SignSphere is a monthly round up of interesting articles in the blogosphere about inspiration, design, typography, graphic-design and more. If you have anything you want to share please use the contact form to send in information. This month features the many startups of inspirational websites for the creative community. This is SignSphere, enjoy reading.

Launch of Gekko

Gekko gives you personalised hotel recommendations you can trust based on your unique profile and the preferences of like-minded people in the community. Gekko is not a design inspiration resource, but looks great.

• Launched by a close friend of mine, please support and visit Gekko.

Launch of Flash Tuts

It’s all about quality tutorials for Adobe Flash. Whether you want to learn how to create awesome Flash animations and interfaces, bone up on your Actionscript to create games and apps, or just get started developing with Flash, we’ve got you covered!

• Visit Flash Tuts for your favourite Flash tutorials.

Launch of Logofi

Logofi, a inspiration gallery that acts like a leaderboard of the best logos. The best get on the website and the best of the best get logofi’s or voted up!

• Visit this website about logos Logofi.

Launch of Blogfullbliss

Blogfullbliss is designed and maintained by Adrian Balkwill. Blogfullbliss serves as his public blog where I post my random crazy thoughts, ideas, tutorials and more.

• Visit Blogfullbliss for more information.

Launch of Line25

Line25 is the drawing board of creative web design, a place where ideas and inspirations are drafted out and presented to web creatives through articles, tutorials and roundups of cutting edge website design. Line25 is created and maintained by Chris Spooner.

• Visit Line25 here.

Launch of Design Newz

Design-Newz is a site that features articles, resources and tutorials written by designers and developers just like you! The folks at Spyre Studios built and currently manage this site Design Newz!

• Visit Design Newz today for your fresh daily hand picked design news items.

Layer Tennis

Coudal Partners presents Layer Tennis, a design competition played live on internet.

Two competitors will swap a file back and forth in real-time, adding to and embellishing the work. Each artist gets fifteen minutes to complete a “volley” and then we post it to the site live. A third participant, a writer, provides play-by-play commentary on the action, as it happens. A match lasts for ten volleys and when it’s complete, Season Ticket Holders tell us what they think and we’ll declare a winner, so sign up today.

Sign up for Layertennis and follow the design matches on live.

Typeface Anatomy

FontShop released a great resource guide into typeface anatomy. Find out all the terms used for a typeface, recommended readings.

• Visit this extensive glossary about typeface anatomy.

WellMedicated

WellMedicated originally started out as a place by Andrew Lindstrom to vent, rant and moan ad nauseum on the topic of web design, a place to share inspirational findings with other creative individuals.

• Visit the blog WellMedicated.

Robothon09 Conference

Organized by Erik van Blokland and Paul van der Laan Robothon is a type conference in The Netherlands,

• See all links and information about Robothon09 at  FontFeed.

Relaunch of Eightyone Design

After months of developing the crew at Eightyone Design released the redesign for their own website, based on fast loading, design, usability and more. Congrats guys great job!

• Visit Eightyone Design or see the detailed information about the redesign here.

Thinking for a Living

Duane King (BBDK, Inc.) offers you a collection of recommended readings and online links that he has gathered over the years from various reliable sources. Thinking for a Living™ was created for those who believe that while design is a profession, it’s above all a passion.

• Visit Thinking for a Living.

White Space: How to Get it ‘Right’

A great article by Mark Boulton taken from his PDF book Five Simple Steps: A Practical Guide to Designing for the Web. This article learns you how to add white space in order to get an effective design.

Space is important in layout. Space can be created by content – such as text, images, lists, logos etc. – or it can be created by the space in—between content, called negative space, or whitespace.

• Visit the article at ThinkVitamin.

Cut&Paste Amsterdam

On the 2nd of April Amsterdam will host the Cut&Past event, an inspiring gathering of design professionals who will compete in a contest about design and creativity. The show is accompanied by a DJ and all will take place at the wonderful Paradiso. The show will also be on livestream, check the website for more information.

Cut&Paste’s mission is to provide channels of visibility and inspiration for designers, both aspiring and established, to reach their existing audience as well as potential fans.

Visit Cut&Paste for the Amsterdam details and check CreativeAmsterdam, via Dutch design blog Fontanel.

@DesignWorkPlan

Finally I turned myself into the Twitter Sphere!

• Visit @DesignWorkPlan at Twitter.

