My typeface mood currently is: Mrs. Eaves Petite Caps

If you haven’t noticed, I have a tiny little obsession with Type. Today as I was spending my lunch going through my favorite fonts on the Emigré website a coworker plopped down across from me and asked, “Why do you love fonts so much?”

I can not credit myself with discovering a passion for letter-forms because it was a professor in college who put me through typography boot camp. While i naturally thought i was a bad ass who didn’t need to be schooled in type, Dawn whipped my butt into shape over the course of few semesters. Not only did i develop a respect for type, but i gradually became obsessed with it. The most intriguing aspect of it being that no matter the design project or budget, nice type can improve the quality of the work. Each font has a history and a feel. You can subconsciously bring the audience to a specific place in time just by referencing a typeface that was popular then.

When i was in college i fell in love with Mrs Eaves.

Not only do i adore the expansive design options that Zuzano Licko assures me of with the multiple font variations within the family, but i am attracted to the clever name she has given her Typeface. Looking to revive a classic transitional serif Licko felt drawn to the story of Baskerville, a man whose work was not appreciated until after his death. Mrs. Eaves was Baskerville’s widowed housekeeper who became his mistress and then wife. After Baskerville’s death Mrs. Eaves, like many wives of hard working artist, worked to complete his remaining work.

Was Licko attempting to draw a parallel between the revival of his typeface and the exhausting challenges that faced his wife? Or was she just making a connection to the history of the story behind the typeface? Take a moment to read about it on the Emigré website.

In conclusion Mrs. Eaves is my home girl. i encourage it to be used well and often. Don’t even think about stretching this typeface or i will slap you upside the head. Eloquently balancing between old style and modern, wile squatty and heavy at times, this face brings class back to a classic. Where have YOU used Mrs. Eaves? Let me know.

[techtags: Typography, Zuzana Licko, emigre, Mrs Eaves, Baskerville, fonts, typefaces, typophilia]

You know you have nice packaging when you can sell water for more than its worth. I have an addiction to water. Being that i am a living creature can you really fault me? So let me rephrase this, i am addicted to high priced beautifully packaged pretentious water. Ridiculous… i know. Being that the it is the worlds most abundant molecule making up nearly 70% of that on the earths surface. But i equate the sales of water to that of selling honey to a bee. You are a good damn designer if you can convince me to buy something i know i can get for free in a single glance.

Frequently on my way into work i stop at Rite-Ade to pick up my 1.2 liter bottle of FIJI is genius and currently my water of choice. While the design of the bottle is not mind-blowing it has some key features that makes it a front runner in my quest for the supreme h2O experience. While cruising through the water section FIJI immediately stands out, a bottle with a clear square design rather than cylindrical one with frosted plastic. A simple transparent sticker on the back side shines through to the front panel depicting a palm and water fall through the crystal clear liquid. Crap, typing this is making me thirsty. One swig whisks away to the islands with tropical breezes and cabana boys. No it freaking doesn’t, but i do feel refreshed making a direct connection between the way my water looks and the way it tastes. And heck, its Artesian water! While i will fully admit that i originally thought the bottle said “artisan water” (and well i am all about buying products to help support artisans) , the idea of drinking water from a fancy dancy well in the tropics doesn’t hurt.

I rarely cough up the cash to go organic grocery shopping, but by the time i approach the checkout line at Whole Foods i have usually worked up quite a thirst. This is where i stumbled upon my next water of choice: Hint. With it’s simple graphics and sexy san serif typeface it immediately stood out from the other desperately competing waters. I’m a sucker for nice type, and Hint has it delicately overlaid on a 20oz crystal clear bottle. A bright color scheme and crisp corresponding graphics of fruit differentiate the many flavors while the stout little bottle mirrors to the truncated version of Bauhaus they use for their main typeface. While i have not had the opportunity to try many flavors i was surprised to like and highly recommend cucumber.

A year or so ago i had the pleasure of dining at a fantastic restaurant in the District by the name of David Greggory. Not only was my rack of lamb fantastic but i was delightfully pleased to see a bottle of Voss water delivered to me before my meal. Some may have seen this as a bougie statement, boastfully overstating the understated, but i saw it as a choice made in good taste. Nothing says classy more than water in a glass bottle. Voss serves the worlds most abundant and readily available resource up in packaging that is hard to ignore. The simple design highlights the purity of the product in an elegant fashion and that is why i will hold up my glass of water and toast Voss.
[techtags:package design, water package design, package design, hint, fiji water, Voss water, artesian water]

Design is everywhere. Since i was in the 6th grade, any time anyone asked me what i wanted to do when i grow up the answer has been ” i want to be a graphic designer”. A few years before that if you would have asked me the same question the answer would have been the “President of the United States… who is also a graphic designer”. Growing up i was raised by two very unique people, my mother a graduate of the art institute who had worked as a fashion illustrator and visual merchandiser, and my father who owned his own copy shop which evolved into a “graphics shop” with the advent of the Mac on the VCU campus. It made perfect sense to me then that the leader of the free world would need to know a thing or two about branding. And while at the time i probably naively thought that in a more direct way, i now tend to agree that the president of the United States should know a bit more about Branding.

When people ask me, “what would you do if you weren’t a designer?”, i honestly don’t have an answer for them. As cliche as it sounds, i pretty much grew up to be a designer and have never considered pursuing anything otherwise. And this brings me to why i have decided to begin writing this blog. I am always passionately thinking about design. I am truly a design nerd, the type that goes home on a friday night to comp up a site for a friend and rides the metro pointing out all the typefaces along the way. We are at the brink of a fantastic new age in society, one where design is seamlessly being integrated throughout our lives. Often times it is overlooked, subconsciously forcing us in a new direction on the sidewalk or convincing us to buy the unique teapot at Target. This is overwhelmingly exciting for me. I am constantly being stimulated from all directions, noticing delicious gems of simple design wonder everywhere. I am writing this blog to point these out.

Starting slowly but surely i welcome discussion regarding all forms of design in a constructively critical forum. Please feel free to share your experiences, design related or not on any subject matter presented here. If you have an idea of any areas of focus i should dive into, please suggest! Also, a little note… i am a bit of a typophile. I will be pointing out my type mood for every entry i make. Having a favorite typeface is just too much of a commitment for me, they change as often as my mood.

[techtags: Samantha Warren, Graphic Designer, Web Designer, Washington DC web designer, design nerd, web geek]