Robyn Durst

Origins is a new font designed by lettering artist Laura Worthington. I found this through an e-newsletter from My Fonts. The reason I decided to post about this font is because I think it’s quite elegent…it’s a nice breather from the scripty fonts we’re all used to seeing.

It’s a very versatile font, with over 140 alternate characters and ornaments. Origins was designed based on handwriting on parchement paper, giving it the “rough” feel.

It almost seems like what would come about if Papyrus and Bickham Script Pro had a baby font together, don’t you think?

Close up view of Lucky Arrow shirt design

This week my husband and I got our amazing t-shirts from Nikki at Lucky Arrow Designs, a local company specializing in graphic design, t-shirts and stickers.

Nikki, a lover of birds and all wildlife, created some unique designs to bring awareness to the horrific reality of the BP oil spill and it’s effect on the Gulf wildlife. Her designs are artistic, subtle and beautiful.

To start, I chose my “bird”, then a tagline. Nick and I both chose “Apologize” for our taglines, as we thought it was fitting (seeing as how no one has yet come out to actually apologize for the spill). Paired with the animal design, it also seems as if the ones they should be apologizing to is the wildlife.

The best part about her shirts is that she donates a portion of the proceeds to the Audobon Society for their efforts to help save the Gulf wildlife.

Now that’s pretty neat.

Nick's "Apologize" oil spill awareness t-shirt by Lucky Arrow Designs

Close-up of Nick's "seagull" shirt

My "Apologize" shirt

My cat approves :)

My cat, Charlie, also approved.

On top of the tees, Nikki hand-drew and designed a sweet bag as a bonus!

Nikki is very talented artist. If you have any thoughts on Lucky Arrow’s designs, leave a comment! Better yet, become their friend on Facebook. It’ll be much appreciated. :)

Some ways that you can help the Gulf wildlife -

Purchase one of Nikki’s shirts
Donate
Drive/fly down there to help clean animals
Buy Dawn dish soap and become their friend on Facebook
Spread the word. The more people become educated, the more help and love can abound

If you’d like more info, check out this site or this site. Or, google “How to help oil spill wildlife.”

Anyone who has developed a website knows that (usually) only a choice number of fonts are available to use in browsers. You have your standard serif, sans-serif, bold and italic fonts.

And anyone who has a design background will tell you how badly that sucks.

We all want to make our own or our client’s website stand out from the crowd. Creative typography is one way to do that, and Google (the champions of creative design) have now developed a “Font Directory” – a beta site that allows web designers to choose from an extensive list of open type fonts for web usage.

Ahhh…I can breathe easy now, knowing that I’m not restrained to Verdana or Arial!

How do you feel about Google’s font directory?

Photo courtesy of Vandelay Design. Action created by miss-etikate; posted on deviantart.com.

Have you ever wondered how professional photographers can make their photos look so realistic, yet surreal at the same time? For example, how do they give that blushing bride her angelic glow?

It’s all in the action. Photoshop action, that is!

Photoshop has an amazing tool called actions, which saves your steps when retouching photos so that later you can just push one button and – Whoaala! – you have a beautiful, ad-ready photo.

Many blogs offer free downloadable photoshop actions, but Vandelay Design recently published a list of 45 of the best the web has to offer.

"Two Women and a Hoe" Website

The other day my husband and I were out and about when I saw an SUV with a window decal on the back, advertising one of the most clever company names ever:

Two Women and a Hoe

I love witty business names. It just says to me that you’re the type of company who doesn’t take themselves too seriously, and you have enough confidence to display what could be (to some) a controversial name. The name says it all: they’re a landscaping business (hence, the “hoe”) based out of MI and run by women. That’s awesome in itself.

As far as design goes, their website gives off a vintage feel without being too old-fashioned. I especially love the products they sell, my favorite being “Dirty Hoe”.

Let’s not overlook the fact that their contact page is titled “Find a Hoe”.

Brilliantly funny. Nice job ladies!

Like every creative individual, sometimes I like to browse sites for inspiration or ideas, or just to waste time :)

Recently I came across  some beautiful pizza box packaging on The Dieline. Being a huge type nerd, what really caught my eye was the intricate use of typography as a graphic element.

Pizza Nova - Image courtesy of The Dieline

The studio that designed this brand identity/packaging was Concrete Design Communications, based out of Toronto, Canada. Toronto is just filled with creative minds!

Visit their site for more images of Pizza Nova and also for more beautiful work.

Have you seen any interesting packaging based on typography? Share below in the comments.

For my first post I figure I should introduce myself, probably tell you a little bit about my background and introduce you to my motives with this blog.

But I’m going to keep it short and sweet.

Check out my about page for more info, well, about me.

Go to my portfolio to see some of my work.

And if you’d like to speak to me about a job, or just for some good conversation, go to my contact page.

Now…on to blogging about design!