ejnord.com | design blog of eric nord

Mil3n
“modernism meets the streets”
2953px x 4134px

OK… seriously… check out that “3″ in Mil3n’s tag. Nice! Oh wait… you didn’t realize that jumble of shapes spells “Mil3n”? Yup. This is yet another sly piece where Mil3n piles on his influences of graffiti, calligraphy, vector art, and typography… but keeps everything spacious and tasteful.

Stay tuned for more Mil3n!

This style of chunky typeface has been growing in popularity over the last few years. And there are a few, mildly tasteful releases to choose from.

Giza
Bloque
Ryno Slab
Facebuster
Champ Ultra

Word has it this particular House of Hoops font is a custom job by Non-Format, and thus is not commercially available. But Giza is pretty close.

on flickr

In my early days, I had a quick appreciation for sans serifs like Helvetica, Univers, and Akzidenz. But the usefulness of many serif faces were lost on me. I saw them as old-fashioned. And I must be honest and say that my first typographic passion was for unconventional “modern” display fonts.

While I still keep my eyes peeled for the new, I now realize that classic fonts (and their variants, progeny, and modified versions) are more than capable of getting the job done. With that in mind, I present my new favorite book… Tamye Riggs’ Typeface: Classic Typography for Contemporary Design.

The concept is simple: Tamye and her crew made small showcases for 46 classic fonts. Each presentation includes background information, along with examples of contemporary designs that utilize each face.

This book has a few key features. First, it gives a handy, full-size reference for fonts that are used on a regular basis. Second, we get to see the fonts in a wide range of uses and weights (and the examples are stellar). Third, in limiting this book to 46 well-known fonts, it really makes a case for why (and how) some fonts are classic.

For me, the most penetrating photographic visions are those capturing the surrealism of everyday life in familiar objects and places.

Photograph by Khantipol.

This is a classic mix from Diplo (who produced “Paper Planes” for MIA) and his longtime collaborator, Tripledouble. If you enjoy this mix, let me know and I’ll post the first Aeiou mix.

Diplo & Tripledouble – Aeiou Two

These are screenshots of prints from an OTIS promotional video.

As part of my quest to teach graphic design, I am looking at MFA programs in the Los Angeles area. OTIS is one of them. Based on what I’ve seen, OTIS is my first choice. Although it does seem a tad expensive.

view large

This is a quick 2-day job I did for Dopetracks. I didn’t have time to explore alternate layouts and treatments, but I think it turned out alright. One of the lessons from this project is the power of strong subject matter. It’s easy for designers to get caught up in technique. And technique is still an essential component of design. But for me, good design is all about content. In particular, I think being able to convey someone’s character or express a culture is what it’s all about.

The photographs in this composition would be out of place on a typical hip hop site. But this is Dopetracks. And I felt the spirit of these photographs capture a “me against the world” spirit. Even though this isn’t a literal representation of hip hop culture, these guys exemplify the grit and determination of great battlers. For this project, I felt conveying the SPIRIT of a battler was more important than showing literal examples of a beat battle (e.g., people hunched over equipment).