BonFX

Typography & Graphic Design Blog

Top 10 Fonts for Graphic Designers with PDF Chart

by

Last month I posted an article called 19 top fonts in 19 top combinations which caught the attention of Jacob Cass and Smashing Magazine and quite a few other readers as a result of all the traffic that came in from Twitter. I also got a lot of correspondence over the article with a large dose of “THANKS” included, and even a free virtual beer. Why was this article so popular with some people? I know the topic had been covered before. As the feedback came in, the answer became clear: graphics. Not just any graphics, but specifically the PDF chart attached to the post. … [Read More]

Art House Co-Op’s “The Sketchbook Project” Moleskine sketches, pages 12-13

by

For pages 12-13 of my Art House Co-Op “Sketchbook Project” Moleskine, I wanted to do a simple exercise using quasi-isometric shapes. The inclusion of Blackletter type is just totally random. I drew the substructure in pencil and did the black and white work with a Micron .01. The Moleskine paper in this particular book has not grown fond of me nor I of it.
  • The Moleskine paper is prone to bleeding anything and everything. If I open the Moleskine in room lighting, it looks exactly like the scan. I normally use a variety of acid-free, heavy weight white paper with the thick wire binding you see in various sizes at any art store. I have never bled through any of the pages. It must be this particular model.
  • While the flatness and paper texture are wonderful, the Moleskine paper weight is not heavy enough to support really any media without bleeding. Oh well.
  • As my project is entitled, “It’s not easy being green”, we can now add “It’s not easy drawing in a semi-transparent Moleskine notebook”, and hence, I have to draw concepts, if any, very lightly on the even page and focus on only using one side of the odd page.
… [Read More]

Logo Design Portfolio update

by

I’ve posted a sampling of recent and past logo design work over at Behance. net. Take a look at the logo design portfolio and then search around the site a little. The interface and presentation are very unique. I really like their approach of creating “projects” rather than just the generic portfolio, though I did simply opt for the simple “portfolio” this time around. I’m not sure about the efficacy of using third-party portfolio websites in regards to supporting and directing traffic back to a blog. I participated in the Behance network site for two reasons:
  1. Lot’s of other freelance graphic designers have work here, and I’m following the crowd 100% on this one.
  2. I have come across a lot of other logo designers with their portfolio on Behance, and it seems the quality is very high in general.
As with any new website tinker-tool, we have to just wait and see what happens. It didn’t take long to get signed up and get a pretty nicely-formatted portfolio up and going, so I’m pleased at that much!

Art House Co-Op’s “The Sketchbook Project” Moleskine sketches, pages 10-11

by

For pages 10-11 of my Art House Co-Op “Sketchbook Project” Moleskine, I created a character who snubs his high-class nose at anything green. This bourgeois tea-totaller cannot be bothered with solar-techies, tree-huggers, or GM “Volt” supporters on any level. I also have a fascination with hand-drawn 3d lettering which finds its way into many a freelance graphic designer‘s doodle time, not just my own. I started this one, stopped it, started it, stopped it, and finally finished it so I can stop starting to finish it. It shows :(. … [Read More]

About BonFX

Douglas Bonneville has been a graphic designer since 1992 and has written about type here since 2009. BonFX is a blog about typography and design, and the books that came out of it.

More about BonFX →

Start Here

Contact

Questions about the books or the site? Contact us.

Follow @dbonneville on X.

The BonFX Letter: one good pairing every Tuesday, free. The signup is in the sidebar of every page.