Enjoy reading

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Arial, a contemporary sans serif typeface by Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders designed for Monotype in 1982. If you are familair with a computer you must know Arial, one the most used “standard” typefaces for “normal” computer usage. Most professional designers and typophiles think of Arial as a copied typeface from Helvetica and while reading the The Scourge of Arial by Mark Simonson Studio I have realized this is in fact a true story.

The typeface became free with the release of Windows 3.1, which was a sales hit and Arial quickly gained spread around the globe. The main reason why Microsoft chose Arial as standard typeface is because of the licence fee from the original Helvectia typeface by the Haas Foundry was too high. Missed change to educate the world about the wonderful Grostek family.

Arial vs Helvetica

There are several glyps of the typefaces similar and some of them are different. Due the similiarity Arial is often (unfortunally) mistaken for Helvetica, the differences between these two typefaces is explained in an article on iLT, both typefaces are shown next to each other making it easier to recognize.

• Visit Arial vs Helvetica on iLoveTypography

Today Arial belongs to Linotype as Monotype Original:

Arial is an extremely versatile family of typefaces which can be used with equal success for text setting in reports, presentations, magazines etc, and for display use in newspapers, advertising and promotions.

Without further due:

Arial is everywhere!

Passing by an advertisement by a Dutch website about flight tickets, noticed the Arial Black at the top, when visiting the website also all other text is designed using Arial.

Advertisement sign

Driving on the highway when I spotted the Arial here in this advertisement, it seems to be an German clothing company using Arial for their logo, the payoff of Gerry Weber seems to be in a Futura.

Thai cuisine

Love the Thai cuisine and went to this small restaurant in Amsterdam, the window signs and menu is done using the type Arial Black.

Highway truck

Another highway shot taking while driving… Here is a clear usage of Arial Black italic for the logo and text.

Mirabeau*

A large Dutch internet company is using Arial for the illuminated signs, at first I was mislead, Mirabeau* using Arial? I only really recognized it by the letter “R”, visiting the website it seems they have changed the typeface of the logo.

Clearing out the garage

Throwing away old stuff… And found a small travel raincoat. Used typeface Arial Black.

Swarzkopf

Say again… Swarzkopf is using Arial? My wife bought something to color hair and while brushing my teeth I couldn’t believe my eyes. Quickly went to the store and yes… Swarzkopf is using Arial!

Tommy Hillfiger

Yet another large company is using Arial, this time I found a print on my wifes shoebox all lettering is using the typeface Arial.

Kaldi Koffie

This is actually one of the few brand where they consistently use Arial for all their visual communications. This Dutch Coffee shop uses Arial for their logo, text and shopping branding.

Vehicle signage

Waiting for the light to turn green, just had enough time to take this photo. This van has some lettering done using typeface Arial.

Hotel signs

Went skiing about two weeks ago and never have I seen that much usage of Arial. Here the hotel used Arial for the name of the hotel and the text.

Getting up the mountains

Most of the ski lift in this area (Ischl, Austria) uses Arial as typeface for the name of the ski lift.

Sun terras

Unfortunately we didn’t have a sunny weather, but when there is you can visit the sun terras. On the doors is placed with etch foil the text “Sonnenterrasse” in German language.

Ski rental

This shop used Arial for all the visual communication, not to mention that in this small village there where three of these shops… Arial is everywhere!

DigiD

Getting back and filling out some forms for the government, in Holland there are ways to fill out forms using a digital signature, called DigiD. I noticed the usage of Arial at the top of this letter. Hopefully this will change towards to new brand identity of the Dutch government.

UPS

The packages send using UPS are using Arial on their sticker, all information is printed using Arial.

For sale sign

Due the credit crisis many houses are for sale in Amsterdam, the broker puts op V-shape signs with the information “For Sale”, this broker also uses Arial Black for their name.

Design shop

Everyday I drive pass by this furniture shop in Amsterdam, the sell luxury design furniture, but all the typeface use is Arial Black.

Plummer company

This is a large plumming company is Amsterdam, they use Arial Black for their logo and other forms of visual communication.

Bike bag

Walking down the streets and spotted this printed bike bag which they use to distribute flyers, typeface used Arial.

Licence plate holder

Spotted this one many, many, many times. A licence plate holder for Dutch cars, most of them use Arial to display the name of the garage.

Vehicle signs

This plummer company uses Arial for their logo and text, designed with icons.

Local coffee bar

This local cafe uses Arial Black for their logo on the window, also the openinghours and other text is displayed in Arial.

