Blog: Typographic explosion
The Type Tasting studio is full of creative typography as we begin to photograph, select and curate the final display for Type Tasting with the London Design Festival. It’s an exciting collection in such a range of styles and mediums, what connects all the pieces is the amount of thought and hands on creativity that’s gone into them.
#LDF13 ‘Disenchanted’ by Siro Carraro
Artist Siro Carraro grew up in Italy, studied art in London and works from his sunny North London studio which is an Aladdin’s Cave of large canvasses and colour. He describes himself as “A creator of dreams and a collector of images, that run freely from my mind in and out of my canvases.”
#LDF13 ‘Ornithological’ by Claire Scully
Scully’s meticulously hand drawn feathers display the level of intricate detail to be found in much her work including her typeface designs. ‘Ornithological’ was drawn late into the night after returning from a trip to the US to avoid dealing with jetlag.
The inspiration for Scully’s self initiated work often comes from my everyday surroundings of the metropolis and its relationship with the natural world. “I love 50’s, 60’s and 70’s architecture particularly tower blocks with their form and location, this is where I also find the connection to nature and natural patterns in the environment of interest.”
#LDF13 ‘Productive’ by Pat Randle of Nomad Letterpress
Letterpress printer Randle has chosen Caslon* to represent London, using 96-point Caslon Italic showing swash alternatives drawn by an Americam designer called T. M. Cleland in the 1930’s for (ATF) American Type Foundries. The CT ligature is printed from a laser cut letter.
#LDF13 ‘Hungry’ by Nic Hinton
Click on the images to enlarge them.
London based illustrator and designer Hinton explains that “I chose the word HUNGRY because of the struggle, the ambition, the consumption of London.”
#LDF13 ‘Kyverdale’ by Rude
‘Kyverdale’ is the dream home that illustrator and designers Abi and Rupert of Rude have spent the last year building on a plot in Stoke Newington. The house has just been finished and they move in shortly with their two sons BIlly and Herbie. The Type Tasting word is a celebration of their new family home created out of lettering in Rupert’s inimitable style.
#LDF13 ‘Multicoloured’ by JMG Studio
“We had great fun! After much deliberation, we decided that with 13 characters in the word ‘Multicoloured’ and the fact there is 13 different colour tube lines covering the whole of London, it was to much of a good an opportunity to miss. We then overprinted each of the letters to make 12 extra colours to make it truly multicoloured.”
#LDF13: ‘Unique’ by Evelin Kasikov
Kasikov’s eclectic mix of letters is designed in true London style—trash, glam, techno, kitsch, vintage and super-modern all happily mixed together. Each letter is different and unique; one is reminiscent of blackletter, there’s a neon-sign letter and kitsch diamond shapes.The letters are embroidered onto paper.
#LDF13: Getting creative with the London Design Festival and V&A team
We recently took our box of creative materials and words down to the London Design Festival offices for an evening of creative unwinding. Things are getting pretty busy as the Festival is getting closer, the Guide is going to print and the events are being finalised. An evening of making ‘creative London’ words accompanied by cold beer was just what we all needed.
Recently we’ve been featuring some of the words created for Type Tasting with the London Design Festival a the V&A and revealing the creative process behind them. We will continue to do this until the Festival starts, take a look at the features to date…
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