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.

Le Freak C'est Chic - World Currency - Part 1

Keeping with the economy and recovery theme for the week, you need to check out this website with images of world currency, banknotes.com. The site breaks down by continents and countries bank notes from around the world. The gallery is composed of thousands of images and shows the great design that goes into some bank notes. The images are made up of current bank notes and historical notes. It is fascinating to look at the variety of designs from around the world. Click around, enjoy and hope our pockets don't feel as empty soon.
(all images via banknotes.com)

Engraving at Crain Paper

Ever wonder just how paper engraving happens? View this film to learn more about the process. To order your own visit Crane.