Newest edition of 1,000 two-color posters in the Poster Initiative series of posters distributed for free around Tokyo is out now.

INTAPAC is a subscription-based news and analysis website focused on consumer products and trends in Asia that we developed for innovation research group Five By Fifty. INTAPAC provides analysis on fast moving consumer good (FMCG) launches and insight into marketing, packaging innovation, retail trends and consumer behavior in the the world’s fastest growing region.

INTAPAC delivers daily, customized, curated reports on leading edge products and innovations through seven channels focused on: Beverages, Packaging & Design, Wellness, Food & Snacks, Home Products, and Marketing & Promotion.

For the INTAPAC project, we designed and developed an intensive database, front end, promotional video, and much more.

The semester at Temple University Japan is over and went amazingly well- no one failed and all of the students worked super-duper hard. Thanks so much to my Motion Graphics and Typography students for kicking out a ton of great work!

One of the highlights of the semester was having Lesque Skateboards partner and video director Koji Asada in to show his work and talk to the students in the Motion Graphics class.

Thanks, Koji!

I’m excited to announce my new signature keitai kisekae/cellphone theme for WKTokyoLab’s mobile device shop. Kisekae are sets of images that users can download to create a holistic theme for their phone.

The theme I created for the TokyoLab music label is called “Utopia” and is based on a music video that I did in collaboration with the Lab folks for NHK a few years ago. It is an animated modular pictorial utopian vision of Tokyo in the future.

The theme is completely animated, with custom-designed icons for battery power and signal strength, a smart display that analyzes the time of day and generates one of four different appropriate images (morning, afternoon, evening, night), mail sending screen, mail receiving screen, incoming and outgoing call screens, typographically considered menus, and a ton more stuff.

In Japan, you can use your phone to browse to this address and download the theme.

Many thanks to Bruce, Yoko, and the WKTokyoLab team for making such a cool project happen!

New website for Growthlab, a Tokyo-based corporate training initiative.

Two new publications out now.

First, a new feature for the latest issue of Idea Magazine (issue #340) called Forms of Practice, interviewing young designers, is on newsstands now.

An excerpt:

Toward a new form of practice

A number of young designers in Europe and America are attempting to develop their own paths in exploring graphic design through innovative small-scale practices. Many of the designers featured here were born in the 1970s and 1980s, coming of age in commercial practice in the digital environment. The majority of those featured operate within the sphere of graphic design production from the approach of a more personal practice, inflecting their work with nuanced, idiosyncratic conceptual and formal approaches.

While widely varied due to cultural context and social/environmental differences, all have a kinship in unique approaches to developing formal options for clients. The use of the word “option” as applied here is perhaps the most relevant key point for the latest wave of graphic design from abroad- perhaps the “solution” as an end result of graphic design as a process is a dead methodology. What are instead offered are graphic “options” in lieu of “solutions”- inquiries answered with inquiries, questions answered with questions. The work featured offers playful, tentative answers instead of cold, hard end results.

This issue of Idea comes with a bonus satellite publication containing interviews with all of the designers and design studios featured in English and Japanese.

Copious photos are now in the Writing section of this site.

Second, the foreword for a new book from Sandu Media called Mini Graphics, an exploration of small-scale graphic design projects.

An excerpt:

Go small.

Scale is a funny thing. Graphic design practitioners consider it daily on a relative scale- the size of a logo in relation to a business card, book title in relation to the size of a title page, or glossy button in relation to the size of the desired user’s browser. Beyond the design project itself, scale in terms of critically assessing professional practice is also valuable, especially in contemporary times- a juncture where there is such a variety of models as to what professional practice can be.

More and more, the boundaries of graphic design as a profession are widening. The potential of design as a small-scale, craft-centric practice that exploits the potential of on-demand production both in production and deployment has been more fully realized in the contemporary context. The main tool of contemporary graphic design- the personal computer- has become an increasingly affordable object to attain as of late and ease-of-use of this tool has developed more fully as computers themselves have become more sophisticated and powerful.

This tide shift in the technology and tools of graphic design and reprographics over the past decade is hugely important. Graphic design is an evolutionary process, and while it seems to move slowly to practitioners, it moves infinitely faster than other communication practices. These changes are both immediate and gradual, and they affect many aspects of graphic design- from process to product. Most immediately noticeable is how technology affects the final product. As evinced by the work in this book, graphics are no longer simplistic, unified brand signifiers rendered by previous generations. Designers today use broader palettes of color, form, space, and sheer methodology to achieve their results.

I have a number of projects featured in the book, including the identity design for my own design studio and identity projects for a handful of clients and collaborators.

You can see a number of photos of the book in the Writing section of this site, as well.

A number of pieces of my writing and design are now available in Harajuku at the Zine’s Mate shop within Vacant Gallery. Info here.

Just launched: a new website for the British Chamber of Commerce in Japan’s magazine, Acumen.

Website refresh for Immigrant Film, LLC.

My typeface Rubber Vloeren as used by Michael Worthington in his poster for the exhibition Forms of Inquiry at the Architectural Association in the U.K.

New Lesque decks in the latest issue of Ollie Magazine.

New little series of graphics for Néojaponisme as of last week called “Do You Remember?“. A revisit of an older project.

Also, my students are exhibiting motion graphics and print work at Temple University Japan’s end of the semester exhibition. Included are a passel of type history zines and a montage of assorted projects. Photos to come…

Also, Stacker in use for the new Brian Roettinger/No Age split 7″.

New identity and website for Tokyo art production company, Nonaca.

Crüller, a new typeface I designed based on a sample of anonymous German lettering from 1910 is available now via MyFonts.

Old work- some moiré sexiness for Grafuck.

Latest installment in the Poster Initiative series is now being distributed around Tokyo.

My new monthly column for Snow Magazine launched today. The first installment is a rambling pontification on the qualities of time travel, the prediction of the future, and rappers.

The Meeting Modernity series of found photographs is the focus of Néojaponisme’s first traveling exhibition. Recently unearthed outside of the city of Sano in Tochigi-ken, this series of pictures documents Japan as it engaged with modernization and commercial photography in the Meiji and Taishō Periods. The series is comprised of portrait photography in particular.

The exhibition makes it’s fourth appearance at Suzu No Ki Café / すずの木カフェ in Yokohama this month.

Meeting Modernity is accompanied by a trio of essays by Ian Lynam, W. David Marx, and Matt Treyvaud reflecting the collection of photographs, the history of Japanese photography, commercial art, and Japanese society.

A limited edition of full-color Meeting Modernity postcard sets from the previous exhibition in Los Angeles’ Young Art are available at Suzu No Ki, as well as a few Néojaponisme-related items.

MEETING MODERNITY
March 13–April 1 2010

More:
Suzu No Ki
〒253-0043 神奈川県茅ケ崎市元町4-32
0467-82-3411
11:30〜18:00
日・月定休（祝祭日は営業）

We heartily encourage you to visit the exhibition.

The digital debut of Oz Cooper’s “Moderne” Broadway-esque titling typeface, Boul Mich, available now from MyFonts!

1927 was a discouraging year for Oswald Bruce Cooper, having to devote his time to developing faddish display typefaces based on others’ designs in lieu of truly original work.

Though he sidestepped blame in his essay On Cooper Type Faces, Barnhart Bros. & Spindler’s General Manager Richard N. McArthur was the one responsible for assigning Cooper busywork. McArthur put together a sampling of Broadway-esque hand lettering from assorted advertisements, suggesting a very specific incising treatment.

