29 September 2010

The Royal Opera House Logo Redo



I am a lover of history and context. I truly appreciate it when both are considered in a redesign such as this branding for The Royal Opera House in England. I saw this recent post first at The Ministry of Type hosted by the wonderful Aegir Hallmundur with references to a write up over at the great Brand New by Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit.

The older version of the Royal Opera House logo used a wood cut crest along with Caslon as a typeface. The modern update has redrawn the crest to tighten up the image and Gotham has replaced Caslon as the typeface. This revision was completed by London-based SomeOne, who worked with master engraver Christopher Wormell to update the crest. I believe this update shows the modern progress of the Royal Opera House but is sensitive to its historical background. Looking at the Royal Opera House's website, you can see its rich tradition of performance arts for a modern world. Tradition is still alive in the world of performance and the Royal Opera House is leading the way.

26 September 2010

Visiting The LA Printers Fair






Yesterday we here at aNEW designs had the pleasure to visit the 2nd Annual LA Printers Fair at the International Printing Museum in Carson. This was a wonderful day filled with all things type. The images you see where taken at the Fair. The International Printing Museum collection is one of the largest, most comprehensive collections of historic graphic arts equipment in the world. The collection alone was worth the visit but in addition where numerous vendors from the graphic arts and type world plus demos of the presses and a Linotype hot type machine. We where very impressed by the knowledgeable and friendly volunteers and staff. All that visited this event where filled with history and stories about the craft of type and left impressed with just how important type and printing have been over the years. If you where unable to visit during the Printers Fair, you should make a trip to see the museum when in the area. When you visit remember to mind your "p" and "q"s and have them show you why we call it "upper case" and "lower case". For further information on visiting the collection and future events, stop by the informative website of the International Printing Museum.





24 September 2010

LA Printers Fair

Tomorrow, September 25th will mark the 2nd Annual LA Printers Fair. This great event will take place from 9am to 5pm at the International Printing Museum in Carson. Admission to the event is $5. Activities throughout the day include:
• Letterpress “Swap Meet:” Don’t miss your chance to buy antique letterpress equipment and everything you need for your own print shop. Type-lovers, graphic designers, artists, printers and members of the public are welcome to ogle over hundreds of cases of type and thousands of pounds of equipment and presses.

• “The First Information Revolution: The Printed Book from Gutenberg to Franklin” To honor this year’s theme, “A Celebration of Paper and Print” we will have a guest collection of rare books. Don’t miss this one-day only exhibition in the Museum’s Gallery! Works include a Book of Hours [1471], Augustine: Civitate Dei [1489], Natali: Catalogus Sanctorum [1514], Angelus de Clavasio: Summa angelica [1519], Chaucer: Canterbury Tales [1561] and much more.

• Ask machinery expert Bill Berkuta and others all your press and equipment questions. Bill is in-demand all over the state, so take advantage of his live consultation at the Fair.

• General Gallery Tours – experience 500 years of printing history as our knowledgeable docents guide you through our collection. Letterpress demonstrations on various presses will be on-going throughout the day.

• Printmaking demonstrations by Lindsay Buchman, Mary Sherwood Brock, and Cathy Weiss in our back building in the Book Arts Institute.

• “The 40’s Shop” - Travel back in time to experience a 40’s era working print shop. See Windmills, Ludlows, Linotypes, platen presses, proofing presses, a Miehle Vertical and our vast collection of wood and lead type. See slugs cast on our working Linotype operated by Luis Garcia.

• Sit down and enjoy reading in our Library with holdings on printing, papermaking, printmaking, typography and so much more.

• Purchase beautiful letterpress-printed pieces, artist books, gorgeous handmade and commercial paper/envelopes and more from one of our Vendors at the Fair.
I hope to see you there tomorrow. For further information on the location of the International Printing Museum and the LA Printers Fair, please go to their website at this link.

20 September 2010

Fall Type Fashion Needs




Summer is coming to an end and you maybe saying to yourself, mmm...what should I wear this Fall Fashion Season? Well look no further with this great line of t-shirts and sweatshirts for those designer flag football games from the good folks at Typography Shop. The Typography Shop has a full line of designer type shirts in both men and women styles. Check it out and show the world how well kerned you are.

19 September 2010

Marian Bantjes - An Inspiration of Design


Doing what you love, be inspired and have fun, this is Marian Bantjes. Marian spends her time being creative living outside Vancouver. Marian's work is full of passion and her TED talk will become an inspiration to what you can do with that passion. To view additional work by Marian Banties, go to her site and look for her upcoming publication, I Wonder due out in October. The previews of I Wonder on her site look to make this a wonderful design presentation to look for next month.



15 September 2010

TheDielineWine.com




Andrew Gibbs the founder of TheDieLine.com, the leading package design blog, has branched out the brand with TheDielineWine.com. This exciting addition to The Dieline focuses on the ever changing and creative world of package design for wine. This "family addition" gives a one stop shop to this unique and creative arena of package design. Congratulations on the birth of this baby sister of The Dieline, The Dieline Wine it is packed full of inspiration, creative wit, words of wisdom and visual beauty.

11 September 2010

Remembering 9-11 - Nine Years Later

For many, the day seems like just yesterday, for others, it is starting to fade from memory. This day, September 11, 2001 changed the modern world in ways did not think of nine years ago. On that tragic day we lost 3,000+ people. Since that day we have started two wars, thousands other have died in serve to our country, millions have been effected from everyday life such as boarding a jet to having love ones abroad serving in the military. Let us not forget how this single day changed the world, let us not forget the 343 brave firefighters from the FDNY plus the many others from the NYPD who ran in to horror to save lives, let us not forget.

The 9-11 Memorial is being build in NYC and slated to finish for next year's 10th year of memorial. The 9-11 Memorial has a site up that is very informative of this day and well worth a visit. They also have created a iPhone app, areas for all of us to contribute our memories and even submit artwork inspired by this tragic day. Please check out the 9-11 Memorial site and let us not forget how this days events changed more then just the skyline of New York City.

10 September 2010

Shana Tova

Shana Tova, Happy New Year 5771. May your year be sweet and fruitful in every way!

Mathew Brady Photographs




One of the greatest photographers of the 19th century was Mathew Brady. Mathew Brady started his photographic life in New York City (1844) and later opened a studio in Washington DC (1849). Brady became famous for his portraits and later for more than 10,000 photos he and his studio took during the Civil War. Brady had a team of photographers including Alexander Gardner, James Gardner, Timothy H. O'Sullivan that went out into the battlefields for the photographs. These photographs where the first of a kind showing the life of war from inside the camps, to the destruction of cities, to death on the battlefield. This enabled the public for the first time as a whole to see battle. The collections is an interesting and intimate view into life in America during this troubled time. The National Archives has set up a Flickr site which includes over 3,200 of his images. Most of these images have no known copyright restrictions as part of the National Archives collection. To see the images, go to this link.

02 September 2010

Random Photo #46 Parking Permit

Parking Permit for Huntington Beach CA, circa 2007. You would think they could have found a better place to put the permit number.