Woodland Type Faces

After recently seeing some lovely typographic work on Instagram by Mark Reddy and Jim Townsend 'Animalography', it reminded me of some woodland typographic animals I created a while back. As it often is with personal projects, more remain on the shelf than make it into the wild, so after a couple of years in hibernation, I've been inspired to let these ones go.

...a good cup of coffee

…CMYK sugar rush

...Christmas Jumpers

…wearing my holiday badges with pride

With a big hat tip to the honourable Scout and Guide badging system, here are four of my holiday badges - earned with pride!

…the art of scaffolding

Left: Serpentine Gallery Pavilion. Right: Co-op, London Road, Brighton

Making the most of another sunny day I headed to the Serpentine Gallery, interested to see this year's pavilion, Sou Fujimoto's temporary outdoor structure. 

On arrival I saw latticed steel poles combine with glass panels to create a massive climbing frame/seating area. It was great, kids were clambering over, adults were sipping tea and relaxing. The glass worried me slightly - I envisaged visitors slipping - their tea spilling onto the glass. But then I told myself to get over it. This is ART baby!

The next day, I headed down London Road, Brighton. I hadn't been that way for a while so it was quite something to see the Co-op building demolished, with only the facade in place, supported by a whole load of scaffolding.

What struck me was the visual similarities between this and the Serpentine structure. This was another massive frame of steel poles standing proud against the blue sky. They're both intended to be temporary and, maybe for different reasons, they both caused people to stop, look and take in the sight. 

Fujimoto's structure is a considered an aesthetic piece of art whereas the scaffolding surrounding the former Co-op may be seen, by some, as an eye sore. However, I like to think that art can exist beyond gallery pavilions and can be incorporated in the mundane and everyday.

...making a good impression using letterpress

A change is as good as a rest they say, so when the opportunity to do a day of letterpress came up at Ink Spot Press, I thought this extended screen break would do me good. And I thought right!

Typesetting, using predominantly only a Mac for over a decade, can turn you into somewhat of an automaton. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing. With the help of InDesign (and once-upon-a-time, QuarkXpress) I've been able to track, kern, lead and adjust type size at the drop of a keystroke. It's a modern privilege which has afforded me quickly and easily to hone my skills.

Having not touched letterpress since art school, I thought I'd forgotten everything involved. But from a heady combination of real ink smells and expert tutoring from lovely letterpress geek Sarah Bryant, the memories soon came back. If you've never had a go – and get the chance to – taking the time to compose metal type by hand and then seeing your work embossed with ink on to paper is BRILLIANT!

And as always, part of the process is all about making mistakes!

...being kept in The Loop

Running a successful newspaper isn't easy. On the spot copy requests, impossible image sourcing, last minute editorial changes, fierce deadlines hanging over your neck. And we should know, having ran a successful rag for 30 minutes one Saturday afternoon within Somerset House as part of the excellent Pick Me Up 2013 graphic arts festival. And when I say ran a successful newspaper, I mean sat down amongst a bunch of kids with pen and ink concentration, spitting out four pages of templated content and having a nice lady print off ten copies (in fantastic monotone tabloid red), from which one they kept and pinned on the wall and another we posted through our neighbour's letterbox for their Sunday morning bulletin.

Nothing like running a successful newspaper, then.

A big thank you to The Loop folks who let us sit down and join in the fun; essentially like clambering aboard some kid's summer bouncy castle party. It was great to see all these little future Jon Burgermans and Malika Favres going about their creative business. Luckily, judging by how focussed the kids were, our frantic scribing under the pressure of their peerage went unnoticed.

Here's a digital edition. And when I say digital edition, I mean photograph of the front and back of our version of The Loop.

...pressing buttons

…offers you can refuse

...an RGB Christmas

What is the Yuletide season without a selection tin of biscuits and a copy of the Radio Times? To celebrate, partner in crime Kate suggested we make a fitting tree decoration. Good idea!

...blue meets green