Availability of typface Arial

From Identifont:
Designers: Robin Nicholas and Patricia Saunders
Year: 1990-92
Copyright: Monotype Classic Fonts
Publisher: Monotype
A TrueType version of this font is provided free with Microsoft Office (Macintosh).

More information at Linotype.

Wikipedia

Arial is also a typeface family comprising standard Arial (Arial Std) and variants, including Arial Black, Bold, Extra Bold, Condensed, Italic, Light, Medium, Monospaced, Narrow, and Rounded. See here for more information at wikipedia.

So tell me…

This typeface is everywhere! Please share and tell me did you have your Arial today?

In this article I will show the relationship between architecture and graphic design. In fact, surprisingly few architects use typographical elements in their design. For this overview of projects that do make good use of lettering, I’ve probably browsed through more than thousand Architectural Designs. Below you’ll find ten buildings on integrated architectual lettering and signage.

I can only guess about the reason why architects make so little use of typhographical elements on their buildings. The main reason will be that the building design doesn’t need it. Most buildings can make their function clear without the use of signage on the façade. As you will find on the buildings listed below, architects used the signage to show the name of the building to the world; there is no building to be found with its function printed on it. The function is supposed to be clear.

A famous architect once stated: ‘form follows function’. That’s why you know what the particular function of a building is. Architects follow their mantra.

Café de Unie (The Union), Rotterdam, The Netherlands

One of the first uses of typographic lettering in architecture is the façade of the café ‘De Unie’. This building was completed in 1925, and has the looks of a Mondriaan painting. From the outside the building looks very much like the front cover of the design magazine ‘De Stijl’ (The Style). This similarity is no coincidence; the architect was a member of the Style movement. Members from various disciplines, like architects, graphic designers and interior designers had a strong influence on each other.

You can find this building near Rotterdam central station. It was destroyed during the second world war and has been rebuild in 1985, 500 meters from its original place.

Bauhaus, Dessau, Germany

At art school, everyone learns about Walter Gropius and his Bauhaus movement. The Bauhaus has been very influential in architecture and other disciplines of art. This modernist building was build in 1926 and has a beautiful lettering on its front façade.

Seattle Art Museum, U.S.A.

In 1991, Pritzker Prize winner Robert Venturi designed the Seattle art museum. To make sure no other use will ever be made of the building, ‘Seattle Art Museum’ has been carved into the front façade.

Minnaert building, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

The Minnaert building on the campus of Utrecht University has been named after the Belgian astronomer Marcel Minnaert. The architectural firm Neutelings Rietdijk has made very original use of huge letters to give the building its name. The columns that carry the upper levels are integrated within the letters.

Library of Alexandria, Egypt

Snøhetta is a Norwegian architectural firm with a very beautiful website. The buildings they design are fine too. Take for example the library in Alexandria, a huge cylinder covered with concrete plating. On those plates you can see all kinds of typographical elements in non western languages, mostly hieroglyphs.

Terror Háza múzeum / House of Terror museum

House of Terror is a museum located at Andrássy út 60 in Budapest, Hungary. Designed by architects János Sándor and Kálmán Újszászy.

The reconstruction turned the exterior of the building into somewhat of a monument; the black exterior structure (consisting of the decorative entablature, the blade walls, and the granite sidewalk) provides a frame for the museum, making it stand out in sharp contrast to the other buildings on Andrássy Avenue. Wikipedia.

City Museum Melbourne, Australia

Designed by Garry Emery, Mark Janetzki and Ben Kluger for the City Museum Melbourne. This large folded monumental sign draws the attention to the museum and gives direction to the entrance.

Eureka Tower Carpark

Also designed by the Emery Studio Melbourne, big painted letters on the walls and floor, looking directly the letters are distored but standing in a right position the letters can be read perfectly. Fabulously done artwork by Axel Peemoeller.

LAX

One of the large LAX signs that greet visitors to Los Angeles International Airport. This sign is at the Century Boulevard entrance to the airport.

Art school made me do this

A fun project by Rutger de vries (Perongeluk) who used this old building to express his design ideas. It was doomed to demolition, the former nursing home in Utrecht (The Netherlands). After the elderly residents had been relocated, it had served as a student residence for another six years, but now it stood empty. Rutger de Vries says:  “My work is transitory in nature; in fact I prefer to present it in places that have almost ceased to exist, where it can contrast with the setting”.

