Typography old school video

The basic prin­ci­ples of typog­ra­phy have not changed much in four-hundred years says David Dab­ner in new short.

In this beau­ti­ful 5 minute film by Omair Bar­lat­ulla, David Dab­ner demon­strates how an old tool can still teach us a lot about typog­ra­phy and design in a com­puter dom­i­nated craft.

In this inter­view, Dab­ner, a typog­ra­pher who teaches type and design at the Lon­don Col­lege of Print­ing, uses the time con­sum­ing art of Let­ter­press, to slow down the design process, giv­ing stu­dents more time to think about typography.

Dab­ner offers some valu­able advise to young design­ers many who have never expe­ri­enced the tac­tile plea­sure of hand draw or hand set type.

A must see for any­one who remem­bers the plea­sure of an indus­try where beau­ti­ful typog­ra­phy required an invest­ment of time, mus­cle, plan­ning and thought.

View Typog­ra­phy School

YMCA Retirement Fund celebrates 85th year

To help cel­e­brate the 85th Anniver­sary of the YMCA Retire­ment Fund, Merola Design was asked to cre­ate a com­mem­o­ra­tive logo.

This fund pre­dates Social Secu­rity and was cre­ated as an incen­tive to the attract and hold onto YMCA employ­ees. Today, the Fund has more than $4.0 bil­lion in assets and helps pro­vide finan­cial secu­rity for more than 75,000 Funds participants.

While research­ing the project we found a poster in the YMCA archives called “Lend Your Strength to the Red Tri­an­gle” by Amer­i­can artist Gil Spear. As soon as we saw it we knew this would be the type of iconic image we were look­ing for.

The process of redraw­ing the fig­ure in Adobe Illus­tra­tor and reduc­ing the full color paint­ing to work as a logo was time con­sum­ing. The type treat­ment and color stud­ies were done and a postage stamp bor­der treat­ment was added to rein­force the com­mem­o­ra­tive feel and help add a sense of scale.

A hol­i­day card and alter­nate ver­sions of the logo were done for one color, two color, three color and full color uses. A poster of this graphic is also in the works.

The orig­i­nal 1916 Gil Spear paint­ing was part of the United War Work Cam­paign and it is among the best exam­ples of United States pro­pa­ganda dur­ing World War One.

Spear’s name is often men­tioned among the top illus­tra­tor of the early twen­ti­eth cen­tury, along with James Mont­gomery Flagg, James H. Daugh­erty, Ben Shahn and Otto Fis­cher. To see the orig­i­nal Gil Spear Paint­ing click here.

Merola also has designed the YMCA Retire­ment Funds Annual Reports.