Beth Shirrell — Kalakari Display
Beth Shirrell’s beautiful alphabet is full of such amazing detail. In her words:
I explored typographic expression by creating a display font that captures and reflects the ornate culture of India. Specifically taking impetus from the country’s architecture, the ancient art of henna painting, and Hindu iconography. The font is a collection of 26 majuscule forms that make up the English alphabet. Kalakari translates from Hindi to English to mean ornamentation.
Via Ministry of Type.
Illustration: Jim Tierney [USA]
Jim Tierney’s work is not going to be ‘news’, but I did still want to post it because I think it’s so amazing — he possesses some formidable talent.
He designed a series of Jules Verne books as his senior thesis while studying Illustration and they are simply spectacular; be sure to watch the video below too, as not only are they beautiful, they are also delightful interactive objects.
His website is http://www.jimtierneyart.com/ and blog http://jimtierney.blogspot.com/
All work, images and video © Jim Tierney
Jim Tierney’s Jules Verne Series
Illustration: Claude Coates
I adore the gorgeous illustrations by Coats in this Golden Book edition of Lady and the Tramp by Ward Greene of Walt Disney.
The houses in particular are really charming!
These are all from the wonderful Golden Gems which I found via Karen’s fabulous blog Daily Design Discoveries.
(This is from a really large double-page spread which is now my desktop wallpaper)
Émile Prisse d’Avesnes (d’Avennes) (1807-1879)
I was very taken by these gorgeous illustrations posted recently over at the indispensable BibliOdyssey. From BibliOdyssey:
Émile Prisse d’Avesnes (d’Avennes) (1807-1879) was an important mid-19th century French Egyptologist and something of a polymath. He was a soldier, engineer, writer, illustrator and talented linguist.
“When he returned to Paris in I860; Prisse brought 300 folio drawings of paintings of various epochs, each up to seven or eight meters (23 to-26 feet) long; 400 meters (1300 feet) of paper impressions of bas-reliefs; 150 photographs of architectural and ornamental details, plans,sections and elevations; and 150 stereoscopic photographs, together with his enormous collection of drawing and notes. He also brought back, and later donated to the Louvre, the skulls of 29 mummies which he had identified by era, position and individual name.” [source]
Incidentally, not long afterwards I was browsing Cooper Union Typography’s post on Aldo Novarese, and a specimen for his typeface Egizio uses a very similar image.
Karen’s Whimsy
I am thoroughly fascinated by history (especially the Middle Ages) and I love to unashamedly indulge in the elaborate, romanticised version of Medieval history that appears in books, films and illustrations. For this reason, I was very excited to stumble upon Karen’s Whimsy, a website containing hundreds of public domain vintage images of everything from King Arthur of Camelot and Medieval Knights to Victorian, Renaissance and other Vintage Fashion. In fact, I believe there are even some images of Molluscs and a section devoted to Celtic Knot Patterns.
Owen Gildersleeve for The Guardian… Amazing.
Illustration: Adam Simpson [UK]
This morning I was completely captivated by the work of Adam Simpson. I spotted his book cover for Sunnyside by Glen David Gold yesterday, and promptly noted his name down. Lucky I did, the rest of his work is spectacular.
Sunnyside book cover
I love the isometrics, imagination and masterful typography. Lots of tiny nooks and crannies in which tiny visual surprises are hiding.
A little more on Adam, from his website:
Adam Simpson graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2004 with a First Class Honours degree in Illustration. In the same year he moved to London to study at the Royal College of Art, where he began a Masters degree in Communication Art and Design.
His work encompasses design, animation and illustration - always with a strong emphasis on drawing.
Adam has contributed to major exhibitions and book fairs in London, Edinburgh and Bologna as well as numerous Japanese art museums.
‘Boundaries’ Commissioned by Conran and Partners, 2008
Extracts from ‘Let us cultivate the garden’ - a typographic book (2006)
‘Imagination Building’ from Wallpaper magazine, 2009
Visit Adam’s website for more fantastic work: http://www.adsimpson.com/
Cristiana Couceiro [Lisbon]
This morning I am really enjoying the work of Cristiana Couceiro. There is also an interview with Cristiana over at Untrendy Graphics Blogzine that is worth a read.
Via the wonderful Beyond the Pixels blog.
Paper beats Internet
Paper beats Internet is an ‘analog’ social networking site that is a
home for entries that focus on exploring the use and relationship between hand-rendered type and images. The work is a dialogue between students and invited guest contributers with professional backgrounds in design, illustration, fine art, writing and other disciplines
It’s like a forum where threads start as drawings and all the replies are drawings.
