Super Awesome Graphic Design Blog for Graphic Design Students, Graphic Design Tutors and their Feelings
Just a note for all of our Aussie designer friends and graduates. AGDA will be advertising their directory of designers all throughout October on BRW.com.au. so now is a better time than ever to update your profile or join AGDA.
The brief. That genesis of the creative process. All design jobs begin with a briefing from the client, usually in written form (the preferred option) though they can also be given verbally. It’s difficult to overstate how important the humble brief is to the design process. In short, no brief, no project! Breaking the topic down into key aspects over several articles, I’ll be taking you through the ins and outs of everything you need to know about the brief. Let’s start with…
Following on from Contemporary Type Foundries Part 1, presented below are the final six type foundries I’ve chosen to display. So, without further ado…
The distinctively coloured Exljbris homepage and a sample from their Didone-like typeface Questa. Imagery used with kind permission of © Exljbris.
Striking artwork by graphic designer Kristian Bjornard who has experimented with and modified Exljbris’s font Geotica Three.
Described on its blog as a ‘one-man Dutch font foundry’ Exljbris was founded by Jos Buivenga. Exljbris is where Jos releases and offers his typefaces. For 15 years, his online friends and fans could follow the development of his typefaces and download the results at no cost. In 2008, while still working as an art director at an advertising agency, he released his first commercial typeface Museo with several weights offered for free. That strategy paid off and Museo became a huge bestseller. Partly thanks to that success he now calls himself a full time type designer. Recent projects include a custom version of Museo & Museo Sans for Dell and the Questa project, a collaboration with the well-known type designer Martin Majoor.
(Top) The Linotype homepage is a portal to typographic manna; (below) a tantalising collection of Linotype specimens. All imagery used with kind permission of © Linotype.
Linotype should need no introduction, being at the centre of typographical innovation (and upheaval) for the past 120 years (in one guise or another). This from their website: “The day Ottmar Mergenthaler demonstrated the first linecasting machine to the New York Tribune in 1886, Whitelaw Reid, the editor, was delighted: “Ottmar,” he said, “you’ve cast a line of type!” The editor’s words formed the basis for the company label, and marked the beginning of Linotype’s success story. Four years later, the ingenious inventor founded the Mergenthaler Linotype Company. Little did he know that after more than 100 years of successful business the Linotype, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc., would be following in his footsteps.”
Today, Linotype sees itself as a partner to typographers and designers and has one of the world’s largest font libraries (10,500 typefaces and counting). Its comprehensive website is a masterly feat of navigation; visitors able to search for fonts not only through technical specifications but also by intended use (text, corporate, screen etc.), type foundry and character set features. In addition the Linotype Form Finder makes it possible for users to reshape a font sample displayed in order to select the kind of typeface he is looking for. There are so many other useful services and products on the Linotype site that it’s probably better you just have a peruse rather than read me prattling on.
(Top & middle) HypeForType’s homepage complete with arresting 3D type artwork and type specimens of Killer, Neo Deco and Links, which form distinctive pieces of design in their own right. HypeForType turned 1 recently and posted this announcement on their blog. Imagery used with kind permission of © HypeForType.
“A labour of love for founder Alex Haigh” is how HypeForType is described on its website. The foundry is 1 year old now and already has an impressive collection of high quality, new and exclusive faces as well as some esoteric and unusual ones. Their blog is a good read, you’ll find competitions, interviews and exciting announcements there. Perhaps most striking of all is HypeForType’s predilection for working with some of the design industry’s big names, collaborations which produce unique one-offs available exclusively through HypeForType.
LucasFonts’s website embodies much of what might be termed International or Swiss style design. Beneath are two examples from Germany of their fonts in use. Imagery used with kind permission of © LucasFonts.
Lucas De Groot founded his own type foundry, LucasFonts, in 2000. Its aim, in a few words: “to make the world a better place by designing typefaces that look good and work well under any circumstances and in many languages.” The website claims “Graphic designers across the planet have discovered the special qualities of Luc(as)’ fonts. They are attracted by their functionality and friendly appearance and love the enormous range of possibilities that each family offers. Many also appreciate the idiosyncrasies – a quest for extremes that has resulted in some of the narrowest, thinnest, wittiest or boldest typefaces around.”
LucasFonts has a sister company, FontFabrik which specialises in custom typefaces and is now world-renowned, having designed fonts for Microsoft, Heineken, Siemens and Volkswagen.
Shown above are SMeltery’s idiosyncratic homepage, type specimens of Heretica, Geronto Bis (which Jack is particularly proud of) and Enfer, and engagingly designed samples of Sans Merci and Soupirs. Imagery used with kind permission of © SMeltery.
SMeltery is a French type foundry founded by Jack Usine in 2002, which offers a very attractive range of display-type faces. There are some gems to be found in the ‘free’ section, though Jack’s currently most proud of recent works like Vidange, Megalopolis and Geronto Bis. A Bordeaux-based graphic designer, Jack also maintains a vigourous involvement in various aspects of visual culture, which seems to have influenced his energetic SMeltery typefaces in an intriguing way.
Typonine’s homepage devotes a lot of space to new faces such as the elegant, high-contrast Marlene. Shown bottom is a spectacular selection of typographic posters from Tipoplakat of which Nikola Djurek is a member. Imagery used with kind permission of © Typonine.
