Members to vote on Board Nominees
This week, AIGA NH/VT members will be voting on the group of Board nominees. Take a minute to get to know the board’s proposed new members:

Vice President (two-year term)
Jermaine Johnson
Graphic Designer, Dartmouth Public Affairs

Jermaine has been a graphic designer for six years, working in small advertising agencies, creative shops and, most recently, higher education. He is a highly motivated designer with a well-rounded set of skills in both print publication and interactive web environments on a regional and national scale. When asked about design Jermaine shared, “I have always had a passion for art and I think I am very fortunate to have found a profession that I really enjoy.” Jermaine has recently relocated to Lebanon, NH from sunny South Carolina. He is an Aquarius and his favorite color is blue.

Secretary (one-year term)
Brandy Gibbs-Riley
Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, Colby-Sawyer College
Owner, Gibbs-Riley Design

Brandy comes to us with a wealth of experience in the practice, history, and education of design. She has been a practicing designer for the past 12 years, an assistant professor of graphic design for the past three years, and currently serves as a research and editorial assistant to Alston Purvis, design historian and chair of the graphic design program at Boston University. Brandy lives with her husband in New London, NH. She recently changed her chapter affiliation from Boston to NH/VT and is looking forward to being involved with our chapter.

Communications Chair (two-year term)
Sarah Gause
Graphic Designer, Dartmouth Development Communications

Sarah is a Vermont native who has recently returned to the area from Chicago. She has been a working designer for ten years in a variety of settings, from small agency to non-profit and education. She is obsessive about presenting a consistent brand image, and particularly enjoys event marketing. Over the past year she has served as Secretary on the board of AIGA NH/VT. Sarah lives in Canaan, NH with her husband and cat. When not at work she enjoy gardening, crafting, and knitting.

Programming Chair (one-year term)
Kyle Morrison
Designer, Hopkins Center for the Arts

Kyle is a New England native who has been a working designer for the past five years. He comes to us with experience in arts programming via his work with the SEABA’s (South End Arts & Business Association) South End Art Hop in Burlington, VT and the Hopkins Center for the Arts in Hanover, NH. Kyle is a firm believer in community arts and is excited by the opportunity to work with AIGA VT/NH to strengthen the design community in the two states. As Kyle puts it, “I know what it take to put on a successful small event.”

Web Chair (two-year term)
Stephen Rovetti
Owner, Rovettidesign, LLC

Steve has been involved in web and graphic design for over eight years. His own business, Rovettidesign LLC, focuses on web and graphic design, and photography. He states that, “Design has a great potential to bring change to businesses, people… the world. I’m a firm believer that without designers we’d all be pretty lost.” Steve lives in Madison, NH with his wife and two children. He is passionate about design, the arts, music, and the outdoors.

Sponsorship Chair (two-year term)
Mark Karl
Webmaster, Visiting Nurse Association & Hospice of VT and NH

Mark considers good design an “essential for effective media communication” and a good tool for his work in the fund-raising and community relations department at a local non-profit. Mark generously serves as administrator of the AIGA NH/VT blog, and has been known to contribute an occasional article. He is currently working on a masters degree in Information Technology and Leadership at Franklin Pierce University. Mark enjoys blogging, photography, cycling, kayaking, fishing, scuba diving and reading.

A few weeks ago, my brother and his fiancee were working on their wedding invitations. They wanted to do much of the design themselves, but they got a little stuck and asked me for some help when it came to the typography. After a few quick questions about the formality and direction of the invite, I suggested Garamond Premiere Pro Italic. The two of them switched the “font” to Garamond Premiere Pro Roman and were puzzled by my selection. This wasn’t the formal, elegant type they were expecting. It was just a standard-looking serif. Surely, giving it a slant would not make it the type choice they were after. They wanted another option.

A slant does not make an italic

These days, Anyone can find the “italic” button within Word and “italicize” their text. What Word fails to inform them is that this is often a misnomer. Truly italic text is not simply text set on a slant. There’s another word for that: oblique. Italic text is a redrawing of the letterforms, usually stylized to look more like script. Many sans-serif typefaces don’t have italic versions, but they frequently have oblique variants.

I persisted that they try the italic instead of the roman. They did, and immediately decided that it had the exact flavor they wanted.

