The next phase of the Vernetta’s Dance Studio website has begun. The last updates are available online. Next, we are adding photos and other content. The entire design structure of the site is driven by CSS. Only one table can be found, and that’s for the schedule, which I quite like.

Sender, LLC created the Obama mark, the first time a mark that can truly stand alone has been used in a campaign for president.

The direction for the Diversionary Theatre season brochure is bright, clean, hopeful and optimistic. Here is the cover image. It going on press now.

Getting back from a vacation, I found my computer to be acting strange. Photoshop was hogging up all the CPU and then it would freeze. Another trip to Cry Wolf!

Until I’m back on track and the systematic posts can resume, take a look at this online font test from I Love Typography. I got 29 out of 34. It truly is “rather difficult”.

The Machine Wash filters from Mister Retro really add some incredible aged and distressed effects on my Photoshop files. Deborah Mori, one of my favorite designers, asked if these can only be used in Photoshop. She has some Illustrator files that could use a good washing.

The Machine Wash filters from Mister Retro can be used in Illustrator with just a few extra steps. I open the PDF filter directly in Illustrator do a live trace using the “Black and White Logo” preset (often times I’ll increase the threshold to allow for more distressing to appear). Then, I’ll remove the white area and distress the vector image the remaining black section.

I have a few of these saved on my computer that I use fairly often.

Mister Retro offers a little more detail and a few more steps:

The Machine Wash filters can be used in Adobe Illustrator, but you’ll need to manually follow a simple step-by-step process that in the end will open up a whole new range of usability for distressing your vector artwork as described below…

FOR MACHINE WASH 2.0 - ‘PLUG-IN’ VERSION:

Step One: Choose the filter you’d like to apply to your vector artwork by using the Machine Wash Filters within Adobe Photoshop. This will serve as a visual reference for placement, etc, sort of like a mock-up for a client.

Step Two: Once you know what filter you plan to use, create a new greyscale document in Photoshop that is approx. an inch bigger on each side than your final Adobe Illustrator design size. Fill the background layer black, and create a new layer and fill that white. Apply your effect of choice to the white layer, effectively punching through to black. Flatten the image.

Step Three: Go to the Photoshop Menubar and choose Image > Mode > Bitmap. Set the output resolution up manually to 600dpi, and choose Diffusion Dither. Save the resulting file as a .TIF file.

Step Four: Open up your vector artwork in Adobe Illustrator, click File > Place > and locate the .TIF you just created and click ‘OK’. It will import as a Transparent Bitmap file, where only the black art in the placed file will be visible, and can now be colorized to white or any background dropout color you choose.

FOR MACHINE WASH 1.0 - ‘ACTIONS’ VERSION:

Step One: Choose the filter you’d like to apply to your vector artwork by using the Machine Wash Filters within Adobe Photoshop. This will serve as a visual reference for placement, etc, sort of like a mock-up for a client.

Step Two: Once you know what filter you plan to use, open up the .PDF filter file directly off the Machine Wash CD from the Filters folder inside Adobe Photoshop. Starting with the size of your final design in Illustrator, scale the 18″ x 18″ .PDF file proportionally to an inch larger than the final Adobe Illustrator design size.

Step Three: Go to the Photoshop Menubar and choose Image > Mode > Bitmap. Set the output resolution up manually to 600dpi, and choose Diffusion Dither. Save the resulting file as a .TIF file.

Step Four: Open up your vector artwork in Adobe Illustrator, click File > Place > and locate the .TIF you just created and click ‘OK’. It will import as a Transparent Bitmap file, where only the black art in the placed file will be visible, and can now be colorized to white or any background dropout color you choose.

IMPORTANT NOTES FOR EITHER METHOD:

Illustrator will likely show a kind of cruddy looking preview of the high resolution bitmap but if you run a test output, you’ll see the effect is indeed smooth. Outputting the .TIF as a bitmap from Photoshop at 600dpi like you did will create such a fine dither, it will mimic greyscale, but have the transparency you need to apply the effect in Illustrator. Prescaling your distress before outputting the bitmap will avoid possible moire or pixel bunching that could happen if you scale the bitmap after the fact in Illustrator.

In the end, make sure when you setup your seperations, or send the artwork to a seperator, that you make sure NOT to seperate whatever color you have chosen for the distress pattern that lays over the design.

This is a pretty cool map representing the www codes around the globe. Interesting infographic. I love when design and information mesh so well.

The Country Codes of the World map includes 245 country codes, which encompasses all United Nations countries as well as numerous islands and territories. Each two-digit code is aligned over the country it represents and is color coded with the legend below for quick and easy reference.

Here is an interesting conglomeration of infographics to satisfy both sides of your brain.

A catalog of products is displayed in this A+ Wine Design flier which just came back from the printer. Mike and Ruff were pleased. It turned out nicely, I think.

The lettering used for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Baily Circus logo was developed by a famous typographer and designer. He based a font on this signpainter lettering style. Can you name the font?

He also is responsible for the Rolling Stone Magazine logo (hint, hint).

The font I used for the Party City packaging I developed was Disturbance which can be purchased from MyFonts or fonts.com. Congratulations to Suzanne for naming the font.

On a totally unrelated note, from the image above, can you see where my mind is lately?

From typography.net:

Throughout the 20th Century various experiments have been carried out to simplify the structure of the alphabet, Herbert Bayer in 1925, Jan Tschichold in 1929, Sjoerd de Roos in 1938 and Wim Crouwel in 1966.

Bradbury Thompson experimented with his Alphabet 26 structure throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Thompson used Baskerville Roman and Small Capitals to create his alphabet. This mix of traditional letterforms had a more acceptable rhythm allowing for better legibility and readability.

Thanks to Alberto Jiménez for the beach image and Willi Heidelbach for the sign.

We just received approval on a new website for the longest running dance studio in the area. Site development is currently happening as our client needs the site up now! The entire structure of the site is driven by CSS and will feature some great photography of some very well-known celebrities. More to come!