Typography

Typography. It's one of those buzz words you keep hearing around the web, mostly thanks to Pinterest, design blogs, and other such social media outlets. Being the font lover that I am, I immediately jumped on that bandwagon. Here's what wikipedia has to say about it:

Typography (from the Greek words τύπος(typos) = form and γραφή(graphy) = writing) is the art and technique of arranging type in order to make language visible. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading (line spacing), adjusting the spaces between groups of letters (tracking) and adjusting the space between pairs of letters (kerning). Type design is a closely related craft, which some consider distinct and others a part of typography; most typographers do not design typefaces, and some type designers do not consider themselves typographers.^[2][3] In modern times, typography has been put into motion - in film, television and online broadcasts - to add emotion to mass communication. ^[4]
Typography is performed by typesetters, compositors, typographers, graphic designers, art directors, comic book artists, graffiti artists, clerical workers, and anyone else who arranges type for a product. Until the Digital Age, typography was a specialized occupation. Digitization opened up typography to new generations of visual designers and lay users, and it has been said that "typography is now something everybody does."^[5]


For a doodler like me, the fact that fonts and doodling is trendy right is pretty much a dream come true. I mean, designing my own font in computer class in high school was my favorite day all year. When I discovered dafont.com , 1001fonts.com , urban fonts, font squirrel, and lost type ,where you could download fonts for free, I was sold. Now with photoshop, and other such programs, you can create pretty much custom anything. Sidenote: If you were wondering if I've spent too much time searching different fonts on font websites, pinterest, and even google, then your answer would have to be yes.

Here are some recent little things I've been working on with fonts:

I designed this mousepad with photoshop and then converted it into a JPEG, sent it off to Shutterfly and one week later voila, mousepad!

I found all these awesome pictures via Pinterest :

I just love that hand drawn look. It's all about attention to detail and when it's done right it can add a much more personal aspect to something instead of a shiny, uniform and glossy computer image or font.

They inspired me to take up my dooding habit again, well so to speak because let's face it I never REALLY gave it up, and see what I could come up with. I started finding pictures I liked and tracing them, to see and how they drew each letter and how I could recreate it or come up with my own. I probably could have skipped that step but I love tracing. Is that weird? Most likely, but I'm still admitting it right now for the world to read. That's right people, I love to trace. I love nothing better than when I can pull out my light tray and trace paper and go at it with a little piece of graphite in my hand. The way your hand and neck get a cramp at the same time because your focusing so hard  and you are unaware that you are now completely hunched over in a really uncomfortable position. Yeah, I I love that. I mean obviously not the neck hurting part but when your so focused on something and then finally step back and look at the finished product is such a great feeling. It reminds me why I love art and renews my respect for artistis, designers and architects once again. I know I'm rambling but you have to admit it's inspiring to think that people created wonderful sketches, and drawings and blue prints to scale without any digital help.

Enough of my soapbox, here's some of my attempts at attempting the fonts that I've fallen in love with.

I worked on some envelopes and gift tags and then one notecard. I know I know the quote IS from the golden girls and I did use 80's pastel watercolor but I was just experimenting. I ended up using a deeper purple to darken the letters so they were more visible too. I got the inspiration for that last notecard from a picture I saw of a notecard where they used white pencil first and then painted watercolor on top of it. That way the pencil repels the paint and the white letters show through. I'm going to try that next, I just had a hard time actually finding my white colored pencil, so pink had to work!

If your now reading this paragraph I thank you for reading all my silly font nerd ramblings. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. OK, not the bottom, but close to it. I have been working on some other projects I hope to be posting pictures of soon!

Happy Friday! It's finally feeling like fall in Texas today!

