Font-astic Friday

I could rattle off a string of technical typography characteristics; ascenders, descenders, kerning, leading, etc. etc. but when I see a font I really like, I usually have an emotionally associative reaction to it. Here are 6 of my favorite fonts with my very non-technical impressions of them. … … … … … … …

An Interview with Chicago Graphic Designer Brooke Becker

I was lucky enough to sit down with the lovely and talented Brooke Becker. In this interview she gives some insight into her design-rich background, what she digs about art, and how she stays sane as a graduate student and professional. …… SARAH: Brooke, you’ve got a great sense of design. Did growing up around art influence your [...]

Photoshop of Horrors

You don’t need to tell me. I DO know that I *may* have a small problem. It started a long time ago in the pre-Photoshop 90′s when I cut a photo of myself and placed it strategically atop a magazine cut-out of Jean-Claude Van Damme (I know, but he was hot back then) so it looked like [...]

Social Network Geekery

In one of my graduate classes an assignment is to map out our Twitter network. A couple of the online tools used for this produce some pretty cool images (at least I think so) with regards to the nodes and ties, it almost looks like a universe of stars or constellations. I like to see [...]

DePaul University’s New Virtual Exhibit

DePaul University’s Office of Mission & Values  just rolled out a new Vincentian Collection digital online museum featuring the Virtual Exhibition of  Saint Lazare as a Women’s Prison (1794 – 1932) in Paris…and it is out of this world. The Saint Lazare structure had a long history pre-dating the Congregation of the Mission. After its confiscation by the [...]

What’s Black and White and Read All Over?

A shout out and thanks to fellow grad student Zoe Kind for the heads up on the very timely and interesting topic of QR code (or, Quick Response code) generators. You see these black and white blocky patterns everywhere. Fodder for smartphones, these little information thumb prints link to further information and websites once scanned. [...]

Meet Andy Elkerton, Illustrator Extraordinaire

Allow me to introduce you to an uber-talented British children’s book illustrator, Mr. Andy Elkerton. By chance I came to associate with this artist through my husband’s snark-filled movie review podcast, Everyone’s A Critic (shameless plug) - as Andy is a listener and interacts with the EAC ”community”. An ironic clash between hard-edged podcast content and the illustrations that whisper [...]