I just uploaded the calligraphic names of 35 people who followed me on twitter. Check out all of them at http://davethedesigner.net/tweet
“Autumn Leaves” is a much-recorded popular song. Originally a 1945 French song “Les feuilles mortes” (literally “The Dead Leaves”) with music by Joseph Kosma and lyrics by poet Jacques Prévert, the American songwriter Johnny Mercer wrote English lyrics in 1947. Jo Stafford was among the first to perform this version. Made famous by Edith Piaf and Nat King Cole.
The posters are $120 each, with all sales going to The Starlight Children’s Foundation. There were only 25 of each printed (420 x 520mm). If you’re interested in buying a copy, you can get it online.
I was invited to be part of a group of 13 artists that contributed to the fund-raising letterpress poster exhibition held by The Distillery in Sydney called Suburban Legends. Each artist was asked to tell a story about a suburb of their choice. I chose my home town Thornleigh and wrote a poem about the true story of how the place got its name, which you can read below. I then went on a typo-marathon of intricately hand-lettering all 175 words.
John McNamara was a crook with his mate Dalton too.
Sherwin was a doctor and they robbed him as a crew.
Once the crime had been reported, the hunt for them was born,
The boss was from Parramatta, Chief Constable James Thorn.
They’d spent three days escaping; the cops were getting close.
The bushrangers lay a trap, which they waited to expose.
They saw their pursuers tracking them, up on Windsor Road,
But their aims were amiss and it took too long to reload.
Thorn slowly squeezed his trigger with the felons in his sight,
A crack rang from his barrel and the bullet took its flight.
William Dalton heard a thump as his friend began to frown,
Old Thorn had struck him cleanly and brought that bugger down.
Dalton survived the shooting but was strung by the gallows,
They only cut him down when he’d stopped reaching with his toes.
The Chief Constable was rewarded by the government’s decree,
One square mile of land his own, that became known as Thornleigh.
Unfortunately I may not be able to sign them for you as I’m currently in The Netherlands though! If you’re Aussie, I’ll happily sign it when I get back.You might not like mine, but please support generously, there is lots of others to choose from like Vince Frost, Toby & Pete, Christopher Doyle, Gemma O’Brien, Jirat Patradoon, Matt Huynh, Glen Barry, Jess Foy, Liv King, Adam Flannery, Ben Toupein, and Daryl Prondoso.
Some hand lettering for my friend Pieter.
Some lettering for myself! Some process below:
This evening’s calligraphy session.
I was asked to contribute to the Graft exhibition for Portland Design Week. Every contributor received a letter of the alphabet which was meant to be reinterpreted and imbue the energy behind the main subject, graffiti. The format is 11 x 17 inch poster.
Craftsmanship — Personal Lettering
Lyrics by Fleetwood Mac
Since I was doing so much systematic type design work recently it was really nice to sit down for a few hours and have a go at some lettering again. This piece is for Bob’s mum, Linda.
Hey everyone, the Type and Media 2012 launched yesterday. Here is my project, Blanco, more details are on the website, but briefly the project is meant to be an independent type family but work as a companion to Mote by my classmate, Hrvoje Živčić.
The Days I Had With You…