Content with this selection for the body text, they set about looking for another typeface for use on their names. They wanted something with a bit more flourish, but that didn’t clash with the rest of the piece. Again coming up empty, they asked for my help, and I suggested Garamond Premiere Pro Italic. Yes, that’s the same face, but Garamond Premiere Pro has more than a few tricks up its sleeve.

Swashes

Thanks to Opentype, there’s some pretty wonderful stuff now available to the detail-oriented typographer. One such feature is the swash. When used with a supporting font, these alternate characters can add the extra bit of flourish that a headline or important bit of type really needs. They can also be quite pleasing to look at.

The swash forms added the flourish they were looking for without changing the typeface.

Alternates

Sometimes, things just don’t look right for a particular situation. In this case, the swash form for the uppercase ‘J’ was not to their liking. They weren’t fond of the crossbar. It was a simple task in InDesign to pull up the glyphs palette and see all of the different variations of the uppercase ‘J’ that this font had to offer. They selected the alternate without the crossbar.

Discretionary Ligatures

Another wonderful Opentype feature is support for discretionary ligatures. The type designer creates and includes these interesting letterforms as they feel the typeface allows, so not all typefaces have the same set. They are not often appropriate, but they can really take a piece up a notch or two when they are used with care.

Garamond Premiere Pro has a number of these included that could be put to use. You can see them here in the ll, is, and at.

Figure Styles

We implemented proportional oldstyle figures throughout. This brought the addresses, dates, and times that otherwise looked out of place back in line with the overall style. I’ve written in the past about how Opentype allows us to select the appropriate figure style.

Other goodies

Opentype has even more features to explore. Fractions, ordinals, small caps, slashed zeros, and even complete sets of alternately styled characters are just some of the features that may be included. Not all fonts support all features. Right now, the best place to find most of them are in fonts designated with “Pro”.

Share your favorites (either Opentype fonts or features) by leaving a comment.

-Michael Niggel

Here’s the fifth installment from Alex Bullett at the Create Comics Workshop:

On the last day of Create Comics, students gathered to read the student anthologies and critique their individual pages. After lunch students were free to go. Some filed out but many stayed for portfolio reviews from Robyn Chapman, Steve Bissette, and Alec Longstreth. Being both a faculty member and the Create Comics Coordinator, Robyn had a lot on her plate this week. Because of all her planning, the week went smoothly. Students found her lecture on zines and mini-comics inspiring and left the workshop planning their future mini-comics.

Hey 4-Eyes! Copyright Robyn Chapman, Cover Illustration by Derek Kirk Kim

Robyn’s zine Hey 4-Eyes! has all the elements that make handmade comics so personal. The silk-screened cover has a wonderful tactile quality. The zine even comes with a pair of paper glasses in the back. This attention to detail seems resonate with readers. These elements were applied to both of the student anthologies. The students a left with copies of the books they made, as well as insight into the world of creating and publishing comics.

Here’s the fourth installment from Alex Bullett at the Create Comics Workshop

Today was a busy day for Create Comics students. The group of forty produced two full mini-comics. Each book stars Erin Branson Private Eye and her pet dog Watson. The students started drawing after lunch, finished their pages at five, and didn’t complete production until midnight. The covers are one-color silkscreen prints on file folders. The subtitle is a gocco print on the file tab. Every student contributed a page, resulting in two great comics. Jon Chad has been a guest at the school for two days. He is a Burlington resident, a great artist and an all around great guy. Today he lectured about mini-comics and drew the cover for the comics. The book looks fantastic.

Here’s the third installment from Alex Bullett at the Create Comics Workshop:

Today’s lectures focused on environments and world building. A home can say a lot about a character. Alec Longstreth talked about the way he designed the home for his character Argus in Basewood. Argus had been stranded in the woods and living there for a very long time. He made his home by himself with tools he made himself. The space needs to reflect that.

Image Copyright Alec Longstreth

In his comics, Aaron Renier’s focuses on creating large spaces for characters to exist. For Spiral-Bound, Aaron designed an entire city. When the characters walk down a street they might walk by stores they visit later. This is a great way to introduce locations that might end up influencing the story. In Spiral-Bound the characters travel through a secret subway system that has stops at all the prominent locations in town. It is loads of fun to refer back to the map as you read the story.