WarrenTON

It’s that time again. That time where my 23 year old self heads to middle of nowhere Texas to go antique shopping, much to my friend’s confusion. Actually, to be honest, my friends would not find this surprising from me at all. To my defense, if you were to come with me, I have a feeling you would catch the bug too. Round Top holds a bi-annual antique show that is one of the biggest in the nation (I actually don’t know that for a fact but it has to be) Vendors from all over the country come to sell they’re best stuff at a great price. Now I normally hit up Warrenton, a small town near Round Top that has miles of booths and vendors that are a little cheaper because it is all outdoors,  instead of the big show because I want to really dig through the junk and find treasures. Check out my last visit to Warrenton to see my previous treasures: http://creativeallthetime.blogspot.com/2011/04/round-topwell-almost.html

 I’ve written about my Warrenton/Round Top purchases before (and how much I love them) and how much luck I have had there.  This year was no exception. I headed down after a short trip to Waco to watch my Bears beat my hometown Rice owls (sic em!). After a few wrong turns and a stop at Buccee’s I finally made it. If you want a tip, I like to park at Carl’s  (large white building with some nicer antiques and booths inside) because it’s nice, easy to remember and get in and out of, and it’s free.  Carl’s place also has a booth with great old school pennants, including my alma mater (again sic em).  Then I headed out, braving the Texas heat to find some good deals. The past few times I’ve been out there the weather has been unnervingly perfect so I knew that it was only a matter of time before the Texas I typically call home  (aka over 100 degree weather at the end of September)  showed itself.  We headed out towards some of my favorite booths that have lots of over sized architectural salvage and interesting furniture. Designers frequent this part because they have such awesome stuff, again you have to dig to find the real deals but everything is at a better price than it would be in a store. I love all the architectural salvage because it gives such wonderful ideas of what I could make or how to re purpose or reuse something to make it something unique and personal. 

Driving into Warrenton

I wanted these little lockers so bad!

Love that car bumper.

Wouldn't that Vegas looking sign look so great in a cute downtown loft somewhere?? My mind was buzzing when I saw this!

I LOVED LOVED LOVED this, but they wanted too much for it :(

We continued on into junk heaven  and did end up finding some great things including my new little nightstand.  As soon as I saw it I was in love, the handle, the mid century modern style, I was drooling. I try really hard not to make a beeline for the things I love, but typically I become a five year old child again running towards something shiny. I know it’s bad antique etiquette (definition to follow). I did it anyway and after the owner told me the price, I was sold. My $20 nightstand is slightly beat up but still in great shape and is just so awesome, don’t you think?

Antique Etiquette: you must not run, jump or lunge, towards things. This will cause others to look at the most magnificent piece that you have bought and after seeing how beautiful it is they will use your good style sense and snatch it up before you can. If you grab it and pick it up, don’t let go unless you really really don’t want it and are OK with giving it up. These rules were self learned after having one too many vultures (mostly with white powder puffs on top of their heads) steal my lovely finds.

After this find I spend another hour or so wandering around scouring booths for something special. I did find this little cutie:

I also found lots of crazy things...LOTS of crazy things. I know I've tried to explain it before but really only pictures do it justice.

Do you smell that smell?

What SHOE doin?

This is Julio. He's become a staple in Warrenton. He even made a cameo in my last post about my junk hunting. He's quite the charmer.

Really who doesn't need a giraffe leg table?

This is awesome. If you haven't seen Picker Sisters on Lifetime, it's a show about 2 designers that find unusual junk and re purpose them into unique and chic pieces.

My poor little feet were definitely feeling it at this point. This may have been this pair of Rainbow's final run.

Needless to say, it's always an adventure what you will find when you venture into Junkland searching through the TON in WarrenTON. Despite the heat (I wish the weather would have been more like this past weekend!) I did have a great time and I'm excited to see what my cute little nightstand can become! I already spent this Sunday afternoon sanding it down getting it ready to re stain. But I'll have to focus because now that it's officially fall, there's so many other fun things to do outside! I'm also really excited about trying this recipe so I'm sharing it on my blog, hope you enjoy!!

Apple Pancake Rings: http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/the-chew/recipes/Carla-Hall-Fried-Apple-Pancake-Rings