Cooper drew the basic forms of the letters, leaving the bulk of the work to the pattern makers at BB&S, but provided the framework from which the typeface was drawn. The typeface was named Boul Mich, after Michigan
Boulevard, Chicago’s mix of carriage trade shops, elegant residences, artists’ studios, and Bohemian side streets. While not a design of Cooper’s choosing, this modern typeface is a paean to the flexibility of Cooper’s skill.

Cooper Initials are offered in their original capital alphabet form in this digital version, with no supplementary characters.

The release of these two typefaces coincides with the publication of the definitive Oswald Bruce Cooper biography by Ian Lynam, published in Japan’s Idea Magazine issue #339. Cooper’s biography is delivered in English and Japanese with numerous full-color illustrations of never-before-published work.

Boul Mich has been lovingly redrawn from Oswald Bruce Cooper’s original drawings and mechanical proofs. It is comprised of a capital letter alphabet, full European character set, figures, and full range of diacritics.

Boul Mich is available now via MyFonts.

Liminal will be featured in the upcoming exhibition, Salon für Kunstbuch: An Artwork as Enterprise

The exhibition opens on March 20, 2010 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Leipzig, Germany.

Curated by Nini Palavandishwili, Brigitte Schöppner, Barbara Steiner

Info:
Museum of Contemporary Art
Karl-Tauchnitz-Straße 9-11
D-04107 Leipzig
www.gfzk.de

Hours:
Tue-Fri 2pm – 7pm
Sat-Sun 12pm – 6pm

A heap of new, old, and exploratory identity design work. Firstly, the identity for Synapse, a comprehensive, proprietary inter-office electronic communication system developed by Yokohama’s EDVEC Corporation that incorporates bulletins, email, a kairanban system, and file transfer client.

A logo super-family for Jean Snow’s M31 production company. See the full identity in the Identity Design section.

An older logo for Tokyo hiphop duo Hifana incorporating Thai ornament.

A proposed logo for NY/LA film production company HKM which ultimately was passed on, though I still like it a lot.

Another wayward soul- a logo option provided to Gus Van Sant for the production identity of his film Paranoid Park.

A logo for Brooklyn restaurant The General Greene. The restaurant was oddly inspired by the city of Albany, two hours north of NYC, and my hometown.

A sneak peek at a detail from my upcoming Plazm Thread tee shirt, as well.

And, finally, a brand spankin’ new identity for the Tokyo art production company Nonaca.

New cover design for the latest Crimethinc release, A Guide to Picking Locks #2, available from Microcosm.

Nicer shots of the new Open Owl deck now in here.

New seasonal collection of skateboards for Lesque in the Print & Product section. Lesque race queen Gangsta Willy shows off the new line blurrily above.

Second printing of Liminal available now. Eight dollars postpaid via Paypal to ian (at) ianlynam.com

New typeface set out now via MyFonts: Cooper Text.

Cooper Text is a comprised of two fonts- Cooper OldStyle and Cooper Initials. Cooper OldStyle is a round-serifed text typeface, while Cooper Initials are ornamental capitals designed for use as complementary drop caps.

Cooper OldStyle has been lovingly redrawn from Oswald Bruce Cooper’s original drawings and mechanical proofs while Cooper Initials have been drawn from a sample in the seminal monograph of Cooper’s work, The Book of Oz.
Cooper OldStyle was originally released as a non-kerning typeface, which offered limited use for text setting. Oz Cooper was never quite happy with the copious amount of “air” around the typeface’s characters, so this definitive version has been painstakingly spaced and kerned for even text-setting.

Cooper Initials is a set of three typefaces:
– Cooper Initials, the base form derived from Cooper’s original design
– Cooper Ground, blocks of solid color that match the proportions of the Initials and which can be used to add a background color to the typefaces through layering
– Cooper Capitals, the lone letterforms within the initials, which can be layered to add highlight color to the letterform component of the set

These typefaces can be paired with Cooper Italic Complete for setting long lengths of text.

The history of these typefaces:

Cooper OldStyle is the result of Barnhart Brothers & Spindler type foundry representatives Richard N. McArthur and Charles R. Murray having met with Oswald Cooper and his business partner Fred Bertsch in 1917. Due to other commercial design firms adopting Cooper’s style of lettering throughout the Midwest, both companies came to an agreement to create a family of types based on Cooper’s advertising lettering. McArthur and Murray saw the biggest potential in the super-bold advertising lettering that would become Cooper Black, but agreed that a roman weight old style should be executed first, the logical progenitor to a family or related types.

The foundry requested that the roman have rounded serifs so as to more specifically correlate to the planned bold. This was the first of many tactical strategies in type design between type designer and foundry, most specifically McArthur and Cooper, whose back-and-forth relationship in designing, critiquing, and modifying letterforms was integral in shaping the oeuvre of type designs credited to Cooper. While it was Cooper’s sheer talent in shaping appealing and useful alphabets that made his work so popular, McArthur’s role as critic and editor has gone largely un-noted in the slim amount of writing of length about Cooper’s work.

Cooper and McArthur went back and forth over the design of the roman face for nearly two years with Cooper, constantly redrawing and revising the typeface to get it to a castable state. The capitals were successively redrawn by Cooper, with particular care paid to the “B” and “R” to make them relate formally. The lowercase was redrawn numerous times, as were experiments in shaping the punctuation. McArthur requested a pair of dingbats to accompany the typeface, along with a decorative four leaf clover ornament “for luck”.

Cooper included a slightly iconoclastic, cartoonish paragraph mark, as well as decorative end elements, a centered period, and brackets with a hand-drawn feel.

The final typeface is a lively, bouncy conglomeration whose rounded forms dazzle and move the eye. Originally called merely “Cooper” in early showings, the name was later revised to “Cooper Oldstyle”. The typeface met with a warm reception upon release in 1919, the public favoring its advertising-friendly, tightly-spaced appearance. Sales were moderate, and the face was considered a success.

Cooper originally drew the figures the same width as the “M” of the font, but revised them to the width of the “N” at the request of McArthur. Early versions of drawings of the slimmer figures are noted as “cruel stuff” in accompanying notes by Cooper, though they were versioned out into far more elegant numerals than the earlier stout figures. Both versions of the numerals are included in the digital release, as are the ornamental elements.

In 1925, McArthur and Murray requested a set of ornamental initials. Cooper designed the initials open-faced on a square ground surrounded by organic ornament. The initials were “intended to be nearly even in ‘color value’ with that of normal text type”. The letterforms themselves are a medium-bold variation on the Cooper OldStyle theme, lacking the balance of Cooper’s text faces, but charming nonetheless.

Cooper Initials are offered in their original capital alphabet form in this digital version, with no supplementary characters.

The release of these two typefaces coincides with the publication of the definitive Oswald Bruce Cooper biography, published in Japan’s Idea Magazine issue #339. Cooper’s biography is delivered in English and Japanese with numerous full-color illustrations of never-before-published work.

Available now via MyFonts.

New season of Lesque decks out now. Photos soon.

I wrote the foreword and have a bunch of new work in the brand spankin’ new book Mini Graphics, published by Sandu Media.

One from the archives: identity system for Portland/Brooklyn-based fabrication company Igloo Projects.

New project in the Publication projects section- a new zine for Craig Mod’s Artalking lecture “How Dead Is the Book?”. This publication critically assesses the content of Craig’s essay and lecture.

New Open deck out now.

Copious amounts of work in the latest Los Logos collection from Die Gestalten Verlag. More in the next one, as well.

From the archives: Naruse Matsuri poster circa 2007.

