Brian Paul Nelson – Branding / Design / Illustration">Brian Paul Nelson

I have always had a deep respect and appreciation for true letterers and their craft, especially those designing type before computers existed. That regard is even greater now after creating my first official typeface, Recollection. I have dabbled in designing type before and have used hand written type in some of my projects, but I have yet to create a full face until now. The type was inspired by thickset letters from old signage and posters that were created before modern day printing and technology existed…you know, “The Glory Days.” To show off Recollection I also created a few posters that further encompass the inspiration behind its design. View the Recollection project under my portfolio.

Some great work from Switzerland based Bureau Collective. Their ability to restrain each project to the bare essentials of type, imagery and color is dominant throughout their portfolio and really exudes a sense of quality that you know they continually strive for. Be sure to click the images for better closeups.

New York’s very own Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is one of the world’s most popular museums. With numerous highly publicized exhibitions every year it only makes sense that they would have their own in-house design studio to stay on top of it all. The work they produce is seriously worth checking out. It’s great to see that each exhibition has it’s very own unique look and feel to really help make it one cohesive presentation from the advertising to the actual work being displayed.

The Department of Advertising and Graphic Design

Who couldn’t use some old school typography inspiration? The 100 Alphabets Publicitaires serves up a nice dose of it…I could spend all day on this set. There are pages and pages full of hi-res photos so you can get up close to the action. Most of the files are set at 300dpi so get those printers ready too! I’m currently working on a new custom font and this just added a whole new outlook on where I’m headed.

I just stumbled across the work of Mike McQuade and I’m glad I did. He is multi-talented and definitely has a sharp eye for branding that expands across each of his projects. His work for Tom, Dick & Harry is one of my favorites. Loving the nostalgic factory feel, especially the type and color palette he introduced to the brand.

Unbelievable work from Portland based sign company Nutmegger Workshop. They specialize in vintage sign art and do so with unbelievable expertise and adeptness. This kind of stuff blows me away. I really want to get my hands on one of these.

I’ve really been enjoying the work of Austin design firm McGarrah Jessee lately. The Shiner, Whataburger and Central Market projects are my favorite. Great overall execution and consistency throughout each brand.

Herb Lubalin is by far one of my favorite designers and his typographic expertise has pioneered so many trends and has had a huge influence and source of inspiration in my career. U&lc (Upper and Lower Case), The International Journal of Typographics was first published in 1974 and served as both an advertisement for Lubalin’s designs and a supplemental level of typographic experimentation. Lubalin was the editor and art director for the magazine up until his passing in 1981, but it continued to be published until 1999. To get your hands on an issue, especially one that Lubalin personally worked on is beyond rare, but good news comes to those who wait! Each month Fonts.com will be uploading one volume (a year’s worth of publications) in hi and lo-res scans. It doesn’t get much sweeter than this.

Follow and download the U&lc back issues.