Russell Crowe, meet Aviano

Robin Hood, from Ridley Scott, with Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett, uses Aviano for the movie logotype:

http://www.robinhoodthemovie.com/

New from insigne: Youngblood Antique

Youngblood Antique is a distressed non-connected formal script with tall, sweeping ascenders. Three variants are available, including an inked regular font, a font drawn with a dry brush and a distressed, grungy version. Sixty-four OpenType ligatures add a realistic, natural effect and ensure that no two letters in a word repeat. Youngblood Antique also includes OpenType ending swashes, and old style figures and 30 alternate characters that allow designers to customize the ascender and descender swashes. Be sure to check out the non-distressed original Youngblood.

Youngblood Antique is 20% off for a limited time.

New from insigne: Aviano Flare!

The Aviano series returns with a flared semi-serif.

Aviano Flare’s subtly curved forms lend refinement and luxurious elegance to your designs. Aviano’s foundational extended classical forms give the face strength and power.

Aviano Flare is a versatile new addition to the Aviano titling series. Aviano Flare comes in six different weights and is packed with OpenType features. Want to get rid of the serifs for that logotype or headline? Need swash forms? Art Deco alternates? Aviano Flare includes 74 alternate characters. Two style sets are available, two sets of art deco inspired alternates, small forms, swash, titling and stylistic alternates. Aviano Flare also includes 40 discretionary ligatures for artistic typographic compositions. Please see the informative .pdf brochure to see these features in action.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Aviano series which can be used as complementary faces, including Aviano, Aviano Serif, Aviano Sans, Aviano Didone and Aviano Slab.

Purchase Aviano Flare for 33% off at MyFonts.com for a limited time.

Coming Soon...

New from insigne: Serofina!

Serofina is an adaptable and fluid connected script with plenty of alternate flourish options. From clean and flowing to cute and frilly, Serofina can do it.

The Serofina family comes with four weights, including a unique hairline, which makes it a versatile investment for a wide range of design possibilities.

All weights include the OpenType programming to automatically and seamlessly swap out the default characters for 45 alternate forms and 18 auto-replacing ligatures. These alternates can make the face appear to be more simplified, restrained or frilly. Serofina also includes seven ornaments and old-style numbers.

Check out the sample images to see these features in action. Serofina is a highly versatile script family and its range of weights make it perfect for whenever you need an expressive and original typeface.

20% off for a limited time!

Terrible Yellow Eyes

I've been posting updates regarding Cory Godbey's Maurice Sendak tribute "Terrible Yellow Eyes" for many months. However, Cory recently decided to complete the project. Terrible Yellow Eyes posted it's final submissions January 1st. Head on over to see the project in its full, final form.

Cory's Blue Goblet Series

New from insigne: Blue Goblet Emblems!

The designer-favorite Blue Goblet family has grown with Blue Goblet Emblems. Blue Goblet Emblems are unique and abstract symbols that are rendered in Cory Godbey’s unique illustration style.

These creative and dynamic ornaments can be resized easily without any loss of quality, and can easily be converted to outlines and modified. These ornaments can be combined to form unique compositions or inserted directly into layouts. Combine them to form unique patterns and motifs.

Please see the sample .pdf to see all 58 ornaments in action, and be sure to check out the original Blue Goblet brush script and Blue Goblet ornaments, frames and vignettes and florals. Blue Goblet Emblems is a collaboration between insigne Design and Portland Studios.

Blue Goblet Emblems are 10% off! The rest of the series is 20% off for a limited time.

New from insigne: Chennai Slab!

Chennai Slab is an extension of the original Chennai. Chennai Slab is a simplified slab serif with over sixty OpenType alternates. These alternates include alternates for the ball terminals, unique simplified alternates and more traditional capital forms. Use Chennai Slab when you need a fun and versatile slab serif. The sans-serif Chennai makes a great complement. Six weights are available.

Chennai has also been updated with three new weights. More on that tomorrow.

Sovba: a friendly rounded sans-serif inspired by handwriting.

Sovba is an amiable rounded sans-serif inspired by handwriting. Sovba is useful for a look that is uniquely casual, fresh and smooth. Sovba simplifies character forms down to their basic characteristics, and has a strong, silky smooth forward motion.

Sovba includes more traditional optional alternates for a number of characters, including the E and F, OpenType alternate characters, old style figures and small caps. Sovba is a fine choice when you require a versatile upright oblique for logotypes, headlines or short blocks of text. Available from MyFonts.com

PDF Sample. 13 pgs.

