FOR LOVERS OF THE CRAFT Nichola Tiffany
INTRODUCTION This book showcases various handcrafted typographer’s and designer’s work, in both 2D and 3D formats. Craft and print play a major part in my work and even though today’s generation of designers perhaps lean more towards the digital; the traditional aspect of printed and hand drawn designs is still what drives me. Nichola Tiffany
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Contents
Page
Introduction
2
Importance of Print
5-10
Craft Folds & Formats
13-14
3D Crafted Type
15-20
Handcrafted Type My Chosen Top Ten
23-42
Interview with Jessica Hische
43-46
Directory
47
CONTENTS 4
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF PRINT TODAY? 6
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At the moment half my work is still print and half website design. I haven’t noticed a decrease in demand for design for printed matter... which is good because I think I prefer print. As a designer you have more control over print design and therefore I think there’s more satisfaction in getting the details right. In digital the outcome is always determined by the monitor / device you’re viewing it on. I’m not against digital at all, I just think print is important... I think it still has a future. We are not ready to go totally digital. We’d miss the physicality of books, the smell of paper, ink.
JOE GILMORE
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Print will always have its place so long as people value the tactile, however the market will continue to shrink, and the quality will rise. Print will become niche, collectible. Technology should always be seen as an opportunity. I’m optimistic. The mass market will migrate from print, but what will ultimately be left will be the fine quality, beautiful objects.
PAUL PENSOM 8
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Personally, I feel that print will never be lost, but in fact I feel it will be more specialized and will be offered more as a luxury item in a lot of cases. As we see a growth of specialist retailers ie Chocolatiers and specialist design units, I feel we will see specialist book shops where we can purchase quality print work, maybe more limited editions and more involved composition and use of materials. (We will never lose the love of print). There will be the option too, even of the same publication, but aimed at those that do not have the need to touch, feel and experience the art and craft of the printed product, and even the 'heady' small of nice ink. Digital print has a growing market, with Kindle and the iPad generation, and is handy to use, especially reference material that one can search at a touch of a button. So in fact one could say that digital books have made print more of a required commodity for lovers of the craft..
JOHN WATTERS
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As long as organisations adopt the right media for the right message then there is no reason why both digital and printed format cannot work alongside each other. They both have their own market and should not present people with a one or the other decision.
DIVERSE DESIGN 10
CRAFT 12
FOLDS & FORMATS A simple fold can transform a flat sheet into many useful things. More complex folding can create delicate art or practical objects. Paper folding is a finishing process that is popular in the design of booklets, flyers, brochures, and other printed materials. The primary purpose of folding is traditionally to reduce the physical size of a flat sheet, but folding is also used to create unique and interesting design features such as pockets, paper closures, fasteners and so on.
HVD fonts poster
promoting fonts including Brandon Grotesque, Livory, Brevia and Bumper.
B&W Studio
St George’s Crypt Annual Review
Stand’s
promotional designs for Enkelt
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3D CRAFTED TYPE Wilfrid Wood works with clay and wire when
creating his 3D designs producing all sorts of unusual objects and characters as well as type designs. He created the lettering as self initiated work, but he also created Amplify’s identity using the same method.
HunterGatherer
created this type design for the Swerve Festival identity in Los Angeles.
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Jarrik Muller
constructed this 3D Typeface by simply cutting and folding paper.
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Emeline Brule
created Triangulation using paper folding, lighting and shadows.
Charlie Hocking’s
Walnut Woodtype created to give an organic take on 3D type and used as part of a Body Shop campaign that was also spread across various printed materials..
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HAND CRAFTED
TYPE
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MY CHO SEN TOP TE N
Linzie Hunter ‘Originally from Scotland, Linzie now lives in North London. A graduate of Glasgow University, she was a theatre stage manager before studying illustration at Chelsea College of Art and Design. Her freelance illustration work is created digitally but when away from the computer she enjoys traditional print-making and book-binding.’ www.linziehunter.co.uk
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Liz Kay ‘Liz Kay is an Illustrator from the UK and represented by nbillustration. Her client list includes The Radio Times, Kia Motors, Miller Beer, Marks and Spencers, NUS, City of Sydney and Teachers Magazine.’ www.lizkay.co.uk
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Sarah Coleman ‘Nibs and ink are my thing. I draw on paper and ink-heavy, word-soaked imagery is my trademark. Though I creep into fashion and beauty, the worlds of advertising, fiction, packaging and music are where my work seems to fit most snugly. If ‘snug’ is the right word...’
