Smiling Type{faces}

We all are pretty conversant with the typical smile emoticons we use on web, but from years and years we are watching them only in the restricted web fonts like Verdana, Georgia and so on. 

So i just did a small experiment to find out how other type “faces” smile, and some of them are really interesting !!

Have a look…

em unit and CSS

Till now, i was using pixel as a type measurement unit for WebPages. Recently I gone through some web typography articles and now I am planning to move on to “em”. Just trying to explore it more and do conformations with this post.

EM is a relative unit rather than absolute, hence it can’t be defined for a specific typeface, its same for all fonts at a given point size. So, if user is using 12 point for running text as its default browser font-size, 1em is equal to 12 pt, 2em (may be for headlines) will be 24 and so on.

Wallpaper of the month – September

September wallpaper. Inspired from adobe CS3 packaging, available in HD and regular resolution.

1280 x 960     1680 x 1050

Find this in my deviantART gallery.

Blackletter type

It’s very interesting that now we have better resources, technologies and we are moving to simplicity, earlier when there was lot of restrictions and lack of technology, human created great complex structures and designs. The intricacy and boldness of Blackletter scripts which was used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 to 1500 always fascinates me in that way.  

Chroma iconpack for windows – august download

Downloadable icon Pack for machines  with windows OS, goes best with vista or another gray/black visual style.

Music Video – Royksopp : Remind Me

Music has always been a great stress-buster and source of inspiration. Just take a break, listen to some words, watch some videos and we find ourselves more efficient.

Recently, i saw the video of Remind Me by Royksopp, and from that time i am just watching it again and again, its a simple scenario of a regular person’s day but that 4 minute clip is like a great information graphic in itself and has a great message too.

 

Monospaced fonts

 

Most of the time we talk about serif, sans serif fonts, there is one more type which is quite important and widely used in digital interfaces & web.

Monospaced fonts.
Monospaced fonts are fixed width typefaces with all the glyphs of same width.  Also identified as fixed-pitch. These typefaces became popular or might be invented because of typewriter.

The TUTS family

There is a thousands of tutorial sites popping up regulary on web, but there are only few which actually makes a mark and provide some meaningful tutorials and resources. 

The Tuts family is one of them.  

 

Main topic of site is PSD (photoshop), but you will also find some great articles about design trends & inspirations.

Signboard Redesign

 

There is a big problem in being in designer; you can’t roam around freely avoiding things as one in the image below.

It’s a signboard hanging on this wall from a long time and it regularly directs me & everyone who enters my university campus.

So, how is it?
Good type selection, good contrast, nice & costly vinyl print, what else someone wants from a signboard !

But does it perform the task it is assigned for?

Providing me directions…I think no!

Let’s figure out why & what’s the solution for it?

Web 2.0 design trends

 

Apart from usability, functionality & technology upgrade there is one more thing which differentiates Web 2.0 from its previous era – the Visual Trends.

On every new web page with a web 2.0 label you will discover more & more glossy, shiny, colorful, trendy visual styles. One reason behind these visual styles being so famous might be the thousands of design tutorials saying “Web 2.0 buttons, badges, glossy text etc.etc. Well, the reason would be anything; these visual styles are a real visual treat for the user, but only if used with limitations.In this post, i will try to cover up some of the web 2.0 elements we see around us.

lipsum.com

Lorem ipsum, the standard placeholder text in graphic and typesetting industry. It demonstrates the dummy text, font or layout.

 

The most common lorem ipsum text reads as follows:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.