New from insigne: Blue Goblet Florals

The designer-favorite Blue Goblet family has grown with the addition of Blue Goblet Florals. Blue Goblet Florals are flowing and abstract ornaments that resemble foliage or flowers rendered in Cory Godbey’s unique illustration style. More…

These fresh and lively foliage inspired ornaments can be resized easily without any loss of quality, and can easily be converted to outlines and modified. These floral ornaments can be combined to form unique compositions or inserted directly into layouts. Please see the sample .pdf to see all 55 floral ornaments in action, and be sure to check out the original Blue Goblet brush script and Blue Goblet ornaments, frames and vignettes.

Blue Goblet Florals is a collaboration between insigne Design and Portland Studios.

Twitteroundup Week 36

Design

Woman Fired For Causing Disharmony in Workplace by Using Angry Fonts. Just don't do it, folks. Use happy fonts.

http://myfonts.de...sehr interessant. Inspired by this, I sent in a suggestion to Myfonts.com for "Find fonts by what's popular in your area.: MyFonts could use sales data for a specific region or country to generate a custom top 50 list for specific regions. Another possibility would to have “Find fonts by region” with a clickable map of the world. It would be very interesting and engaging for customers to contrast, say Germany with Minnesota, etc.

Some nice branding work over at Luxcetera. Plus they made some great type choices for their logotypes. :)


Stunning integration of fluid, fashion and fotos by Iain Crawford. via @behance

Sennheiser Audio Packaging. Nice. http://bit.ly/JErAL6:46 AM Sep 1st from web


Love these simple bird prints.

Tech
First Supersonic Private Jet.

747 - what an beautiful but powerful looking aircraft! Airbus has nothing on Boeing.


Efficiency

Dan Phillips builds houses out of salvaged items, like frame samples, which he used on a ceiling.

Underwater Robot Can Reduce Navy's Fuel Consumption. The Navy's version of a Roomba.

How Many Solar Panels Would It Take to Power The Entire World?

Humor



Flying Penguin Mockumentary. Love the over-enthused Brit narration.


I could drink 198.55 cans of Mountain Dew before dying a horrible caffeinated death. I'll be sure to keep it to 198 cans.

Interesting

Jason Fried of 37 Signals rips the unprofitable "freemium" model - via @swissmiss


Hotels with extraordinary swimming pools.

Love, But Not Lust, Inspires Creativity

Twitteroundup Week 35

Design



Craigslist makeover mockups.

Rodger Federer's Monogram: second after Tiger's. More inspiration from fashion (Bodoni) than sport. via @pentagramdesign



100 Years of Visual Effects. But why is there a 10 year gap between Jurassic Park and Spiderman? So much was done in that period!

Some impressive identity work by Momkai for the city of Amsterdam. RT @Behance

8 Years of Great Mac OS X Box Design End In a Clip Art Cat & Bad Kitty! Snow Leopard box photoshopped to remove traces of blood from cat's mouth. Wallpaper comes with blood intact.

35 Logos brilliantly using Negative Space: Negative is Positive RT @Linotype_com RT @graphicidentity.

Smiley, Sad & Wink faces: Shouldn’t they be stylized and available on all fonts? RT @Wiltonfoundry

African Beach Calligraphy. Done with a specialized scoop. via @Ministryoftype

New Kraft cheese packaging. I like it. However, it doesn't feel very 'American.'

Humor

Papa John gets beloved Camaro back, sold 2 start pizza biz. 20+ years ago. Someday I want my beloved Corolla back...N/M.

Funny, well designed mythical creatures infographic. via @lilaccreative

Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 (pronounced [ˈalbɪn]) was a name intended for a Swedish child. More Unusual Personal Names.



Kickball with cars. Check the Honda S2000's kick!

Change It Back, IKEA.

The Verdana-Futura beat down is a big deal. Whodathunk it.

I’m a big Futura fan. Like Futura a lot of my work is based on classical proportions and is geometric. Futura conveys sophistication with simplicity which makes it a perfect choice for IKEA. Verdana used to be one of my favorites…when I was a sophomore in college. I liked it because I didn’t know any better. Like many of Matthew Carter’s well known typefaces, Verdana is designed to solve the technical problem of rendering fonts onscreen, not to convey artistic beauty.

