As any good designer knows, typography is a main element of design. With the thousands of typeface choices many designers get overwhelmed. Modern design dictates that type not only be treated as an element on a page, but a main eye catch as well. Graham at ImJustCreative.com created a site, lovehelvetica.com, to simplify the typeface jungle, and pay homage to one of the classics… Helvetica. Being such a versatile font, Helvetica lends itself to a world of design with it’s huge variety of weights.

This design is my homage to the great font, Helvetica Neue. The thought process behind the design was to use the ‘a hole’ (thanks Albertonomo via flickr) to “peel” back into a heart shape and convey the idea of ‘love helvetica’. The 2.0 gradient shading has been my design kick for the month, so there’s some of that in there as well.

Comments/criticisms are always welcomed. Or design one of your own and sent me the link! Fond me on twitter to let me know as well @lhodsdon

Title: OCFAMILY TV Logo Design

Client: Churm Media, in association with OC Family Magazine

Program(s) Used: Illustrator CS2

Time Span: 2 hours Conceptual. 2 hours design.

About: ocfamily.com needed a logo design for their new video feature in which anyone can upload videos of their children. The idea was to make them a TV star, on the web.

Designer Notes: I really wanted to add an element of freshness to this logo. In the end the company decided to take a darker direction and make everything black based.

Make your own slogan at the Bus Slogan Generator. Photo credit: Jon Worth c/o atheistbus.org.uk

Or see mine, after this tiny little, insignificant…. jump!

Full size screen capture of my “wordle” after the jump.

Click for full size.

Okay, now let’s explain… I was on my google reader (1), found a link through we heart it (2), Liked what one of the users was “hearting” and clicked through to his profile to find the original photo (3), which was a link through a ffffound site (4), via flickr user shaderlab (5). Pretty fun ehh? So, i have to give credit where credit is due. I didn’t QUITE get my full 6 degrees, but if you count opening the browser as 1 i can cheat my score a little i guess.

On a side note, the Oracle of Bacon website will let you play your own game of Six Degrees. I was never able to get more than a bacon score of 3!! So, if you play around with some names and happen to get a good combo, leave me a comment with the names.

Full size image after the jump.

Justin over at Big Head Design suggested a site to me. Knowing his judgment is usually a stones throw away from funny, I bring you the Typography Conference from College humor!

Please don’t flame me or send me hate mail. This is NOT a racist message, it’s an observational render.

If you’re a supporter of the arts, like Obama, hate Obama, are half African-American or just feel like scoring some sweet swag… then check out My HALFricanUSA Cafe Press store. All the proceeds will go to keeping my refrigerator fully stocked with Mauntain Dew and Dr. Pepper. Thanks!

Abduzeedo has added an awesome post about a fun, creative way to create a CD cover. After i read this post i got addicted, neglected work, and did about 6 of these things… 3 of which actually came to fruition.

Here’s the steps….

Do you know when saw that new band cd and thought: “how in the world did they think of that”? Well, someone out there figured out the equation, and man, it’s really fun.

And what equation is that? Simple:

1. Click HERE. The random article title will be your band’s name.
2. Click HERE. The last 4 words of the last quote will form the name of your album.
3. Click HERE. The third picture, whatever it is, will be your cd cover.

Done! Now you got the formula to make some funny, yet great albums. I’ve actually made about 6 last night, and my favorite, by far, is this one.

So. following these easy steps, Here’s what i came up with.
PLEASE feel free to follow these steps and submit your own. it’s addicting, and fun! see what kinds of covers YOU can come up with!

66 more cards after the jump. it’s a big post, i had to split them to the single page, haha!

Client: Churm Media, in association with OC METRO BUSINESS

Program(s) Used: Illustrator

Time Span: 10 hours (Concept, client revisions, completion)

About: Every year OC METRO BUSINESS host it’s annual Hot 25 Event. the event honors hottest 25 people of Orange County, not a beauty contest. This includes entrepreneurs, business executives, managers, or just anyone in general making huge waves in Orange County. Every year the event is themed, and has to do with the new directions that OC METRO BUSINESS is going. This year the event, and the company, is completely rebranding itself as a web and digital entity, hence the theme “Hot Goes Digital”. The client’s idea was to show how OC METRO BUSINESS is moving into the 2.0, very web friendly.

Designer Notes: My original concept for this logo was to incorporate the feel of web 2.0. Very glossy, colorful, reflections, clean, simple and sleek all into one logo. After showing a first round of designs and color combinations the client didn’t want to stray from it’s branding and the logos went through a revision and font change. The end result is what you see above and a bit different that the original concept, but what the client wants, the client gets.

How many steps do you imagine it would take to get tot his final product? i’m not going to lie. i thought at LEAST 25. Well, PSDTUTS did it in 16 steps. Now of course a step counts as a whole portion, but still. that’s pretty effing amazing if you want my opinion, and since you’re on my blog, i’d say so. haha.

For me, the tutorial really grabs hold at around step 8 up until the conclusion. The process of adding the flame and the particles with the brush manipulations are brilliant. Grab your stylus and start making pretty things, because really, we’re designers… that’s what we do!

Create a Spectacular Flaming Meteor Effect on Text
In Text Effects by Fabio

Take typography one step further by having text falling from the sky in a burning inferno. Yes, this is the text-on-fire tutorial to end all tutorials. It uses a little Illustrator for the text and a lot of Photoshop to burn up the screen!

In previous tutorials you’ve seen two smoke effects that I’ve created, but let’s face it, you can’t have smoke without a fire somewhere. So in this tutorial I will show you how to create a fire effect similar to when a spaceship or comet enters the earth’s atmosphere. The image we’ll be creating is inspired by a Nike Ad I saw some time ago. I’m not sure what the URL is, if anyone knows it, please link us up in the comments.

It’s always a good idea to keep your eyes open for inspiration for effects and designs no matter what you are doing. Graphics are everywhere and you can learn a lot by looking at what other people do. Now on to the tutorial!

Follow the Trackback to PSDTUTS for the full 16 step tutorial.

Every now and again we take a look around, select “fresh” high-quality free fonts and present them to you in a brief overview. The choice is enormous, so the time you need to find them is usually the time you should be investing in your current projects. We search for them and we find them, so you don’t have to.

This month we are glad to present you Freebooter Script, Cora Basic Regular, Walkway and Karabine. Please read the license agreements carefully — they can change from time to time.

Thanks Justin for another Great post.

Read more from Justin after the jump…
GO!

The folks over at Smashing Magazine always have some great examples of design that really inspires one to go out and design, only to realize that it comes out nothing like they planned. The above photo, for example, is one of many examples of some great experimental typography. This one stood out the most as it is very representative of the corporate, minimalist, feel of many ads i have come across lately in the advertising world.

Great, quirky use of a common phrase, with a slight twist that gives this a whole new meaning. Nice contrasting colors (green…..it’s so HOT right now) and you have a very powerful piece built solely on typography.