www.inkymole.com
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Jessica Hische ‘Jessica Hische is a typographer and illustrator working in Brooklyn, New York. After graduating from Tyler School of Art with a degree in Graphic Design, she worked for Headcase Design in Philadelphia before taking a position as Senior Designer at Louise Fili Ltd. In 2009 she left Louise Fili to pursue her freelance career further. Jessica has been featured in most major design and illustration publications’ www.jessicahische.is/awesome
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Sasha Prood ‘I create typography, illustrations, patterns and graphics using pencil, pen and watercolor with the computer. Thematically my works lean toward the organic, natural and scientific with vintage, utilitarian and childhood influences.’
www.sashaprood.com
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Sarah Abbott ‘Sarah is an artist/illustrator, living and working from Sheffield, UK. She gained a First Class Honours Degree in Fine Art Printmaking from Manchester Met University in ‘09.’
www.sarah-abbott.co.uk
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Katie Daisy ‘Katie Daisy is a wandering artist whose home is the prairie. Originally from a small farm in Illinois, Katie is greatly inspired by rural life. At only 23 years, Katie has worked for numerous clients such as Target, HGTV, & American Greetings. Katie’s work has also been recognized by the Society of Illustrators, Chronicle Books, HOW Magazine, CMYK Magazine, Pregnancy & Newborn, and Stampington’s Artful Blogging Magazine.’
www.katiedaisy.net
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Yulia Brodskaya ‘Yulia Brodskaya was born in Russia (Moscow) and moved to the UK in 2004. Following an MA in Graphic Communication (2006, University of Hertfordshire) she continued to experiment and explore ways of bringing together all the things she likes most: typography, paper, and highly detailed hand-made craft objects. She has swiftly earned an international reputation for her innovative paper illustrations and continues to create beautifully detailed paper designs for clients all around the world.’
www.artyulia.com
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Julene Harrison ‘Madebyjulene is the paper-cut art of British designer and illustrator Julene Harrison. I can create hand-cut custom paper-cut artwork for you. They make terrific gifts for birthdays, weddings and anniversaries (the first wedding anniversary is paper!). I could make you a portrait, a family motto or just something special you want to say.’
www.madebyjulene.com
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Rudi de Wet ‘Rudi de Wet is a Cape Town based illustrator whose work is characterised by bold, energetic illustration and lettering. Rudi specialises in bespoke hand lettering, typography, illustration and graphic art for all kinds of media and environments.’
www. rudidewet.com
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I N TE RVIEW W ITH JE S S IC A HIS C HE
Tell us about your background. How did you get started and when did you begin specializing in lettering? The wayback-background begins with two very understanding and supportive non-artsy parents that stocked our house full of every pencil, marker, and paint set imaginable. I grew up knowing I wanted to do something art related for a living but had no idea what graphic design was until my Sophomore year of college. I took an intro course and was hooked. Design was satisfying in a completely different way than fine art—everything was like a puzzle you had to solve and it wasn’t (for the most part) self-expressionistic. As a nineteen-year-old from Nowheresville, Pennsylvania who lived a relatively charmed existence, I didn’t feel like I really had much to “express” yet. Being able to think and execute artwork on the behalf of others—to address their needs rather than my own—was a giant “Eureka!” moment. I couldn’t get enough of my design courses. I was the kid in class everyone hated because they did five times the work they were assigned. It took until almost the end of my senior year for my classmates to realize that I was working hard because I loved it, not because I was trying to one-up them. I procrastinated from every other class to work on design projects. I was insatiable.
I started lettering for the same reason a lot of people do—I was broke and couldn’t afford good typefaces. I was (and remain) a perfectionist. I would find typefaces that were “close but not perfect” and
then end up scrapping them all together to make something new. I noticed quickly that incorporating lettering into my projects elevated them above my classmates’—everything was cohesive and considered. At this point, I didn’t realize that it would become my specialty—that it was something you COULD specialize in—but I knew I loved it. Louise Fili offered me a job soon after I graduated and while working for her I really honed my lettering skills. I was doing a ton of freelance illustration at night
and tried to incorporate lettering whenever possible in small ways. Clients started to notice my lettering and were requesting it specifically when hiring me for illustration work. My portfolio quickly transitioned from “illustration” to “illustrative lettering” and continues to evolve with the more lettering work I get.