You.

Can you name a building where the designer made good use of typographic elements? Let me know by adding a comment!

This is a guest post by Frank van Leersum, a Dutch student architecture who likes to write about architecture and books. Visit his Dutch weblog Aureon or follow him on twitter.

In the field of signage design and wayfinding systems there are not many blogs to be found. Here you will find a list of blogs in this field of expertise. If you have a blog to share please leave a comment in the fields below. Thank you and enjoy reading.

fd2s Blog

A discussion of the latest trends and best practices in wayfinding and environmental graphic design for large, complex environments.

At fds2 the company mainly operates in the field of wayfinding and signage design for hospitals, they have recently added a blog to their website with interesting topics, recommended readings.

• Company location: Texas, United States. Visit fd2s Blog.

Büro North

Büro North is an emerging studio dedicated to fusing creativity & pragmatics to generate visionary design. At the blog they discuss work and ideas from the company.

• Company location: Melbourne, Australia. Visit Büro North Blog.

Branch Design

The blog of Branch Design is about interpretation and wayfinding design, they showcase their work through the blog. Interesting read.

• Company location: New Zealand. Visit the Branch design blog.

Digital signage blog

We are a group of technology enthusiasts who are passionate with the uses of gadgets and nifty pieces of equipment. When digital signage came into our picture, we got excited and decided to take it for a ride. In fact, with the tremendous popular rise of digital signage and its applications everyday, it has now become part of our profession.

Frequently updated blog with topics about digital signage.

• Location: Australia, visit Digital Signage Blog.

Beaver Group Blog

Beaver Group is an organisation whose focus is the delivery of digital signage and design solutions.

The blog is filled with information about digital signage, unfortunally you cannot comment on the posts.

• Location: United Kingdom, visit the Beaver Group Blog.

Digital Signage Blog

DigitalSignage.com seeks to represent the voice of a growing industry by uniting associations, businesses, and individuals in a unique and timely way. Whether information is distributed on out-of-home signage or online, content is king.

Recently started blog about digital signage, the posts are frequently updated. The website also hosts a complete topic supplier list of companies offering signage and wayfinding products for the United States.

• Location: US, visit the blog Digital Signage.

Sixteen Nine

Yet another blog about digital signage and wayfinding, written by Dave Haynes. He frequently updates his blog with interesting and freshing topics.

• Visit the digital signage website Sixteen Nine.

Rise Display Network

Rise Display Network is the industry’s leading web delivered digital signage software solution that brings live data, custom messages and content to thousands of displays.

At the blog of Rise Display Network posts are about digital signage and software.

• Visit the blog Rise Display Network.

All Signs Group

A blog about our projects, the products we make and the people who make them.

The blog is a showcase of the work of All Signs Group.

• Location: United Kingdom, visit the blog of All Signs Group.

GRS Signs company

GRS Sign Company Ltd is on the cutting-edge of sign-making, specialising in design, manufacture, supply and installation.

The blog of GRS Signs is a showcase of the signage & wayfinding work they have produced.

• Location: United Kingdom, visit the blog GRS Signs.

Architectural Signage Blog

Daniel Tillman is an architectural signage and wayfinding consultant specializing in interior, exterior and digital signage. My aim is to help employees and visitors move through a space with ease and confidence while promoting the brand identity and design of the facility

This blog hosts a compilation of interesting resources and examples of signage & wayfinding.

• Visit the blog of Daniel Tillman.

Best Signs

Best Sign Systems is a US manufacturer of proven architectural signage products that have been consistently specified by architects for more than 40 years.

At the blog of Best Signs they showcase work and updates in their inventory.

• Visit the blog of Best Signs.

Please share

If you came accross a signage or wayfinding blog that is not listed in this article, please share in the comments below. Thank you!

Signsphere a monthly collection of inspirational links and resources for typography, design, architecture and more. Do you want to be featured in next months signsphere? Just send your design work to my email adres as specified in my about page. Thank you for sending this months links, enjoy reading.

FF DIN

I just love FF DIN, a very useful typeface by (Dutchman) Albert-Jan Pool. A remake of the earlier DIN 1451, For years Engschrift and Mittelschrift which was used in our engraving industry. Nowadays FF DIN is found in signage & wayfinding projects around the world. Visit the minisite FF DIN.

The Wayfinding book

I just ordered the wayfinding book by David Gibson, a complete guide into information design for public places. When I receive my copy I will review the book here.
See here for the full introduction of The Wayfinding Book.

