Category: Typography

Typography

Morandini’s Constructivist Monogram Alphabet

By Delphine Hirasuna |

From the Past Print blog comes this account of how Marcello Morandini designed a colorful Constructivist alphabet for German ceramic company, Rosenthal, in the late 1980s. At the time, the renowned Italian industrial designer/ sculptor/ architect was engaged in designing Rosenthal’s new office building in Selb. Morandini’s decorative letters were not meant for publication, but to serve as a special-order monogram for Rosenthal’s studio line of dinnerware, three-sided vase and wall plate. Customers could have any two initials they wanted inscribed on these products. To promote this custom-order offering, Rosenthal created a fan-deck booklet displaying Morandini’s alphabet, one letter per page. But alas, if you want to buy a Rosenthal Morandini Alphabet plate now, you’re out of luck. The company apparently discontinued this product line.

Packaging

A Nutty Approach to Brand Design

By Delphine Hirasuna |

The product used to be called NutsOnline and its packaging identity was totally generic and forgettable. So, when the New Jersey-based online retailer secured the domain name “Nuts.com,” it set out to change its image by hiring a powerhouse team to design a new logo and packaging. The result is an identity that looks like it was created by precocious third-graders – but in a good way. The letters were hand-drawn by Pentagram partner Michael Bierut and digitized by type designer Jeremy Mickel. Illustrator Christoph Niemann made line-drawings of the gang of playful nuts. The effect is fresh and charming, and unconventionally nutty. As breezily executed as this design looks, it takes skill to make it appear spontaneous and carefree and not amateurish and crudely done. A closer looks shows there is a hierarchy to the information on the box and an organization to the design. Even the see-through nut personalities give consumers a glimpse of the product inside. This is sophisticated design made to look naïve.

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Typography

Mapping the Alphabet Topographically

By Delphine Hirasuna |

Is it an intriguing sculpture or three-dimensional infographics? As a personal project, New York-based designers Caspar Lam and YuJune Park of Synoptic Office created a topographic map of the English alphabet based on how frequently each letterform was used in words. In an interview with Colossal, Park says that their reference for word frequency was the University of Cambridge Computer Lab. From there, they modeled each letter in Rhino and exported sections of each letter to AutoCad. They set a total variable of six inches from the most often used letter (E) to the least used (Z), arriving at a height difference of .23 inches. Laser cut in sections on architectural butter board, each letter sits in a 6×6 inch square, allowing for any combination of letters to run seamlessly both horizontally and vertically. Park says the work wasn’t done for any client, but purely “from a desire to explore the idea of language landscapes – visualizing language and the ebb and flow of spoken English.”

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Design Education

Public Television Launches Web Art Series

By Delphine Hirasuna |

PBS, America’s public television network, has been running a 13-part, bi-weekly web series on experimental and non-traditional art forms. Produced by New York-based production company Kornhaber Brown, the “Off Book” program features interviews with well-known designers and artists working in various creative disciplines, including typography, interactive art, book illustrations, product design, indie music, fashion design, videogame art, steampunk, and more. Running between five and seven minutes, each “Off Book” segment lets innovators explore the process, motivation, meaning and relevance behind their work. This segment is on typography. To see other topics in the series, go to PBS.org/arts.

Public Art Programs

Blackpool Comedy Carpet – Good for Laughs

By Delphine Hirasuna |

One of the UK’s largest works of public art, the Comedy Carpet, opened in October on the seaside promenade in front of the renowned Tower in Blackpool. Designed by artist Gordon Young in collaboration with Why Not Associates, the typographic landscape is made up of jokes, songs and catch phrases from more than 1,000 British comedians and writers. Commissioned by the Blackpool County Council to create a piece of installation art, Young determined that “Blackpool occupies a unique and important place in the social history of Britain. Comedy in all its guises is a big part of who and what we are…. Blackpool has been a magnetic chuckle point for the nation.” Young added that he also wanted to maintain the high craft standards of Blackpool’s historic architecture, including the famous Winter Gardens, library and Tower. “

The 2,200 square meter Comedy Carpet was five years in the making. Each piece (over 160,000 letters) was cut from solid granite or cobalt blue concrete, arranged into over 300 slabs and cast into a high-quality concrete so it wouldn’t fade. The Comedy Carpet has become an instant tourist attraction, with visitors walking across the promenade and reading the memorable words of legendary comedians.

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