Below are some great illustrations from the site, all copyright their respective owners.
An example of a thread and its responses…
Spam Art
SPAM! We have all seen it, ignored it, deleted it, perhaps despised it. But sometimes it might just be worth hanging onto and glorifying. Alternatively, continue to ignore it and just enjoy the work of others who have done the glorification for you.
You may wish to go ahead and purchase yourself a copy of Linzie Hunter’s Spam Project; a book of 30 hand-lettered postcards based on the subject lines of spam emails.
Brisbane-based design collective Inkahoots have also take a similar idea and turned it into the wonderful work below. I am particularly interested in 19th century design devices and embellishments at the moment (like folded ribbons and fancy borders), so I am especially fond of the way the spam text is incorporated into this.
© Inkahoots (no title) from Tasmanian type mag Typotastic (Issue 4)
Visit Linzie’s website for more of her work.
For more information on Inkahoots, see interview in Issue 4 of Typotastic (available at artsy/designy bookshops) or visit their website.
Illustration, Art & Hilarity: David Fullarton [USA]
These artworks are part of David Fullarton’s installation in the offices of a Houston radio station, called What I do when I’m supposed to be working.
The works were placed in amongst other flyers and notices in the office. It is part of the Sisyphus Office project which involves artists who wish
to highlight art as an integral and necessary distraction in our day to day life.
Below are some of those necessary distractions.
All images © David Fullarton. Also see his Behance page, and Skydive gallery.
- words to live by
Typography & Illustration: Jessica Hische [USA]
Jessica Hische’s custom hand-lettering and illustration has been a very big inspiration to me. Letterpress, ornament and typography; where can it go wrong?
Amazingly, Jessica state’s in her site’s FAQ that she mainly works on the computer using her mouse:
I don’t use a wacom tablet (at least not yet), I’m a point and click kind of gal. People are flabbergasted by this but I used to work exclusively on the trackpad on my laptop. I will have carpal tunnel by the time I’m 30.
She also says she mostly goes straight to computer, without sketching and scanning. Keep all of this in mind as you view her stunning work…
Some of Jessica’s hand-drawn type
Jessica works for Louise Fili Ltd., a design firm in New York City that specialises in food packaging and branding for restaurants and delicious things, as well as logos and book design in general. You are probably familiar with the studio’s work.
Design*Sponge published a Sneak Peek into the fabulous studio of Louise Fili Ltd and it looks like a wonderful creative space filled with a gorgeous selection of ephemera collected by Louise on her travels.
Images from Design*Sponge
Jessica on which designers and illustrators motivate her:
So many its hard to say. I have a major design crush on Marion Bantjes and a brain/concept crush on Christoph Niemann (you should reread the illustrated article he did for Print a few years back (2005? 2006?) on being an illustrator). Of course Louise Fili is a major inspiration. I have a really talented group of friends that also keep my motivation high. I see work every day on sites like ffffound, the dieline, etc. that makes me seethe with jealousy. Envy can be a big motivator.
Some more of Jessica’s gorgeous custom lettering and illustration is below. This Boston Globe cover is amazing. Her attention to detail can’t be faulted, I love the ornamental decoration and the way each letter harbours more delights.
A cover from the Boston Globe, May 3. I love the little fella in the ‘E’
More gorgeous custom lettering
All images and quotes are © Jessica Hische
Visit her at http://jessicahische.blogspot.com/
Artist: Giovanni Battista Braccelli [Baroque Period]
I recently found my way over to Rare Book Room via TypeNeu.
There I was blown away by images I found of a book by Giovanni Battista Braccelli (b. between 1600–1650). He was an ‘almost unknown’ Florentine painter and engraver and the book illustrated below book remained obscure until relatively recent times.
A remarkable precursor of the radical artistic movements of the twentieth century, this rare show of visual oddities is filled with fabulous and jocund variations on the human form, constructed from a hallucinatory variety of animate and inanimate components.
— From Octavo
The book, Bizzarie di Varie Figure, (1624) is full of the most extraordinary figures made up of all sorts of different shapes and objects. It is fascinating and brilliant.
All images below are © The Rare Book Room. http://www.rarebookroom.org/
Artist: Catherine Campbell [Melbourne]
Catherine Campbell runs herself a little Etsy store filled with treasures like these little gems:
From Diamond Pullovers set
‘Curious Adventures on the High Seas’ 2007 - Print Set
Searching for Romantic Icecream Moments & detail
Visit her blog at myfolklover.typepad.com and Etsy store called myfolklover.
