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20 TYPE
SECRETS
WE BRING YOU AN INSPIRING COLLECTION OF TYPE PROJECTS ALONG WITH
INSIDE INFO AND PRACTICAL TIPS FROM THE ARTISTS WHO CREATED THEM
© Jordan Metcalf
1. VINTAGE SHADOWS
JORDAN METCALF
www.jordan-metcalf.com
To create a toolkit for Boston
Magazine, artist Jordan Metcalf
decided to go for a clean bespoke
type that he refined and completed
in Photoshop.
2. BUILDING LETTERS
4. LEATHER AND TREAD
TODD FOOSHEE MARCELO SCHULTZ
www.toddfooshee.com
www.behance.net/marceloschultz
With a bold font from the Avant
When he was commissioned to create a T-shirt
Garde family as a base, Todd
design for Nike that would fuse trainers with a
Fooshee set about building up a graphic type by
slogan, Marcelo Schultz immediately reached
adding hundreds of very small birds to his project.
for the textures.
“The font is clean, easily readable and has a really
thick, sturdy look to it [that’s perfect for rebuilding]
the forms with birds. I did some adjusting to the
kerning and from there began to place birds all
around the letters. [I kept] balance in mind, but really
just placed them at random to build the words. In
terms of the specific tools for this project, I used a
pen and paper, a scanner and some basic features
inside Photoshop. Without the Invert adjustment I
would have probably had to go a different route… The
layer groups were what really helped me out the
most, just to stay organised and keep things in
order… After I finished the letters, it came down to ■ Create a mask to apply the texture you're
building a background texture, which I did by using. Select the type that you would like to
combining a few images using different blending apply the texture to by holding Cmd/Ctrl and
modes then erasing [areas] and using some texture clicking over the tiny image of the shape on the
brushes. I applied some of the bristle brushes with Layers panel. Keeping the selection active,
my Wacom tablet to add the slight vignetting around create a layer folder and select Add Layer Mask,
the top edges and then toned it down a bit with some located at the bottom of the Layers panel.
blending modes. There is also a lot of copy-and-
© Todd Fooshee
pasting work at the heart of this piece.”
3. COMMERCIAL PACKAGING
HERE DESIGN
www.heredesign.co.uk
The multi-disciplinary team at Here Design decided
to let their type do the talking when creating the
packaging for the Hairy Bikers crisps brand. Coming
up with a concept to sell snacks on behalf of two
unorthodox TV chefs was a unique challenge. The
team started by developing copy lines for each
unusual flavour and sensation, as director Caz ■ Next place the texture inside the mask, which
Hildebrand explains: “Once we started looking at should fit to the exact shape. Inside that mask
using just type, it quickly became obvious that this you can add some shadows and create a 3D
would work well and help the packs stand out depth effect, as you can see marked in green, to
against the competition. We were inspired by the sort achieve the final effect.
of graphic style associated with packaging that has
to travel, like cardboard boxes containing fragile
items reading ‘This Way Up’ or food packaging date
stamps that read ‘Best Before’ and so on.
The colours were derived from the flavours, for
example the Keralan King Prawns pack is pink both
for the colour of the prawns and the Indian feel. The
logo for the Hairy Bikers combines a spanner, a
pepper pot and a fork inside a wheel to evoke both
the motorbikes and the cooking of the duo. Each
pack has relevant language for the flavour as well as
Si and Dave’s seal of approval and signatures. We
used Photoshop to create the impression… of old
letterpress-printed type that’s a bit battered and care- ■ This image uses different textures, such as
worn… We mixed some of the Effects Gallery styles leather and tread. Textures can improve and
with scanned textures we found to create a unique lend a realistic effect to your artwork, as long as
© Here Design
set of textures to be used with the type.” they are of a good quality.
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6. ILLIUMINATE IT
5. 3D TYPE
ANTHONY GIACOMINO MARCUS BYRNE
www.agiaco.net www.behance.net/mobdesign
Marcus Byrne created this striking lighting typography for Cricket Australia/George
Anthony Giacomino teamed up with Richard
Patterson Y&R in Melbourne. The illuminated fluorescent design includes detailed light
Roberts (www.richardroberts.com) to create an
effects and bright colours and was reproduced in all hues across the colour palette. The type was used in
other-worldly type project for the Intrinsic
extensive applications across the range of marketing materials for T20 cricket. Here you can see some of the
Nature art collective. Bold 3D lettering takes
stages in Byrne’s process.
centre-stage, enhanced by light effects and
futuristic elements, as the team explains: “For
this piece we started with a base in CINEMA 4D
to make the 3D type, lighting and also an
assortment of geometric shapes. After
importing this into Photoshop, we added more
atmosphere and light emitting from the top, in
addition to some light effects.
“The piece needed some more colour, so we
sampled pinks and oranges to complement the
cool blue and navy tones. For the final details we
added a few other points of interest, such as the
figure on the right and some foreground shapes
to add depth and dimension. We utilised
blending modes such as Screen and Overlay
when playing with stocks and other elements to
create some unique effects.”