Typonine is a digital type foundry and graphic design studio based in Croatia and The Netherlands. It is run by graphic and type designer Nikola Djurek who founded Typonine in 2005. Their fonts have a precision, tension and elegance about them which would make them a good choice for discerning clients. The Playground page of their website is a mischievous patch dedicated to type experiments and projects, and through Tipoplakat, customers can order from a collection of stunning typographic posters designed by Djurek and his close associates.
Unobtrusive in their way, type foundries have made the transition from Old Trade to the digital age with élan and are a vital pillar of the modern design profession, indispensable to studios and those clients willing to commission bespoke fonts. But they should also become indispensable to students and fledglings, for even if unable to afford some of the fonts, it pays to be aware of things at the top end of the profession, and the services, guidance and free downloads make foundries an invaluable resource. You might be so convinced of a font’s appropriateness for a particular job that it’s possible to argue a client into parting with the funds for it. So captivated by the ligatures of a typeface that the 70 pounds/dollars/euros you had set aside for a big night out you instead divert for its purchase. Unrealistic? Maybe, but you live in hope!
JUMP is an Australian national mentoring program for artists aged 18-30, who are in the first five years of their professional practice.
Mention the word ‘recruiter’ to a creative and you’ll always get a ‘marmite’ type reaction. You either love’em or you hate’em. Why such a strong reaction? Do you really need a recruiter to find a job, or is it better to just go it alone?
So you find yourself pitching for a job and have come up with an ingenious solution to a fiendishly tricky design conundrum, and all you want to do is get on the phone to the client and sing it to him from the bottom of your lungs. Slow down there pardner. To convince your client of the barnstorming excellence of your proposed solution, more often than not you’ll need to take him through things step-by-step in a presentation. Presentations are important to get right, and represent the ultimate test of your communication skills. Many a fine idea has been admonished or dismissed through poor presentation. Gulp down the words below to ensure this doesn’t happen to yours…
Save perhaps his personality, the freelance graphic designer’s portfolio is, undoubtedly, the most valuable asset in his professional life. I have written elsewhere that the portfolio is the freelancer’s shop window, an intimate glimpse into his or her being for all who view it. We have to love our portfolios, agonise over what goes into them, and tend and nurture them as we would a sapling we’d once planted. Nothing should be left to chance, not even tiny details, as it’s these, at times, that we may be judged on. So let us not delay any longer, but instead plunge into the sober, matte black folds of the portfolio…
At the same point each month, every month, an employed person receives a wage packet from his payroll department, and his his bank account is credited with his salary. Safe in this knowledge, he can plan his finances around this fixed point. For the intrepid freelancer things are a little different, for he must send out invoices to his clients, and then wait to be paid. So far so straightforward, but there are several factors to consider with regard to invoicing, which I’ll be taking you through below. After all, getting paid on time is what keeps us all afloat, and what freelance designer doesn’t desire that?
Woo hoo! You’ve finished college, you’ve put together your folio and you’re ready to take on the design world. Should you be looking for permanent or freelance roles, or just try and get whatever you can? Here are some things worth considering before you decide.
They come in all shapes and sizes, from all different professional backgrounds, and we rely on them to pay our fees. A large portion of the freelancer’s life is spent looking for them, bagging them, and spending a considerable amount of our daily slog trying to work out what they want. I’m speaking of course about clients, and this article is all about working with them…
This week’s article on professional design practice concerns project planning. Good, thoughtful project planning can be indispensable to the smooth running of your professional life as a freelancer. By running your business along well-oiled, well-organised lines you’ll be able to wring the most amount of time out of your days, maximise your profits, avoid mislaying things and generally inject some calm into your busy life. A modicum of planning, far from acting as a restraint on creativity, can in fact free us to spend more time on the creative process. It should therefore be an integral part of all our working lives. Follow the guides below, or a life of professional chaos awaits!
Knowing how to price jobs and what to charge clients is as essential a component of being a successful fledging graphic designer as any. It’s a delicate thing to get right. Price a job too high and you risk your prospective client remaining just that—prospective. Too low, and the person on the other end might view this as a reflection of the quality of the services you provide in a “you get what you pay for” sort of way. So there’s a balance to be struck, and it pays to have some systems in place. Here in the second lesson of our series on professional design practice I’ll do my best to provide you with some frameworks below. So, without further ado, let’s dive in!
Paulywood for istockphoto has released an article on logo creation. A great article for those graduates or students wanting to get into creating logos for istock. Below are our fav excerpts, check out the whole article, its well worth the read.
In the first of a series of lessons entitled Professional Practice, we have sourced one of todays hottest working English based freelance designers to give you the leg up on building yourself a truly professional Graphic Design practice. Look out for the following in the new series; Freelance Fee Structures & How to Quote, Project Planning (Breaking Jobs Into Milestones), Dealing with Clients, Charging & Invoicing, Law in Design Practice, The Portfolio, A Conclusion of Sorts. Being Freelance. Benefits & Pitfalls.
David Airey, super blogger and notorious designer has released a book called Logo Love Design. He offers a free to download chapter of his book, that illustrates perfectly a graphic design process that endorses the wonderful process of design, from Pencil to PDF. A recommended read and investment for all design students.
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