i believe in concept

admin — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:53:09 +0000

The last couple of years has seen a really great development in the use of fonts for web pages. Although the “@font-face” rule was introduced with CSS2, it was removed from later CSS upgrades but reintroduced with CSS3. Now a web designer can serve up fonts with web pages just like a print document. Not that it is that easy, but as long as you follow certain steps, it works very well.

There are a couple of issues, however.

1. Your font has to be “converted” to a set of formats that will work across different browsers.

The File Formats:

.eot (Embedded Open Type)

.ttf (True Type Font)

.woff (Web Open Font Format)

.svg (Scaleable Vector Graphics)

2. Legally, you have to “own” the fonts.

This is a real problem for some. I think that as a designer, as long as you purchased and have legal possession of a font you should be able to use it in your work. However, some companies, especially font foundries, have raised objections to the distribution of fonts via the web. Linotype has “blacklisted” Helvetica when I tried to upload it to Font Squirrel. Adobe has also come out against using their fonts for websites. Noted type designers Hoefler & Frere-Jones are very much in favor of the concept but they are against the current “delivery” system of @font-face.

3. Online conversion services are free and very useful in preparing your files.

I’ve used Font Squirrel and Font2Web with very good results.

4. Add the CSS to your style sheet

Font Squirrel and Font2Web will provide you with the converted fonts and a “webfont kit” that includes the necessary CSS to add to your style sheet. Both services are very helpful in addition to numerous sites that provided tutorial steps.

5. Helpful links

http://www.font2web.com

http://www.fontsquirrel.com

http://www.font-face.com

Some useful information:

A Wikipedia article

Paul Irish’s article

(This article also appears on “I Believe In Design”)

Branding the Home Tour

admin — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:20:14 +0000

Last year I designed a new logo and accompanying graphics for my client, the Historic Hyde Park Neighborhood Association. This year they asked me to create a series of signs and banners to “brand” their home tour event. Since it is their major fundraising event, it was important to present a strong, consistent signage.

While logo design process was long and very drawn out, the presentations and approvals of the home tour graphics went very smoothly and quickly. The specs called for a variety of configurations and sizes so I had to use a flexible and versatile approach that incorporated the logo and color scheme.

Photoshop “Claude Monet Effect” Tutorial

admin — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:38:10 +0000

Claude Monet was one of the leading artists in the Impressionist movement. The impressionists sought a new kind of reality in their work. Visible brush strokes, an emphasis on capturing the quality of light, and common, everyday subject matter characterized the work. The work of the Impressionists spanned the last 20 to 30 years of the 19th century. In this tutorial I am trying to capture a feeling of the work of Monet. As always, it helps a great deal to have a suitable source photo. The new Photoshop bristle brushes and the mixer brush tool are essential to help create the effect.

Photoshop “Henri Matisse Effect” Tutorial

admin — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 19:28:14 +0000

This is a tutorial to create a Henri Matisse painting effect. We’ll use a photo as our source image. We’ll also reference several paintings by Matisse to study his style. I used the work of Matisse in a project way back in college. We had to reproduce 6 paintings of an artist of our choice, on a 6″ cube constructed out of heavy illustration board.

This tutorial is not intended to exactly copy his work, but to mimic some his style, techniques, motifs, etc.

Photoshop “Edgar Degas Effect” Tutorial

admin — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 18:00:10 +0000

The following is a Photoshop tutorial for a technique that I use in the image manipulation classes I teach. The techniques and procedures should work for most images. If you try the tutorial you should try to use images that are appropriate and suitable. The idea here is to take a photograph and use it to create a painting that mimics the style of a specific artist. The painter is the French Impressionist Edgar Degas.

Welcome to my teaching portfolio blog.

admin — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:18:16 +0000

The “I Believe In Concept” site is an online counterpart to a 132-page book that is currently at the publisher. I recently began teaching at the Art Institute in Tampa, Florida. Prior to that, I taught for ten years at … Continue reading →