“Is that Greek?”

Imagine you’re a client eagerly about to review Hile’s proposed design for a new website. You click on the link we’ve given you and there on your screen you see a mocked-up web page featuring clean, stylish design, a just-right photo for your banner image and … wait a minute. What the heck? In place of where the copy should go you see this:

Where you thought you’d see words somehow related to your company’s industry or purpose, there in its place is what appears to be a long, lost Romance language. You rack your brain trying to decipher what is now taking the place of the expected text. Of course, the words (if you can call them that) are there to show you how the page will look with copy and, unfortunately, hold as much meaning as a baby’s babble.

What Lorem Ipsum basically comes down to is designing and organizing a website, brochure, etc. that visually looks like the finished product. It doesn’t distract the viewer with actual copy, and the letters are spaced out well enough so that it appears on the page just as intelligible English would.  Read the rest of this entry »

Lorena Mirbach specializes and excels in type-based design. Based in Hamburg, Germany, this talented designer creates exquisite logos, calligraphy and typographic fonts. So, unlike many other artists who depend on existing typefaces to create their designs, Lorena is likely to create a custom font that is uniquely suited for the design at hand. The proof of her mastery lies in her beautiful samples, so we are including plenty of them in this post. At the end of the article be sure to check out more of her work by clicking on the link provided.

Dave Hile: Hi, Lorena, can you share with us a bit about your background? When did you decide to become a designer and what led you to your area of specialty—logos and typography?

Lorena Mirbach: I was inspired from the beginning. Since my early childhood I’ve spent a great deal of time in Venice, Italy. My father is Venetian and a large part of my family lives there. Among them are a number of artists including sculptors, musicians and painters. Of course the city too is inspiring with its architecture, its special atmosphere and its unique beauty. So, both these factors were equally formative in my becoming an artist.

Later as a student I developed a great love for typography. Read the rest of this entry »

Many retail companies envy the almost cult-like passion that Ikea’s customers direct toward the Swedish manufacturer of designer home goods. But the company wasn’t prepared for the worldwide backlash it experienced recently when it switched typefaces in its venerated catalog for the first time in 50 years, from Futura to Verdana.

For those type neophytes who don’t know their Helvetica from their Times Roman, Futura has been one of the grand masters of sans serif typefaces since it was first released in the 1920s. It’s prized for its clean geometry and simple elegance. Plus, it boasts an extensive family of associated fonts: Futura Light, Book, Medium, Heavy, Bold, Extra Bold, Condensed, Oblique, Light Oblique—and on and on. Read the rest of this entry »