Blog and Portfolio
November 11
If you’re subscribed to the Pixelspread feed, I’m sure you’ve noticed that post frequency has gone down quite a bit. I’ve been thinking of ways to pick it back up again and I think I’ve got a pretty good answer. The more and more I use tumblr, the more I enjoy it as a blogging platform. I’ve run matt.cc (which I just recently renamed, previously tumbl.us) almost since tumblr began. My tumblr post frequency just keeps going up, while this textpattern blog seems to wane. So what to do?
Well I think I’m just going to switch the focus of Pixelspread. I’m going to be redesigning it shortly to focus on my portfolio/work section and start blogging at matt.cc instead. Once the Pixelspread redesign goes up, I’ll change the source of this Feedburner feed. So if you’re subscribed via RSS, you’ll still get all my posts, just from a different location. You won’t have to change the feed or resubscribe to anything.
Simply put, Pixelspread will remain as my portfolio and freelance design hub. Matt.cc will be where I blog. And they will be linked together, so it’s easy to find both. And as for the blog archives of pixelspread, I’ll make sure they stay in place at pixelspread.com/blog, so that you can also go back and read old posts. I’m just thinking of it as a little separation between business and personal. I think in the long run it will allow me the space I need for both pieces of my life.
Comment [145]Tumblr Updates
October 09
In the past week or so I’ve been working on a lot of tumblr themes so I thought I’d post a full update. I’ve created two new themes, updated the design of tumbl.us, and updated the design/code of hasaportfolio
The first theme I created this week is called Rounded. It’s optimized for the Safari 3+, but looks good in Firefox 3+ as well, and works in almost any browser. It makes use of almost all new tumblr features that I hadn’t previously added into my themes (like search and audio play count.)
Second is the update to hasaportfolio. The portfolio code now supports more in depth project pages (permalinks on all posts) and tags on all posts. I figured some might want to start fleshing out their portfolios and tumblr has the power to do so, so why not make it an option? You can still download the old code as well. All is available at hasaportfolio.com.
The update to tumbl.us is mostly to make use of new options in tumblr and give the design a little refresh. The idea is same, just a fresher look.
Finally, I’ve created the Obama theme. It’s a show of my support for Barack Obama, and I’m encouraging anyone with a tumblr account to use the theme to show their own support until the Nov 4th election. You can download the theme at obamatheme.tumblr.com.
I’ve added all of these to the freebies section so they can be easily found. Hope you all enjoy.
Comment [230]Summer's Over
September 16
I just wanted to post a brief update. It’s been a while since the last one and a lot has happened. I’ll be making some updates to my portfolio very soon, I’ve got a lot of freelance work done over the summer, so I’ve got some nice new work to show off. I’ve also continued to run and grow Turn Nocturnal.
The biggest news I’ve got is that Turn Nocturnal is being featured by Target during the month of September in their Red Hot Shop. You can find our shirt, The Sans-Serif tee, in women’s sizes on their site for the next month.
I’ll probably be posting here a bit more often now that I’m back at SCAD and I’m forced to sit down in front of the computer a little more often. Hopefully I’ll have time to add some fun new stuff to the Freebies section too.
Comment [119]Summer
June 02
Summer has begun and I’ve realized I haven’t made a post in a long time. Over a month I believe it’s been. But I’ll tell you why. I have good reason I promise…
First of all, if you’ve been here before you probably know that I run a clothing company called Turn Nocturnal. Well, what started from one shirt about beards has turned into multiple designs and orders from all over the world. We’ve now got 9 products on the store, a lot geared towards fellow design nerds. So check those out
Secondly, I’ve been working on WuChess.com. WuChess is a collaboration between RZA of the Wu-Tang clan and Chesspark to create an online chess community for fans of hip hop. If that sounds a little confusing, check out WuChess.com and take a tour. I promise it makes sense after a little exploration. Also google Hip Hop Chess Federation to learn more about how Hip Hop and Chess work together.
And as always, I’ve been doing a lot of freelance work. One project I was very happy to see launch is Hairburners. It’s a social network for hair stylists that I recently redesigned, logo and everything, and I think it ended up looking pretty nice.
Comment [132]A Brief Update
April 30
It’s been a little while since the last post. Life has been incredibly busy. That’s a good thing though. Design, design, design. That’s how I like it. Since my last post: Turn Nocturnal has released a new shirt. WuChess was announced and I’m in the process of designing it. I’m also working on two entirely new web apps, both revolving around quick, easy, simple communication.
