A week ago, I had the idea to make a video about one of the most hated typefaces in history: Comic Sans. Whether or not you think it’s well designed, it’s had a big impact in graphic design over the past decade, and I was curious about who designed it and where it came from. The story actually ended up being really interesting, so I’m glad I got to share it with my YouTube audience.
After the success of the Comic Sans video, I decided to make a video about the backstory of the other most hated font of recent times, Papyrus. While I definitely am not a convert to using either font, I’m glad I know more about the story behind them. And also glad I got a chance to use Gunnarolla’s brilliant Comic Sans song in a video. Check out this playlist if you want to see more of my graphic design videos, and be sure to subscribe to my channel so you don’t miss any of the new videos I post (I already have an awesome one planned for next weekend!).
Ever since I got my new camera (the Canon T3i), I’ve been posting photography on my Tumblr, but I thought I’d gather some of my favorite photos here, so they don’t get lost in the netherworld of Tumblr archives. Click on any of the photos to see a larger version.
Last week, I went on a business trip to Zurich, Switzerland. It was my first time to Europe, and even though I was only there for a few days, I had a great time. Luckily, I had the whole day on Saturday to actually see the city of Zurich, rather than work all day, and I wanted to share the photos I took. Many thanks to my new friend Judith for showing me around!
(Click on any of the photos to see a larger version)
Apparently Zurich has more fountains than any other city in the world. However, it was so cold that almost all of the ones I saw were frozen solid.
Our fancy breakfast, where I ate the best omelet and hot chocolate I’ve ever had in my life.
I’m so inspired to recreate this design somewhere in my own apartment!
Even the sale decals on the shop windows were beautifully designed.
This shot got a bit covered by my glove, but it was too pretty not to share.
I spotted this guy on top of yet another fountain.
Some gorgeous posters outside a theater.
At one point during the day, we stopped into an English-language bookshop, where I just had to hunt down a copy of The Fault in Our Stars (sadly not signed).
This is a board game designed to teach you about Switzerland if you plan to move there. I love the box design!
With Judith, who volunteered to show me around Zurich after she saw the video where I mentioned I would be visiting.
I attempted to take this photo while standing on the above-ground subway/train thing (not sure what it’s actually called over there). These were the cleanest trains I have ever been on.
Back on Swiss Air to head home. Honestly, I never want to travel on any other airline again. They give you so much food it’s kind of crazy, and everything is beautifully branded.
Thanks for scrolling all the way through my photos! If you’re not sick of me yet, check out my newest video, which has a bit of footage from Zurich as well:
In December, John and Hank Green asked me to put together some designs for the 2012 Tour de Nerdfighting. I knew that I wanted the designs to reference the 2008 Tour de Nerdfighting map, which was one of the first things I designed for John and Hank. So first I got to work on the t-shirt design, which actually ended up being the cover of the exclusive tour CD.
(Click to see larger)
After the map was finished, I got to work on the poster. Right around that time, I had just read the book Sterographics: Graphics in New Dimensions, which inspired me to use photography and real world elements, rather than doing the whole thing digitally. I decided to gather up all the nerdfighter memorabilia I’ve collected over the years to make just a big colorful explosion of awesome. I cut the map outline out of a cereal box and painted black, while the red 2012 is made from paper which I then painted. You can see a behind the scenes look at the photoshoot in this video (starting at 1:40):
We took a ton of photos from all different angles. This was literally just set up on an IKEA table in my bedroom – design doesn’t have to be fancy and expensive!
After I chose the photo I wanted, I printed it out at full size and penciled in all of the city names and the title (doing a test version first to make sure the concept wouldn’t look completely awful). After trying way too many types of black markers to find one that didn’t bleed on the paper, I inked the whole thing, scanned it in, and composited it in Photoshop. As you can see from the photo of the title, I ended up changing it around in Photoshop a bit, in order to make the poster feel cleaner and more balanced.
(Test drawing, done on a letter-size printout of the photo)
I hope you guys like the poster and CD, and managed to grab a copy from the merch table if you went to any of the tour stops. You can also check out my video from the Redwood City tour stop at the end of this post. It was a fantastic night and I’m so happy to be part of such an awesome community!
