For the past two years we have worked to help the organization Rolling Readers with their annual appeal piece that helps raise money for their organization. It is always an exciting and fun project for us to work on, let us know what you think!
Type
4
Feb 11
Feb 11
Rolling Readers Annual Appeal
Post by Parallax
Tags: Branding, creative agency, Design, Graphic Design, graphic design san diego, Non-Profit, Parallax, Pro Bono, Rolling Readers, San Diego, Type
19
Jan 11
Jan 11
Create a Campaign – Video
Post by Parallax
Have you ever needed to raise awareness or money for an organization?
We recently finished creating the “Strong Ties for a Strong Education” campaign for the La Jolla Country Day School. The campaign, which will run for several years needed depth with both the visuals and messaging to ensure longevity and consistency to create and maintain awareness.
The video is a quick peek into the process, visuals and messaging for the campaign.
Tags: Annual Fund, Branding, campaign, creative agency, Design, Fundraising, Giving, Graphic Design, graphic design san diego, La Jolla Country Day, LCDS, LJCD, LJCDS, Parallax, San Diego, Type, Video
15
Dec 10
Dec 10
Heath + House
Post by Sean Bacon
Over the weekend I went up to Los Angeles for House Industries’ event at Heath Ceramics. It was a lot of fun to be there and meet the people as well as see all the cool stuff they make. The event was to celebrate the launch of some ceramic numeral tiles for building numbers, which actually looked fantastic. They also had a screenprinting demo set-up where you could get custom stuff made which was lots of fun. The show/set-up will be up through the end of year and I recommend checking it out if you are in the LA area.
Tags: Branding, creative agency, Design, Graphic Design, graphic design san diego, Parallax, San Diego, Type
19
Nov 10
Nov 10
Eames + Type = Goodness
Post by Sean Bacon
Parallax just finished a large campaign for La Jolla Country Day. It was a great project and has been well received so far. We also were able to use the relatively new Eames Century Modern typeface from House Industries and we are all pretty big fans. I posted about its release almost a year ago now here, so it was a lot of fun to get to see it in action. It is functional yet fun and interesting just like the work of the design power couple. The typeface is not inspired by actual lettering done by Charles and Ray but applies their style and ideology to its letterforms. Check out some of the work done for La Jolla Country Day and learn more about the Eame’s legacy in this TED video.
Tags: Branding, creative agency, Design, Eames, Graphic Design, graphic design san diego, Parallax, San Diego, Type
12
Nov 10
Nov 10
Gastrotypographicalassemblage
Post by Sean Bacon
We have recently moved our office to Encinitas and as we build and make this space our own I have been thinking about other successful transformations I have seen. The type wall from the CBS building sticks out in my mind. Lou Dorfsman was the art director for CBS from 1947 to 1987. In his time there he did many amazing things, but the Gastrotypographicalassemblage, as it became known, is one of the most impressive.
A collaboration between Dorfsman and Herb Lubalin, The 35 x 8.5 foot wall was designed with gridded type related to food and placed in the cafeteria in CBS’ headquarters. The wall really made the space and gave the room character and an obvious purpose. Dorfsman referred to the wall as “his magnum opus, his gift to the world” and it personally also sparked my love for typography. Unfortunately in 1990 CBS discarded the wall, but it was saved by a designer with some foresight named Nick Fasciano. Thanks to Nick the wall still exists but from improper care and storage it is damaged. The Center for Design in Atlanta has taken on the task of restoring the piece to its original glory. Check out and get inspired by his amazing creation. Hopefully it will be restored and put on display sometime soon.
Great video about the wall and Dorfsman:
Gastrotypographicalassemblage from Kemistry on Vimeo.
Tags: Branding, CBS, creative agency, Design, Gastrotypographicalassemblage, Graphic Design, graphic design san diego, Lou Dorfsman, Parallax, San Diego, Type
17
Sep 10
Sep 10
Create a Typeface-in 5 days?
Post by Sean Bacon
In the middle of July I spent a week in NYC taking a class through the School of Visual Arts Continuing Education program titled: Turning Letters into Type. It was an intense 5-day workshop to learn the ins and outs of creating a typeface from the ground up. I went into the course knowing that it would be overwhelming, but I had no idea how much there was to learn and absorb in 5 very long days. The class was taught by Sara Soskolne a senior designer at Hoefler and Frere Jones who was so patient, friendly and very knowledgeable.
