This is a French type specimen book filled with beautifully amazing type and ornamental borders. I borrowed it from my friend Sam, who borrowed it from the BYU Library. To give someone the benefit of the doubt, someone then in turned borrowed it from me. The problem is that I’m not sure who that someone is or when (or if) someone intends to return it. I imagine sharing a few samples here would only make others want to “borrow” it more than ever before. But… if you borrowed it—or know who borrowed it—if you would unborrow it, me and Sam and the Harold B Lee Library would really appreciate it. Thanks. Otherwise, just enjoy the samples that I scanned from the book before it’s disappearance.
Recently I have been smitten by Stefan Sagmeister. I know it’s a little late, I know! And it’s not that I haven’t liked him or his work before (aside from his Rolling Stone’s album cover). I really like most of his work. I guess the thing that I regret is that I didn’t jump on his book, Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far before now. But after seeing it at the MOMA bookstore and at Bardhi’s house this past week, I can’t believe I don’t own it. But—like the shoes below—I hope to own it soon.
Here’s a video that documents a bit about his installation at the Dietch Project, based around the same themes as his book.
This isn’t typically the blog I use to talk about basketball related topics, but this one is less about the sport and more about the design—and specifically the design of brand Jordan. Recently I’ve been reading Driven From Within—a pretty nice book in terms of photography, typography, and the philosophy that drives both Michael Jordan and his brand (and you can get the book at Borders for like five bucks right now; it’s a good buy). MJ’s story is told first person by Michael himself, with a ton of insights from close friends and family, including Tinker Hatfield, the famed designer at Nike and the genius behind the majority of the Air Jordan shoes. Excerpts from the book…
“The shoes we created over the years were not contrived from a temporary fad of flavor-of-the-month thing. There is a pure foundation. I am most critical of the design work when I see someone throwing elements onto shoes just to make them look cool. There has to be a soul to the process. There has to be a real story.” — Tinker Hatfield.
“The products, companies and people who stay true to who they are usually end up being around for a long time.… If you are trying to make your way through a maze, and your decisions come from the inside, from your gut, nine times out of ten you won’t find yourself running into a wall.… As long as we stay true, stay honest, stay stylish, stay innovative, stay focused on quality over quantity, then no one will catch us because we’re always going to be leading. Fads are fads; they come and go. That’s not what brand jordan is about. And that’s not who I am.” — Michael Jordan.
This past week in New York, I spent a good chunk of my free time eyeing/drooling over the plethora of beautiful basketball shoes in the midtown athletic shoe stores and the Soho sneaker boutiques. But there’s something magical about the Air Jordans. Something that makes my gut churn and my mind warn me: If you don’t get these now, you’ll regret it. I never got the XXIs and I regret it. I didn’t get them, fyi. Maybe someday… I think it’s interesting that the same icon that inspired me as a kid on the basketball court is the same one that inspires me today as a designer.
For amazing images of Jordans 1 through 23, click here. Enjoy. But a word of caution: If you’re a shoe person, be careful; you may not come out for quite a while.
I know I said I wouldn’t talk about this anymore and I want to hold to that, but I can’t stop other people from talking about it, right? Here’s a pretty cool article from Font Shop’s “Unzipped” blog about the piece.
I head back to Utah on Saturday, so the New York trip is quickly coming to an end. I’ve met with six studios and possibly a seventh tomorrow and have received a lot of positive reactions as well as some “You better step up your game if you plan to play with the big boys” type reactions. I’m most thankful for the latter; it gets me excited to get back home and get to work on some of the pieces that have been kind of sitting in limbo for the past year-plus. And with that, I’ll sign off with the co-slogan of the Provo Care Center project and my favorite model in larger-than-life size:
A couple nights ago Jeremy Ames, Micah Anderson, and I went to the Design One Show at the Chelsea Art Museum to receive a “Silver Pencil” for ours and other’s work on the Typophile Film Festival Opening Credits. To see all the winner’s work, click here. To view the piece and to see details about our piece, click here. I want to thank Punchcut/Typophile, Brent Barson, Eric Gillett, and Linda Sullivan for providing both the opportunity to work on the piece as well as creative direction throughout. And also thank you’s to everyone else who spent long, long, long and often frustrating hours working on it: Sam Gray, Chris Crosby, Ashley Mackay, Archie Sessions, Joshua Kessie, and Adam Johnson. And now, I think I am officially sick of talking about this piece. But thanks for listening to everything up to this point.
I’m heading to New York in the morning to attend the One Show this Tuesday. A piece that I worked on last year is up for a pencil—more on that after the event. Last week, the same piece—the opening credits to the Fourth Typophile Film Festival—won a silver cube at the Art Director’s Club. Bardhi, Ashley, and Matthew were there to receive that award. I honestly don’t fully understand exactly what these recognitions mean, but I hear it’s something to be proud of. For a higher-res version of the video, click here (and wait for download):
Anyways… In preparation I put together a little portfolio book to show around. I’ll post some more images of it in the near future, but for now just this sheet, pre-cut, of some of the personal work I’ve done with the New Orleans Hornets brand:
There’s a million other things I could post, but I’ll keep it brief and leave some stuff to talk about during the week. For now, I’ll just leave you with this cool shot from my last stay in the Big Apple.