In other news, I’ve gotten a chance to play with the new VIRB beta. It’s gorgeous. Go sign up and hope you get in. Jonathan Hoefler wrote a wonderful post about the Ampersand. I was excited to get my name mentioned in it. If you’re following the links on the left, you’ve already seen it. That will stay updated with great design and typography news if you’d like to subscribe. And I just noticed that my List Based Calendar was featured on Smashing Magazine’s Best of April post.
I’ll probably be updating the portfolio with some new work soon and there’s a lot more in store for Turn Nocturnal in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.
Comment [90]The Freebies Section
April 16
After releasing so many tumblr themes, fonts, and icons recently, I’ve decided to consolidate them all into a section called Freebies. I’d say it’s pretty self explanatory. You can click the new link at the top left or right here and go download some free stuff. I’ll continue to add to it as time goes on. You may not find older tumblr themes I’ve created in there because they were created for older versions of tumblr, and don’t support all the new features.
If you think I’ve missed anything, something I’ve written about in the blog or I’ve posted on tumbl.us, feel free to drop a link in the comments. Hope you enjoy.
Comment [63]Serifs on the Web
April 15
It’s been a little while since I’ve uploaded to the /demo folder, but the more and more I see beautiful serif type around the web, the more and more I feel like I have to play with it. And if you haven’t seen any beautiful serif web typography recently, check out Seed Conference or Twisted Intellect.
But here’s my little serif demo. My idea is this: If you can make a flexible layout, you’ve always got Georgia or Times New Roman to fall back on. Why not try some new Serifs? The problem of course is that most PCs aren’t going to have fonts like Baskerville or Garamond installed, but that’s why I say make a flexible layout. Seed Conference proves that Times New Roman can still be beautiful, so if your layout can work with different letter widths and heights, try something for the folks (Mac users…) that have some beautiful fonts installed. On the demo, I’ve set font-family to font-family:"Hoefler Text",Baskerville,Garamond,Times New Roman;. Hoefler Text of course from the talented Jonathan Hoefler. So if you have a site that warrants it, try something nice for the folks that are able to appreciate it, and just double check that it still looks good for anyone else that can’t. I know it caused a bit of a stir on JeffCroft.com, but I think the issue of type on the web is far from resolved.
More Alphabets
April 04
I can’t promise that this will be my last post about playing with Crouwel’s New Alphabet, but atleast it’s a step towards that. I obviously I have been playing with his designs for a few days now, and I’ve been thinking about what makes them work, what makes them legible, and what makes them illegible. There is also a clear concept and structure behind each letterform. They were designed to work very well within a dot matrix system, so 90 and 45 degree angles are key for every piece of the typeface design. This enables each letterform to work at any size and not lose it’s shape. This is something I’ve been trying to stick to when recreating and exploring these designs.
With that said, I’ve decided the next step is to create a more legible font out of New Alphabet. When I say that I mean use these same principles to create a font that more closely resembles the latin alphabet that we all use everyday. From that I’ve reached the Pentagrid Alphabet. Based on a 5×5 grid with ascenders and descenders, this what I’ve arrived at.
Comment [74]New Alphabet
April 02
When I saw the set up of FontStruct for first time, I immediately thought of Wim Crouwel’s New Alphabet designs, which I made reference to in my last post. And since I’ve been playing with FontStruct all day, I figured that’d be a fun one to try and recreate. I tried to stick to the very closely to his original letterforms, and of course the concept and strictness of the 90 and 45 degree angles for all strokes. It only has one case, so it will work as uppercase letters and numbers. I might copy and paste all the letters into the lowercase too at some point. If you want to play around with it, go download it . Maybe you’ll come up with a cool futuristic looking album cover)
New Alphabet and a quick preview:
Edit: New Alphabet quickly became a Top Pick picked by the FontStruct staff!
Comment [2]FontStruct
April 02
I just thought I needed to share this new service from FontShop that I’ve been playing with a lot recently. It’s called FontStruct and if you have any interest in typography and/or type design I’d say it’s time to check this out. I’ll preface by saying that if you’re trying to design the next Helvetica, you’ll quickly hit the ceiling on what FontStruct can do, but for experimentation and basic letterform construction, it is a lot of fun, and pretty straight forward.
I’ve spent some time today putting together my own pixel font. Reminds me of the days when K10K was what web designers strived for. But anyway, I’m calling it Neuescreen. I had Wim Crouwel’s new alphabet in mind when constructing the lowercase letterforms. You can go download it and have fun with it. I’ll probably give it a few more edits and hopefully make a poster/type specimen with it.
Anyway, here are some previews of Neuescreen:
Note: I’m finding that this font is working best in Photoshop with Anti-Aliasing set to Crisp at 8pt. Kerning gets a bit off with Anti-Aliasing set to None.
Comment [47]