Stage two of the collaborative website I’ve designed with AQ for the Asics Olympic team now online. It includes new animated content, as well as many other goodies!

I will be doing a live painting session at the Whisky Live 2010 event at Tokyo Big Sight in Odaiba on Sunday, February 21 from 4:30PM to 6:00PM. Kyoto Jazz Massive will be performing live accompanying the painting. Info here.

Out now: Cooper Hilite Complete!

Cooper Hilite Complete is a complementary set of two fonts- Cooper Black and Cooper Hilite. Either typeface can be used alone, or as a stackable, multi-colored set.

The history of these typefaces:
Cooper Black, the most famous and successful of Oswald Cooper’s type designs was released in 1920, following a year of development fleshing out the weight of the typeface and filling out the full character set. Cooper redrew the lowercase characters multiple times, toying with the rounded forms of the “m” and “n” and engaged in a lively debate with McArthur over the final form as McArthur requested that the typeface be drawn bolder and bolder. Cooper famously said the face was “for far-sighted printers with near-sighted customers”, and the public agreed. Sales of Cooper Black were voluminous, and Barnhart Brothers and Spindler had a difficult time keeping up with the demand for the typeface. Conservative typographers were critical of Cooper Black, though it was overwhelmingly popular, helping to shape the American advertising landscape through the 1920s and 1930s.

1925 saw the release of Cooper Hilite, the highlighted companion to Cooper Black. The design was executed by merely painting white incised negative spaces on a proof of Cooper Black.

These two typefaces are the result of researching Cooper’s original drawings and series of engraved proofs for both typefaces. The typefaces include the full range of punctuation and diacritics that fill out a full character set. The typefaces have been lovingly kerned for the smoothest result in text setting.

Available now via MyFonts!

Jonathan Ive, Apple’s senior designer (iPod, iPad, iTouch, et al) likes the YACHT logo so much that he and the Apple design team dropped some free custom laser-engraved iPods on the YACHT team last week.

New bit of writing up in Scion’s magazine about my take on the work of Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh.

I wrote a 10,000 word essay called “Heft, Gravy, and Swing: The Life and Times of Oswald Cooper” for the latest issue of Idea. The essay serves as the definitive biography of the Chicago type and lettering designer, famed for his Cooper Black typeface.

The essay is the result of a long-dreamed of trip to Chicago to sift through Cooper’s original drawings, scarce writings, and working papers. Copiously illustrated with proofs of Cooper’s work, unpublished typefaces, and photographs of rare design work, his legacy is brought into contemporary focus. New biographical information about Cooper, his work, and his associates is discussed within.

Tons of images of the feature and a spicy excerpt in the Writing section.

I have a bunch of work published in the latest issue of Gallery Magazine.

My latest print project, a double poster set called “Poster Initiative 004A” will debut at Grasshut in Portland, Oregon in the show “Staying Put”. The show opens tomorrow, February 6.

The show is a collection of prints from folks such as Yellena James, Tim Biskup, Scrappers, Chris Johanson, APAK, Mauro Gatti, Shawn Wolfe, The Little Friends of Printmaking, Studio Folk, and others.

Work from the show is available online here.

Location:
Grasshut
811 East Burnside
Portland, OR 97214
503.445.9924

Open decks are now available at Grasshut in Portland!

Also, Trevor and I were interviewed on the blog Skatemodo about Open. Nice apostrophe use, Trev.

I also have work published in the new book Celebration Graphics Sourcebook: Festive Designs from All Cultures by John Stones, published in the United States by Rockport and globally by Rotovision.

I have work in the new book Art Directing Projects for Print, also published by Rotovision.

A number of pieces of identity work I designed are featured in the new book No Rules Logos by British design author John Stones, published by Rotovision. The works are displayed prominently and given worthwhile analysis by the author.

One from the archives- Sun City Girls’ Dreamy Draw CD jacket design, Volume Two in the Carnival Folklore Resurrection series. Edition of 1,000 circa year 2000, though recorded in 1998. It features a photo of a kid hanging out at a halal meat market with a largely concealed slaughtered goat in the background. Brutal.

Clobber Grotesk Bold is a new typeface just released via MyFonts. It was one of a two-part family originally designed for a metal-cutting business, as they were seeking bold letterforms for their custom aluminum furniture that would be readable at very small sizes.

Clobber is a fairly traditional grotesk, designed in the same vein as Akzidenz Grotesk and a number of anonymous grotesks, though with the addition of slightly flared terminals.

New tee shirt for Open Skateboards, an homage to the late Japanese graphic designer Kiyoshi Awazu. Available for online ordering here.

Just released via MyFonts, my latest typeface release is the definitive version of Oswald Bruce Cooper’s great lost typeface Cooper Fullface Italic.

At the end of 1927, Oswald Bruce Cooper yearned to create a heavy “modern” face- akin to Broadway and other display types in height and proportion, but more nuanced while being a dense, black type. The Barnhart Brothers & Spindler foundry, for whom Cooper had designed a number of typefaces, saw the potential of the typeface as a big seller. Richard McArther, General Manager of the foundry, referred to it as “the hotsy stuff”, though he was highly critical of a number of characters in the original design. He requested a successive number of modifications, including the addition of Dwiggins-inspired serifs to the face to make it stand apart from similarly-weighted typefaces then on the market. He wanted to imbue the face with a considerable amount of “old-timey” flavor in order to impart a sense of originality to the face and have it sell across both Modern and Bodoni/Didot market segments.

The resulting typeface was called Cooper Fullface, a jaunty and swollen caricature of a Didone with great potential for display advertising work. The final form of the face was a regulated and consistent balance of cartoonishness and earnest visual braggadocio, the bouncy, circus fairway-like swing of the original drawings of the letters taken down considerably and figures redrawn and redrawn for maximum readability.

A specimen sheet was mailed out in 1929, and generated moderate sales, but too late- Barnhart Brothers & Spindler closed its foundry division shortly thereafter as part of ATF’s corporate roll-up of manufacturing. The American Type Founders continued to produce the face and sell it at a decent pace, renaming it Cooper Modern.

Cooper designed a matching italic for Cooper Fullface, but it was never released. The BB&S foundry closure resulted in the foundry equipment being shipped to New Jersey a few weeks shy of the typeface’s completion. It is unfortunate, as the accompanying italic is perhaps Cooper’s masterpiece, a lively Bodoni-esque italic with more than a bit of influence from 19th Century display types, particularly in the treatment of the ball serifs on the uppercase “A”, “J”, “M”, and “N”. Cooper Fullface Italic stands as the until-now missing bookend to Cooper’s career as a type designer.

This digital release is the revival of that lost Cooper typeface, Cooper Fullface Italic. Within are two typefaces- Cooper Fullface Italic and Cooper Fullface Italic Fancy. The two faces span the range of Cooper’s original drawings- the Fancy typeface utilizing a number of alternate characters.

These two typefaces are the result of researching Cooper’s original drawings and series of engraved proofs for both typefaces. The typefaces include the original ligatures, original Oz Cooper ornaments, fancy swash characters, and a range of punctuation and diacritics, et al, that fill out a full character set. The typefaces have been lovingly kerned for the smoothest result in text setting.

Available via MyFonts.

New logo for Grasshut Corp. in Portland, Oregon.

New typeface design for Simon Vickers called Sounds of English. SOE is a phonetic typeface based on English pronunciation.

New tee shirt graphic for Los Angeles’ Anarchist Book Fair.

Two new font releases on MyFonts this week.

The first is the definitive version of Oswald Bruce Cooper’s classic typeface Cooper Italic.

