Michael Doret is a Los Angeles based graphic designer, lettering artist, illustrator and type designer. He has designed album covers for Kiss, the logo for the Graphic Artists Guild and the New York Knicks, and five of his Time Magazine covers are in the permanent collection of The National Portrait Gallery in Washington.
Michael was [...]

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Yulia Brodskaya recently collaborated with MINE to produce this beautiful cut paper illustration for the 73rd Stern Grove Festival. Fonts and hand lettering intersect as she delicately reconstructs Hoefler & Frere-Jones faces into handcrafted paper masterpieces. The fonts used include Ziggurat, Leviathan, Knockout and Hoefler Text. See more of Yulia’s work in this article from [...]

Designer Lauren Kaiser has taken a fresh approach on the story of Little Red Riding Hood by rendering the narrative entirely with carefully crafted hand lettering. With strong typographic characteristics, Lauren’s letters jumble across the page in an intricate formal balancing act. Didone hairlines bounce across uneven baselines while maintaining a consistent sense of rhythm. [...]

The masthead for Antiques Magazine resembles roman inscriptional fonts such as Trajan, yet the proportions of the A, E and S are wider producing a more even color. Surprisingly the traditional typography compliments the modern illustration of the Magi very well. Merry Christmas!

You can’t go wrong with a typewriter font, and in this case nothing could be more appropriate. The industriousness of a typewriter font is mirrored by a series of charming modern illustrations of a family hard at work.

The headline for this Art Deco publication is geometric yet elegant. A perfect circle underlies the geometry of the “C” and the complexity of the “R” is streamlined. The crossbar of the “A” is high and if the “R” had a crossbar it would be low, two key characteristics of Art Deco lettering. Despite baby [...]

For the Ninth Day of Christmas Type I bring you a December 1932 cover for The Country Gentlemen. Issues only cost 5 cents at the time. The “stenciled” hand lettering resembles the font Geometric Stencil, yet the “M” is a departure from most stencil fonts.

With hairline thins and Didot-like terminals, this casual lettering utilizes a tall x-height to strike a friendly tone. The irregular baseline feels balanced in the word “easy”, however the baseline serifs in “mind” are too noticeably misaligned.

An intriguing urban legend claims that Santa Claus wears red and white because the Coca-Cola Company depicted him in their brand colors. Illustrator Haddon Sundblom did help popularize the use of red in his classic illustrations of Santa for Coca-Cola, however White Rock Beverages utilized a similar Santa in red in their ads prior to [...]

The casual hand lettered headline for this Pepsi ad outshines the logotype. The letter s is roman despite the other characters, such as the a, being italic. The lightness of Pepsi is conveyed by the weight of the lettering.

Despite the typographic appearance, the headline is hand lettered. The lettering strikes a good balance between playfulness and structure. The letters rest on an irregular baseline that manages to remain balanced. Notice how the tails on each e in “Seven-Up!” vary in length making the kerning more even. There are more Christmas ads from beverage [...]

The highlight of this Christmas 1950 ad is the Fortune logotype with it’s stylish and distinctive letter F. Logotypes from this time period were often recreated by hand for each ad providing a spontaneous quality.

The star of this ad is the product packaging. I appreciate how the designer gives depth to flat color by overprinting the light blue and red to create a dark blue parallelogram. The encapsulated type looks brighter in contrast to the dark blue, subtly suggesting that GLEEM will make your teeth whiter. The red cleverly [...]

In this 1957 ad for General Telephone System, custom spiked serif lettering takes center stage. The use of color and mosaic-like faceting aids in emphasizing the headline. Latino Samba by House Industries is a contemporary cousin.

Over the next 12 days I will be counting down to Christmas by featuring type from vintage Christmas ads and magazine covers. The original Mr. Potato Head required that you supply your own potato, which was considered an irresponsible waste of food when he was introduced in 1952.