The class met M-F from 10-6pm and often went over because we all needed more time, I think that was the theme of the class, more time. Sara did an amazing job of working with each of us and trying to squeeze in as much information as possible. Each of the twenty students brought in a project of their choosing to work on. I think we all knew it would be impossible to complete the entire project in the 5 days, but a lot of us were hoping and some people came pretty close. I chose to work on a custom typeface for a branding project I worked on in college. It started 2 years ago when I could not find the “perfect” font to give voice to my branding assignment. It was all in the details, one was too fancy another was too utilitarian and I eventually settled on something that was close, but not perfect. It was great to spend the time articulating what my typeface would look like and to see the letters in my imagination come to life. It took a lot of time and energy drawing and redrawing each letter/glyph by hand and then spending just as much time perfectly drawing the characters in FontLab on the computer. I have to say the most satisfying part of the process was being able to actually see your font appear as you hit each key on the keyboard. It was a phenomenal experience and a great way to get my feet wet in the world of type design. I also gained a deeper respect for analyzing type and constructing letterforms, it takes a very critical eye to see past the letters themselves and look at their construction and how they work together as a family.
Tags: Branding, creative agency, Design, Graphic Design, graphic design san diego, Hoefler and Frere Jones, Parallax, San Diego, Sara Soskolne, School of Visual Arts, Turning Letters into Type, Type, Typography
11
May 10
May 10
Branding in an ever-changing world
Post by Sean Bacon
An interesting recent article from Fast Company about the changing times and how they affect design as well as other parts of the creative world. Take a look.
Tags: Branding, creative agency, Design, Graphic Design, graphic design san diego, Parallax, San Diego, Type
23
Mar 10
Mar 10
So many typefaces…which to use?
Post by Sean Bacon
Understanding and being trained to use typography is something unique to the graphic design discipline. In many ways understanding the rules and functionality of typography is one of the few things that distinguishes graphic designers from fine artists. We are taught to use the written word; learning the nuts and bolts of fonts and spacing that are important to using typography effectively.
Beyond the rules and guidelines we also are taught about choosing typefaces and how these affect the messages we send and the ways we convey information. Selecting typefaces or fonts for projects is one aspect of typography that cannot be taught, there are few rules, but it involves intuition and in many ways comes with experience. Although selecting typefaces can be objective there are some general ground rules that we all follow, but even these are broken.
So how do you know how to choose 1 of thousands of fonts to use on any given project and know that it is the right one for your brand or message? Practice of course, but also intuition. Typefaces are like people they each have personalities and quirks, they all have something different to say and when your message and typeface’s voice align a very powerful association is made. In many ways the world a graphic design is their stage and typefaces are the actors who we direct as we see fit. For example you would never cast Kate Winslet to play Rambo or more subtly you wouldn’t want to cast Cameron Diaz to play Eleanor Roosevelt. With the plethora of fonts available today it is not quite as black and white, there are many typefaces featuring similar personalities that can be used interchangeably, but the ability to distinguish their subtle differences allows the user to harness even more of typography’s power. When using type it is important to think about this and always consider the message you are sending with the type you select or the voice you are giving to your words. Here are some movie quote examples:
This doesnt seem quite right….
But this is better, the words and style of type are better aligned.
Of course there are many other reasons to choose typefaces from their history, previous uses and type theories, but this at least illustrates the power of typography and its importance to bring your words to life. Remember not all fonts are created equal, there are always better choices to represent yourself and your brand or project, choose wisely.
J.L. Frazier said it best “Faces of type are like men’s faces. They have their own expression; their complexion and peculiar twists and turns of line identify them immediately to friends, to whom each is full of identity.”
Just for fun, here are dogs as type see what you think did they capture the personality and looks of these dogs with a typeface?
Dogs and Typefaces. Via SwissMiss
Tags: Branding, Choosing Fonts, creative agency, Graphic Design, graphic design san diego, J.L. Frazier, Parallax, San Diego, Type, Type Movie Quotes, Typeface