© Anthony Giacomino and Richard Roberts
7. FLOWING EFFECTS
NIK AINLEY
www.shinybinary.com
Drinks giant Diageo enlisted Nik
Ainley to give a typographic
treatment to promote a line of cocktail drinks. “They
wanted something with plenty of abstract and
photographic items related to each drink and centred
around 3D typography. The final design went through
many iterations, almost 40 for the first image I seem
to remember. The smooth flow from the pump to the
glass was an important part of the concept and
helped to give each illustration a shape. The first
elements to frame each piece were the pumps and
drinks, which came from specially taken photos.
After this I discussed with the art director what sort
of typography would work. From experience I knew
that a fairly simple font was needed, as when you
extrude a font you introduce a lot of new surfaces
that can confuse the eye. In the middle of complex
illustrations like these you need to keep things as © Nik Ainley
legible as possible. Using a simple chunky font
minimises the confusing effect, so that’s what I went for. The 3D letters were then built in 3ds Max and
positioned. An excellent 3D artist and friend, Marcelo Jr, was involved heavily in this part of the process. Even
after the 3D elements were brought into Photoshop, the piece consisted of many layers that enabled me to
continue tweaking it as I went. From there it was a case of creating all the other aspects that consisted of
stock photos, images captured for the project, decorative 3D elements and sections built in Photoshop. I
brought all of these together with a heavy dose of retouching and editing.”
8. GRAPHICAL HAIR
LUKE LUCAS
www.lukelucas.com
The team at Esquire magazine required an innovative
and stylish headline treatment for a grooming
section of the publication. Here Luke Lucas runs
through how he approached this task.
■ Initial brief I was asked to create a type
illustration and some hairy graphical elements.
■ Base text The client wanted to evolve the
illustration from their standard condensed sans
serif, into something that was more dynamic and © Luke Lucas
relative to the theme.
■ Creating hair I next built up all the hair elements
using very fine strokes drawn with the Pen Path tool
in Illustrator.
■ Making hair brushes I created several hair
brushes and applied them to paths in the shapes that
I felt would work the best on the different letters. I
then made some slight distortions using the Mesh
Warp tool.
■ Copy layers I added in some hair highlight layers
using fine paths. I then copied both the base hair and
highlights into Photoshop in separate layers.
■ Add highlights I hid and made a selection of the
highlight layers and brushed them within the
selected shape on a separate layer. This brought
more variation to overall design.
in Photoshop,
prints. Everything from a
where I added all
Gradient Map to Hue/
the little details like
Saturation adjustment
shadows, glows,
layers save time when I’m
brush-star effects
perfecting a bespoke colour
and colour
combination for a client.”
adjustments.”
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LUKE LUCAS
www.lukelucas.com
Freelance creative Luke Lucas
was asked to design this sweet
and savoury graphic for the dining section of The
New York Times, using Poplar as a secondary
typeface. “This illustration began with defining
the main glass shape and the stylised wine
pouring inside it in loose vector shapes. The
main type was then created using Vector
Paths in Illustrator, while the secondary
type was set in the Poplar typeface and
distorted to fit using the Mesh Warp
tool. In terms of the creative process,
the wine shapes were brought into
Photoshop as separate objects and
colour, highlights and shadows were
applied to enhance the depth of tone.
The main type was then filled with
colour and the shadow details within
the letters were masked and brushed
to define overlapping elements. The
warped secondary type objects were
overlayed using layer effects, then it
came to building the glass. The ■ Refracted effect
background of the image was to be By separating and shifting
white, so in order to define highlights elements in the glass, Lucas
on a white background I first could imitate a slightly refracted
needed to add a slight grey tint distortion to create a realistic finish.
to the whole glass shape.
This was placed on the
bottom layer so as not to tint
the actual wine itself. Next I
brushed in the highlights and ■ Two typefaces
shadows in separate layers Lucas mixed two typefaces, placing one
above the wine and type centre-stage as Sweet and Savoury and
shape layers. Some faint the other to spell out associated words in
reflection shapes were also masked and brushed in. the glass.
Once the main type and glass objects were rendered
to a fairly polished level I placed all of the wine and
type elements into a layer group. To finish, I ■ Main idea ■ Highlights and Shadows
duplicated and applied masks to the groups, The brief was to incorporate various Painted highlights and shadows gave
separating the objects between those inside and flavours and descriptors associated definition to the type and the wine
those outside the glass.” with wine in an artistic way. background, adding depth and interest.
14. VINTAGE 3D
STEVE GOODIN
www.behance.net/demen1
Steve Goodin gave a funky yet classy edge to this
piece of marketing material for a Reno electronic
music event. “The initial idea stemmed from the title
of the event. I was given creative control over the
theme and style of the poster so I really wanted to
set the tone and the vibe based on that title. This
poster was created using some 3D type elements as
well as some other stock photography and
illustrated graphics. For example, the lightbulb
images and vintage flowery wallpaper pattern came
All images © Steve Goodin
from a deviantART member.”
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© Charles Williams
© Stefan Chinof
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