1924 saw the release of Cooper Italic, the italic companion to Cooper Oldstyle. Cooper Italic possesses “a most unusual swing” in a number of the characters, most specifically the scooped, pigeon-toed feet of the lowercase “n”, “h”, and “m”. These idiosyncratic characters are offset by more stately and assured capitals. Cooper said that his Italic is “much closer to its parent pen form than the roman” and “that freedom is almost the life of it”.

Cooper was a firm believer in creating humanist letterforms that echo the hand that created them, not wringing the life out of them through refinement and mechanization. In Cooper’s own words about Cooper Italic, “The designer is conscious of its crudity, and of its irreverence for the best traditions. But he believes that there are enough good types already– that the need is for poor types that can be used! And since he admits this to be a poor one, there now remains to be found out only whether it is usable or not.” Cooper was long a believer that good type should be homely- if too pretty or sleek, it’s lifespan would be exponentially shortened.

Cooper designed a set of swash capitals to pair with Cooper Italic in 1927 that had not been released until now. The swash capitals are a lively interpretation of round serifed oldstyle caps mixed with classic Caslon italic forms.

These two typefaces are the result of researching Cooper’s original drawings and series of engraved proofs for both typefaces. The typefaces include the original ligatures (never before released digitally), the previously unreleased Swash characters, and a range of punctuation and diacritics, et al, that fill out a full character set. The typefaces have been lovingly kerned for the smoothest result in text setting.

Cooper Italic Complete is available from MyFonts here.

The second typeface release is called Stacker. Stacker is a display gothic typeface with three weights of extruded typefaces that can be used to project the main typeface spatially.

Originally designed for Beautiful/Decay magazine, then picked up for Nokia’s 2006 Europe campaign, Stacker is a bold, lively, attention-grabbing display face.

The extruded faces can be used in a standalone manner, as they have been by electronic musicians such as YACHT and E*Rock.

Stacker is available from MyFonts here.

Last chance to sign up for Typography 101 at Temple University Japan.

The course has been expanded to include designing custom typefaces and programming digital fonts from them.

Updates site-wide! Above, Xmas ornaments for YACHT, included in the big YACHT update in the identity section.

Also in there, fitted cap for YACHT/the Fader. Collaboration with Jona Bechtolt of YACHT.

Poster, audio tour CD and booklet cover design for Portland’s Dill Pickle Club in the publication section.

Redesign of Microcosm Publishing’s zine compilation book 13 Years of Good Luck in the Publication section.

Logo design published in Post Typography’s book Lettering & Type Design, published by Princeton Architectural Press.

Previously mentioned, but not shown, CD and poster design for Blunt Mechanic (ex-Kind of Like Spitting) on Barsuk Records.

Clobber Grotesk Stencil Bold is a new typeface I designed now available through MyFonts. Clobber marries crude stencil forms with extreme legibility/readability at small sizes.

In the last quarter of 2009, we designed and implemented a massive, very code-intensive intranet for the Unilever corporation’s Japan division used to catalog and track market progress. Needless to say, we can’t show anything but the login screen, but it was a milestone for the studio in showing programming flexibility married with good design.

Freshly launched and new in the Web Design section: The Asics Winter Olympics website. The last days of 2009 found me collaborating with the whiz kids at AQ on this content-riddled, photo-driven website for Asics footwear and the Dutch Winter Olympic team. This Dutch language website promotes Asics’ design of the Olympic uniform for the Vancouver Olympics through a lively mix of product imagery, custom animation, facts from history, and bold Native American-inspired graphic design.

Chomped recently in Portland- Le Pigeon chocolates! Yum!!

Clobber is a new grotesk stencil typeface that will be available through MyFonts and Wordshape shortly. I designed the base forms a number of years ago for a small aluminum furniture manufacturer which they utilized for their branding. I’m currently working on a brand new family for them, so Clobber will shortly be available to the public. The typeface includes a full character set including uppercase, lowercase, figures, and the usual range of diacritics and accents.

Happy holidays from a late night of transcoding, then encoding video and putting together type specimens from long lost typefaces of yore.

Two new projects up in Print + Product: the first season of Open Skateboards and the new Blunt Mechanic CD on Barsuk Records. Very amped on both.

I was just in Chicago doing research for a new article for Idea Magazine and had a bang-up time, diving deep in type history research on my absolute favorite, Oswald Cooper and hanging out with Nate and his sweet kittens, as well as bar Scrabble sojourn action with Aaron.

Thank you, Nate, for the couch space, for being so fricking awesome, and for putting up with my half-assed jet-lagged sleep schedule (though all should note that I got up daily at 8AM latest [!] to drag my ass down to the library. Talk about a Protestant work ethic on a guy, even a reformed Catholic… the lengths some will go to for the love of lettering….).

An extra-large shoutout to Paul Gehl and the tireless staff at the Newberry Library for being such awesome folks. Thank you for your interest, patience, and care. You honor the independent researcher. I salute you!

Lesque’s latest season in the latest issue of Samurai Magazine. New season polished off yesterday and en route to the States to be manufactured.

The Peace Sweater project that I worked on with Ryo Chikushi Bordini, Stefan Sagmeister, Oded Ezer, Dainippon Type Organization, and many others is now available online.

In TAB’s words:

Typography meets fashion with this limited edition sweater with a simple message. Top designers from around the globe contributed the word Peace in their own language, woven together into a harmonious typographic pattern and then printed on a beautifully tailored organic cotton sweater. More than a fashion item, it is an environmental and uplifting statement for a brighter future.

I did up a little katakana treatment of the logo for Free Copy, LA graffiti writer Eye One’s graffiti zine devoted to regional handstyles. He was in Tokyo recently and put together an all-Tokyo issue. You can download the pdf version here.

Another one for the archive- Ben from Kind of Like Spitting took this drawing I did in art school and threw it on a record cover.

I have put together this syllabus for my upcoming Typography 101 class at Temple University Japan for those curious as to what the class is comprised of.

PROJECT 1
ON/OFF PROJECT
Develop a concept for a new font whose forms relate to an 8”x 8” square grid. Each box in the grid must be either “on” or “off.” You have no curves or true diagonals. Draw letters on provided graph paper. Consider proportion, weight and structural features such as height of cross bars.

PROJECT 2
ANATOMY OF A LETTER
This exercise will help you to become aware of a letter’s construction: the positive and negative shapes that comprise a letter form make it distinct from other faces. Using various sheets of tracing paper overlay, and colored pencils, trace the letters in various ways to identify and become familiar with the anatomy of type. Include one version that shows ONLY the negative spaces.

PROJECT 3
CLASSICAL TITLE PAGES
Construct a page within an A4 size area using the Golden Proportion (1:1.618). Using only the Title, Author, and Volume text set in Times New Roman and Times New Roman Italic to create very different title pages for J.D. Salinger’s Eleven Stories Volume One. You may not use any ornament or color beyond black and white. You may not “scale” typographic elements – use only the Character and Paragraph palettes and the Selection tool to move objects. Pay detailed atention to the letterspacing, linespacing, kerning, and composition. Make the title pages as sophisticated, thoughtful, and composed with care as you can. Create five by the end of class, then five more for homework. A sample pdf of the work of Swiss master typographer Jan Tschichold is provided to use as reference.

PROJECT 4
CLASSICAL BOOK DESIGN
Construct a classical book layout using the Golden Proportion and a serif typeface. Import text and lay out all eleven stories from the provided Word file using Master Pages to help automate the process. Make the text as readable as possible and clearly define elements (chapter name, folio, etc.).Treat the text with as much care as possible: consider type size, leading, spacing, rag, rivers, widows, orphans, and other typographic errors. Pick your best title page from Assignment 3 and re-work it to fit this book design. An extensive pdf of how to construct Classically proportioned page constructions is provided for reference.

