The Albanese project

Albanese was a lettering project for a local client at the beginning of 2011. This was a project which required a lot of sketching in a quick time frame to develop a brandmark for a chocolate product.

I often tell people that that drawing skills are essential. When I start a project I do a lot of preliminary studies to learn the letterforms. I am not creating detailed drawings as all the precise draftsmanship happens while drawing in Adobe illustrator. I rarely spend more than a couple minutes per sketch. Basically a lot of quick investigation of what may work for readability.

This series of sketches was done with a PITT marker on sheets of 9" X 12" layout paper. I drew these studies while sitting at the kitchen table eating lunch. Only had a couple hours get some ideas together on paper for a quick presentation with the art director. After all the trial and error studies I picked versions which had some potential for further development, traced them while adding notes for the AD to read. After sacnning the layouts I e-mailed the files for presentation.



These are the images sent to the AD. After he reviewed everything we discussed which versions to develop in Illustrator.















This image shows the vector versions created from the sketches.



After sending the vector art files to the AD I created one more version that had nice flow and contrast. Something extra as another option for the AD.

Overall, this was a very successful project. The images show that drawing is an important part of the lettering process. Sketching is the way to find out in a very quick time frame what will and will not work. Concept sketching also allows the opportunity to show a client what is possible instead of guessing what finished art might be.

Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/typography
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

HeadStrong

Headstrong is a project I worked on for an art director in Belgium. A good example to show the amount of preliminary sketching involved when creating a lettering piece from scratch.



Having done some 40+ sketches I let the client choose which version to proceed with. The version selected required additional development.



After setting up the initial character lines I decided to proceed with additional sketches. Initially there were too many irregular overlapping lines with no consistent baseline or X-height. I did some quick studies with a Condor pen and choose the version on the bottom to scan and use as a revised template in Illustrator.



With the new template image everything fell into place with weights, B/W contrast and visual clarity. Big difference from the initial attempt.



This was one of those rare projects in my lettering career in which a client loved the progress sketches including the final lettering, had full knowledge of pricing and payment responsibility but decided to not pay for any of the work I produced for unknown reasons. Regardless, this one is a very cool lettering piece to show which I believe will lead to something positive with more opportunities for interesting lettering projects in the future.Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/typography
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Lettering For The Hundreds

This morning I had to pleasure to see lettering I created in 2010 embroidered on apparel at The Hundreds online shop.

This was a really cool project to work on with the opportunity to draw a lot of concepts in addition to creating finished production lettering. A very good example to show what is involved when developing custom lettering from scratch.



Of all the concepts submitted a few of them were selected for final art.

Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/typography
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Cap X for LetterCult AlphaBattle

X is a letter created for the AlphaBattle. I have been working on this illustration style for the past year. Something loose with a rough visual as a change from precision lettering for commercial projects. A lot of the early B/W lettering was uplaoded on letterPLAYGROUND early in 2010.

Now that I have spent a year sketching letters of this style I am starting to think about color and offset layers on a larger scale. This lettering and illustration style will evolve into more complex lettering illustrations and eventually prints.



Though the illustration has a unplanned appearance a lot of preliminary sketching was required to develop the letter shape.

Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/typography
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

The Illustrated Ampersand

This ampersand illustration is a practice session. I plan to use this effect of rough surface and off registered inks on the next promo poster currently in the works.



This ampersand version is the one I decided to use for a 7.5" x 8" Giclée print on cold press watercolor paper.Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/typography
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

Cap W for LetterCult AlphaBattle

arlier this year I uploaded some cap letters to Alphabet Playground. As the year progressed I got swamped with commercial work and the cap letter projects had to be put on hold. Now that I have some time available I will be uploading new cap letters to Letter Playground. and AlphaBattle.



The screen shot shows a sketch of the W as a drawing template. The vector lines were imported to Photoshop and filled in several layers. Various 3rd party filters were used to create the surface texture, offset shapes and distortion of the illustration.

Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/typography
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

The Beginning Phase Of A New Promo Poster

These two photos represent the preliminary sketch process and layout for my next illustrated promo poster.

When discussing the lettering process I often mention the importance of drawing and to do a lot of it. All the sketches on my office wall are basically rough concept studies to learn how elements of the illustration may or may not work together. No fancy or refined sketches in the beginning of a project. Just a lot of quick thoughts and ideas to scribble on paper.



The layout I will use for a drawing template took only a few minutes to sketch. However, I had to sketch all the preliminary studies to create a layout for my intended use. I now have the information I need to begin drawing vector art. As this project progresses I will probably do additional sketching for the complex areas of the illustration.

Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/typography
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

The Embroidered Logo

Finally finished the RA logo embroidery project. This was an interesting project and my first attempt to produce a large size embroidery logo for a jacket.Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/typography
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection

The RA Music CD Art

Finally got the CD art ready to go for my brother Rick who requested that a dragon nano be included in both his CD design and logo. The next step of this project iwill be the embroidered jacket which I will pick up from the stiching shop early next week.Source URL: https://tattoosnyong.blogspot.com/search/label/typography
Visit tattoos nyong for Daily Updated Hairstyles Collection