Continues >>>
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You mention how cohesive your work becomes since you’re incorporating your own lettering into your projects. To create that harmony, do you typically start with the lettering portion of a project or does the design dictate the form and structure? I think it’s important to consider lettering and typography early in a project, but not necessarily make ALL of your decisions about it as the first step (meaning don’t solidly declare you MUST use a certain typeface before you’ve addressed the rest of the design). I work very additively in almost everything I do, making general decisions and then shaping and whittling away until the design feels “right”. When I approach a new project, I first think about the general feeling that I want the piece to have—where it should fall on the “vintage” to “modern” scale; the masculine to feminine scale; the minimalist to highly ornate scale. Thinking about a project as being “a moderately vintage, feminine but not overly ornate” is a much less intimidating starting point, and having a general mood goal helps put clients at ease. It’s my tendency to jump to the lettering and type next, but it really varies project to project. You’ve developed a strong identity as a custom lettering specialist, do you devote most of your time to continuing to deepen that skill set or do you try and expand your knowledge base beyond that? I definitely try to diversify my knowledge and skill set beyond lettering—I think it’s impossible to be a well rounded designer if you’re not at least reading up on related industries. I spent six months of this year attending a continuing-ed. program for typeface design thinking that because the type industry is adjacent to
lettering it was a natural next step in my career. After getting my feet wet, I realized that I am just not built to be a proper typeface designer—it requires an inordinate amount of patience and a love of long-term projects, neither of which come naturally to me. I’m very patient in short bursts but if a project lasts more than a few intense weeks I get antsy to move on to something new. I learned an incredible amount about the type industry and typeface design in that short amount of time, so it of course wasn’t all for naught. I love learning about new things whether or not they directly connect to how I earn a living and I think that this desire to pay attention to related industries is one of the reasons why I’m a figure in the design community. It’s by learning about many things that you’re able to understand specialization—that design is broken into countless micro-industries. If you don’t understand the differences between them (or acknowledge that they exist), there is no way for you to find your own specialized niche with in it. As much as graphic designers roll their eyes and joke that “anyone that has Photoshop thinks they’re a graphic designer”, many think that just because they have Dreamweaver they can be a web designer. I make a giant distinction between the work that I do for clients and the work that I do for fun. This past year, I’ve learned an extraordinary amount about web design and front-end coding, but I would never web design professionally—I am not skilled enough nor entrenched enough in the web industry to offer this as a skill to clients. I try to put myself in the client’s shoes. If I were looking for a web designer, I would want someone whose main passion and interest was web design—someone that lived and breathed it and had the resources already in place to make my project happen smoothly. I advocate for specialization because
if I were a client, I would want a designer that was selfaware and knew when to delegate and when not to. I’d never hire a carpenter to build a skyscraper. When working on a lettering project generally how many drafts do you go through before you arrive at the final piece? Where are you trying to improve you lettering skills? The lettering industry operates very much like the illustration industry—generally I start with pencil sketches to present to clients (three options being the norm, sometimes less if they have a very clear idea of what they want and just need me to execute it), the client then approves one of the pencil sketches to go to final. Once I’ve presented final artwork, the client can of course give feedback for minor revisions and once the revisions are complete that’s it! I am, for the most part, working with art directors or other designers for lettering projects which translates to a relatively smooth work process. Most of my lettering work is for advertising, book covers, and editorial but I do occasionally do lettering for logos. Identity work is a bit different as I’m working directly with the end-client instead of with an art director go-between, so I usually have to do a bit more work up-front to get approval. It’s much more difficult working with non-creatives as they need to essentially see final art before they understand what your vision is, so I try to only take on a few logo projects a year. Interview from www.methodandcraft.com
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A list of contacts and sources: B&W Studio Behance Network Charlie Hocking Coreldesigner.wordpress.com Diverse Design Emeline Brule HunterGatherer Jarrik Muller Jessica Hische Joe Gilmore Jon Watters Julene Harrison Katie Daisy Linzie Hunter Liz Kay Methodandcraft.com Paul Pensom Rudi de Wet Sarah Abbott Sarah Coleman Sasha Prood Stand Wilfrid Wood Yulia Brodskaya
DIRECTORY 48
BA (Hons) Graphic Design // Final Major Project // Design Context