Dec 8, 2010 | Current Affairs, New Work, Recent Posts
According to David Brooks' column today, "People remember information that is hard to master. In a study for Cognition, Connor Diemand-Yauman, Daniel Oppenheimer and Erikka Vaughan found that information in hard-to-read fonts was better remembered than information transmitted in easier fonts."
So all these years spent tweaking obstructionist serifs and micromanaging kerning and becalming exuberant flourishes is for naught? Hear me, oh legibility squad, thee who sit on committees critiquing expressive letterforms and who delight in bringing down your iron fist upon the calligrapher's wrist, what if God really is in the complexity? What if the cereal box that can't be read from the milk aisle afterall but requires a closer view is the one we recall and reach for? Or the tangled romance cover with s's commingled like Medusa's curls, what if that's the one we send someone to the Fred Meyer to buy secretly just before midnight?
I never thought David Brooks, with whom I disagree on almost everything, would inspire me to art. But here you go, "Legibility, Rest in Peace." Unretouched brush calligraphy done with one of those brushes that has such a fugitive ink that if I don't scan it right now it will vanish tomorrow.
© 2010 Iskra Johnson
Jul 28, 2010 | New Work, Recent Posts
The theme of this year’s Heart Ball in New York was “Heroes of the Heart,” honoring extraordinary patients and the individuals in the health system who make miracles possible. Design firm Cline Davis Mann commissioned me to create unique handwritten letterforms expressing the words behind the portraits for the beautifully printed program book. Photography by Sandro, design collaborator and art director, Rita Caliendo. The complete project can be seen at my website at https://www.iskradesign.com/idwp/projects/advertising-design.php.
Update: This project has now won multiple awards, including a silver in Creativity Online and the Communication Arts Typography Annual.
Apr 24, 2010 | Current Affairs, Experimental Lettering, New Work, Recent Posts
An experiment in typographic style using the news of the day. This recent quote from a Muslim cleric seemed custom made for a wild west wanted poster, with a twist. I based the typography on actual fonts from old wanted posters, but rendered it in walnut ink, then added my own faux Asian-Farsee brush calligraphy. Apologies to the purists, at least the text is exact, as lifted from one of the many inexact translations available at online news sites and on the crumpled up front page of the Times at my local coffee shop.
Feb 28, 2010 | New Work, Recent Posts
About a year ago I stumbled upon possibly the most beautiful design magazine I have ever seen. Upper Case is the brainchild of Calgary-based designer Janine Vangool. The sensibility is rich, tactile, combining a love of craft, book making, fine art, photography, type, and the freewheeling eclecticism of the modern blog: it's as though you came across the ultimate art and design blog and could suddenly hold it in your hands. I find it an endless source of inspiration– especially the views of artist/designer studios and stories about how creative people work. The recent issue features several lettering artists, calligraphers and font designers including me. Take a look, and consider subscribing. This magazine is truly a collectors' art piece: the pages smell of real ink for months, and each issue includes keepsakes and printed ephemera.
An excerpt from the interview. The quotation comes from e.e. cummings, and is one of my favorite anthems to the creative process. Walnut ink and ruling pen. *Several people have asked if they can see the interview online. At this time the magazine is entirely analogue, so although Upper Case has a wonderful blog and online shop you will need to subscribe to the actual magazine to see the issue.
Feb 1, 2010 | Handwriting Design, New Work, Recent Posts
This recent series uses expressive handwriting in a print and television campaign for Chase Ink. This is the first time I've ever been asked to write illegibly on purpose and being Dr. Joe Black was great fun. So much for prescriptions as abstract art…
Designer, calligrapher, lettering artist. 