There were rumors that IKEA chose Verdana because they wanted a unified graphic identity across all markets. I’ve seen conflicting information on this. If true, it is the only legitimate reason to use Verdana. However:

In Israel, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Thailand for the languages Hebrew, Arabic and Thai, Tahoma is the approved substitute font. JhengHei, a Chinese sans-serif is the substitute font for Traditional Chinese in Taiwan and Hong Kong. YaHei will be substituted for Verdana in mainland China for Simplified Chinese. The Japanese sans-serif, Meiryo is being used in Japan and the Okinawan Islands while Malgun Gothic will be used in North Korea and South Korea. The Tamil language in India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia and Mauritius will be displayed using Latha. Source

Second reason cited was cost effectiveness. If everyone switched to the most cost effective font on earth everything would be in Arial. Does IKEA really care about design? Apparently not. They have decided to be the Wal-Mart of the furniture world instead.

Verdana will be gone as soon as we get screens with higher resolutions. Renner wasn’t trying to solve a communications problem, he was creating a piece of art. Futura has stood the test of time, and has been used for different applications generation after generation. In 2123, we will still have Futura advertising space vacations and floating condominiums off the coast of Madagascar. Or everything will be in Arial. Your choice: Sign the petition.

insigne Newsletter

I'm starting up the insigne newsletter. I've tried this in the past, but my custom sign up page was making it impossible to sign up! Subscribe to our newsletter for monthly information on our new releases, a promotion schedule and the chance to win the insigne font family of your choice!

Twitteroundup! Week 34

Interesting

Luscher Color Diagnostik personality test. So accurate, I can't share the results. More info. via @Wiltonfoundry

Design and Inspiration


Mini-Luxury Living: 10 Small Homes Built on Tiny Islands via @dornobdesign

Peter de Sève now has a blog! via @corygodbey


Saving my pocket change for this baby: Pershing 90 Yacht. Wow.

1950's Sci-Fi Magazine Covers.

15 Stunning Examples of Data Visualization via @theroxor, @Minervity, @buysellads:

Ran across http://www.designhistory.org/ Great Articles.

Old vs new: great logo redesigns. via @TheRoxor

insigne Announcements

Very excited about this: Aviano Didone on Typography Served!

Working on an update for Chennai. It's been on an uptick of late. Two new weights planned and a rounded slab extension.

Just fired off Sommet Rounded for the Modern Cyrillic competition.

See what insigne fonts will be available for free and subscription use on websites through Typekit!

New Sans Serif, Sovba. Critique in Progress at Typophile. Slice and Dice!

Tech

Link your Facebook Page to Twitter with a Facebook App.


Illustrator circa 1963. via @swissmiss

Funny AE bug reports via @brampitoyo

Wondered if it were possible, then confirmed it. You can set Google Alerts to go to Google Reader now!

Google Hot Trends. Updated Hourly.

Men prefer websites designed by men and vice versa, Men, Women's preferences poles apart. Via @CastleType

Easy, Fast & Cheap DIY Process to Compost Plastic via @webecoist.


Humor

Snicker! T and G are too close together on a keyboard. I will never end a work email with "Regards" ever again. via @LogoMotives, @bluehaus

Aviano Didone on Typography Served

I'm pretty excited about this, since this is one of my favorite typography blogs. Check it out.

Aviano Didone

The Aviano series returns with a Didone or Modern face. Aviano Didone’s high contrast forms lend elegant beauty, luxury and romance to your designs and it’s extended letterforms provide strength and power. Aviano’s foundational classical forms give the face a look that is unique for Didone faces. Aviano Didone is a bold new interpretation of vertically contrasted type.

Aviano Didone comes in five different weights and is packed with OpenType features. Want ball terminals for that logotype or headline? Flat serifs? Swash forms? Aviano Didone includes 102 alternate characters. Five style sets are available, and Art Deco inspired alternates, small forms, swash, titling and stylistic alternates. Aviano Didone also includes 40 discretionary ligatures for artistic typographic compositions. Please see the informative .pdf brochure to see these features in action.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Aviano series which can be used as complementary faces, including Aviano, Aviano Serif, Aviano Sans and Aviano Slab.

Sommet Rounded Updated

Sommet Rounded has been updated with new weights, Heavy and Thin. Also, there are new alternates and most importantly, Cyrillic language support. Available for 1/3rd off for a limited time.

Aviano Didone Critique: Last Chance!

Let me hear your comments over at Typophile.

Aviano Didone

There is a critique of Aviano Didone in progress over at Typophile. Weigh in here.


And, for your viewing pleasure, I give you Aviano Didone's "Turbo Chicken."

New from insigne: Natalya Monoline

Natalya Monoline is the rounded monolinear companion to Natalya. Like its predecessor, Natalya Monoline has a smooth rhythm and flows fluidly, due in no small part to its reliance on the golden spiral for its ornate swirls. This makes for an especially harmonious script with timeless appeal. The typeface family includes five weights with three alternate variations of the ascenders and descenders and includes OpenType ligatures, oldstyle figures and ending swashes.

