, then screen printed a 3 color poster in that 3 hour span. I think it was a very proud moment for all of us. A busy and tiring day, but an extremely rewarding and inspiring one at the end of it all.

First blog post.

Well, I guess I'm officially a blogger now. This is my blog. Read it, like it. Look for more cool posts soon!