Made by hand

Alas the ‘on the way to school’ blog returns after a short hiatus. The winter semester is off to a great start and now there is time to focus on other things, such as this lovely blog. A big focus at our art school is making things by hand. Computer technology is great and is an essential part of any graphic design project, and also very helpful as a tool in many drawing and painting projects as well as a necessary component to photo and video editing. The problem however, of relying too much on the ability of the computer to produce endless ‘effects’ is that things start looking the same. Take a look at any window around town that is full of posters. Occasionally one or two posters stand out, but for the most part, they all become part of one big cacophony of similar fonts and images. In our technology-obsessed age, the handmade starts to really stand out. Whether it is a handmade birthday cake, a handknitted sweater at a vintage shop, or a handdrawn poster (such as the one in the image above). This poster is engaging because you immediately know it was drawn by hand. The poster not only includes a meticulous drawing of a plant but the artist has also invented his own fonts*. I like how the strong bold ‘MIKE’ font works with the intensely detailed drawing on the left. Margaret Killgallen was an artist from Portland who had an art practice based on found signs. One of the attractiveness of this ‘artisan gardening’ sign and the sign designs Killgallen uses in her work is the imperfections revealed by the human hand. As I contemplate my attraction to the handmade, I think about how we spend so much of our time thinking how to be more perfect, when in the end it is probably our imperfections that are our most endearing qualities.

*If you enjoy handmade fonts check out this website that brings forward an entire new idea of what constitutes a font: Handmade Font