pezpengelly.net

Line and Pixel logo: work in progress

Right now I’m in the process of developing a brand, logo and identity for my new business LiNE & PiXEL. I’m pretty darned excited about it and I thought I’d share with everyone some concepts for my logo. Take a look!

This is original concept, a nice geometric sans-serif type with a splash of colour to signify the “line” and “pixel” that make up the “i” in words line, and pixel. I forwarded this concept to my friend Brian, who is a master of logos and identity, he suggested some tweaks. I then ended up with this:

The stylized ampersand certainly adds more flair to the logo and keeps it from looking too rigid. I also revised my choice of type. Some kerning work is still to be done, but over all I’m happy with how things are progressing.

In addition to the LiNE & PiXEL wordmark I am also working on an emblem, I’ll post that on my blog in a few days. In the mean time, feel free to tell me what you think of this logo, I’d appreciate any opinions you may have!

Aug 12: UPDATE!

I’ve done up 2 more concepts based on feedback. Thanks! Keep it up! More will come!

Aug 13: EVEN MORE!

I have been receiving a lot of feedback in regards to this logo design both here and on Facebook, thanks to everyone!

One of the most talked about features of the logo is & (ampersand) vs. and (the word). Many have stated that the word and is cleaner looking or simply that it less confusing, visually, than the ampersand. Both are very much true. In fact, I’m pretty sure no matter which typeface I choose to use the & will simply not be as instantly recognizable as and. This is because there are, as I have shown you, many different variations of the ampersand. Your brain actually has to work to parse this information.

You must mentally switch & to and. Yeah, I’m making you work for it!

In fact, since the first iteration of the design I have made a point of NOT using the word and. This is not an issue of style, it is an issue of scalability. it’s best if I just show you.

As you can see in figure 1 when you scale the logo down to a smaller size (figure 1.1) the logo is still quite readable and it is easy to distinguish the ampersand. In figure 2 you should note that when scaled down to the same size the and becomes almost completely illegible. The viewer now reads the logo as LiNE|PiXEL which is not only poor for branding and identity, and most definitely not the name of the company!

Discuss!

Web Typography: A State of Affairs

With TypeCon2009 wrapping up this past weekend there has been much talk about the future of typography on the web. Historically, displaying type on web pages has been fairly lackluster. Designers have been limited to a set of web safe type for a majority of their content. Typefaces such as Arial, Verdana, Times New Roman, Georgia, or (shudder) Comic sans have been the primary option for displaying accessible, readable and user friendly type on the web. While these fonts serve their intended purpose, there isn’t much originality if 99% of pages are using the same faces. Users get bored and individuality is lost.

Seed Conference Site, using Times New Roman

A Little History Lesson

Up until now there has been few options for type variety beyond web safe fonts. CSS image replacement, or more recently, type replacement techniques using JavaScript/Flash such as Cufón or sIFR are the few that come to mind. While these methods work quite well, allowing the designer to choose his type at will, they are hacks. Coming at the cost of accessibility, download time or both. With many aspects of CSS3 now being implemented in modern browsers such as Safari 3+ and Firefox 3.5 designers are now able to display any typeface in an accessible and individual way using the @font-face property. Hooray! we can all sleep well now, right?

For all of @font-face‘s strengths there lies one weakness; ensuring legal usage of typefaces. There little stopping users of sites from simply downloading any font they like the same way we can download any JPG, GIF or PNG. While some type foundries are willing to allow complete usage of their fonts on the web, most want to ensure that they are used only by licensed users. This is where headaches for designers, foundries and potentially nasty DRMs come into play.

Solutions?

In 2007 Microsoft proposed Embeded OpenType (EOT) as a way to license fonts to web designers. While this is beneficial to the foundries, by ensuring type files are bound to specific sites via the URL. The designer is required to license said font EVERY time they want to use it, a real pain, and not fair to the designer using the font. Luckily, wheels are now in motion to ensure the designer has free usage of their legally owned fonts and the foundry’s property are protected.

EOT Lite, proposed by Ascender Corporation aims to give more freedom by easing URL binding. However, many are reluctant to jump headfirst into this option due to its association with the EOT. For more on EOT Lite check out what Zeldman has been saying.

Most recently, two type designers, Tal Leming & Erik van Blokland have proposed the .webfont. This particular solution has gained a lot of support by designers and foundries. It uses standard font files (.TTF or OTF) so foundries don’t need to amend their fonts to get them to work properly. An XML file is used, by the browser, to determine if font is legally licensed to the site and display it. This is still in the proposal stage currently and browsers will have to be updated for .webfont to work. However, with the support behind it, being a clean & simple solution that pleases everyone, .webfont may be the way of the future.

Here and Now

But what is the savvy web designer to do right now? Well, start by using @font-face! There are many typefaces that you can use (free of charge!) with @font-face to improve the visual appeal of your site. For a full list check out Web Fonts Wiki, I am also a fan of Exljbris Font Foundry who licenses many of their fonts specifically for @font-face. Right On!

Also, we now have Kernest and in the near future, Typekit. With Jeffery Veen and Jason Santa Maria backing it up, Typekit has alot of clout behind it. Kernest curently offers up freely licensed fonts from a number of foundries including Ascender Corp., Chank, and The League of Moveable Type. Both services work by allowing direct licensing of typefaces for use on the web. Embed a JavaScript file to the head of your page, and fonts are imported from their servers. To get a sense of how well this works check out Nice Web Type, cool stuff! These promise to be a great services and if .webfont doesn’t come around soon this model may well be how all web fonts are handled.

Nice Web Type and the power of @font-face

And So…

Get excited! It’s a great time for the typophile on the internet, new technologies and services are making type more accessible on the web every day. Start using @font-face on your site. Enjoy the freedoms it allows you as a designer! If I have made any mistakes, please forgive me, I will correct any errors found.

It’s an exciting time to be a nerd

Apple Spokesman, TV personality and author John Hodgman grills President Barack Obama on all things nerd at the American Radio and Television Correspondents dinner. Hodgman give a spectacular speech and asks the tough questions all nerds need to know.

My answers to Hodgman’s questions regarding Dune are:

• Shai-hulud
• A Thumper
• Water of Life

New Avatar

I have updated my little avatar guy and he’s on the move! Good for you little buddy!

This guy is modeled after the characters from Final Fantasy VII (FF3 for the SNES) one of my favourite RPGs of all time.

Bike Co. Loonie Race Photos

I have uploaded a whack of photos from this past week’s WORCA loonie race. Put on by the Whistler Bike Co. the race itself ran through the grueling rocky hell of Emerald Estates. While, riders pushed their way through Shit Happens, Big Kahuna, Secret Trail and Section 102 I ran around capturing them in all their glory… er, misery. The photos are free to view on my Flickr Photostream, so enjoy! Hope everyone had a great ride!