Hafiz

Nice quote and handmade lettering.

©2008 David Scott | Cosmic: Graphic Design & Branding

Sandpearl Resort

Last weekend, I lived in luxury. I haven't been to a lot of ritzy places, but the Sandpearl Resort and Spa in Clearwater, Florida was definitely in my top three of swanky hotels. Personalized five-star service. Champagne at check-in. Opulent landscaping. Marble everywhere. Waterfalls. Butlers. The works.

For a moment I felt a little inadequate pulling up in my Nissan Altima while the valets were carefully repositioning the Bentley, Porsche and Rolls Royce situated on the hotel's polished pink cobblestone driveway.

However, I couldn't get over one tiny detail that was bugging me during my whole stay.


The resort displays their logo everywhere and it has two fundamental flaws. If you look closely, the type is not properly drawn with smooth connecting strokes in two places. And, if I want to get downright fussy about it, the capital "S" and the flourishes lack proportion and consistency with the rest of the type.


I don't have a problem with the composition of the logo itself, and if this were a Holiday Inn, I wouldn't bat an eye at it. For a company with such a high demand for integrity, however, this doesn't fly for me. A hotel like this pays very close attention to the details–especially in their logo.

This is a great case where "good enough" is never good enough. It really pays to know your client's business inside and out. For the Sandpearl, I could tell the second I walked inside, this hotel expects perfection because their customers expect perfection. I would bet whoever drew this logo didn't even step inside the hotel and if they had, they probably were't paying attention.

When we give 98% to our work, it has a trickle down effect. Eventually, that 98% becomes 75% and you get crap or get fired or both.

Your clients don't settle for 98%. Why would you?

©2008 David Scott | Cosmic: Graphic Design & Branding

Influential Designer: Edward Johnson

Edward Johnston was born February 11, 1872 in San José, Uruguay. He was best known as a unique type designer and calligrapher. He was also an accomplished author and teacher.

He picked up his love for type around 1898 when he moved to London and studied ancient writing techniques. From there, he taught at several universities including the Royal College of Art in London on the subject of type design. During his career he was commissioned to design fonts for royalty and high level governments. Johnson was most noted for his design of the type used for the London Underground transport system in 1915.

via: Linotype

©2008 David Scott | Cosmic: Graphic Design & Branding

Influential Designer: Hermann Zapf

Hermann Zapf was born November 8, 1918 and was a German typeface designer. He has had an influence on many of my personal designs since I use variations of the typefaces he created including Aldus. Other notable typefaces developed by Zapf include Optima, Palatino and Zapfino.

He served for the German army during World War II and because of heart troubles was confined to a desk writing reports for soldiers. It was here that his hand drawn typefaces and calligraphy began to take form. His journals and reports were widely respected as art.

After the war, he was given a position at type foundry Stempel. They hired him based solely on the work presented from his military reports and sketchbooks kept during the war.

Later during the 1960's, he was known as one of the first type designers to experiment with creating type in digital form and it wasn't until he traveled to the United States that his ideas on digital type began to generate acceptance.

Zapf's contribution to design and his influence on modern type are important achievements in our industry.

[image: Caxtonian]

©2007 David Scott | Cosmic

Cool Font Alert!

Beautiful font by Italian Design firm Formafantasma.

©2007 David Scott | Cosmic

Adrian Frutiger

Adrian Frutiger (born March 24, 1928) is one of the twentieth century's most prominent typeface designers and continues to influence the direction of digital typography into the twenty-first century. Frutiger is best known for his typefaces Univers and Frutiger. Frutiger was born near the town of Interlaken, in the Swiss Alps. His father was a weaver. As a child he experimented with a variety of self-invented scripts and stylized handwriting in reaction to the formal cursive required at the time in Swiss schools. An early interest in sculpture was discouraged by his father and secondary school teachers who encouraged him to work in printing. Though Frutiger entered the world of print, he maintains that love of sculpture influenced the form of his types.

Frutiger's career and type development spans the eras of hot metal, phototypesetting, and digital typesetting. Frutiger now lives near Bern, Switzerland, and is primarily working with woodcuts. In 2003 Frutiger was commissioned by Swiss watchmaker Ventura to design a line of limited-edition watches. He created a new face specifically for the watch face. Frutiger also designed a mark for the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India. The institute had been named the National Design Institute; however, the name was changed to match Frutiger's design, which incorporated a stylized NID logo alongside the words "National Institute of Design."

©2007 David Scott | Cosmic

Ransom Note Generator

Kidnap your co-worker's stapler and then head over to the Ransom Note Generator and demand payment for their prized office accessory. The site provides a fun way to experiment with different styles of type to create differing emotional connections.

©2007 David Scott | Cosmic

Typetester

Typetester is a handy online web development tool that allow users to compare various type treatments for their website copy. The site features three columns you can use to compare different CSS applications to the same body of text to see which would be the right treatment for your company's website. Column settings allow users to switch fonts, colors, line spacing and other features. The really cool thing is that if you like a particular style you've created, the site will generate the CSS code for you and you just plug it into your site. How easy is that?

©2007 David Scott | Cosmic

Eric Gill

History has always been sort of a dull subject for me and unless it had something to do with Nazis getting abducted by UFOs and was on the History Channel, I was no where to be found. So, recently, when I found a desire to learn more about the history of graphic design, I was surprised to learn about some professionals who even a 100 years ago could take on today's talent with a vengence.

Take Eric Gill for example. This British born typographer started out as an architect and found his training cumbersome. He then moved on to stone carving which led him to carving letterforms. His most famous typeface, Gill Sans produced in 1924, is still a highly prized typeface today. His career gained him much noteriety as he continued to produce amazing artworks for the BBC, the League of Nations and several postage stamp designs. He was eventually awarded the Royal Designer for Industry, the highest award given to designers.

With all the prestige surrounding his career, it is fascinating to me that upon his death in 1940, his headstone simply labels him as a "stone carver." Must have been humble about his influence on this industry.

©2007 David Scott | Cosmic