Consider this our formal invitation. On November 3, the Type Directors Club presents a talk by one of the most talented type designers working today: Argentina’s Alejandro Paul, creator of incredibly beautiful faces like Compendium, Feel Script, Burgues Script, and countless others.

To commemorate the event, Nancy Harris Rouemy, renowned for her work at The New York Times Magazine (and an ardent Alejandro fan) designed the beautiful invitation above. (See the PDF — how many faces can you name?*) Letterpress printing courtesy of Davin Kuntze at Woodside Press in Brooklyn.

Hope to see you there!

*Answers in this gallery, minus one upcoming release.

“Dirty Weekend is a series of workshops that provide graphic designers with the opportunity to discover the joy of hands-on, non-digital materials & techniques & how they can enhance their creative process." So says Steve Haslip, creator of the events being held this month at the Art Directors Club, in NYC, presented by Veer. (The workshops also constitute Steve’s MFA thesis project.)

From the Flickr coverage it looks like everyone is having a fantastically dirty and creative time. See the Dirty Weekend channel on Vimeo, too.

(All the Dirty Weekends are sold out, but join the ADC or follow them on Twitter @adcglobal so you don’t miss upcoming events.)

Image above ©Steve Haslip

I recently had new business cards printed. Inspired by a Guess garment tag, I opted to create it with a non-traditional size and with a corner cut off. I also built it with three colors, including a metallic ink.

This was not a cheap card. In the end, with 1,000 cards to distribute to the business contacts I make, I paid $497 for these. My vendor was James Gance of Imagination Arts in Denver, Colorado, a printing broker.

Since my last batch of cards expired, I avoided getting new cards printed because I felt that the ubiquity of the iPhone and Blackberry and the accessibility of LinkedIn on those devices, plus the ability to swap contact information easily between devices, made the traditional business card obsolete.

When I met other business people and potential clients in public, and I would be asked for my card, I would just tell them we needed to connect on LinkedIn.
I found that not everyone was on LinkedIn, and that I don't always look up people on LinkedIn for finding contacts. It is an incredible resource, however, and I will not downplay its benefits.

I resorted to printing a new business card (in the above picture), but only putting my web address, blog address, email and phone on it. If you go to my website, you can connect with me on LinkedIn, follow me on Twitter, connect with me on Facebook, and see my videos on YouTube. My business card is still a strong option and works in conjunction with LinkedIn now.

This illustration was recently completed for the cover story for the September/October 2009 issue of Intelligent Utility. It was created entirely in Adobe Illustrator, but when the cover was sent to the printer, it was much too complex to process as vectors. Too many transparencies and vector points, they said. Needed to be rasterized.
So there is a threshold at which vector art is too complex . . .

Finally, after more than a year of production, and hard work by a talented gang of passionate filmmakers, we are pleased to present our short mockumentary My Stunt Double on a virtual DVD.

I have feeble excuses for taking this long. This film could have been done in a matter of months. I think partially because it was a zero-budget film, and all of us worked on our own spare time to get it done, is one reason it was strung out so much. Also, my own desire to make the first rough cut, which allowed only a weekend here and there to do it, and that it was 720p HD, which taxed my Mac quite a bit in rendering.

Nevertheless, this is a triumph in that it demonstrates strong ability to complete a production. I aim to raise the production quality on all sides with the next film, which I'll be directing in Tokyo next summer, 2010, if all my plans come together.

We realize it’s still summer 2009, but we’re pretty excited for 2010 to arrive. Why? Because the upcoming 2010 Pentagram Typographic Calendar was made entirely with Veer typefaces, chosen by designer Kit Hinrichs.

The 2009 calendar was a hit both in the Veer creative studio and in our merch store, so we’re thrilled to be part of it this year. Like last year, it’ll be available in 18x12" inch and giant 33x23" versions — all the better to savor the pure typographic beauty of the perfectly set dates.

Enjoy Cavetto day after day in March:

Bask in the monolinearity of Los Niches in May:

And enjoy 10 other typefaces on equally resplendent pages the rest of the year (we won’t spoil the surprise, in case you want to give these as holiday gifts).

The calendar is shipping now. Thanks to Pentagram for the opportunity to be part of their yearly tradition.

This past Saturday I finally finished a painting I had been working on for a bit more than two years. This painting started out as a 10x10-inch sketch on watercolor paper, which was then transfered via overhead projector onto a 45x45-inch canvas with black colored pencil.
The painting was tedious because of the level of detail. I painted it in layers, starting with a red underpainting. My goal was for the contrasts of purple and yellow, but I ended up with a stronger orange cast. It still works to my goal: to not use real-life colors.
It is painted in acrylic.
I’ve always been fascinated by detailed architectural art, especially the oblique kind.
The reference material for this painting was the book Above London by Alistair Cooke. Though it does not reference a specific section of London from the air, it suggests the general European city grid and architecture. It could be any time, of course, within the past century.
I’m happy to finally let it fill this wall in my house.

Canada's international film festival Fantasia has awarded Run Wrake's and Veer's movie The Control Master best animated short in 2009.

Says Fantasia, "The film is an electrifying “melting pop” inspired by imagery from ’50s-era comic books and featuring flying superheroes, a mutant heroine and a mad scientist hungry for power and mass destruction."

I think "melting pop" is a typo but it seems fitting for this surreal pop-art masterpiece built entirely with CSA Images. Congratulations to Run and everyone involved.

This poster for the film My Stunt Double had to be printed in two languages. I was one of the directors to the short mockumentary we shot in Tokyo last summer, July 2008.

We had actors who were both anglo and asian, and they would sometimes switch between Japanese and English. The screenwriter is Japanese, but studied film in the US. He also played the lead role.

My Stunt Double will be screened publicly in Tokyo on August 8, 2009. At the moment, we are rushing through last production tasks such as music composition, titles, and DVD mastering.

I plan to make the full film (24 minutes) available to view on my website in August 2009.

Mucca Design has serious typographic (pork) chops, having created dozens of identities for some of NYC's most memorable restaurants and food companies. Check out their latest identity system for Brooklyn Fare, with custom typeface, teasingly revealed through a video presentation. Be sure to stay for the exotic surprise ending.