PROJECT 5
MODERN BOOK DESIGN
Construct a Swiss high Modern book layout using a modular grid and a sans serif typeface. Import text and lay out all eleven stories from the provided Word file using Master Pages to help automate the process. Make the text as readable as possible and clearly dene elements (chapter name, folio, etc.). Treat the text with as much care as possible: consider type size, leading, spacing, rag, rivers, widows, orphans, and other typographic errors. Create a modern title page for the book. The title is Eleven Stories Volume Two by J.D. Salinger. A pdf of how to create a modular grid is provided.

PROJECT 6
1–10
The 1–10 project is designed to increase your acumen in assessing typographic, spatial, and graphic hierarchy through iteration. We will be creating a series of typographic posters that will work individually and collectively in order to familiarize you with Adobe InDesign. Details are provided in in-class handouts.

REQUIRED READINGS
Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton

Chapters 1–4, and 8 of The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst (in TUJ library).

“The Crystal Goblet, or Printing Should be Invisible” by Beatrice Warde [Looking Closer 3] (in TUJ library).

“Typefaces are Rich with the Gesture and Spirit of Their Own Era” by Michael Rock [Looking Closer 3] (in TUJ library).

“Laws of the Letter” by Ellen Lupton and J. Abbott Miller [Design Writing Research] (in TUJ library).

Typographic detailing pages from Type and Typography by Phil Baines and Andrew Haslam (in TUJ library).

I just put together this course syllabus for my upcoming Imagemaking 101 class at Temple University Japan. Just putting it out there for any folks who might be interested in the class to get a better idea of what it is all about.

In the contemporary world of graphic design, designers must be able to not only convey information, but do so in ways that are engaging and entertaining. Imagemaking teaches strategies for creating unique visual form to incorporate into graphic design projects. A hybrid of manual, analog, and digital processes including drawing, collage, manipulating found imagery, pattern-making, and typographic assemblage will be utilized to help students with the goal of the class: for each student to create a 100-page book of a range of form-making styles that will greatly benefit their professional portfolios.

The class will work together to explore different formal and conceptual strategies for creating new and exciting visual illustration. This class will appeal to graphic designers interested in both print and web, illustrators, fine artists, and students with an interest in editorial illustration. It will also appeal to designers and illustrators working within a signature style, as the strategies utilized will help loosen up professionals, push boundaries, and create new work.

This class is a studio class but will require a bit of homework for visual research (collecting source material and light reading). Production time outside of class will be expected to complete the assignments.

Students are expected to attempt form-making experiments outside of the class environment in order to complete the required 50 images that their final books will be comprised of. (Each spread of the book will be one A4 landscape image).

The final two classes will be comprised of assembling our books of imagery while simultaneously finishing projects.

PROJECT 1
FOUND IMAGERY COLLAGE
We will being our exploration of formal study by coming up with a general topic/subject to address throughout the semester. The subject should be something a bit headier than “kittens”, but as long as you can consistently create a series of imagery that explores both literal and non-literal interpretations in a sophisticated fashion, you are good to go.

For this first project, you will put together a mix of found imagery that can be sourced via the internet, photography, clip art, and found in printed ephemera.

Please fill three A4 pages with a collage of your found imagery. Attempt to create a sense of figure/ground relations, scale, and visual excitement with your compositions. Photocopy your three compositions two times. Utilize watercolor paint, markers, or some other forms of color to apply color to one version of your monochrome images.

Feel free to create multiple options if time allows.

PROJECT 2
PHOTOCOPY EFFECTS
Bring 5 iconic, high-contrast images to class. We will use a photocopier to manipulate the images using a variety of techniques in conjunction with the application of halftones and manual reprographic tools.

PROJECT 3
PATTERNS & TEXTURE
Cut black paper into geometric compositions that each fill up a 15mm square. We will scan these, trace them in Adobe Illustrator, and create a collection of patterns with them. We will then take all of the class members’ patterns, combine them into one collection, and each class member will deploy the patterns to make five different geometric compositions.

PROJECT 4
MAKING THE MOST OF PRE-SET PROJECTS
We will utilize preset projects from design tutorial magazines and try to take the pre-assembled projects, remix them, and make them 1000% more awesome. Or at least weirder.

PROJECT 5
TYPE AS IMAGE
We will combine hand-drawn, digital, and analog letterforms using figure/ground relations, scale, and spatial composition.

PROJECT 6
PHOTOGRAPHING COMPOSED ELEMENTS
We will create dioramas of composed graphic elements. Please bring 20 different elements to class to compose into a scene. These can include 3D objects, cut-out paper imagery, or whatever you desire. Feel free to bring a large print of a backdrop image to shoot your elements against.

New-ish EP by Yacht.

Recently launched: FoodPusher.

Two years in the making, Black Wagon‘s site launches! Though the website says “Designed by Ian Lynam”, credit is due to Jack Saturn, Sarah Shaoul, and the rest of the Black Wagon team for making it happen.

New deck design for Open Skateboards NYC.

Upswell identity up on Pinball’s Flickr account.

Finally, images from Fan Letter in Baltimore and NYC.

Next Mammal live show: Pecha Kucha Night Tokyo on December 2nd at Super Deluxe.

One from the vaults: a kid’s ninja tee shirt graphic circa 2003 for Tiger Claw, a martial arts supplier.

Just finished: key art and DVD cover design for the Cantankerous Titles release I Love My Bicycle:The Story of FBM Bikes, directed by Joe Stakun. FBM is a D.I.Y. BMX bike frame manufacturer based in New York City. I Love My Bicycle follows the fifteen year history of FBM Bike Company. What began as kids selling t-shirts out of a backpack has turned into one of the most well respected bicycle companies in the world.

In other news:
My friend Anandi is currently undergoing chemotherapy for invasive breast cancer. Some of her friends have organized an art auction online to help raise funds for her while she is undergoing treatment to cover some medical bills and living expenses while she is undergoing treatment.

I have donated 12 hours of graphic design work to the auction, should anyone out there need some work done affordably and for the money to go somewhere where it is really needed.

New shirt graphic for Metropolis Cycles in Portland, Oregon, flipping the classic logo for East Bay punk band Filth.

Booklet design for the latest Artalking event, Architecture of the Future by Roland Hagenberg

I have some typefaces in the latest Typodarium project, a daily tear-off calendar of typefaces by assorted type foundries.

New work up: collateral for innovation research firm Five by Fifty,

I have work in a new show starting next month in Portland, Oregon called WORK | PROGRESS that benefits the Dill Pickle Club.

WORK | PROGRESS features 24 Portland-based socially-engaged artists creating replicated works of art. Participating artists: Icky A, Brad Adkins, Moe Bowstern, Carye Bye, Bill Daniel, Dyslexxis, Harrell Fletcher, Sarah Gottesdiener, Sam Gould, Anna Gray, MK Guth, Ariana Jacob, Kendra Larson, Ian Lynam, Eric Mast, Justin Scrappers Morrison, Michael Parich, Ryan Wilson Paulsen, Brittany Powell, Khris Soden, Bwana Spoons, Matthew Stadler, Nim Wunnan and Pete Yahnke. Many have exhibited nationally and internationally, including Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Boise Art Museum, Portland Art Museum, Seattle Art Museum and the Whitney Biennial.

