Aesthetic Observer

2014 - The year of hand lettering

    This year I promised myself I would start putting more handwork into all of my projects for class. So far, I have and am happy that I have been! It definitely has been helping my graphic/typography design game grow. 

I say this to introduce one person and his work that help with inspiration: Jon Contino. Recently I watched a presentation given by Jon at a typography conference; he gave great information. His speech basically kept touching on that you should do what you want, not what others think you should do. 

He shared many stories of his employment with design firms and clients and etc and how no matter what it was, he never was enjoying himself. After years of going through that he decided to drop from it all and just go solo doing what he liked and here he is today working with huge clients and, from what I can tell, is extremely happy. 

    Besides having some great knowledge and insight for all, he also has some great work to inspire with. To the left is an image of the front cover of a little pocket book that he hand lettered and illustrated. The biggest thing about his work is that all of it comes out like this. If you look, you can see that although it's beautiful it is super rigid, rugged and raw. Personally, I love this look. It just speaks "Truly Handmade" to me. Although I do love mostly all hand lettering, Jon's just comes with such a personal feel to it. 

This kind of design is stuff I really enjoy. I love stuff that isn't super polished and has a sign of DIY in it. It makes it much more desirable, to me at least I am sure there are those that
will disagree.

    In closing, I definitely encourage everyone to bookmark his site and be on the watch for Jon Contino. Not only a great man, but a great artist and designer as well. He will surely inspire your art and personality. 

Thanks for reading!