Block of Text

I love Decatur. I walk around the square downtown regularly. It was fun to take specific note of the typography for a change. It becomes such a part of the landscape that it's surprisingly easy to overlook. Here are some photos of various signs and random text scattered across the buildings, streets, and various other structures of Ponce de Leon Avenue.

 The open sign for Heliotrope, a small gift shop/boutique

The signage for the Pinewood, a small cocktail bar. Love the clean lines of their logo. 

The iconic painted front of Decatur CD.  

This was on the old Terra Mater building, below the large mural on the side.  

This sign is tucked away between an old house and the Marley tavern. It's interesting because it's in such an odd spot, and the space in the back is very junked up with random scraps of lumber and metal. 

An old Bass barrel sitting neglected outside. I might have to give this a home... 

A fire hydrant in desperate need of painting. This is most certainly NOT up to code. 

There's text even in the sidewalk. 

Pretty nicely made signs, especially considering they sit on top of street drains. 

A different store is in this building now, but the faded old Melrose on Ponce artwork remains. 

Apparently this is where Storm lives.

Inspiration

We're supposed to pick a single piece of art that inspires us to discuss this week, but I find that a very difficult task. There are so many artists and various styles that inspire me, and the list grows more every day. Here are links to some of my favorite artists around the world:

Tara McPherson

Stephanie Pui-Min Law

Naiade

Since my background is in traditional art, I found that I have a real appreciation for artists of all types, be it digital or hand painted or sculpture. I check Behance weekly for inspiration, and I'm never let down. The diversity of artistic styles today is truly mind blowing. Today on Behance I discovered an artist who goes by Bibo X, and his illustration work is phenomenal. He's found a way to create such beautiful, expressive characters that feel hand crafted, even though they are completely digital. His latest project, Weeta, is an especially gorgeous comic. Seeing work of this caliber always inspires me to work harder on my own projects. Here is a page from the story, and I encourage you to see the entire thing here: Weeta

Updated World Peace Day poster

Debating if I need to move the bottom laurel and quote off to the left to counter balance the dove...

World Peace Day

A very quick (~30 minutes) poster for International World Peace Day.

#trending

These days I'm seeing more and more hand drawn typography and vintage-inspired designs. Maybe this is because I'm just enamored with them, though! I'm glad that these designs have become so popular, and I would like to try my hand at working with similar styles of design. Here are some examples below:

What makes a design 'good?'

I might still be learning what it means to be a good designer, but I knew immediately that this was bad. The logo design itself feels very generic, from the basic cutout shapes to the plain, uninspired font choice. Beyond that, the rest of the image is very heavily flooded with Photoshop effects and an overuse of textures. The heavy glow effect and enormous drop shadow are way too over the top. You can see the entire kit of designs by creator Igor Kopayev here.

In stark contrast, this logo appears to have been lovingly handcrafted. The character looks hand drawn, and the text was carefully chosen to fit the theme. Not only that, but if you take a look at the rest of the images in the creator's gallery for this piece, you can see that they really did their homework and created a fully integrated package. The logo was used expertly on various labels and papers and photographed in store to great effect. This work was created by Skinn Branding Agency, and can be seen on Behance here.

Another self portrait

I couldn't sleep last night, and the idea for this photograph popped into my head. I'm not sure which piece I like better. The color on the top one is off here on the blog, it's actually a bit brighter than this.

Timeline of my life

I'm very happy with the final result here! I had this idea when we were first given the assignment. It was a little harder to take all the photographs and edit them than I anticipated, but I'm glad I stuck with it. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else came up with! This project was very open-ended, so I'm sure there will be some really creative projects.

Self Portrait layout

I have changed this layout so many times. Hopefully this is finally done. Feedback is greatly appreciated!