While I am not based in Portland, I touch down there twice a year minimum and have a wonderful community there. It’s my other home and I love it dearly, as well as a number of other artists involved in the show.

WORK | PROGRESS Opening
Thursday, December 3 | 6PM | FREE
Join us for the opening of the exhibition during the First Thursday art walk, with beer donated by Ninkasi and live music by Cape Perpetua and Niekrasz/ Jenkins Duet (of Why I Must Be Careful).

WORK | PROGRESS Dinner & Show Closing
Sunday, January 3 | 6PM | $20 General / $18 Picklers
An intimate evening, with dinner prepared by Lucy Rockwell and presentations by people who have helped the Dill Pickle Club, including: Vontundra, Eberhardt Press and Matthew Stadler. I will be in attendance at the Dinner & Show Closing.

Show info:
The Eyeful Gallery | 625 NW Everett #104 | Portland, Oregon
Wednesday – Sunday 12PM – 6PM

In other news…..
I just finished a lecture and workshop with Myung Jin Song Cruz’s Graphic Design class at Temple University yesterday. Decent one hour lecture about my body of work to date followed by a manually intensive project exploring identity through graphic expression.

I updated Portland, Oregon artist Anna Fidler’s website this week with a chunk of new images.

Additionally, I will be teaching a new class (as well as an old one) at Temple University Japan in January.

Image Making (IMA101)
In the contemporary world of graphic design, designers must be able to not only convey information, but do so in ways that are engaging and entertaining. Image Making teaches strategies for creating unique visual form to incorporate into graphic design projects. A hybrid of manual, analog, and digital processes including drawing, collage, manipulating found imagery, pattern-making, and typographic assemblage will be utilized to help students with the goal of the class: for each student to create a 100-page book of a range of form-making styles that will greatly benefit their professional portfolios.

The class will work together to explore different formal and conceptual strategies for creating new and exciting visual illustration. This class will appeal to graphic designers interested in both print and web, illustrators, fine artists, and students with an interest in editorial illustration. It will also appeal to designers and illustrators working within a signature style, as the strategies utilized will help loosen up professionals, push boundaries, and create new work.

This class is a studio class but will require a bit of homework for visual research (collecting source material and light reading).

All About Typography (TYP101)
An in-depth look at typography (designing with fonts) for both beginners and experienced practitioners. This class is a working examination of Western typography including lectures on type history, type classification, and contemporary practice.

Practical exercises, as well as in-class critiques will help broaden students’ understanding of typography practically and critically

The class will conduct projects to explore typographic styles, learn correct typesetting practices, and increase design acumen. The class will host guest lectures by some of Japan’s top graphic designers. The class is Mac-based, but will apply equally to PC-based environments.

Fan Letter: 26 Artists and Designers Present Their Favorite Letter or Typographic Character

Twenty-six local, national, and internationally-based designers and artists give a two-minute ode to an alphabet letter or typographic character. These may range from multimedia presentations, performances, videos, stories, poems, animations, songs, stand-up comedy, rants, short plays, demonstrations, Gregorian chants, etc—however they choose to depict their letter.

My contribution to Fan Letter can be viewed here– an ode to the letter “B”.

New promotional postcard set for Bespoke Tokyo out now!

Custom Peace Sweater pattern Pepastar moose made an appearance twice in print this week! First, in the DesignTide catalog (above), and second in the latest issue of Casa Brutus:

I’ve been creating a series of simple editorial illustrations for WIFM Magazine over the past year. The latest issue is out now and available in Tokyo.

My new band Mammal with Mari Kojima will debut next week at Tokyo Art Beat’s 5th Anniversary party at SuperDeluxe in Tokyo.

Just launched: a new website for Social Innovation Partners is a social-profit enterprise based in Portland, Oregon. We worked with SIP’s founder Elizabeth Hoffecker Moreno to expand her business’ identity, creating a unique and professional web presence that is client editable in an easy and intuitive manner.

Two new websites that the studio designed launched today:

The updated website for Five By Fifty, Tokyo’s top innovation consultancy.

A brand-new website incorporating updated branding for Bespoke Tokyo, Japan’s only Urban Safari company.

I’ll be debuting and giving away installment #3 of my Poster Initiative offset-printed poster series at Super Deluxe this Wednesday during my Pecha Kucha Night presentation. The posters are produced in editions of 1,000 and distributed around Tokyo. Not advertising- just free design for the people.

I’ll be doing a glib presentation on the “The Year in Review”- a look back over highlight projects for my design studio in 2009.

at SuperDeluxe
1000yen /1 drink
B1F 3-1-25 Nishi Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0031
+81 (0)3-5412-0515
http://www.super-deluxe.com

A project that was killed at the printer for a good reason: the City of Portland pulled the plug on its utterly unneeded mega-bridge citing “political and economic opposition”. The screen was being burned at Microcosm for the shirts when the word came down. Not a bad thing by any means.

I have the dubious honor of being the very first Pecha Kucha Night presenter to have a presentation presented online at PKN’s new Presentations section of their website, designed by UltraSuperNew. You can listen to me sputter, babble, and throw out half-truths here, as recorded 2+ years ago.

Final apparel design for Ryotaro Bordini Chikushi’s Peace Sweater project will debut at Design Tide 2009 in Tokyo next week. You can see the final products in the Apparel section.

Sneak preview of the disc face artwork for the new album by Blunt Mechanic (ex-Kind of Like Spitting) for Barsuk Records.

New season of board graphics for Lesque in the Print + Product section.

Maryland Lettering & Type book launch:

Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore
Falvey Hall in the Brown Center
Thursday, October 29
6:30–8:30 PM.

New York Lettering & Type book launch party:

Tuesday, November 17 at 7:00 PM (free and open to the public)
The Cooper Union
Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography

The highlight of the evenings will be Fan Letter: 26 Artists and Designers Present Their Favorite Letter or Typographic Character, featuring designers, artists, and musicians (including many contributors to Lettering & Type) giving a two-minute ode to an alphabet letter or typographic character. These may range from multimedia presentations, performances, videos, stories, poems, animations, songs, stand-up comedy, rants, short plays, demonstrations, Gregorian chants, etc—however they choose to depict their letter.

Prior to Fan Letter, there will be a reception with authors Bruce Willen and Nolen Strals, as they help kick off a participatory Exquisite Corpse Alphabet and sign copies of Lettering & Type: Creating Letters and Designing Typefaces.

Artists, designers, illustrators, and musicians participating in Fan Letter:
Ken Barber & Ben Kiel—Delaware, House Industries (H); Kim Bost and Ted McGrath—New York (T); Andrew Byrom—Los Angeles (N); Jennifer Daniel—New York, New York Times (D); John Downer—Iowa City (J); Shaun Flynn—Baltimore (W); Brockett Horne—Baltimore, MICA (¶); Gary Kachadourian—Baltimore (P); Justin Thomas Kay—New York (&); John Langdon—Philadelphia (X); Eric Leshinsky—Baltimore (*); Ian Lynam—Japan (B); Joe Macleod—Baltimore, City Paper (U); Kelley McIntyre—Baltimore (G); Abbott Miller—Baltimore, Pentagram (A); Adam Okrasinski—New York (K); Kevin O’Neill and Karisa Senavatis—New York, Will Work For Good (C); Jennifer Cole Phillips—Baltimore, MICA (S); Robby Rackleff—Baltimore, Blue Leader (M); Theresa Segreti—Baltimore (O); Whitney Sherman—Baltimore (F); Kevin Sherry—Baltimore, Squidfire (Z); Justin Sirois—Baltimore, Narrow House Recordings (Y); Scott Sugiuchi—Baltimore, Exit10 (Q); Tore Terrasi—Boston (I); Sara Tomko—Baltimore (E); Carlos Vigil—Baltimore (R).