Coming Soon: Natalya Monoline

Twitteroundup!

Inspiration

Photos of stuff slipping into nothingness. Photography by Michel Rajkovic. Would love prints of these. Via @behance



Ralph McQuarrie. Love this guy.

Gorgeous Examples of Floral Typography Via @Linotype_com.


Living Tree Art. Pooktre trees and furniture.

Design

How well do you know Famous Logos? Via @Linotype_com.

Cory Godbey updated Terrible Yellow Eyes. Check out the great illustrations. Cory's Blue Goblet series is on sale at Myfonts.com



Prezi. Amazing presentations made easy.



'The Hut', new branding for Pizza Hut restaurants. via @idsgn

Concept prototyping. Shirts, billboards, etc. See how it will appear in real life.

Type

The early days and work of @H_FJ. Funny story.

NYT sends cease and desist for use of use of a black letter font similar to "the NYT's trademark "world-famous Gothic font"

Neat info about the history of Times New Roman along with Font Bureau's new Starling.

Humour

Some humor over at Dark Roasted Blend.



LOL. Mega Shark VS. Giant Octopus. Great acting! Sorry I missed this one.

Technology

New Google Street View. Myst meets reality.

Hypercolor is back! In a lifesaving baby's onesie? This will not fit...

Holy Cow! Augmented reality is reality!

Interesting
Interviews with random folks all across the USA. Via @brannonmc

Thoughts
If you have $5 and Chuck Norris has $5, Chuck Norris has more money than you.

"Your silence is golden, and, like gold, people will happily kill you to obtain it." via @cookies_of_doom


New from insigne: Kidela Sketch. Available at MyFonts for 15% off for a limited time.

Natalya Monoline, work in progress

Twitteroundup!

♪The trending topic song continued: Iran, Le Mans. Ahmadinejad, AT&T is a fraud. Iphone, Red Wings go home.♫

Inspiration

Amazing pic from Singapore.


Love the above. Unfortunately I can't find the source link. It was via @typegirl

Peter deSeve added his tribute to Maurice Sendak over @CoryGodbey's Terrible Yellow Eyes. Then grab Cory's Blue Goblet.

Some great handlettering.


Love these. Great use of color.



Designer Guns and Gas Masks. via @behance

Awesome hood ornaments.


Flying Ferrari from the Future!

Zoological typeface, via @swissmiss and @designworklife

Geektastic

Sneak peek into the Photo-Lettering beta via @houseindustries and @typegirl.

Dell Does $3 Million In Sales Through Twitter.

Humour


Traffic Barrel monster creator arrested.

Personal

Did the taxes, caught a five foot long snake in backyard. I think he was with the IRS. Let him go to hang with his little snake friends, eat tasty woodland creatures. Also grabbed three gallon jugs of Tobasco. (Original, Habanero and Jalapeno) It will be gone in a year.

New from insigne: Kidela Sketch

Kidela Sketch is an energetic and eccentric serif typeface rendered in a sketchy style. The typeface includes 64 auto-replacing discretionary ligatures to extend the natural sketched look, oldstyle figures and small caps.

Please see the sample brochure to see these features in action. More…

Kidela Sketch is an excellent choice when you need a fun and interesting serif.

Kidela Sketch is available at MyFonts.com for 15% off for a limited time.

Coming Soon: Kidela Sketch

Just a taste...

Twitteroundup!

This week on the interwebs, Jay-Z, Palm Pre, playing lots of Sims 3. Air France, Normandie, playing tetris, SAT.

Design & Inspiration

Cityscapes

More on the Bing logotype.

insigne fonts are packed with OpenType features. Here's a how-to on discretionary ligatures via Fonts.com

Nice stop-motion film with those cool magnetic letters.


Disney's UP Art Deco era posters.



Typefunkography 3D stroke logotype based on Bello. via @fontbureau


Cory Godbey's Terrible Yellow Eyes was updated on Friday. Includes a post by Justin Gerard. You can grab Justin's Biscuit Boodle series and Cory Godbey's Blue Goblet series of fonts and ornaments.

Coolness


CodeX Yachts

Inside the $485-Million Airbus A380 Flying Palace

Mentos frozen in ice cubes and Diet Coke.


I love Ekranoplanes: (Ground Effect Vehicles)

XBox full body motion controller. Bring it.

Humour


Funny Wolfram Alpha Responses.

YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter will combine to form YouTwitFace. -Conan via MarcoSuarez

"Boxer M. Tyson packs his bags with Jay-Z DVDs, Quik, Holyfield’s ear." via typophile and typographica.

The Pixar and Dreamworks story process compared and contrasted. via CoryGodbey

Observations

Google Wave = Skype's missed opportunity

Saw UP. Favorite characters were Dug and that big goofy bird.

A UPS is money well spent.

New from insigne: Mittwoch

Mittwoch is an extended modern serif and a new companion to insigne’s Montag and Dienstag extended sans serifs. Mittwoch conveys a graceful air with its high-contrast letterforms and its ball terminals, but also includes some unique touches that are unexpected for modern faces. Mittwoch includes four different weights and 50 alternate characters, including swashes, more traditional modern letterforms and simplified characters for titling or when a more unique look is needed. For complementary companions, be sure to check out Montag and Dienstag, also available from insigne.

Twitteroundup!

Happenings on Da’ Web

*Bing* Bing is live. Logotype is still ugly. Tried it out. Think I will keep Google as my default for now.

Wanna know what Google Wave is but don't want to sit through a 1.5 hr vid?

Since fonts on the web are the big craze of the moment, here is one of the lesser known players: FontJazz. Apparently works by creating a .gif with all characters and a .js file to do client side replace.

Yay, Office 2010 will finally support OpenType features! Kerning in word was just a bridge too far for MSFT apparently.

Art Links


Forest house, organic curves. Amazing.

MIT's outbound calls during Obama's inauguration data visualization.

Ultimate List of 32 Font And Typography Tools. Really useful list. via @sthursby

Abandoned structures around the globe, great photography.

Some Outstanding Typography Projects. via @sthursby

Concept artwork for Star Trek and some other blockbuster films.

Beautiful art, made entirely out of masking tape. This is a must-see. via @printmag

Random


Bacon sushi, the next breakfast craze. You saw it here first...

Check these fattening culinary creations. Wait several hours until after you eat. Via @jonkopp


For Laughs

Mittwoch Complete

Mittwoch is complete and off to MyFonts.com. Here's a taste. Available next week.

Twitteroundup

Fun

Kern in Space! Fun little game, reminds me of jetpack. via @duschwartz2

A tractor as a drummer in a country band. Country as in Denmark, not Tennessee, but there seems to be some overlap in style.

Design

Oil and Water mix in high shutter speed photography. Via http://www.evasion.cc

More ink meets water. via @behance

Humourous office doodles with some great textures from common office supplies. via @ behance.

E-Class Coupe. Design Awesomeness.


Love this identity. Great use of color, type, icons.

Interesting bridges via darkroastedblend.

Terrible Yellow Eyes, Cory Godbey's tribute to Maurice Sendak.

Insigne News

Posted some teasers for Mittwoch, an addition to my Montag/Dienstag line. It is an extended modern face. Cory Godbey's Blue Goblet Frames and Vignettes are available at MyFonts, along with Le Havre Rounded.

Got some deals on a Looj, Scooba and a Dirtdog. I love my robot slave army.

A reminder: speed has never killed anyone, suddenly becoming stationary… that’s what gets you. - Jeremy Clarkson.

Work in Progress: Mittwoch Black

Work in Progress: Mittwoch

Mittwoch work in progress. Modern font with ball terminals and some fun twists (see the e?). Part of my extended Montag and Dienstag line.

New offerings from insigne: Le Havre Rounded and Blue Goblet Frames and Vignettes

The Le Havre series is a series of geometric sans serifs inspired by the dignified era of the passenger ship, when getting to your destination was a delight in and of itself.

Le Havre Rounded is a fun and new interpretation of geometric sans serifs. Le Havre Rounded features its sister family's compressed capitals, low x-height and geometric construction, and its rounded forms lend it to be used in contemporary and technology settings. More…

Le Havre OpenType features include twenty five alternate characters, ligatures and old style figures. The Le Havre family includes a spectrum of weights for many design options.

The designer-favorite Blue Goblet series has been extended once again with Blue Goblet Frames and Vignettes. More…

These animated and lively frames and vignettes can be resized easily without any loss of quality, and can easily be converted to outlines and modified. Combining them to form unique compositions or inserting them into chapter headings are just a few ideas for these versatile ornaments. Please see the sample .pdf to see all 96 Frames and Vignettes in action, and be sure to check out the original Blue Goblet brush script and Blue Goblet Ornaments.

Blue Goblet Frames and Vignettes is a collaboration between insigne Design and Portland Studios.