NY Times has a nice article on David Weidman’s new book. It’s really good.

Posted on March 12th, 2009
1 Comments

We normally get a good amount of promo material around here from publishers and record labels and I do a horrible job of passing the “good cheer” along, but this will change, starting now. This week we got in a very nice package Stones Throw. The previous package they sent us was nothing-less-than-amazing, custom LP covers hand drawn and sprayed by Jeff Jank himself.

This latest package included Dam-Funk’s Rhythm Trax V4 which is a collection of boogie space synths over some galactic beats. Dam-Funk is someone you should find more about, amazing talent and a strange guy… in a good way. He needs to get booked in Minneapolis.

If “Afrodelic Kraut Funk” sounds like something you could get into, check out Karl Hector & The Malcouns. Its really a flawless lp that should be getting more attention. If you like this, also check out the Heliocentrics who recently hooked up with Mulatu (Broken Flowers soundtrack, etc). Also for sure check out Now Again Records for more of that “clean” sound.

Since this month is Dilla Month, you should check out what is going on over at Stones Throw. They just posted a new Obey poster featuring J Dilla.

Whew. Never a dull moment.

Posted on February 19th, 2009
1 Comments

To each his own and to each his own Obama font. Damn, that is one ugly font!

 

“44th President” is based on the handwriting of President Barack Obama. A number of sources were studied and the font produced from those references. Barack Obama is the 8th left-handed American president. His left-handed stroke is quite obvious. As seen in recent legislation signing ceremonies, President Obama uses the “hookedâ€� style of left-handed writing where the paper is held horizontally and the pen is “pulledâ€� diagonally over the writing surface, and his signature is bold and elegant. The script flows swiftly with a clear and fluid motion, and includes a complete standard character set and Central European, Baltic, Romanian and Western European character sets.

Posted on February 11th, 2009
3 Comments

I will start off by saying, I think Shepard Fairey’s work is good, and of course top of the tops in that genre he is in. Ironically, I am wearing an scraggly old Obey shirt right now, more so because I like the shirts fit. We have also sold his book releases on our site and sold a lot of them too. Honestly, not making us much money. I am sure he made out better from the publisher than we did. So, yeah, Shepard Fairey is good, but he is also a bit ridiculous and is slowly loosing credit in my book (if that means anything). Last year he went after some kid who posted a Dope spoof of his Hope poster. I have had my share of kids jacking my work online, but you know what, who cares? I was a kid once and did some stupid shit too, in the end no one got hurt though. That Dope poster did nothing to hurt the Hope poster. As well, I am sure that kid made nothing on that Dope spoof. As well, the story unfolds even more..

 

Fairey is now taking the AP to court (as a quick jump on them) saying it is legal and OK for him to use their image, without paying them. I got this article this morning in email and I just started laughing. The insanity of this is out of control. There is not even a need to make a big discussion on this post. Simple, you used some guys original photo (who is apart of AP),  poster got famous, and now you are selling it as art and prints. Give the guy his share too, I mean what the fuck? Its one thing to pull from old resources, books, and make it your own. But to take another modern day fellow artists work (even if photo journalistic) and say your not going to pay them!

 

The concept of OBEY is all but starting to make sense now. OBEY ME

 

-NY Times

Posted on February 9th, 2009
13 Comments

In years past the Flourish and Grifter collections always came out on top of customer favorites. But 2008 was the year we saw a new face by the signature ‘T Minus 5’ conquer the sales with his royal and lush Regime drawings. While most of the top selling sets were in the Regime series, we have made sure to mention some of the next best collections.

 

 

Regime 09

A collection of 25 royalty free illustrations following a theme of fallen empires. Kings, emblems, currency, borders, postage and much more are all featured in this beautiful series. Full of so many variations of assets, the Regime series goes to great lengths to full fill many designers needs. By far the leader of 2008 in customer sales.

 

 

Coat of Arms
Highly detailed and full of many elements, this set brings it. Crests with a royal backing, these can be used for an assortment of ideas and reasons. A set drawn with many layers of versatility in the previous Legion theme of years before.

 

 

Regime Patterns
A collection 25 royalty free illustrations/patterns following a theme of fallen eastern empires. Kings, emblems, currency, borders and more make up the patterns in this beautiful series. A very valuable collection to contain in your bag of tricks.

 

 

Gradients 03
Gradients 03 is a beautiful set of thousands of lines and 10 charming halftone gradients rendered as high quality vectors. Great for fills, backgrounds, and surely thousands of other things. The Gradients in this set are composed of lines of varying thickness as to give a different effect than the previous halftone/gradient sets available. The Gradients will be a series we will continue to push further in 2009 due to the high amount of interest.

 

 

Watercolor
A collection of various water color stock images. A mixture of many colors, textures and high details, photographed via macro lens. This product was the start of a new theme in 2008 that proved to be very helpful and popular with many customers. Another product great for saving time when your in need of some hand created elements.

