Grid Exploration and Novel/Book Layout

A layout exercise designed to utilise the publishing specific capabilities of Adobe InDesign. Layout ranges from the inside cover through to page 5.

Heroman typeface design

I designed this A2/A3 type poster to showcase the ‘heroman’ typeface I created. The Heroman font is a heavy serif typeface, with distinct characteristics, and a definite personality. Primarily a display font, lighter Heroman font weights can also be used effectively for short blocks of body copy. Taking inspiration from Bauhaus, and the bold French typefaces of the 1970’s, Heroman almost conveys comic book sensibilities whilst still evoking a contemporary slightly Asian manga vibe. This is achieved in no uncertain terms, by the use of dramatic curves on the upper part of the letterforms. There is also slight curving on the top of the vertical strokes of the H, I, J, K, L characters, to remain consistent with the rest of the family

There are also subtle tweaks employed to enhance the letterforms, such as an elevated cross bar height for letters requiring a horizontal line within the form itself, such as E, F, G, H, A, B, P, R, and S.  The bottom half of the letterforms are based on blockforms, directly countering the curved top halves of the characters. This gives the typeface a solid foundation and consistency amongst its letterforms. There are however a few characters that break some of these structural guidelines, such as the letter R which dips its diagonal limb below the baseline. It is this minor breaking of the rules which gives the Heroman font its character and personality.

An exploration of type. A french exploration.

As part of my design studies, I had to create a type specimen book on any typeface family that had a variety of cuts/weights. I decided to go with a bit of a forgotten classic, Eras ITC. After researching the font, I discovered its french heritage, and decided I was going to have fun with the book, and leave the boring homogenous type specimens behind, and instead, opt for bold, lively and dynamic sample text and compositions, much like the font itself.

Adobe accquires Business Catalyst CMS

Software giant Adobe has entered the SaaS (Software as a Service) online content management market by acquiring the Australian/American company Business Catalyst which also develops the DIY version of the Business Catalyst CMS known as Good Barry. More info can be found at www.adobe.com/special/businesscatalyst/

“Come Play” My TVC Extra Debut

A little colour for the community… Woohoo!

   

This is the artwork* I have created for a community initiative to help beautify boring old traffic signal boxes along footpaths and roads around communities in South East Queensland through the Urban Ecology Unit. This artwork is for a TSB near the Alexandra Headlands surf club, and is still waiting on approval.

*All artwork copyright Keith Sweeney 2009

Some Student Inspiration

22 Year old Sara Watson spent 3 weeks spray-painting the Skoda Fabia for a University Class, which also doubles as a publicity stunt for the charity ‘recycling lives’ which kindly donated the car. It’s so refreshing to see artistic ventures like this pay off.

Psssst… Top Secret

I recently participated in my first ever TVC for a major campagin to be launched around June/July. However due to confidentiality agreements, I am not allowed divulge any information or photographs from the filming. All I can say at this point in time is that it was an incredible experience to be a part of.

Semi-Permanent hits Brisbane Town

I was lucky enough to attend Semi-Permanent for the second time in Brisbane (this time held in the Convention Centre) and came out with inspiration galore, my creative juices relenished, and my motivation well and truly boosted. It was also a chance to catch up with some old uni buddies and just soak up all that was on offer.

I was particularly taken with XYZ Studios frank talk, Toko’s unusual but intriguing way of looking at things (in particular information displayed in exciting new visual ways instead of conventional graphs and charts), Wired Magazine CEO talk had a slow painful start, but ended up being for me one of the most informative and interesting speakers of the day. And I can’t get away without mentioning The Glue Society who are just amazing, although it seemed more of an Ego Stoking session rather then a talk delving deeper or behind the scenes. All in all it was a rather awesome day and it was super cool to see so many creative people turn up and apperciate the role creativity and design play in our world.

Adobe CS4 Roadshow rolls into Brisbane

I’ll be attending the Adobe CS4 Roadshow that is happening at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre this Thursday to get the lowdown from the people in the know about the newest improvements and tweaks with the kingpins of Graphic and Digital Design Software.

SideNote:
I attended the Roadshow and took a number of pictures on my phone, however days later I lost said phone before being able to upload. The Roadshow was however incredible, and revealed the CS4 incarniation to be perfect for print designers wanting to go interactive. Obviously all the components had something new and cool and handy, and the biggest plus for CS4 seems to be how seemlessly files are used throughout the Adobe catalogue.

But the standout for me personally was Flash CS4. Being a visually-inclined person, Flash always seemed very programming and code heavy for me to fully utilise. However the new Flash CS4 seems to be made with people like me in mind. It has a much more simple point and click WYSIWYG editor, without the need for a tonne of programming knowledge. Awesome.