Image Copyright Aaron Renier

What value is inherent in professional design? How is design different from style? Why is design important? What makes it important? How does design shape our lives?

A gallery show and promotion for the field of design is in the works which will attempt to answer these questions and demonstrate the value inherent in professional design and its ethical practice. It will be shown from September 30 to November 8. As a member, you’re invited to participate. The call for submissions will be coming along soon.

What part of the story will you be telling?

Now’s a good time to start thinking about it.

Need inspiration? Check these out:

• The Value of Design
• Design Factfinder
• The Bathing Ape Has No Clothes (and other notes on the distinction between style and design)

-Michael Niggel

Here’s the second installment from Alex Bullett at the Create Comics Workshop:

Today students attended two different workshops, one run by James Kochalka and the other by both Aaron Renier and Alec Longstreth. James touched on character design and journal comics while Aaron and Alec helped students work on storytelling and penciling.

Artists like Alec and Aaron have a way of inspiring all those around them. It is amazing to see its effects on a classroom. Alec’s enthusiasm has a way of rubbing off on students, and Aaron’s warm personality makes them feel at home. Aaron’s art is incredibly beautiful and capable of satisfying my inner 10-year-old’s craving for adventure.

Alec and Aaron stand during a busy workshop. I sit to the far right.

Penciling comics can be a lonely activity. As Alec demonstrated in a Flickr tutorial which documented his labor intensive process, siting alone in a room staring at a piece of paper all day is not fantastic for one’s mental health. It is work environments like the one created by Alec and Aaron that can make a group of students excited about drawing. Building a community like this can keep cartoonists going even when they are working long hours alone.

These are fantastic (via crew)

As is this.

I want these as posters.

I’d like to make icons like these.

Not only beautiful, but a great story too!

What are you seeing and hearing about design? Leave comments and links below.

Here’s the first installment from Alex Bullett at the Create Comics Workshop:

The Create Comics Workshop started today at The Center for Cartoon Studies. Forty eager students gathered in the main room for lectures from Steve Bissette and Jason Lutes. Both creators talked about their approach to story telling and panel design.

Steve Bissette is well know for his horror comics. He talked about using panel design to create suspense. In the following sequence, Steve had to show a woman’s husband arriving at home. Steve did two things in the third panel in order to build up a feeling of horror. He drew the panel lower on the page than the previous two. He also drew the border without a ruler. This woman’s husband is going to make her life much worse.

Pages/panels from SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING #29 © 1984 DC Comics, Inc; script by Alan Moore, pencils by Stephen R. Bissette, inks by John Totleben, lettered by John Costanza, colors by Tatjana Wood.

Jason Lutes is fantastic at using panel design to slow down a story and convey an overall mood. The following sequence is take from his book Jar of Fools. Jason uses an unconventional panel layout. He divides his sequence with one long panel. This slows down the story considerably. It allows the reader to feel the calm as the money falls and the man lights his cigarette.

Pages/panels from Jar of Fools © Jason Lutes

More to come tommorow!

Perhaps it’s because I’m lucky enough to work nearby a great two-year school for the study of creating visual stories, the Center for Cartoon Studies, that I’ve started to notice the influx of comics and graphic novels in mainstream marketing. I’ve collected just a few examples here, but I’m seeing more and more each day:

• Random House, Macmillian and Dark Horse bring comics to our bookstores.
• Emily the Strange gets her own movie
• Bizarro and Derek Jeter share a SI cover
• Batman’s got a milk mustache & you can get in on the action
• Iron Man, Batman, Hellboy and the Hulk hit the summer big screen
• A movie, based on a graphic novel won the ‘07 Cannes Jury Prize
• The longest running sitcom in the US is a cartoon

Todays graphic designers are incorporating cartoons, comics, graphic novels and visual story telling into more and more of their work. To raise the awareness of this great pairing, and to provide an inside look into the creation and education surrounding this medium today, we’ve asked Alex Bullett, an intern at Center for Cartoon Studies, to blog about his experience attending CCS’s boot camp for cartoonists, Create Comics Summer Workshop. You’ll soon hear from Alex, in his own words, how comics and design go hand-in-hand. Questions for Alex? Leave them in the comments section below. Keep checking back, or use our RSS feed, to learn more about Alex and his day-by-day experiences when the Summer Workshop starts on June 23rd.