charles fillmore

This quote reminds of another quote by Mencius.
“Great is the man who has not lost his childlike heart.”

I try to remember this when designing, and why I chose this profession.

Charles Fillmore (August 22, 1854 – July 5, 1948), born in St. Cloud, Minnesota, founded Unity, a church within the New Thought movement, with his wife, Myrtle Page Fillmore, in 1889. He became known as an American mystic for his contributions to metaphysical interpretations of Biblical scripture.

Design Notes: I don't know the name of it... but I was inspired by the old tape / alphabet guns. If anyone knows the name of this contraption... let me know :-)

Font: Helvetica Neue 45 Light

inspiration

This design was originally created as a postcard. I can't help but think that it would be a great gift to give someone anonymously.

Design Notes: The asterisk is a symbol or metaphor of a human form.

Font: Helvetica Neue 85 Heavy

dreams

This idea of piling up everything came to me in my sleep. Not sure what it says about me :-)

Design notes: It is all of the latest designs piled up into one. My dream gave me a large solid black area to knock out a quote in, but while working on it... the final quote didn't come to me.

I simply enjoy looking at it as "texture".

It somewhat reminds me of Harold Balaz' work and what the Swiss Architects Herzog and De Meuron do with "tags".

heaven on earth

I know the Swiss Style is about readability... but this quote just wanted to be unreadable, driving home the point Jesus was trying to make.

It's all right here, if we just open our eyes.

Enough said.
-g

buddha quote

This is a quote by Siddhārtha Gautama, better known as the Buddha. He was a spiritual teacher from ancient India and the founder of Buddhism. He is generally recognized by Buddhists as the Supreme Buddha (Sammāsambuddha) of our age. The time of his birth and death are uncertain.

Buddha means "Awakened one" or "Enlightened one".

This quote inspires and reminds me to watch my thoughts.

Design notes: I liked the way the "counter space" (the white space or shape in the middle of the lower case "a" in What... lines up with the horizontal grid line.

Font: Helvetica Neue 75 Bold

Old vs the New

Old vs the New:

One of the best firms currently producing Swiss Style design in my opinion in Experimental Jetset from the Netherlands. They produced the theater poster to the lower left, and as you can see break tradition and put their spin on the Swiss Style.

The other poster was produced by David Stempel for the D. Stempel AG (Type Foundry). Is a perfect example of the International Typographic Style.

David Stempel (1869-1927) founded the foundry on January 15 1895 at Frankfurt am Main.

The foundry fast became one of the biggest German foundries. Shares of other foundries were bought, so the resources constantly grew. In the early 1900s, Stempel developed an exclusive relationship with Linotype, becoming one of just a few producers of matrices for the Linotype Machine worldwide. In 1985, Stempel became part of the German Linotype AG corporation.

More About the Typeface: Helvetica

Helvetica mentioned earlier... was developed by Max Miedinger with Edüard Hoffmann in 1957 for the Haas Type Foundry in Münchenstein, Switzerland.


In the late 1950s, the European design world saw a revival of older sans-serif typefaces such as the German face Akzidenz Grotesk.


Haas' director Hoffmann commissioned Miedinger, a former employee and freelance designer, to draw an updated sans-serif typeface to add to their line. The result was called Neue Haas Grotesk, but its name was later changed to Helvetica, derived from Helvetia, the Latin name for Switzerland.


Haas' German parent companies Stempel and Linotype began marketing the font internationally in 1961.
Note: I was born in 1963.

amore

Sept. 3rd
It's my birthday :-)
45 great years.

This design was inspired by my visit to Sayulita, Mexico this summer.

The people there were the most loving and peaceful people I have ever met.

The trip gave me a great sense of appreciation for learning another language. Especially, one as beautiful as Spanish.





Design Notes: I wanted to do a piece that was simple yet had a slight spin on the typography.

I manipulated of the "Lower Stem" of the A to have more "similarity" to the letter forms.

Also, notice the kerning of the "O" to the negative space between the "m" and "r".

Imagination

I used this quote from Albert Einstein because it reminds me of how a "grid structure" can sometimes seem limiting or possibly "stifle" one's imagination.

Design notes: The grid is 1"x1". Using Adobe Illustrator's grid preferences, I had to go to a subset of 1/8". You can see it at the bottom of the design.

The font "Helvetica" was developed by Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann in 1957 at the Haas’sche Schriftgiesserei (Haas type foundry) of Münchenstein, Switzerland.

This design uses Helvetica Neue 97 Black Condensed.

Helvetica... a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which recently celebrated its 50th birthday) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. Helvetica is used profusely in the Swiss Style.

The International Typographic Style

The International Typographic Style, also known as the Swiss Style, is a graphic design style developed in Switzerland in the 1950s that emphasizes cleanliness, readability and objectivity. Hallmarks of the style are asymmetric layouts, use of a grid, sans-serif typefaces like Akzidenz Grotesk, and flush left, ragged right text.

The image above was created by AisleOne. An inspirational resource focused on graphic design, typography, grid systems, minimalism and modernism.