Category Archives: Design

I came across this series of images by font foundry MAC Rhino showing the design process for a font used by fashion retailer H&M. I think it’s really some great work, because at first look (and maybe even with second, third and fourth looks) you’d probably think it’s hand written with a typical marker pen used in retail shops.

I think this is one of the tougher tasks in font design – to mimic a very natural organic writing into a systematic font. The little nuances of every stroke has to be accurately captured, edited and re-edited (you can see some of that process on the top few images – the pencil mark shows the editing comments). We have seen how a font that mimics handwriting or scripts can easily become unnatural – you know it’s just a font (cue BrushScriptMT, perhaps the notorious Comic Sans even).

For this H&M font though, they’ve made it look effortless. I think that’s probably one of the defining elements of great design actually – an execution that looks effortless (when it’s most likely anything but).

Yes, it’s a long list. Well icon (a design+architecture magazine) has decided to poll many leading architects and designers on their manifestos – what do they see and visualize happening in the design industry and the world as a whole: many heavy weights are in the midst too – click through and see if you get inspired! Maybe you’d start to consolidate your own thoughts and develop your own manifestos!

[via HiID]

According to Anil, there seems to be an trend of using pixels and grids to represent percentages rather than the traditional pie chart. There are some speculations on why – perhaps it’s a reflection of our digitized age? Or maybe it’s simple aesthetics – a rectangular chart gives you less dead/white space around your chart than a circle, so the article looks better? Text description of each region looks more neat with rectangular matrix compared to a juxtaposition against a circle?

Well there could be really any number of answers. The important thing is, is it better? Or perhaps a better way to ask – in what scenarios would grid charts be more effective, and when are they less so?