Logo Designer Blog

Busy man Jacob Cass released another blog, Logo Designer Blog, a blog about logo design, inspiration, tips & resources. With many contributors in this field of experise I believe this will be another great logo design website. Btw ordered the dot-grid-book, read here for more information. Visit Logo Designer Blog.

Design Dosage

Design Dosage is a design inspiration gallery that features one quality post per day. Each day of the week has a set assigned category. - Icon Monday, - Typography Tuesdaym - Wallpaper Wednesday, - Illustration Thursday, - Logo Friday, - CSS Saturday, - Print Sunday. See for more daily inspiration Design Dosage.

New Veer Marketplace

Low-priced images for the Veer community, produced by the Veer community. With over 100,000 images Veer is to release a new this marketplace with photos starting at $1,- Visit the marketplace from Veer here for more information.

Georgia on my mind

Mathew Carter’s graceful serif typeface Georgia is re-discovered by Web Designers. Featured at inspirationbit are 32 web sites that rely heavily on Georgia to display their content.

Visit this great showcase of usage Georgia websites at inspirationbit.

Type Chart

Typechart lets you flip through, preview and compare web typography while retrieving the CSS.

Finally a great website about the difference between Windows (Clear) Type & Mac Type. Seeing the samples I cannot believe I have been stuck with Windows for so many years. All examples can be used in your own CSS Style Sheet. Check the website TypeChart for more information, via iLovetypography.

Icon Dock

IconDock is brought to you by N.Design Studio. They know your time is valuable, that is why they offer stock icons in vector and pixel format that you can quickly snap in your projects to speed up the development.

Visit IconDock or visit the blog for more information.

Underconsideration now @twitter

The design firm Underconsideration is now also on twitter, follow the moves by Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit.
See the announcement here and follow at twitter.

20 Corporate Brand Logo Evolution

Have you ever wonder how the first Apple logo looks in 30 years back? Did you know Volkswagen was Hitler’s idea? Or how the IBM logo changes over the time? Or where the Mercedes-Benz Brand And The Three-Pointed Star logo came from? Check this post at Instantshift.

Minimal design websites showcase

A website dedicated to minimal designs, although this website if fairly new already several great minimal designs have been added. Submitted DesignWorkPlan recently.
Check the minimal design showcase.

Wireframes

This is the opening of Wireframes Magazine, in which I invite you to take part. The essence behind this experiment is the simple idea that we as information architects, interaction designers, and user experience professionals all create design documentation in one form or another which makes up a large part of our typical work day.
Visit Wireframes.

Creative Fluff

Creative Fluff is an eclectic group of young designers, artists, writers, and critics. It is not only our goal, but our pleasure to bring you the latest, oldest, and most interesting news from all realms of creative art and design

PDF Book: Designing for the web

A Practical Guide to Designing for the Web aims to teach you techniques for designing your website using the principles of graphic design by Mark Boulton. This is a great PDF booklet and will teach everything from start to finish, filled with many tips and insights from Mark Boulton. See more at the website Five Simple Steps, read here for a full review.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized

The goal of giving form to a complex situation like the credit crisis is to quickly supply the essence of the situation to those unfamiliar and uninitiated. Created by Jonathan Jarvis, Los Angeles based designer.
To see the video see the website crisisofcredit, via fontfeed.

Examples of presenting work/projects

YouTheDesigner published a great article with examples on how to present your work/projects. It will give you an insight on how to shoot a photo and make your work attractive for a portfolio. Visit the article here.

Dutch Corporate Identity Price 2009

Dutch foundation Grafische Cultuurstichting is organizing a national contest for best corporate identity. Until the first of March you can send in materials. See here for the full details (Dutch only), via FontShop.

AIGA: Air Force One Graphic History

What is the story behind the graphic design of Air Force One? Patton investigates the visual identity of the “flying White House.” Featured on AIGA.

Good Design in ten commandments.

As good design cannot be measured in a finite way he set about expressing the ten most important criteria for what he considered was good design.

Visit the good design in ten commandments here, via designnotes.

Enjoy reading!

Thank you for your visit at Designworkplan.com, enjoy reading the above recommendations. If you have anything to share please type a comment or let me know via contact.

Up next the first DesignWorkPlan guest article by Frank van Leersum about signage and architecture, please subscribe by RSS if you like the content. Thank you.