As I mentioned before, I am currently working feverishly to try and get the redesign of this site up and running. After hundreds of font explorations, more than 60 comps, and countless hours of me incoherently nudging Jim at 1am pleading for advice I have made up my mind on a final(ish) homepage. I want to share with you one of the treasures that I discovered during this laborious process.

I did some pretty in-depth typeface research this time around. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but I knew that once I saw the right “badass font” I would know it. On my monumental quest I began to connect a few dots, realizing a common thread between many of favorite script typefaces… they are designed by Alejandro Paul. Who is Alejandro? He is one of the most badass typeface designers in the world.

Ask any designer what their favorite Script is and their answer may be accompanied by a sigh… because when it comes to the classic type classification, there just aren’t a lot of good one’s to choose from. Stodgy and tired, many of the most accessible scripts have been beaten to death. Edwardian? Put that old man to rest because there are sexy new scripts in town.

With passionate swashes and striking swoops Alejandro’s typefaces are made for the digital age, looking as fantastic on the screen as they do in print. Many of his works have a story, a personality that makes them leap off the layout, demand that you to dance, and then leaves you begging for more.

Browse Veer’s Umbrella collection and you will find that many of the most exquisite specimens belong to Alejandro, surf the web and you will find that some of the best web designs feature his work. One of his most popular fonts, Candy Script, can be seen on signage and displays all over and Carsonified , a well known web agency, uses it in their logo (check their rebranding process and Candy Script font explorations). Over the holidays I went bonkers with spotting Feel Script in holiday ads on TV and in newspapers. Ministry Script is selectively featured on one of my favorite site design’s, Made in England By Gentleman and the very majestic Burgues Script recently won the prestigious Type Directors Club certificate of excellence.

Buffet Script was the first to catch my eye. I resisted its purchase for as long as I could possibly hold out, but when I finally gave in… it consumed my free time for days. The alternates and ligatures are just so fantastic. Just about any word can be transformed into a beautiful piece of art using these wonderfully styled glyphs. The only problem with this typeface is a personal one… I love it so much, I can not decide where I want to ever use it, and to this day have only managed to use it only on this desktop wallpaper.

In an interview by Andy Polaine for Desktop Magazine Alejandro says

I love the idea of a font surprising its user. With Affair the surprises I made were mostly ligatures, tons of them. With Burgues, the surprises had more to do with ornamentation, where a letter, or a combination of letters, would flare itself into different strange and beautiful calligraphic shapes.”

Burgues may be my new favorite Alejandro Paul typeface. The flourishes are breathtaking, I can loose myself in this script for hours. According to the user guide this script is

…an ode to the late 19th century American calligrapher Louis Madarasz, whose legend-ary pen movements have inspired schools of penmanship for over 100 years now, and whose talent has inspired some people to call him “the most skillful penman the world has ever known”

Though Burgues is my favorite for now it may not be long before his next creation sweeps me off my feet. A see a sneak preview of Semilla on his flickr feed has me all tween-age girl giddy over that new freaking typeface, describing its ligatures my voice starts to get high and my hands start to tremble. Yes, it is that awesome, no I may not be OK.

Some great links to check out:

Alejandro’s Flickr Stream

Sudtipos

The Alejandro Paul Script Collection on Veer

When I was in college my typography teacher was trying to explain to me how I should beef up some Univers in a project. After unsuccessfully dictating to me instructions over my shoulder she asked if she could sit down and use my mouse. With a few simple clicks she demonstrated to me how to make some boring type elegant. What did she do? She right aligned the type, added a ton of line height, took it from Roman to a sexy extra black, and added some character spacing. This simple 2 minute process taught me something very important about typography…. concepts such as hierarchy and emphasis are sometimes better demonstrated than explained.

Keeping this in mind I wanted to put together a presentation that could really illustrate my three pillars of web Typography “legibility, hierarchy, and expression” and disprove the idea that typography is just what font you pick. Given that there are only a handful of legible typefaces that are supported consistently across all of the major operating systems the online space is perfect place to prove that typography is so much more than a font.

To illustrate this I chose a website that desperately needed a typographic makeover and redesigned it using only typography & texture to highlight the type. While such a redesign is not realistic in the industry the point was to show the power of good typography and what a difference it can make. Since there was no actual client involved I designed it from the point of view that I had as a user when I first stumbled upon the site: I was looking to purchase a Spa gift card for my sister in Richmond, while I lived in DC. To make it realistic I challenged myself to keep the logo and only make slight modifications using type and texture.

I gave this presentation at Refresh Baltimore, Refresh Pittsburgh, & Mr Brown’s Web Class at Damascus High School. It was an honor & a ton of fun to have these opportunities, & I appreciate the folks that made them possible.

This nice gentleman took a great set of photos on Flickr of my preso in B-more if you would like to check them out.

Some URLS I mentioned while giving this presentation are:
Grid Calculator
Jacob Nielsen’s F-shape Pattern
A List Apart

Two consistent questions I got when doing this presentation were:
Q: How long did the redesign take you?
A: I tracked it at about 12-14 hours, however I was also taking screen captures throughout the process to document it.

Q: Is this the same process you would have gone through if there were images or illustration involved?
A: No. The process I went through here was to illustrate specific concepts in typography. The process I would go through for a traditional client project would be different and would depend on what goals they are seeking to meet with the design.

The original website can be seen here

You can see the final Redesigned comp displayed here.

»And you can download the PDF of the presentation here.

Update: I was sad to hear that the day after I posted this redesign the company that the site was for went out of business, which is why you may not have been able to view the original website. Ironically, my sister showed up at the spa to use her gift card and found the doors locked. I have replaced the link to the live site with a JPEG screen shot that I took before it went down.

John Boardley of “I Love Typography” has started a Flickr Pool where you can share you favorite letters of your favorite typefaces. It is fantastic to browse all the unique letterforms displayed as ornate pieces of art, and super fun to create one for yourself. Throughout the group there are a number specimens that make elegant desktop wallpapers.

Check out the Flickr Group by clicking here, and check out my letters:

Click here to Download 1920 x 1200

Click Here to Download 1024 x 640