Using Script in typography

Script fonts and italics don't work all uppercase - each capital letter is designed specially to start a word, or a sentence. Used all in a row, the word becomes unreadable. For this reason, typographic layouts using scripts need to be done with more care, using the typeform to it's full potential. The other thing to do is consider combining with a plainer font for the non-important linking words

Motion Graphics

Here are some pretty amazing motion graphics sites. Some of them focus on flash as their medium, like Bitey Castle and NewGrounds.

For amazing use of typography in motion in flash, the the award-winning: Words At Play

Others have used more video-based www.transistorstudios.com

Is Graffitti Art?

Galerie Quynh is having an interesting opening on Saturday, 21st of July, from 6 - 8 PM. Please feel free to come and bring your friends. The gallery address is 25 bis Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street, District 1, HCMC.

There has been a tremendous debate in the last 50 years on whether graffiti (writing on walls) is an art form or not.For an interesting essay on the subject, read Daniel Tucker's "Graffiti: Art and Crime" for a history of graffiti and an overview of the subject.

Time Magazine Online has an interesting survey of opinions about this also. Read GRAFFITI: IS IT ART OR VANDALISM? You can also register your vote on the subject and express your opinion on the debate here also.

You can also watch a short video clip of "taggers" (graffiti artists) painting a commission for Time Magazine here.

Some really nice examples of objective criticism

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Van's blog has two posts that explore art, photography, even drawing, and identifying elements and principles of design. These are excellent because they are real world examples.

Go take a look! Nguyen Thi Ngoc Van

Design Competitions - Do you dare?

There are a number of different poster design competitions taking place at the moment.

1. The 2007 Boston Film Festival organizers are running a competition for a poster for their festival: http://bostonfilmfestival.org/poster.shtml

2. Pandora Blog and Global Giving have gotten together to run a poster contest. The closing date for the competition is August 24 - pretty soon! But hey, you don't lose anything by entering! http://www.votigo.com/pandora/

Some Nice Posts

I'd just like to call your attention to some of the interesting posts being made by some of your fellow students.

Shinmegami no tsuki
Offers a really nice technique for getting that strange, subtly evil look (a la Grudge, or The Ring) out of a normal photograph. From what I can tell, the more "amateurish" the photograph is to begin with, the better.

Nguyen Ai Nhi
Takes a look at semiotics the Honda logo and why it works for the bike company.

Won-Gi
Takes a look at the brain as a user interface, and also gives us a critique on a piece of own work - an ad for boxing equipment... Do the combination of images mean the same thing to you? Go take a look and leave your opinion of what you think the collage means!

K. Mai
Found a tutorial that is a nice colour blending exercise - and gives nice subtle realistic colour.

8ctopuS
Has given a very good explanation about the "golden ratio" - a mathematical formula that attempted to quantify what "beauty" was and how to reproduce it.

Cat ^-^
Takes a look at the Sony Vaio logo and deconstructs it simply and effectively.

Boong
Has created a set of stylish flowing icons for the imaginary photographer client. Go and see if you think the meaning of each icon would survive if the words were not there.

Ruby Wind
Offers us a look at Adine Kinberg - a rather elegant script font. What kind of applications do you think might be good for a font of this kind?

Dark Moon
Has found a really nice blog template - and has also spent some time looking at the Prudential Logo. Do you agree on what makes it an effective symbol for an insurance company? Do you think that, perhaps, the cultural associations (A greek God) might be good or bad for an Asian market?

Malobolobala
Shows a design for a Dance Club flier? What strategies might be used for informing a viewer that certain bits of information might be more important than others? How do you cope with having to show a lot of information without overwhelming your audience?

Also, the goodbye card - here's a link to a neat way to make it snow, in flash. Kirupa.com does it with action script and provides an easy to follow tutorial. Not only is the snow random, but it's darker and lighter depending on distance. Finally, you can change the direction of the wind by moving your mouse!!!!
Kirupa.com

Lili
Has taken a single fancy script type letter and turned it into a logo. What kind of clients might suit this kind of formal, elegant logo? What kind of products might be sold well using this elegant approach.