Typography of the Web: Arial and Helvetica

Today’s web typography article focuses on the two most commonly used sans-serif fonts in web design: Arial and Helvetica. In the professional design world, Helvetica is widely recognized as one of the finest, most balanced, sans-serif fonts available. Crafted by the Swiss typographer Max Miedinger in 1957, Helvetica has become so popular and widely used that in 2007 Gary Hustwit released a documentary under the font’s name chronicling the use of Helvetica in contemporary design. If you ever get a chance to see it, I HIGHLY recommend it.

Arial on the other hand (more…)

Typography of the Web: Font Introduction

Today I am beginning a series of articles dedicated to the subject of Typography in Web Design. The internet has drastically broadened the scope of design, and these days gajillions of people from all walks of life are trying their hand at web design. A trend I have noticed in amateur, and some professional, web design is a complete disregard or lack of attention paid to the type on the site. Not only does the text on a site communicate almost all of the content to the viewer, it can make or break your design. With this series of articles I will discuss, at a level appropriate for all readers, typography on the web, web safe fonts, CSS attributes you can use to adjust your text, and everything in between. (more…)

Featured: WeLoveWp

The home page of WeLoveWP

The lovely people over at WeLoveWP have been nice enough to feature my site in their index of custom WordPress powered websites. Thanks homies!

Role Model Alert: Stephen Doyle

"Truth," The New York Times, Op-Ed, October 15, 2001

While scowering the internet yesterday for awesome people, I stumbled upon the fantastic work of Stephen Doyle. His largely typographic body of work is rooted in the tangible world; almost all of it exists sculpturally and is photographed for practical application. In an age where people seem to have married computers to the design world, it is refreshing to see someone doing some truly inspirational and effective work off-screen. Now if we can just get that site re-designed so it doesn’t open in a fixed size pop-up window… (more…)

Social Typography

Environmental Lettering Project

Typography 1 with Ellen Lupton… YAY.
First assignment: Environmental Lettering. These are Helvetica letters hand-cut out of contact paper and affixed to a window in MICA‘s new Gateway building; positioned in such a way that they appear to be sitting on top of the nearby State Building.
Follow my Typography 1 Class’s flickr Group

Charm City Map Project

A screenshot from the Charm City Map

I have had the pleasure of working with some students and faculty members at MICA on a map designed specifically with incoming freshman in mind. Pushing the boundaries of HTML and CSS (with a little bit of php for the includes) I was able to create a dynamic map showcasing points of interest, mass transit routes, streets, and roads around MICA‘s campus and all of Baltimore. I used a few advanced/unique ideas in CSS to achieve this goal and after the jump I will explain how it’s done. (more…)

Portraits by Clutter

MICA 2008 Foundation Exhibition

"Portraits by Clutter" displayed in MICA's Meyerhoff Gallery

I was fortunate enough to have my triptych “Potraits by Clutter” chosen for the Maryland Institute College of Art Foundation Exhibition, a selection of works from the foundation program for first year students. This piece was created under the fabulous instruction of Fabienne Lasserre in her Drawing II class.

Check out the rest of the fantastic Foundation Exhibition at MICA if you are in or around Baltimore!

How to: Craigslist

I love Craigslist. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it is an international community of online classifieds organized by location, allowing you to search for specific products or services in your area. I personally have both bought and sold multiple things on Craigslist, and I thought I would share a bit of my experience to help people that are new to the game. (more…)

Biography

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