Arnie Franke has taken a number of classes at SVC in pursuit of a job as an advertising copywriter. Along with learning a thing or two about concepting and writing, Arnie has also picked up some valuable advice about job-hunting, which he’s graciously agreed to share in this guest blog post.

The world of the job search is a dark and frightening place; one fraught with false starts and dead ends, crisscrossed with the tripwires of self-doubt and desperation. Luckily, there is one thing that can always lead a job-hunter through the obscuring mists of the search, and that thing is experience.

Even more fortunately for those searchers who are just starting out, the experience in question doesn’t necessarily have to be the hard-won personal variety; reaching out to a contact or mentor is often just as helpful.

To get you started, I picked the brain of one of my contacts: Mike Hayward.  Mike is a copywriter and associate creative director with sixteen years of industry experience under his belt. He recently began working freelance for Hornall Anderson after eight years at Copacino + Fujikado.

Here are a few thoughts from Mike on the job search as it relates to upstart copywriters. [Read more →]

School of Visual Concepts: You’ve worked extensively in both poster and logo design. What do you think is the role of typography in each of these media?

Art Chantry: It’s pivotal, of course. That’s sort of like asking the role of “wet” in the medium of “water.” Virtually all contemporary academic design theory is based upon the principles of modern typography. It’s where “the grid” used in Swiss design style came from, for instance. There would be no modernist design without the baseline rules of typography establishing the structure.

SVC: Type Americana focuses on a very narrow field of study—the history of American type, mostly in the late 19th century and first half of the 20th century. How influenced are you by typographic history?

AC: Personally, I think the language of graphic design is the original visual language form. Even before the written language, we communicated through image to instruct, describe, and worship. When you get down to it, what is typography, but a bunch of squiggles with agreed-upon meanings arranged in clusters to depict a thought? It’s my heretical position that “fine” art emerged out of the world of graphic design, not the other way around as it is usually taught. [Read more →]

We checked in with the talented minds behind Patented Pending Industries, Jeff Kleinsmith & Jesse LeDoux. The prolific duo is responsible for hundreds of concert posters for as many bands, and they’ve each put in some serious work as art directors for Seattle-based Sub Pop Records.

School of Visual Concepts: Y’all use a huge variety of type and lettering in your posters, often as illustration. How do y’all think typography for gig posters is different than other media?

Jesse LeDoux: Unlike a website, magazine, book or packaging, a poster is an item with only one plane. It doesn’t scroll and there aren’t other neighboring pages or sides to take into consideration. Therefore, the type can be less restrained and augment the poster’s strong central image (or in some cases, become the strong central image), with little regard for the adjacent surfaces.

Jeff Kleinsmith: Jesse’s mostly right on here. I would differ with him on the point about competing with neighboring pages; posters are rarely hanging by themselves. They are competing for your attention on a wall of other posters so it’s important to grab attention immediately. A great piece of type will always grab my eye more than a great image. I just saw a gig poster for Sleigh Bells that has a nude woman with her legs up in the air and there’s this awesome piece of type covering her crotch. I should be “titillated” by the nude woman, right? but I’m fascinated by that cool piece of type! [Read more →]

With Type Americana 2 just around the calendar corner (May 4 – 6, to be exact), we thought we’d find out how you feel about fonts. Here’s what you and your peers had to say:

THE ONE FONT I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT:

Century Gothic
“Futura. Used properly this family is so versatile.”
“I cant live without is GARÇON GROTESQUE”
Trade Gothic Condensed Bold 20
“Optima…… so pretty”
Frutiger
Adobe Jenson
Univers
“Flama, the whole beautiful family. Was there a sans serif any finer?”
optima
“The font I could not live with out is Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk. I love the balance of its forms, it’s to the point, no frills and it is the only font to my knowledge that comes in Super. Which I love.”
helvetica neue
“French Clarendon in wood. So you can recognize my mug shot next time you visit the post office.”
Optima Nova by Linotype – Redesigned By Zapf and Kobayashi – “Oh, I swooned when this set came out in 2002, digitally reinventing the classic typeface that Hermann Zapf designed first in metal in 1958. It’s something like 30+ fonts now with new true italics and small caps and old style figures. And the range of weights and widths: light, demi, black, condensed. And if you ever get to successfully use the super fancy ligatures in the titling face, you can secretly pretend you are channeling the spirt of Herr Zapf himself.”
“Optima Nova so versatile, looking good in display signage or the fine print on the back of a postcard. I use it almost everyday at work now–it’s our house font, since we hold a Zapf archive.”
Myriad Pro
“Probably Adobe Garamond Pro, with all its glorious family members.”
“Georgia Italics. Because it brings a touch of class to the Arial’s boring web party.”
“Futura and Garamond are my favorite classic fonts. Got a bonus once for a logo based on futura. I used garamond for 4 years while working for Frederick and Nelsons — still love it after all these years.”
Neutraface
Myriad Pro
“Palatino Linotype: Respectable but not self-absorbed. Runner up – Century Gothic: cute but eloquent.”
“Whip me for my modernist underpinnings, but on the other hand, Jeff Barlow would be so proud: Helvetica.”
“Helvetica. If I could choose more than one, Goudy Oldstyle and Palatino hold special places in my heart.”
Myriad Pro
Gotham Light / Book
“Your font”
Garamond!
futura xbold condensed
Bradley hand
Franklin Gothic
“Hands down: Neutraface Slab Serif.  This family is sleek and geometric in a way that defines innumerable personalities through it’s weights and slabs WITHOUT being predictable or cliche.  Thank you, House Industries!! <3″
“My most favorite typeface for the computer is Adobe Garamond Premier Pro.”
“The one font I can’t live without is Myriad Pro”
“Electra. I’ve never “really” used it, because that could only mean the original hot metal Linotype Electra, but to me it’s the epitome of machine-age modernism.”