Took time out to shoot the latest line of Lesque skateboard graphics with my pals 芝崎 佳子 and 瀬ノ上俊毅 the other day, as well as the images for an upcoming feature in Idea Magazine.

New work in the identity design section for Portland, Oregon multimedia partnership Upswell.

My new typeface Ensenada is available now through MyFonts.

I have some work in this new book, Graphic Design Referenced, edited by Byony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit.

The Japanese version of The Art of Saying Hello 3 is out now.

The Japanese version of Smart Designs: Business Cards is out now, as well.

I put together a limited edition, numbered booklet about graffiti in Tokyo to accompany my lecture at Arttalking #2 in Roppongi.

A new culture portal that a number of Tokyo writers, including myself, have been collaborating on lately launched this week: CNNGo.

I have a bunch of work published in the new book Smart Designs: Business Cards from PIE Books here in Tokyo.

I have a series of mini-screenprints in this show of past and present staffers of Reading Frenzy, a great bookstore in Portland, Oregon. I worked there circa 1995 to 1996, being the less grumpy of the duo manning the store.

I also have work published in the Scion Installation monograph.

Back from world travels as of a few days ago. Berlin, Moscow, Okinawa, Arizona, Los Angeles, and a few scant hours in Portland were so great.

The Scion Installation closing event in Los Angeles was a resounding success. It was wonderful to see a bevy of friends there. Resplendent, resonant, and heartfelt thanks to Karen and the Beyond/Scion team for bringing me Stateside yet again.

A new pattern design is up on Néojaponisme, as are installments of my series of found photography and lettering.

Got a nice shoutout from the ever-awesome Morgan Currie on her school blog yesterday at the UVA.

Post Typography’s new book Lettering and Type is out now via Princeton Architectural Press. I have a bunch of work featured within. They’ve created a fancy website to accompany the book that is worth a look.

This is Ensenada, a new typeface I designed based on hand-cut lettering that adorns businesses throughout the city of Ensenada in Baja California in Mexico.
It’ll get an official release soon through Wordshape and MyFonts, but you can get it early by emailing me.

All of the work in Scion’s latest Installation tour is available for public auction here. All artwork sale proceeds go to funding Creative Capital, a non-profit organization benefitting artists.

I have a one-off video and series of digital prints in a custom case for sale within.

It’s that time again: I’ll be teaching Typography 101 at Temple University Japan in the upcoming semester.

About the course:
An in-depth look at typography (designing with fonts) for both beginners and experienced practitioners. This class is a working examination of Western typography including lectures on type history, type classification, and contemporary practice. Practical exercises, as well as in-class critiques will help broaden students’ understanding of typography practically and critically.
The class will conduct projects to explore typographic styles, learn correct typesetting practices, and increase design acumen. It will host guest lectures by some of Japan’s top graphic designers.

I’ll be lecturing in Tokyo next month.
Information:
Artalking #4: ON THE STREET
From Barry McGee in San Francisco to Banksy in London to the street artists of Tokyo, we take a look at street arts’ semiotic and symbolic roles in contemporary culture, both as an aesthetic and as an active lifestyle.

Wednesday, October 8, 7pm – 9pm
at Nobilduca, Roppongi
RSVP Required
Speaker:
Ian Lynam, design educator, writer, practitioner, and critic
*Guest speaker TBA
Artworks: EKYS, TWIST, BNE, QP and more

Cuisine:
Healthy ‘Street food’ from Italy
Organised by:
Julia Barnes & Loredana di Porcia
4,000 yen Advance / 4,500 yen Door sales
Includes buffet-style dinner with MONACA wine, Acqua Panna & S.Pellegrino – Fine Waters & Nespresso Coffee

Supported by:
Acqua Panna & S.Pellegrino – Fine Waters, Nespresso Coffee, Nobilduca – Roppongi and MONACA Wines

Venue:
Nobilduca, Roppongi
Address: Aoba Roppongi Bld B1, 3-16-33 Roppongi, Minato-Ku
Phone: 03-5772-9825
http://www.nobilduca.com/

Facebook link here.

New shirt graphic for Microcosm, available any day now…

New project: cover design for Crimethinc‘s A Guide to Picking Locks.

Just received a copy of Visual Language for Designers: Principles for Creating Graphics that People Understand by Connie Malamed, published by Rockport. I had a number of examples of my work published within.

New illustration for the upcoming ROM Spaceknight show honoring comic artist and writer Bill Mantlo at Floating World Comics in Portland.

Identity project for Social Innovation Partners in Portland.

Product packaging for BudSock now in the Print + Product section.

I was interviewed for the French street culture magazine 90bpm here. The interview is a year old, but still relevant. If you read French, that is…

Just finished: identity and website for the すずの木カフェ (Suzu No Ki Cafe) run by Chie Yoshimura in Yokohama. Thanks, Chie and Matt!

I just had some graphic design work published in Visual Language for Designers: Principles for Creating Graphics that People Understand by Connie Malamed, published by Rockport.

Tons of new work in here: posters, coasters, logos, websites, etc.

Business card designs in the new book Business Cards 3: Designs on Saying Hello by Michael Dorrian and Liz Farrelly, published by Laurence King.

BudSock is a nifty new anti-tangle device for mobile devices’ cord systems. I worked with company founder Jeffrey Wescott to develop the product’s identity and packaging, as well as beef up their web presence as of late. It’s a nifty sleeve system backed up by a 110% money-back guarantee.

Unearthed outside of the city of Sano in Tochigi-ken, this portrait photography series documents Japan as it engaged with modernization and commercial photography in the Meiji and Taishō Periods.

This post marks the Tokyo opening of the Meeting Modernity Exhibition.
Details:

MEETING MODERNITY
OPENING: A Night of Néojaponisme
A night of presentations, discourse, music, and booze.
DATE: 31st of July 2009
OPEN: 1800 START: 1900
FEE: open charge (Nagesen)
PLACE: hybrid so+ba gallery
5-29-20 KYODO SETAGAYA-KU
TOKYO 156-0052
WWW.SO-BA.CC

Come on down to the infamous Hybrid SO+BA Gallery in Kyodo (Odakyu Line) for a night of revelry with the staff of Néojaponisme. A smattering of presentations by the editors of and contributors to the site will be accompanied by Funkmaster DJ Jean Snow on the wheels of steel.

By sheer luck, I have ten copies of Parallel Strokes in stock again. If you are interested, drop me an email or feel free to purchase one for $50 postpaid (world) via Paypal (Paypal ID is the same as my email).

Two new books about to be released that I designed for Microcosm Publishing- A Guide to Picking Locks and a redesigned version of 13 Years of Good Luck.

I have some work in the upcoming book, Lettering and Type, edited by Bruce Willen, Nolen Strals, and Ellen Lupton and published by Princeton Architectural Press. Coming soon!

A ton of new work added in to the identity, print/product, web, motion/broadcast, and publication sections.

Promotional advertisement in the latest issue of WIFM Magazine.

Recent work: wedding invitations for Anastasia Alto and Corey Blodgett.

Firefox 3.5 is out now- go get that sucker!

The Mozilla Japan team asked that Craig Mod and I jointly write and design this demo page of what is now possible using Firefox’s new @font-face, a CSS rule implemented in Firefox’s latest 3.5 release which allows web designers to reference fonts not installed on end user machines.
(In other words: it allows web designers to store fonts on their server and reference them in CSS, regardless of what fonts the user browsing the page has installed.)

