Friday, November 23, 2012

The Art of Handwriting

It's been quite a while but my degree show project was featured in the blog of Blueprint magazine... in August. Yeah this has been a while.

そういえば・・・な話なのですが、英国の建築雑誌Blueprintのブログに作品が8月に載りました。卒業生特集。

http://www.blueprintmagazine.co.uk/index.php/architecture/best-of-student-shows-2012/

I'm pleased that my work somehow made it to the eyes of prestigious architecture magazine. Maybe my pseudo-intellectual affection for architecture has finally paid off. That was worth it.

スクリーンショット、殺風景すぎる・・・。クールなサイトだなあ。
建築好きとしては、建築の雑誌に気に入ってくれて嬉しいです。この雑誌ちゃんと読んだことないけど、賢そうな雑誌です。

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Also, I was fortunate enough to expand this project into larger community of people. i.e. even to the people who don't attend graphic design shows. Thank you to the publisher Pan Macmillan for running this campaign with me.

そんでもって、出版社Pan MacmillanとPhilip Hensherの新しい本、"The Missing Ink"のキャンペーンをやったりしました。
http://www.panmacmillan.com/missingink

The new book by Philip Hensher The Missing Ink is for handwriting lovers. The book explores the history and different stories/aspects around handwriting. Because the subject is handwriting, which is rather a hart-warming subject, the book makes a perfect gift option for Christmas. Available in Kindle too, which is definitely a big plus (making international gifts easier). A bit of a biased promotion aside, and even though I felt some bits more interesting than other, you can show off knowledge such as how much Hitler hated writing by hand, just like how I've been doing.

Well the only thing I can say is, I hope Mr. Hensher didn't mind my photo being featured rather large next to his book for the campaign site. It's a complete honor really.

You can see the handwriting of people who have participated here:
http://storify.com/zoldie/the-missing-ink
It's just great communicating with people like this way, especially since graphic designers don't usually get to see the faces of our audience and don't have opportunity to hear their reactions.

自分の顔がキャンペーンサイトに大きく載ってびびった。Hensherさんの本なのに、わたしがこんなに目立ってよかったのでしょうか。

キャンペーンは(たぶん)もう締め切っているものの、わたしは今これを納品している最中。頑張ってます。

キャンペーンを通じて色んな人が、ツイッターを通じて、自分の手書き文字を送ってくれて、なかなか面白かったです。わたしは、こういう作品を通じた交流が好きだなあと、手書きフォントプロジェクトの一連を通じて思ってます。

みんなの手書き文字の記録はこちらから見れます。
http://storify.com/zoldie/the-missing-ink

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Some great feedbacks include like this one here by Gwyneth Holland:
こんなブログにも取り上げていただき、嬉しい限りです。
http://howthingsaredone.wordpress.com/2012/10/19/penmanship/

ちなみに、このプロジェクトが賞を取ったと書いてありますが、わたしの知る限りではなにも取ってません。もしわたしの知らないところで取っていたとしたら、誰か教えてください(もしくは、賞ください)。

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To those who participated at my space in degree show, the project is very slowly progressing. I'm possibly one third done? If you send me an email with your name (and preferably which day you attended if you remember), I can work on yours first.

Note* I am not creating any more handwriting fonts unless you have taken part at the degree show.

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I just realized I haven't really blogged about this project in full detail. I guess I've been thinking I should finish it before writing about it, but it's taking more time to complete than I have initially anticipated back in June. I'll really try to write about it sometime though. It has been one of the most exciting project I have ever done, and one of my favorite projects ever.