Recently completed illustration of Luain

This is an illustration I did for a whiskey label of Luain, he of 'Ath Luain' or 'Athlone' fame, helping people ford the treacherous river at the site of Sean's Bar, Ireland's oldest pub.

Though originally only supposed to appear as a sepia cut-out on the back label the owners asked me to expand it into a full painting which now hangs in the bar.

Another wonderful poster

I have bemoaned the state of movie posters here before, but was pleasantly surprised by the wonderfully colourful poster for 'Thor: Ragnarok' and then the retro style of the poster for 'Logan'.

Now Marvel have done it again with this beautiful poster for 'Black Panther'.

Ryan Gosling in SNL sketch about Papyrus font

I'll just leave this here… :-)

Photographer sues Getty Images for $1 billion after she's billed for her own photo

A fasinating story which highlights the positives of the move towards a rights free world.

And the disappointing conclusion

With free fonts and images increasingly available in the new digital age its possible to create work without ever having to deal with an aggressive corporation like Getty Images. Just be sure you have the right to use them.

Multiple language versions of a document

If you know you are going to be setting multiple language versions of a document, an Annual Report perhaps, and you have to have the same page count perhaps because they are going to print back to back as a bi-lingual document, then figure out which language runs the longest first.

For example Irish runs approximately 15% longer than English. Knowing that I can build in 15% extra space in my style sheets when designing the English version. Then when it comes to making the longer language fit I can simply trim the leading, space after etc. on the style sheets until it fits. Because I took this into consideration earlier the longer language shouldn't look too tightly fit.

Apply Master Page to multiple pages

If you want to apply a Master Page to multiple pages simultaneously just open the pages pallette and shift click to select a contiguous range of pages or command click to check individual pages, then right click and choose "Apply Master to Pages".

To unassign a master page do the exact same and apply the "None" master page.

The 'Spider-Man Homecoming' poster is an abomination

The newly released 'Spider-Man Homecoming' poster is just awful A pastiche of headshots, badly cut out and with no theme or colour scheme to unite them.

But before we all blame the design agency a quick look at their original ideas shows they had a good concept that worked. Spidey, acting like a normal teen and hanging out around NYC.

Clearly the studio got involved. "Gotta have RDJ in there" "well if RDJ is there then Keaton and Crowe do as well" "and it needs some fire or an explosion or something" "oh and squeeze Washington in beside NYC somewhere, cos, ya know!"

Soul destroying for all involved, apart from the soulless executives.

I long for the days of illustrators Richard Amsel, Drew Struzan and Bob Peak who created some of the most iconic and unforgettable movies posters ever, and there are equally gifted illustrators out there today, like Paul Shipper, who need to be let work on the posters instead of some trainee with no design sense and a copy of Photoshop.

That said they'll need thick skin. Studio interference is what ultimately caused Drew Struzan to retire.

Bob Peak, Richard Amsel and Drew Struzan below…

Know your image formats

A very handy guide to the various image formats for those who might be wondering

Murphy's Law

Rainbow flag designer commemorated with free font family

The appropriately-named Gilbert started out as a font designed for striking headlines and protest banner slogans, and is now being built into an entire family of weights and styles, all of which will be available for free from Type With Pride.

Gilbert comes as both a standard vector font and a colour font, and is perfect for protest banners. Read more here! Get the font here!

Interesting video on design

Keep an eye out for this little documentary 'Graphic Means' on the evolution of Design. Foe anyone who remembers the old ways of doing things it looks like it'll be a fascinating trip down memory lane

Icon issues

I was laying out a mailshot the other day and it came time for the contact details, which needed icons to accompany them. It got me to wondering, we still use an envelope to denote email, though theres a whole generation who have probably never used a stamp.

So I wonder if the old phone will ever be replaced by a smartphone? Personally I don't think it reads as well, but to a new generation who probably never held an old receiver? I'm curious.

LOL!

Nothing like a good type joke :-)

LOL!

Scott Kims symmetrical alphabet

A thing of typographic beauty. You can see more of his work here…

Oscar Fiasco

Well that was awkward, announcing La La Land as best picture instead of Moonlight. They finally got it all sorted but did any other designers out there think that maybe the layout of the text was a disaster waiting to happen?

Surely the biggest things on the card should have been the "Category" and the "Winner"? The category is the last thing in tiny script at the bottom. It should have read "Category: Best Picture" and "Winner: Moonlight". Everything else is secondary.

Proof that good typography matters.

Classy poster for the new Wolverine movie

I'm liking the newly released poster for the upcoming wolverine move. Firstly it is illustrated which is a much needed departure from the usual Photoshopped two heads. Hopefully this heralds a return to the glory days when Drew Struzan ruled the movie poster biz?

But also the design and typography evokes an older time and the posters of the old spaghetti westerns. Fitting perhaps as this outing takes its cue from the old man Logan comics which, although set in the future, had a wild west feel to them.

Stranger Things

When I watched last years breakout TV series "Stranger Things" I, like everyone else, loved spotting all the nods to 80s movies I grew up with. But, being a bit of a type nerd, I also noticed how the titles for the series harkened back to the type design of the same period.

Creator Jacob Boghosian walks us through the process of coming up with the retro titles here…

Most common social media image sizes

The people over at makeawebsitehub.com have updated their very handy guide to the most commonly social media picture sizes for 2017. Check it out here…