everyone should take hiatus

i couldn’t agree more.

the font wishlist

if there’s anybody out there that really just wants to buy something for live from bklyn, you can start with these fonts;

pf handbook pro

liza

sign painter

numbers

not all free fonts are created evil

“the most striking result of this survey is that the respondents overwhelming reject free fonts.”

i pulled this quote from a recent type survey preview i received in an email from gdusa magazine. it’s true, the vast majority of free fonts are chock full o’ wonky kerning, unpolished letterforms and are lacking certain essential characters.

but being the bargain hunter that i am, i do enjoy a good, well-crafted free font find (on a side note, i also find pleasure in finding that magical article of clothing among the heaps of rubbish in second hand stores).

so, i want to share with you two free fonts that i love and use. the first is liberation serif. i know i’ve mentioned this before, but it’s such a great font for body copy, that i feel compelled to continue to plug it.

the second is pastelaria by eduardo recife, who is the creator of the much over-used and maligned porcelain font. i think pastelaria is a beautiful geometric that is great for headlines and limited copy. not good for continuous though. however, i think it’s been overshadowed by the lust for grunge fonts (and here i would like to encourage you not to use grunge fonts, but to set your type and then distress it yourself if that’s what your going for. when you set to characters next to each other that are distressed exactly the same, it looks weird).

i also came across this cache of free vintage fonts, but i would caution you to be wise about which ones you choose. some of them are not all that great, and the ones that are useful i would encourage you to use like you would use spices in cooking. because let’s face it, a cumin-chili-pepper casserole would be downright nasty.

matt lehman: illustrator, designer

i found the work of matt lehman very inspiring this morning. even makes country music look cool.

unpublished work that needs some air

here are a couple of pieces i’ve been wanting to show for while but are unpublished as of right now anyway. you can go see ‘em nice and big and read about ‘em on flickr.

jessica franks ›› june bug felts/prints ›› adopting a child ›› awesome

our dear friends jessica and bill franks are in the process of adopting a child from russia. to raise money for the process, jessica has created and is selling a series of prints called “hobby hazard” in her etsy store. we do wholeheartedly support the franks’s and their desire to bring a child out of abject poverty into their own home, so we are featuring them on this blog (we also like the prints too).

new live from bklyn business cards

i like to call these “the greenest business cards in the universe.” perhaps they’re not, but they’re pretty close. they’re printed on the backs of cereal boxes, so it’s greener than recycled paper, it’s re-purposed paper. and terms of creativity, i think having the cereal box snippets on the back provide an interesting element, and overall, the cards are a great conversation starter.

live from bklyn “thinking of u” postcards

the live from bklyn “thinking of u” postcards are finished and available for purchase. we will be opening our own live from bklyn design shop very soon, but for now, visit livefrombklyn.etsy.com

jessica hische

every once in a while one comes a cross a designer that makes one say, “oh NO! i’m gonna have to stay up late every night for the next month and a half to improve my design skills.” jessica hische is that designer. oh look, she also has a blog. super. it’s gonna be a long night…

mcallister wedding poster

last weekend i attended the wedding of melissa and brannon mcallister. as a gift for the guests, they had these fine, fine letterpress posters created by hatch show print.

live from bklyn etsy shop launched

friends of live from bklyn, i’m pleased to announce that we have opened a live from bklyn etsy shop (livefrombklyn.etsy.com). you can purchase fine art friday prints, as well as other prints of buildings in williamsburg, brooklyn and ornamental letterforms.

shelby county, tennessee marriage license

i’m always a tad jealous of this guy and all of the awesome vintage design pieces that he possesses, but i’m getting a turn now.

a couple of weeks ago, my grandmother, the indomitable marguerite dailey (evans) crafton (from whom my name comes), passed away after complications from hip surgery. she left a legacy of stalwartness, and a vast treasure trove of antique wonders. my brother and i were able to look through her possessions, to see if there was anything that we might like to have. . . and how.

i came away with multiple sculpted glass bowls and dishes, small ephemera like assorted pins, jewelry and cuff-links, and, as pertains to the live from bklyn blog, this 1913 marriage license from shelby co, tennessee (of which memphis is the county seat). i think it’s just beautiful.

jim hargreaves | casenet event invitation

another beauty from jim hargreaves. jim is currently working as a graphic designer at barnhart communications in denver, co.

writes jim about this invitation, “this project was done in the spring on behalf of studio pattern, also in denver. the invitation was for a VIP champagne party hosted by casenet at the bubble lounge, san fran’s premier champagne bar.

