Famous Ex Libris

Bookplates are found inside of books at the beginning and tell who that book belongs to. They are also called Ex Libris. Bookplates were used primarily by well-to-do folks who had the money to afford large personal libraries. Before the age of cheaply produced paperbacks and electronic devices, books were valuable possessions. The bookplate was simply a way for book owners to identify their books and perhaps encourage their return when they were lent out to friends and family. The first bookplates were used in Germany in the 16th century by Christian monks, and the practice spread among European gentry. The custom came to America in the 1600s, and many of America’s Founding Fathers used bookplates in their personal collections, including George Washington and Paul Revere. Bookplates were widely used throughout the 19th century by both Europeans and Americans, but the practice began to fade by the 1950s.

Alexander Hamilton. One of the founding fathers of the U.S.

Bing Crosby. American Singer and Actor.

Edgar Rice Burroughs. Creator of Tarzan.

Lord Byron. British Poet.

Andrew Carnegie. Famous American steel industrialist.

Lewis Carroll. Writer of Alice in Wonderland.

Charlie Chaplin. Famous silent film actor and comedian.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Writer of Sherlock Holmes.

Calvin Coolidge. 30th president of the US

Charles Dickens. Writer of Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, A Christmas Carol, and a lot of other books assigned in high school.

Albert Einstein. That smart guy with the fun hair.

Eli Whitney. Inventor of the cotton gin.

Ian Lancaster Fleming. Creator of James Bond.

Siegmund Freud. Founding father of psychoanalysis.

H.P. Lovecraft. Writer of Horror stories, creator of Cthulhu.

Harpo Marx. American comedian and film star, part of the Marx bros.

Ernest Hemingway. American writer.

H.G. Wells. Writer of Time Machine, Invisible Man, and War of the Worlds.

Adolf Hitler. Evil man.

King C. Gillette. Inventor of the Safety Razor.

Frank L. Baum. Writer of the Wizard of Oz.

Jack London. Writer of Call of the Wild and White Fang.

Benito Mussolini. Dictator of Italy.

John Quincy Adams. 6th president of the U.S. His bookplate holds his family crest and says in Latin, “You will retain liberty, friendship, and faith.”

Paul Revere’s Latin inscription on his bookplate says, “I fight for the Fatherland.”

Robert Frost. Poet who wrote The Road not Taken.

Theodore Roosevelt. 26th president of the US

Walt Disney. Mouse guy.

George Washington. The Latin inscription translates, “The ends justify the means.”

William Howard Taft. 27th president of the US.

WB Yeats. Irish poet.

Feel free to create your own bookplates and share them with me.

A typographic dating game

Many graphic designers struggle in their first years trying to learn how to pair typefaces beautifully. Type Connection is a website that helps young designers learn the ropes by turning it into a dating game. Try pairing Univers, Adobe Garamond Pro, ITC Century, Archer, and ITC Stone Sans up with their perfect matches.

Here are the tips:

1. Rely on Family

2. Seek the similar

3. Embrace the other

4. Explore the past

Graphic designer Aura Seltzer created this game while working on her MFA.

How good of a matchmaker are you?

Click here to find out!

 

Artist Window of Hermès

Here are two windows, designed by Zim and Zou from France, for Hermès in Paseo de Gracià (Barcelona). If anyone has ever tried gluing hundreds of strips of paper to something you can appreciate the time and precision that goes into this sort of work. This one is called The Fox’s Den.

 

 

Here’s another called Atlantis.

To see more of this sort of work go here.

Mother lets her four-year-old finish her drawings

At first, artist Mica Angela Hendricks didn’t want her four-year-old daughter near her new sketchbook. She is serious about her art, and she knew little Myla would want to scribble all over the pages. Then, her daughter said the words that changed everything.“If you can’t share, we’ll have to take it away.”   She had used her own mother’s words against her, and now Mica had no choice but to indulge Myla. She let her daughter finish one of her sketches, and pretty soon, they had a whole collection of collaborations. After a while, Myla would start the day by flipping through her mom’s sketchbook asking, “Do you have any heads for me today?”After the outline of the sketch is complete, Mica finishes the artwork with a splash of color. Mica claims that her amazing artistic experiences with her daughter have taught her a lot about being an artist, and that you have to let go of control for wonderful things to happen.

