DAY TWENTY-EIGHT

I love drawing numbers. I also love red numbers stamped on a ticket.

AGENCY 26 MAIN SITE

DAY TWENTY-SEVEN

mixing some styles.

DAY TWENTY-SIX!

I had the pencils and pens out for some client work and Sharpie’d some rough letters—a schizo Alphabet and some bubble lettering. I could fix all the mistakes, but that would be defeating the purpose. The warts and blips give these more depth, more heart. I realize that most clients want clean vector, but progressive clothing companies are always down for some quick and dirty hand-lettering.

Just got a new work area set up, so more hand-lettering to come. (type purists: I know it’s a contradiction to use lettering to spell TYPE, but it’ll be okay.)

DAY TWENTY-FIVE

Five new letters + a little embellishment.

DAY TWENTY-FOUR

An exercise in ornamentation. I like the gothic feel and the plump stems. The actual ornamentation, not so much. :/

DAY TWENTY-THREE

An early look at a custom font commissioned by Tokidoki. Excited to be working again with Ivan & the Tokidoki team.

DAY TWENTY-TWO

Ovals.

DAY TWENTY-ONE

I kinda dig this lowercase, although I only made about half the characters. I typically start with uppercase, but there’s more flavor in the lowercase. This is how Ink Gothic started.

DAY TWENTY

We had another type/lettering meet-up on Saturday, this one over at Kevin’s. Lots of talented folks showed up, among them Migs, Alex, Dro, Lauren and Danny. Beer, chicken salad, and samosas—thanks to Kevin for the food and drinks!

At the meet-up, I showed an earlier version of this piece, a tattoo for Vanessa, aka Vinnie. I like the new version better + it has a hidden sword. But the F definitely stands out as a failed experiment.

DAY NINETEEN

Monogram for the aforementioned engaged couple, John and Marla. (They are both musicians—a subtle note and clef mixed in.)

DAY EIGHTEEN

Did this last year, so thought I’d make it again in 2010—going the chunky letters route.

DAY SEVENTEEN

This is for a couple getting married this summer—maybe a tattoo, maybe something to paint on the mailbox. But first, gotta fix the pesky x. (Not to mention the s). This was the first take. Need to start over on the x.

DAY SIXTEEN

A friend, Juno, drew this Kanye: Unabomber last year. I saw it again today, and created a simple title—eleven letters, tall, in a bit of a retro-deco style.

DAY FIFTEEN

Logotype-in-progress for a Southern Cal hairstylist.

DAY FOURTEEN

I’m not really sure what this looks like—some kind of white powdery substance?—but it started as ballpoint pen on paper.

DAY THIRTEEN

Horizontal abstract shape exercise that I flipped vertical and made into an R.

DAY TWELVE

Some numbers, done up nameplate-ish.

DAY ELEVEN

The retro letter style suggested signage so I took the vector and added some texture, and wrapped it in a beat-up metal frame. It would actually be fun to paint these letters, and outline them with gold leaf. Definitely gotta put sign painting on the list of things to learn in 2010.

(if I could go back in the process, i’d loosen the e-r combo.)

DAY TEN

Met up with four other designers—Kevin, Kevin, Garry, and Ryan—for dinner in Long Beach. We drank some beer, and later, talked type and lettering. Beers and beziers, not a bad combo. I didn’t take any pictures, but this is something that came from the get-together. (One of the designers works at Billabong). Gonna do another meetup soon—next one in Inglewood.

DAY NINE

A retail concept. First look at a bespoke mark for L.A. stylist Joey Tierney and her company, Haute Street. The lower line is modified Calisto MT.

DAY EIGHT

Everyone loves them some lowercase g. Hoping to screenprint this in the near future.

DAY SEVEN

These random letter explorations started off like gumballs (bottom), and after some massaging, ended up having a cholo vibe (top). This is an example of messing around with a blank canvas and seeing where the letters take you—not worrying about clients or how the letters will be used. This is fun. This is why I love working in Illustrator.

DAY SIX

A personal piece, mainly exploring the interesting stair-step of i-l-k, the pointy bowls, and the beauty of the letter M. The G-O-T is ITC Blair.

DAY FIVE

Remember outer bevel, inner glow, and that Alien Skin filter madness? Well, I’m starting to use inner glow again, the Illustrator version. I made some quick Frankfurter-looking sausage letters to spell out AlphaBattle, and then added some inner glow to give definition. (Maybe a minute in Photoshop after that.)