Autumn

The wind is blowing and drops of rain tingle in the air today — autumn is here. This dreamy illustration captures that autumn spirit. It's desktop wallpaper from vnwallpapers.com

Jeffrey Fisher Notecards

I love the creativity, color and handmade styling of these charming Jeffrey Fisher notecards.

Borges Poema

Borges Poema is at the height of italic elegance. I especially love the curlicues and the curves of the W, g and f. I'm going to have to get the whole family.

I recently used Borges Poema on a congratulations card for a retiring coworker. The funny thing is — when I was looking through the retirement book assembled for her, I saw another card using Borges Poema too. I guess I'm not the only designer who likes this font.

US Election Graphics

I'm heartily sick of the presidential election and ready for the media circus to end. (Actually, it never ends, it just switches topics but one can always hope...) I was most impressed with the Obama campaign design although McCain's campaign design suited McCain quite well. So for an election graphics roundup:



Obama's campaign fonts are Gotham and Perpetua (I almost thought it was Warnock Pro but the A's weren't right and a Google search revealed the correct serif font). Gotham is a good sanserif font choice for a message of change with its simple and modern look. Perpetua can actually be annoying as a text font because the x-height is rather small but it works well for titles and has a sharp modern look here. I like the O logo — it's simple and striking, although the Capitol building feels a little too round - it might have been better with the cupola added on top. Using a brighter blue with or instead of the standard dark blue was another graphical way to convey a message of change.

By far, my favorite design item was the multicolored Obama poster. Great choice of colors, image and retro styling. I've seen these posters all around town.


McCain's campaign font is Optima, a bold sanserif font with slight curves in the letterforms. The star was a good choice to emphasize McCain's military experience. It also brings the stars on the American flag to mind. This shade of yellow with this shade of blue doesn't work so well but it's bold and again ties to the military — all of those "Support Our Troops" ribbons are yellow. The McCain stickers are the same exact design as the yard signs so I didn't duplicate it here. I haven't seen any McCain campaign posters around town.

I'd give Obama's website design an A and McCain's website design a C.

Creating a Halftone Background

Here a simple way to create a background texture with halftones:

1. Create a new file in Photoshop. I created a 600px x 600px at 72 dpi file for this example.
2. Fill the background with 50% gray.
3. Choose Filter > Pixelate > Color Halftone. I left the default angles alone and chose 8 px for one sample and 30 px for the other.

4. Choose Image > Adjustments > Gradient Map and pick whatever colors you like.
5. If the background you've created has too much contrast, you can apply levels or change the layer opacity to get the desired result.

Sleepers Awake

One of our print vendors gave away promotional posters featuring this painting by Daniel Nevins. I like his smooth and flowing style and how he contrasts bold and delicate textures and colors.

The Indian Clerk

The Indian Clerk is a work of fiction set in the early 1900s British India and relationship between mathematicians G.H. Hardy and Srinivasa Ramanujan. My favorite thing about this cover is the small title centered in the circular pattern. I also like the muted sepia tones and subtle patterns.

Color Scheme Cravings

You know how sometimes you start craving ice cream or creamy pasta or something yummy and not immediately available? I'm craving colors today.

I'm wearing a light cyan blue shirt today. When I walked by a hibiscus bush during lunch, I was struck by how well the colors work together—how the icy light blue beautifully complements deep red of a hibiscus flower. Since I can't use these colors for any of my current projects, I thought I'd post my color scheme here.

The flower is a character in the free font Kalocsai Flowers.

Nofret

I like Nofret for its elegantly rounded letterforms, straight serifs, and beautiful small caps. In the italic cut, the characters are less round and more compressed—very calligraphic. As is generally true of modern serifs, as the font weight gets heavier Nofret's thick to thin ratio becomes more and more pronounced.

Erased

I'm not interested in reading this book (too morbid) but I couldn't help admiring the colors and design of the cover. The colors work so well together! I also like the rough texture in the typography and upper part of the cover. Beautifully executed.