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.

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

My first emboss!

Turns out it was a deboss. How anti-climatic. Had to go with a silver foil, as the compendium wasn’t thick enough for a highly visible blind emboss. I don’t think it turned out too badly though.

Folio Storyboard

A shot of the storyboarding I did for my portfolio. I liked the fact that the pages could easily be rearranged to view possible sequencing options.

55DSL Logo Remix Challenge

55DSL logo remix A

55DSL logo remix B

These are my two entries in the 55dsl logo remix competition (which I found out about through AIF). The full gallery can be viewed here.

Homeless World Cup 2008 postcard entry

homeless world cup BAD avant card competition entry

This was an entry I whipped up in about 30mins for the BAD club avantcard postcard competition for the 2008 homeless worldcup. The guidelines for producing HWC material were extremely strict, as sponsors had certain positioning, and only certain colours and fonts, and placement were to be used. This was an interesting project to work on in such a short space of time.