The size for this years (or last) Kancil Awards annual is 21cm x 28cm. Paper is sponsored by Antalis Malaysia; Fine Print Edixion Matt White 120GSM. Probably the only book I’ve worked with up to date with the tightest kerning (generally). General typographic rules are to allow extra kerning on text in all caps but in this scenario, unkerned, and even decreased kerning points in certain cases.
General headlines are flushed right, started off with a virgule (more commonly known as a slash or frontslash), pending on whether the category falls under a particular main section. If an element falls under the category, the underscore will come in then.
Typeface is H&F Knockout. Set in 12 columns with 9.638pt of gutter space. Baseline grids are set to increase every 4.286pt.
I guess some might argue that I’m putting legibility after styling but in this case I would say it’s pretty much what I was ready to do and had in mind. Opposing last years FF Super Grotesk driven design.
Just three basic rules to use the typeface. If you want the Cheap Chip release 1, which contains the Myra font and Georgetown font and some bonus features, drop me an email at gordonated [at] gmail.com.
Irregardless of my need to get a decent camera, this is a nice mini-Kuala Lumpur-tour-booklet done by a group of talented students from The One Academy which I help oversee. I thought this booklet felt good to the hands. Probably because of the combination of the crispy FF Page Serif with the woody touch of Beyond Recycled Natural 120GSM.
I was kind of surprised to discover that my poster design for the Retrospective_my exhibition actually made it through the beautiful exhibition held in conjunction with Kyoorius Designyatra Malaysia. Honestly, I thought that my poster is the most not-eye-pleasing thing and not-worthy to be exhibited in that beautiful exhibition thing.
Okay, the poster is really not a cool poster in my honest opinion. Robert Bringhurst advised on kerning; either you kern modestly or not at all. I ignored and totally rebelled against it. It took me only about 3 minutes to put the text together.
Typeface; it’s actually a typeface* made for a project with something to do with culture. Well, since I made it for a cultural project, and this is suppose to be an exhibition on the intriguing retrospective of Malaysia’s past and history, it works fine for me.
Plus, I really didn’t vote. Had to attend a very close friends wedding in an island far away. And I really did felt an honest sense of regret that I didn’t vote. It was an ugly one.
Point is, it’s not meant to be cool and hip. I love my country but I do hope for a better future for us all. I didn’t mean to be rude to all designers who think I did not put in effort and passion in my work. I felt a better projection of my voice on this subject matter that way; and at the same time test and see if that typeface works fine or not in 30% K under the worst condition (a poster on the floor!).
Lastly, chances are, you might have read the my biodata on the leaflet in the exhibition, saw this link to this site and wonder who am I; hello, I’m Gordon who did not graduate properly for real.
*The typeface was based on this really vintage signage my colleagues found when they were on that “cultural” project road-trip tour. They thought it was really cool and since we had someone in the studio who is willing to labour for it, why not? Tried to retain the proportions of the original typeface as much as possible; top contours were more angled while the lower ones rounder. The width of each letters had to be balanced, in respect of the ascender height because there’s no lowercase version for this.
Had to increase the metric kerning space of each alphabet in-respective of the nature which this typeface came from, the loosely kerned signage. So do not use optical kerning when using this typeface ok? It’ll look too modern believe me. Below are the reference images:
I was digging through some old files to recover a certain image for a certain type of project for a certain client. Guess what I found!
I remember sticking these drafts up on the glass door sometime ago and photographing them. As you can see, I had a great time with my limited photography skills. Still one of my favorite projects so far.
Got this out last month. Pretty much my first time dealing with mass consumer and food related design or graphics, which I have entirely no experience in.
Primary typeface is Linotype’s Clarendon. FF Zapata as secondary typeface for the logo.
Yeah by now you can tell that I’m displaying drafts and mock-ups here. Also, go there and try the food. My colleagues say the pasta taste good. It’s somewhere near One Utama.
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.
