I realized that its taking me really long to finish my Jan Tschichold book. Probably its just that greedy feeling trying so hard to memorize all the details in that book. Stuff like which year he started teaching at the academy, his typography manifesto, his association with Piet Zwart, bla bla bla.
So to gratify my loss, I started reading another book instead. It’s not that this book has a lesser weight in the reading or that I’m not being particularly absorbant in everything I read but well, I need to make full use of my time anyways.
On a lighter note, do you guys actually have a hard time finish reading a book? Any book really. I find it absolutely hard to do so. I usually finish reading a book in a few weeks. My girlfriend can do it in a few days.
Tonight at the One World Hotel, the Media Specialist Association celebrates the Malaysian Media Awards. Which also means, I’m celebrating the fact that one job is done.
Primary typefaces used are Gill Sans and Times New Roman for the booklet (design by Lilian). But as for the Invitation card, only uppercase Gill Sans was used.
Thinking of fusing the two makes sense as to the working relationship that Eric Gill and Stanley Morison had. Eventhough they didn’t work together on Gill Sans or Times New Roman, they still have much in common*. I do agree that our eyes get familiar with the shape of Times New Roman and it has been overly used. But the other side of the world holds interesting applications of the typefaces and also a very historical and appreciative approach to the application of the typeface side by side on a piece of paper.
The overlapping of the curved device at the corner of the ID was inspired by Art Deco movements. Yeah. Toned down into a more clean and minimal design, catered towards todays love for simplicity. Refer below to see what I mean.
The certificates uses the same look with the exception of the typefaces and the introduction of a more crisp and energetic typeface, Carter & Cone’s ITC Galliard designed by Matthew Carter. It felt right when Galliard’s Mannerist background stands side by side with Art Deco’s vibrant, abstract and striking visual nature.
The certificate identifies itself not only through the use of colors but also the overlapping of the colors manifesting categories of which each certificate represents. Gold winners over Silver & Bronze, etc. Clearly, the overlapping effect’s source of influence can be clearly seen below on Hermann Keimel’s Muenchner Plaket Kunst poster from 1931, Germany.
Above is an image of a book cover by Man Ray, Le Surrealisme et la Peinture by Andre Breton, 1928, France. See the influence of the rounded strokes at the upper right and lower left corners of each item?
To conclude, I don’t really embrace the whole Art Deco movement but there are times I do believe, historical references are important and can be useful in adding value and also to solve design problems. Also either as tributes or appreciations.
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*Historically, Gill Sans was designed much earlier than Times, 1928-1930. Taking also into consideration that Morison was actually one of Gill’s clients and that Gill Sans has actually drawn lots of influence from Edward Johnston’s sans serif for London Underground back in about 1916. We’re talking about absolute British here.
Was busy for the past few weeks. Sorry for no updated blog posts here. Most of the project deadlines at around the corner and will be over with soon.
On the other hand, I will be playing with my band at Fête de la musique in Alliance Française de Kuala Lumpur on 21st June at 7.15pm sharp. The songs lists kind of weird… Dark Forest (Hard Rock), Boomba (Funk) and Little Wing (Classic Rock). I hope I don’t screw up anything in between.
