Just got back from a great week at the beach with my family. While most people prefer to just sit around and soak up the sun, I’m usually busy attempting some type of crazy sand sculpture. I’m certainly no sculpting pro, but I always enjoy the challenge.

Being a typography geek, I thought it only fitting to create an “amper-sand” out of actual sand.

Forget sand castles, we decided to create a gigantic foot that ended up being about 12ft long! We got plenty of laughs and strange looks from the people walking by.

There’s something fascinating about the temporary nature of sand sculptures. Though they do take a lot of time and effort to create, it’s also fun to watch the tide come in and wash them away in only a matter of seconds. It takes the pressure off of getting every little detail perfect since the creations only exist for a brief period of time.

As you can tell, I have a slight obsession with ampersands. I’m not sure what it is about them, but I always find myself doodling ampersands in my sketchbook or any other papers laying around on my desk. There’s just something fun about drawing those mesmerizing curves.

I always enjoy reading about other designers’ processes so I thought I’d share a bit of the workflow of how I created the latest Ugmonk design “There’s More To Life.”

I’m usually hesitant to show the early sketches and rough concepts as they are not intended to be stand alone designs, but I do think it can be helpful to see how the design evolves and progresses throughout the creative process.

For this specific design I challenged myself to construct the typeface completely from scratch as opposed to just modifying an existing font. This forced me to really study each individual letterform and understand all of the subtle details that go into creating a typeface.

I normally start out by sketching my ideas with pen and paper. Many times I already have some initial ideas in my head and just need to see how they translate on paper. These early explorations are a critical part of the design process and should not be overlooked. The finished design may or may not resemble any of the initial sketches, but sketching is much less restrictive than going straight to the computer. Below are some of my early concepts:

After I have sketched out my ideas I will then either scan them or just use them for reference as I move to the computer. For this particular design, I went right into Adobe Illustrator and started constructing some of the concepts.

In these early stages I try not to get too bogged down with the exact details and proportions of the letters, but rather focus on how the letters are working together as a whole. This gives me a better idea of which direction to pursue and which concepts can be thrown out. Pictured below are few of the initial concepts that I was playing around with in Illustrator.

When designing tshirts it’s important to consider how the design will look when it is placed on the tshirt opposed to just a flat rectangle, so I will usually take a few of the concepts and do some quick comps of the design on a shirt. The easiest way to do this is to overlay the vector artwork on a photo of a blank shirt to see how the graphic relates to the tshirt format.

The next step is to eliminate the weaker concepts and begin to refine the stronger ones. As everything continues to come together, it’s important to start smoothing out any rough transitions and look at the overall spatial relationships. This involves zooming in and moving individual points around to unify the composition. As you can see below, the file is still pretty messy but the forms are starting to take shape. At this point I usually run my ideas by some friends and other designers to get some general feedback to help me decide on a final direction.

The final step is the most tedious part of the whole process: tweaking, tweaking and more tweaking. There’s really no secret to this step, it just requires a lot of patience and attention to detail. After all of the letters have been cleaned up, I will delete any stray points and extra shapes that may be floating off to the side. Below you see the finished vector file that is ready to be sent to the printer and be prepared for screen printing.

This is a just a brief glimpse into my design process, but I hope it’s been interesting and helpful to see how my ideas develop. If you have specific questions feel free to leave a comment below.

And don’t forget, this shirt is part of our Ugmonk Gives Back charity drive.  Purchase it over at the Ugmonk shop.

A few years ago I discovered a company called Nooka and was immediately drawn to their minimal design and unique methods of displaying time. The traditional way of reading time using the big hand and small hand has been around for ages and I never really questioned it until I found Nooka. The different systems that Nooka uses to display time are not only more intuitive, but also visually stunning. The simplicity, clean lines, and beautiful construction is all combined into an amazing product that is much more than just a timepiece.

I received my first Nooka watch (zot al nt pictured below) in the mail today along with a collectible NookaNooka and couldn’t be happier. I am looking forward to more great products from Nooka in the future.

You can read more about the company and see the full product line at www.nooka.com.

Some really interesting work by Savas Ozay, a designer and illustrator from Istanbul, Turkey. I like his use of geometric forms and clean type treatments mixed with bold colors. My favorite piece of Savas’s is the Playing Cards. I’ve always thought it would be fun challenge to design a deck of playing cards in a purely typographic style, and as you can see below Savas has done this quite successfully.

Check out more of his work at www.savasozay.com

Interesting 3d clothing design by Mashallah Design that was created by scanning human bodies and then using the data to create sewing patterns. I like the idea that the clothing is no longer meant to be wearable, but is rather to be viewed as beautiful sculpted works of art.

Here’s the technical explanation:

Three people are portrayed digitally by scanning their bodies. The output of this scan is a 3d file, which resolution is defiend by the amount of polygons, similiar to pixels in a bitmap graphic. The 3d data is turned into 2d sewing patterns by the use of the unfolding function which is a common tool in industrial design process to make paper models with, the single fabric pieces and the inner interface which defines the edges are cut out by the help of a laser cutter.

Via Dezeen.com

New card game called “Type Trumps” just released by Face37. This is going on my Christmas list!

Creative Review:

Rick Banks, has created a set of Top Trumps style cards where classic typefaces are the subject matter – hence the name, Type Trumps. Each card is designed to make the most of the particular font it features, and typophiles will happily find such faces as Frankfurter, Times, Helvetica, Johnston Underground and Neu Alphabet in the pack. Type Trumps players can battle it out using such statistics as year of design, the amount of weights, cost etc to win their opponent’s cards. Banks has given each typeface a ‘rating’ score, a ‘legibility’ score and even a ’special power’.

(via Swiss Legacy)

If you haven’t seen the documentary on Helvetica yet, you’re missing out. Last year I was able to attend a screening of the film and a Q&A session with the director Gary Hustwit and famous type designer Matthew Carter.

The documentary takes an in depth look at the evolution of the typeface, but it also includes interviews with top designers from around the world and their opinions about the role of typography and design for today’s society. It was interesting to hear both sides of the debate about Helvetica, why some people love it and some people hate it. The film is a must-see if you are a designer or are just interested in learning more about design and typography.

Typography is a huge part of my life as a designer. Studying type has completely changed the way I look at and interact with design. It is one of the foundational elements of all graphic design, and it is something that should not be underestimated or overlooked. Many times type becomes an afterthought to a design and is just tacked on at the end, but I believe type should be one of the first things to consider when starting a design.

One of my main ideas behind starting Ugmonk was to merge my love for typography and my passion for t-shirt design. This idea is not necessarily something new and has certainly been done before, but I wanted to bring a fresh approach to the industry and create a unique style that integrates these two elements. I hope to explore many new ways of combining the exciting t-shirt medium and the delicate art of typography.

Although I focus mainly in graphic design, I have always enjoyed industrial design and feel that they two are very closely related. Fresh Home wrote a post featuring the most unique and creative sofa designs. The one that really intrigued me was the Flexible Love designed by Chishen Chiu. Rather than trying to explain how innovative it is, you can see for yourself in the video below.