Illustrator Highlight: Takeru Toyokura

Takeru Toyokura is a Japanese artist/illustrator based in Osaka. He was graduated from Osaka-Sogo design college. After graduation, he started to work as a professional illustrator/artist. He makes illustration by felt and paper.

“I want to make a mysterious image of the world between reality and non-reality and hold the doubt in something that exists naturally.”

I appreciate how he takes the time to cut out every single felt person and paper building. His process seems really time consuming, but incredible. The images themselves have a Guy Billout quality to them. They are playful and light-hearted.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

New Maya Writing System

When the Spanish Conquistadores plundered Mesoamerica in the 16th century they forced the Mayan to learn Spanish and forget their language. Today, even though the language of pictographs is understood, most don’t bother learning it. The Mayan Writing System is basically a dead language. But Frida Larios is trying to help change that. Inspired by the Mayan pictographs she has for her thesis created a New Maya Writing system. From this system she has created a children’s book called The Village that was Buried by an Erupting Volcano, a children’s puzzle, various prints, fashion, and accessories. She also takes this language to a commercial side using it to create logos.

“The Maya were the original graphic designers,” she says. “They followed a strict grid. Although every symbol was pebble-shaped, they had to fit each one into a little square. They were commissioned by the king, and they were multimedia artists who carved, painted, and wrote. Their writing was a work of art manifested through different media: stone sculpture, ceramics, murals, calligraphic manuscripts, garments, and utilitarian products. Paintings on pottery vessels show that in their society, the designer was the literate and enlightened one.”

She believes that if we bring the language to light commercially than it will bring more attention to it. More people will learn the Mayan language if it they see it as a thing of beauty.

Here is her website with more information.

 

Frida Larios at a workshop for children at the Joya de Cerén site museum, in El Salvador, March 2014. She designed the museum’s exterior graphics, which were painted by art students.

Frida Larios children’s book cover

Various logos Frida Larios has made from her New Maya Writing System

 

 

Turning Fonts into Frames

Two of the worlds most famous fonts, Garamond and Helvetica, inspired this Japanese designer to create a new line of eyeglasses. They are named Type, and come in three weights: light, regular, and bold. It is rumored that there are more fonts to come.

You can purchase them here.

Life-Size Origami Sculpture

After a successful campaign on Indigogo raising $26,000, artist Sipho Mabona has, as he promised, folded a life-size white elephant sculpture out one 15×15 meter sheet of paper. Erecting this 10 feet tall sculpture took four weeks of folding by a team of 12 people. The final sculpture is on view at KKLB in Beromünster, Switzerland.

Here is a time lapse of the creation of the white elephant:

 

To see more of the artist work here is his website: http://www.mabonaorigami.com/en/galleries/latest-work.html

Homeless Fonts

Homeless people are known for their signs. The cardboard scraps with quickly written messages from a found marker. What if this very handwriting was what helped them out of their homelessness. The Arrels Foundation took the handwritten letters the homeless use in their signs and turned it into purchasable fonts.

Each of these individuals has their own background and story to tell. All are from the streets of Barcelona. The Arrels foundation took care of them while providing typography workshops. Each of their handwriting was then worked on by typography experts to create the typefaces you can buy today.

Haven’t you ever wondered how an individual arrived on the streets? One of the most interesting parts of this website is being able to click on each individual and read their story.

You can purchase any of these fonts and help the homeless at http://www.homelessfonts.org

 

 

Universal Typeface Experiment

Each person has unique handwriting. It’s part of what makes us who we are, like our fingerprints. What would the world’s handwriting look like collectively?

BIC, to celebrate what they call their “Universal Pen,” is trying to create a Universal Typeface based on everyone’s handwriting. They have created a website to crowdsource information on handwriting. The font isn’t created as of yet. So you still have time to get your handwriting into the pool!

http://theuniversaltypeface.com

One of the unique features of this website is that you can see others responses to a specific letter. Statistics on specific letters based on gender, age, country, handedness, and industry are also available.