MY LEAST FAVORITE FONT IS:

Papyrus
Calibri
“anything “century” ”
“Do I even have to say Comic Sans? No? How about Papyrus?”
“Souvenir. I hate swashes of all kinds.”
“Papyrus…comic sans is too obvious right?”
“Papyrus or that display font with the swirls coming out of half the letters that seems to be popular in LA”
Papyrus
“COMIC SANS!”
“My least favorite font is Comic Sans.”
“I ABSOLUTELY DESPISE Dakota Handwriting to the point that I started a tumblr about it called Death By Dakota. People try to put it in their designs all the time as an attempt at looking handwritten and personable. Unfortunately it’ll (in my opinion) turn the best design into pure garbage. It might be the new/worse version of Comic Sans. At least comic sans makes you think of 3rd grade and sparkly unicorns.”
“Arial because it’s a hideous font that masquerades as a decent one.”
“Do I really need to say it out loud? Dare I so? Comic… Sans… UGH.”
curlz
“Zapf Chancery. A little too flashy and overused. I think she lacks exclusiveness, simplicity and self-respect, if you know what I mean –she gets around and not in a good way.”
“My least favorite misnomer is when people use the incorrect term “font” when they mean “typeface.” A font, typographically (not computerese) speaking, is the set of the actual letters (upper and lowercases, small caps, etc.), numerals, and marks that are included in the typeface, point size, and style (roman or italic) that someone designed.”
Kristin ITC
“Papyrus, because it smells like patchouli aromatherapy candles, and sounds like a motivational speech given in Na’vi, with drop-shadowed subtitles. Gross.”
Jokerman
“Arial!!!!!”
“Helvetica. It’s not that it’s a bad typeface. Just misused. Fundamentally its closed blocky letterforms and tight spacing are anti-legibility for text sizes and user interface roles, and it gets used for body text and UI all the time. (see: iPhone, iPad.) It just is very badly suited to these uses. Same goes for Arial. I’m speaking at the conference anyway, so don’t give me a pass. ”
“I would say Comic Sans, but that would be too easy. I think my least favorite font is Times New Roman. It’s everywhere, thanks to Microsoft, but there’s just something about it that really irritates me.”
“Arial. Because every time I have to use it, I feel like I’m wearing a $20 “Rolex”.”
“Papyrus. Overused by amatuers…”
“Park Avenue. Bleh.”
“Papyrus. Sorry for the predictable answer, but… she has earned it. ”
Comic sans
“Lately I have been rabid against Brush Script. I do not trust bankers who sign their emails with a typeface designed to sell ladies’ undergarments. But may I expand that hatred to include anything with a highlight or a drop shadow added to the type? Sure, the software permits you to do so, but why would that seem like a good idea, hmm, Holiday Inn?”
“I’ve always hated Brush, although if it’s some vintage, hand-lettered signage, I can appreciate and tolerate.”
“Present day, I abhor Comic Sans–especially since it’s usually the rancid coworkers who use it as their default email font because they think they’re softening the random bitchiness of their communications.”
“Monotype Corsiva!”
“Papyrus!”
“Its so restrained in its refinement. Using it is like biting into a stale shortbread cookie: looks promising from afar — but once you bite into it its dry and lacking in basic appeal.”
“Hate hate hate Courier”
“Papyrus. Pooey!”
Comic Sans
“Comic Sans!”
Papyrus
“ITC Garamond. It misleads users from its very name to expect something elegant and classic, or at least from ITC you’ll get wide lapels and padded shoulders which have their place, but instead it’s a gangly tangle of noodly knots. I am now faced with the prospect of reading a book set in it (from 2003—that’s this millennium!) and I have to brace myself. It ought to be outlawed.”