 

_______________________________________________________________________________

 

If you missed out on these great collections be sure to grab them today. What is in store for 2009? Look for bigger collection launches like the recent Guilloche & Moire and more fresh new ideas. 

Posted on February 1st, 2009
0 Comments

This last year’s show was an open entry exhibit. Normally when you do something like this, you get a couple of good pieces and a lot of not so good ones. This was not at all the case for this show. Shu and I saw that we had enough room (barely) to get all the posters up if we used the walls and fabricated cardboard walls. The posters that did not make it up were ones that did not arrive, or the ones that were too large or heavy that they kept falling down, thus removing themselves from the show. It felt good being able to have everyone’s work up.

The poster show was very well received, a lot of people complimented it and asked questions. A local gallery, Western New York Book Arts Collaborative, asked if they could display it in their gallery and the show may also travel again to ATypeI, the largest type conference in the world. This year it is being held in Russia. That was a great feeling as it has a home and can travel if needed.

Thank you and congratulations to everyone who submitted work. It really was a positive reflection of the current state of typographic design. The pictures shown are primarily close-ups, as the room was dark and I would have needed a professional lighting set up to get decent shots of the posters. These are the best photos that I have of the show, you probably can see random shots if you look around Flickr for some. In no way are these displayed as “the best posters in the show.” They are just the pictures that turned out and fit the vertical format.

Thanks again and next years show will be even better! Thank you to everyone that helped with the show and entered work, it would have been literally nothing without you.

Posted on July 30th, 2008
1 Comments

Time for another round of staff picks. Download the full PDF here.

All of the links are as follows:

Two Lines Align
Geometry of feelings
Milton Glaser
Pino Tovaglia: The Rule That Corrects Emotion
Over and Over: A Catalog of Hand-Drawn Patterns
AGI: Graphic Design Since 1950
Jan Van Toorn: Critical Practice
Karel Martens: Counterprint
It is Beautiful…Then Gone
Idea Magazine #328
Idea Magazine #316
Typographie: Emil Ruder
Giancarlo Iliprandi: Disengagement

Posted on July 24th, 2008
0 Comments

Just got back from TypeCon 2008 and thought I would give a little run down. It was held in Buffalo, NY and was great to see what the home of the Chicken Wing was like.

I got there on Wednesday, July 16th and said my hellos and checked on the poster show. Shu was in charge of the set up so we talked about everything, looked over what came in and was very impressed with the submissions. We decided to put all the submissions in the show, so if you entered, your poster was up (unless it got lost in post or something). I will write another blog entry on the poster show so give me a couple of days to get that up. I have tons of pictures to share of the poster show.

Later that night there was a Stefan Sagmeister event at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum so I hopped on a bus to check it out. Stefan’s speech was great, it was about his book, Things I have Learned in My Life. I really enjoyed his presentation. I really like how he thinks a couple steps beyond design and brings ideas to the masses.

All of the days were packed solid with workshops and presentations. Friday I spoke on a panel about Indie Font Marketing that was moderated by Jan Middendorp. The panel went good, we got to talk about the Black Slabbath punk rock type release party, show the Fred and Sharon Movie and talk about how we really are different from any other type foundry out there. So if you make fonts, hit us up.

Friday night Erik Spiekermann spoke at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. He was his out-spoken “funny” self, but can get a little much after a while. I had to take an extended break in the middle of his presentation and check out the Gallery. I really liked the Gallery a lot, it had a very informal feel to it, very welcoming.

My favorite night was on Sunday night with a trip to the Roycrofter compound. I got to see the community, hear some history and talk to some of the artists there. They had a great dinner for us there and was a great time with great people.

I think my favorite part of TypeCon and why I keep going back is how personal and intimate the conference is. You get to talk to everyone you want to, and everyone is extremely nice. I never will forget when I went to the first TypeCon in Boston, Matthew Carter shows up and we were all geeking out over the fact that he was there. He strolls in when we were eating breakfast on the second day and sits down at my table and just starts talking away. We were all totally nerding out that THE Matthew Carter came to us and was just chatting it up. At the end, he picks up the tab and walks away. I personally think that Matthew set the tone for the conference by being such a humble and caring man. If you have never been to TypeCon, you may want to consider it if you are into type, it really is a unique experience. The next one is in Atlanta, so get ready!

Click here for the TypeCon flickr group. Tons of photos.

Posted on July 23rd, 2008
4 Comments

Still haven’t picked up this hot book? Ok ok, we understand, you still aren’t sure and want to know more. Well never fear, awhile back the motion graphic news site Motionographer posted a quality review here, saying “Every page is a treasure trove of inspiration and history…”. We hope this review helps you finally decide how to spend that hard earned cash, enjoy!

Posted on April 6th, 2008
0 Comments