the client’s only request was that it should reference champagne labels. instead of a literal translation, i created a hybrid between classic labels and modern invitation designs. i wanted the invitation to have a clean, metropolitan feel. the dot patterns were influenced by much of the city’s history of art deco, and they were also meant to resemble the tiny bubbles that are characteristic of champagne. the finishing touch was the the trolley seal, which was modeled after a mark found on an old trolley ticket.”

orangebeautiful calendar

my friend christin sends tidings of this (orange)beautiful calendar. sweet idea to have the perforations to be able to save the typography as an art print. check out the rest of orangebeautiful’s offerings while you’re on their etsy page. the holiday card is just magnificent.

lucky brand. . . something or other

when you order chinese food from new hong kong kitchen on grand st. in williamsburg, they put little pieces of cardboard from sliced up boxes between the food, presumably so that your sweet and sour chicken container does not crush your sesame chicken container. and i appreciate that.

last night as i was descending upon my sesame chicken and vegetable lo mein, i discovered this gem. there are three shots, so make sure to click through all of them.

it’s kinda funny to me, because that lettering looks like something that lucky brand jeans would do, and i can see them using chinese characters on a t-shirt or something. still, i’m led to believe that there is also a lucky brand chinese restaurant supply from whence this cardboard came.

at any rate, the lettering and the logo are really quite nice graphically. and i dig how the texture from the cardboard fibers shows through the ink. delicious.

bantjes “design ignites change” poster

good grief. will someone please tell this woman to slow down and let the rest of us catch up? i mean there’s ornament and typography, and then there’s marian bantjes. her penchant for fabulously detailed and intricate ornament is just ridiculous. i give you the design ignites change poster, v1. there’s a v2 on her site too, if you care to browse around to find it.

bryan rees

i remember the days when i was a just grunt designer at bju creative services and bryan rees was an even gruntier grad assistant. now bryan is a big shot creating things like this mean-lean-clean-needs-to-be-seen operational standards workbook. no, i have no idea how i ended up such a dork, but i guess that’s one thing the graphic design world is never short of.

samantha wiley

samantha wiley has really got a handle on her typography, as evidenced by these beer desktop backgrounds.

sam is moving to new york very soon, and is looking for a gig, so if anyone reading this is hiring, be sure to click the link above to review her portfolio. you can also see her portfolio on the behance network.

joshua smith does it again

joshua smith of hydro74 has created a brilliant poster for the smashing pumpkins. joshua nails the hand-lettering and ornament, going so far as to include the wave pattern within the type. stellar.

shakespeare in the park

the public theater in new york have placed these ads (click header) all over the subway and buses and other places in the city and for that i am very glad. obviously a great concept with the ornamental hair on the skull and a dandy bit of execution too. i don’t know who designed them though. if anyone has any information on that subject please comment.

suck day eve

i’m classifying this one as type, though what i really like about this ad is the concept. i think it’s funny, mostly ’cause i’ve been there once or twice. click to see.

jack crossing

this is nice. the type at the bottom has a nice rhythm. by jack crossing. i just used nice twice, no three times in as many sentences. i am not very descriptive. i will now go to bed.

liberation serif

free fonts are generally a thing to be avoided, but this liberation serif has got it going on. love the taper on the serifs, four weights, pretty good auto kerning and a very extensive glyphs palette. this is definitely worth the download.

brezinka design co.

i wrote this post about brezinka design a while back. wayne has since updated with some dandy new work.

orgut cayli

thanks to chantel ingram of BCIT’s school of computing and academic studies for bringing to my attention the work of orgut cayli. orgut pulls off the “maximalist” look with minimal clutter.

brad surcey

brad surcey via the ever-fresh serif. so very beautiful, i’m gettin’ misty-eyed just looking at it. this one made it into all three categories; print, ornament, and type.

quincy sutton

like this.

fontstruct

my header is still messed up if your on a subpage of this site, but only in firefox. i’m working on it (sort of). sorry if it’s driving you crazy, it certainly is me. also, sorry for accidentally switching the comments off. they’re back on now.

while i’m still going to have a narrow focus, i’d like to expand it a bit. i’m adding two new categories; type and ornament. i’m focusing my studies in design to the medium of print, with motifs of type and ornament, so i want to explore those a little more on this site as well.

on to the main event. this is one of the more awesome things that i’ve seen on the web lately (thank you stumbleupon).