eyeone | seeking heaven

I was invited to a behind-the-scenes presentation of the manuscript collection at the Getty Research Institute today. It was an amazing and inspiring experience. These are some snapshots I managed to take of some of the typography, calligraphy, engravings, and illustrations I saw. Oh, that D.V.L. you might spot in there: Da Vinci Leonardo... Sayin'!

Related Posts:

• Letters of Recommendation I
• Letters of Recommendation II
• Letters of Recommendation III
• Letters of Recommendation IV

Earlier this year, Tokyo-based type foundry Wordshape published my typeface Cinta Adhesiva. I designed the font using tons of adhesive tape, hence the name. I've been incorporating it into much of my recent work, so I thought I'd share a bit about its background.



An early version of Cinta Adhesiva appeared on the cover of a few issues of a graffiti zine I put out called Free Copy. It was then developed further for another zine I made in collaboration with Moab called Text. (I'll be posting downloadable copies of some of the early issues soon.)





Cinta Adhesiva was inspired in part by signage I'd been documenting over the years that incorporated stencils clearly formed by adhesive tape and/or featured letters drawn by using the tape itself.













I also looked to hand-painted letters and numerals for inspiration, particularly those executed with broad brushes and paint rollers.












The random traces of tape left behind on many city surfaces helped me work out the font's punctuation marks and special characters.






Of special note is the large-scale lettering of graffiti writers Hael and Crae. Their work directly informed the weight of Cinta Adhesiva and the decision to shape the letters using wide tape.






I am currently working on a type specimen/zine featuring Cinta Adhesiva. I'll post it here when it's done. In the meantime, you can peep more info on Wordshape and MyFonts. Over and out.

Screen grab courtesy of Swanky. Cinta Adhesiva available at wordshape.com.

Because sharing is caring: Lettering from Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps circa 1880-1920. (Via BibliOdyssey.)

Cool video of some pretty nifty handwriting demonstrated by Luca Barcellona aka Bean One. (Thx for the heads up, Makaga!)

More from Bean here.

The homie Suede put me on to this rad video about a sick sign painter slash glass embosser dude named David A. Smith. Peep game.

A sample of handstyles by Tempt from his upcoming zine. Spread The News!

I attended Typecon today and heard a super rad lecture by Adrian Wilson on the typography of textile trademarks from the 19th century.

Adrian Wilson on Textile Trademarks.
More on the lecture (with an accompanying PDF) on Woodtyper.
More on Typecon here.

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Gathered these images on a few random bike rides around town...

Here are some more inspiring blasts from the past in the typography and letterforms department from the old blog. My two main sources for these were a collection of old photo albums I digitized for a genealogy book and a bunch of old maps I researched for a cartography project.

I finally got around to recovering most of my long-gone image posts dealing with typography and related things. These are some oldies but goldies.