Look at it in Firefox- it is designed for that. It looks OK enough in Safari, but we’d rather have you see it in all its glory. Click around a bit and see what the future of typography for the web looks like….

We lucked out in getting Underware to agree to being our foundry partners in making this demo happen. The demo coincides with the release of their new typeface, Liza.

Original referring page on Mozilla’s site is here.

Thanks to Craig for dropping crazy hours with me on getting this project together. Shoutouts to Mozilla for their support, encouragement, and sheer radicalness!

Never cataloged: this fun but disposable piece of modular lettering made using bingo scoresheets on Néojaponisme.

Also never cataloged: this set of downloadable book covers for Néojaponisme.

And rounding out the never-cataloged section (comprised of work I like and want to include in here somewhere but isn’t easily categorized) is this mini-documentary on sexual assault on the Tokyo train system created for Néojaponisme and MTV Italy.

Then in the category of new work, two new thingies…

The latest issue of Rap-Up is out now and on newsstands.

The back cover.

Included in the issue is this advertising campaign which I put together for Casio’s G-Shock and Baby-G product lines featuring Asher Roth, Nina Sky, and others.

Scion Presents:
Installation 5:  Self-Portrait
Philadelphia

T & P Fine Art
1143 South 9th St.
Philadelphia, PA 19147

Featuring Self Portraits by:
AJ Fosik, Alex Hornest, Andrew Schoultz, Angela Boatwright, Asylm, Blek le Rat, Christina M. Felice, Codak, David Choe, Edwin Ushiro, elYem, Eriberto Oriol, Eye One, Francesco LoCastro, French, Ian Lynam, J. Shea, Jamel Shabazz, Jeff Soto, Kelsey Brookes, Kofie, Lisa Alisa, Logan Hicks, Mark Mothersbaugh, Nicholas Harper, Patrick Martinez, Peter Beste, Peter Glover, RETNA, Rick Rodney, Rob Abeyta Jr., Ron English, Saber, Sage Vaughn, Skypage, Something in the Universe, Souther Salazar, Stormie Mills, Tessar Lo, Todd Tourso, Too Tall Jahmal, Usugrow, Will Barras, Yoskay Yamamoto

Show runs: 7/03/09-7/25/09

Opening event:
Friday, July 3rd
7pm-11pm

Artists in attendance: AJ Fosik, Asylm, Christina M. Felice, Patrick Martinez & Something in the Universe

Music provided by DJ Apt One

www.scion.com/installation
Www.tandpfineart.com

Alphabet will open at the Domy Books Austin at the HOW Conference this Wednesday.

I designed the corporate identity for Topsy, a Twitter-powered search engine which launched recently.

Some crops of the promotional trading cards that I designed for Bwana Spoons’ new book, Welcome to Forest Island.

I just started a new series of two-color posters called “Poster Initiative” that will be distributed for free around Tokyo. The first batch were dropped off at Nagi Shokudo last night and another went to Cafe Pause today. Poster Initiative 001 was printed in a series of 1,000.

On Sunday, June 28, the Dill Pickle Society, a newly-formed experimental education/ cultural center, warmly invites you to “ART FOR THE MILLIONS: THE ENDURING LEGACY OF THE WPA,” a leisurely bicycle tour of Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects in Portland. The ride will make several stops along the way to hear from leading scholars and examine the WPA’s relevance to contemporary society.

From 1935-1943, the WPA put more than 8 million people across the United States back to work, many in Western states, including Oregon. While many are familiar with Timberline Lodge, the WPA also helped create and improve Portland city parks, public school buildings and a variety of other public projects.

Among the tour stops are Paul Grellert’s mural at the Morrisson Street post office, the Portland Art Museum, Woody Guthrie Circle, Skidmore Fountain (where David Milholland will talk about C.E.S. Wood and the history of public art in Portland) and Abernathy School (where Friends of Arts in the Schools will show us their efforts to restore a WPA mural). The ride will also stop for lunch (provided) at Westmoreland Park (itself a WPA project), where attendees will participate in a discussion on the feasibility of implementing a federally-funded arts program today.

Registration is required to attend and space is limited to the first 40 participants. A $10 donation goes towards lunch, admissions, a “merit badge” and supplemental materials. To RSVP, e-mail: yes@dillpickleclub.com.

For more info, check out the attached poster (feel free to forward on to friends, colleagues, neighbors etc) or visit us online at: www.dillpickleclub.com.

Two-color offset posters for the event designed by Ian Lynam and printed by Eberhardt Press are available by emailing the above address, as well.

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Scion Installation exhibition in San Jose. Apparently over 5,000 people rolled through the opening, which was both jaw-dropping and totally amazing. Usually unflappable, I was totally flapped. Thank you!

I have uploaded a Flickr set of the world’s most famous rappers and R&B folk with some of my graphic design in their greedy little paws here.

In other news, the book Welcome to Forest Island by Bwana Spoons that I edited and designed for Top Shelf is out now. Get ’em here while they are hot. 144 pages, full color, casebound, 6.5″ by 9′, and only $30 postpaid.

I have a video in the upcoming exhibition Dreams of Progress in London starting on July 6th through July 18th. It marks the first time that Tokyo.Now will be publicly viewable in its original high resolution format.
Also new: new season of skateboard for Lesque. All are riffs on early Modern art, both fine and commercial. The highlight is Shinichi Ito’s pro model/faux Kandinsky.

I will be in San Jose, California for the Scion Installation tour stop there at Anno Domini. The opening is on June 5th and goes from 8PM to 12AM. If you are remotely near the Bay Area, come on down!
Other artists who will have work on display include luminaries like Dave Choe, Souther Salazar, Jeff Soto, Kofie One, Usugrow, and Eye One.

Now out: In Search of the Lost Taste, a vegan cookbook by Joshua Ploeg. I art-directed and designed this half-recipes/half-adventure/sci-fi/fantasy novella with cover illustration by comic maestro Aaron Renier and interior illustrations by the mighty overlord Nate Beaty.

Joshua was the singer of some of the best West Coast weirdo hardcore bands around including Mukilteo Fairies and Behead the Prophet No Lord Shall Live and is a an amazing itinerant vegan chef.

More as soon as I get some in my greedy little hands… the book is available via the publisher, Microcosm.

The PDX Film Fest is an annual celebration of experimental and documentary cinema in its eighth year. Pinball did a rad job of printing the usual selection of  promotional materials I designed for the 2009 festival.

The line up features:
– a 100% recycled scout book with a chipboard exterior and 32 blank interior pages, printed in a Hot Pink Pantone soy ink.
– a program booklet with a Classic Crest 80# cover printed in a stunning combination of Turquoise and Hot Orange Pantone soy ink, and an interior of Quinault 70# Text.
– a 3-color poster on Environment 100# Text, printed in Hot Pink, Hot Orange and Turquoise Pantone soy ink.
– filmmaker passes and tickets printed in Hot Pink Pantone soy ink on chipboard. 

I just finished up the festival intro animation bumper with Trevor Sias- 3D ambient sickness which I will post here after the Fest is underway.

I also designed a tote bag for this year’s Fest in lieu of the usual tee shirts. Photos once I get samples in hand.

Check out the Film Fest’s offerings May 6-10 at the Clinton Street Theater and Gallery Homeland!

My new shirt for Tokyo Art Beat is now available in their shop. The elusive custom green and pink colorway pictured above is available only at Beams T in Japan.