Luke Wilhelmi

Photo

Sun, 20 May 2012 18:09:13 -0700

Mucca Zhanna

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:00:05 -0700

Have you picked up a copy of Typography 32 yet? It was a project I worked on with Mucca Design back in 2011. I helped with interior layouts and caricature collecting, but more importantly I worked with Matteo Bologna in creating one of the two typefaces developed for the book: Mucca Zhanna.

How Bologna describes it in a recent post at Creative Review:

“[Mucca Zhanna] is based on a small sample of calligraphy from a Zanerian’s manual that has the same wacky/naive feel as the Chinese calligraphy from the Canal Street letterer,” says Bologna. “To preserve the spirit of the original we ended up designing a typeface with more than a thousand glyphs.

“By forcing these typefaces, which are obviously not fit for our contemporary aesthetic, to live together within a single annual design that celebrates the best typography out there, we essentially conducted an experiment as to whether or not ‘low art’ could be elevated by its context.”

www.creativereview.co.uk

This was a fun project to work on for a variety of reasons. Mucca Zhanna is a crazy, handwritten face that didn’t demand much refining and finesse once I got the strokes down. This allowed me to focus on experimentation both with the awesome new font software Glyphs, and with the Python coding for OpenType alternates. Georg Seifert (type designer and developer of Glyphs) was an immense help, as we assaulted his patience with crazy alternates-of-alternates-of-alternates coding inquiries.

There are over 1000 glyphs, with two alternates for each ‘uppercase’ letter, numeral, and ‘lowercase’ letter, as well as two alternates for each ‘lowercase’ ascender, descender and combo that could be given squiggly extensions. This means that for the lowercase ‘N’, with its four variations (no squigglys, top right squiggly, bottom left squiggly, and both squigglys) there would two additional alternates each, giving a total of 12 glyphs for ‘N’. (In theory, that means the lowercase ‘H’ would have 48 alternates— but there was a limit to our madness.)

This of course doesn’t take into account all the diacritics we built, though admittidly with fewer alternate options. (But it’s nice that I can at least spell the Bánh mì pâté cha thịt sandwiches I regularly consume, since I sure as hell can’t pronounce them.)

Tagging, 2012

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:00:06 -0700

Tagging, 2012

Geraldo in a Hoodie. A quick something you and your friends can...

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 17:58:00 -0700

Geraldo in a Hoodie.

A quick something you and your friends can print, trim & wheat-paste/pin up if you so wish. Photoshop PDF, 11x17. Happy Weekend, all.

Download

From the sketchbook to the blog: Man, 2012

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 10:00:00 -0700

From the sketchbook to the blog: Man, 2012

Stretch Limbo, 2012

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 20:53:18 -0700

Stretch Limbo, 2012

Swingspout label from a an old metal oil funnel.

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 17:16:42 -0800

Swingspout label from a an old metal oil funnel.

Life Saver, 2012

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:00:05 -0800

Life Saver, 2012

Haiku I wrote a loooooong time ago. I should also point out that...

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 10:00:00 -0800

Haiku I wrote a loooooong time ago.

I should also point out that this was typed quite a while ago, too. This isn’t on the Underwood I currently have been using. I think it was a Royal.

Quick sketch of a Blue-Footed Booby (from the Galápagos...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 08:35:42 -0800

Quick sketch of a Blue-Footed Booby (from the Galápagos Wikipedia page) for Charles Darwin’s birthday.

Wot World

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 08:26:00 -0800

This is a Wot (fig.1). They have some noticeable characteristics, such as the large, seemingly-disapproving eyebrows and the six drooping fingers. You can tell this one is a male, because of its mustache. The females (fig.2) don’t have them. It’s rare for males to go without mustaches, but some do, and that’s OK. Another way you can tell is by the male’s slightly bigger build around the shoulder region, compared to the softer shoulders of the female.

Wots look similar, but there are usually small differences you can spot to differentiate them. Here are some examples (fig.3). Sometimes these differences can tell you what the Wot does in its community. Other times, it is simply tribal decoration.

Wots lead a rather simple existence. They often have serious expressions, as if they might be mad, but don’t be mistaken— they are a very friendly creature. They just let their insatiable curiosity get them into situations where they are confronted with things they don’t understand. While there is nothing a Wot likes more than having something new to figure out, that doesn’t mean they’ll immediately invite this new thing in with open arms. They don’t like everything, they just like to analysis everything.

The Wots have their own world of mythology, mostly revolving around birds, whose flight is incomprehensible but astoundingly gorgeous to the Wots. They celebrate the birds with ceremonial dresses of bird creatures (fig.4). They wear large beak masks and drape blankets over their shoulders that hang like wings. They have special dances that they take great pride in performing with their ceremonial garb (fig.5).

Now that you’ve been introduced to the Wots, you can notice them as they appear in various projects. As I mentioned before, they are very curious, and tend to get themselves into quite the odd scenarios and circumstances.

If you were to run into him, you might ask “What are...

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:59:08 -0800

If you were to run into him, you might ask “What are you?” To which he would reply “A Wot am I!” To which you would ask “What?” and he would reply “Um, I have a name.”

Colorado, 2006

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 22:06:50 -0800

Colorado, 2006

Mexico, 2005

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:05:14 -0800

Mexico, 2005

An unknown offshoot of the common and popular garden flower Iris...

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:51:44 -0800

An unknown offshoot of the common and popular garden flower Iris of the Iridaceac family, is the unpredictable (and dare I say unpopular when compared to its suburban counterpart) Iridenoptera, or Winged Iris. Often mistaken for the common Iris, its distinction lies in its ability to swarm with other Iride in a fashion not unlike some of the more ambitious ant colonies described in the early exploration documents of Kurt Brussel (Collective Cognitive of Congo Hymenoptera, 1935) and even the more fanciful descriptions of winged plantain described in Tolson’s interactions with the Tremeguará and Tupinaquim tribes of the more dense tropic regions of Brazil (Observations in Floresta Amazônica, 1917). While the common Iris is hardly a tropic plant, preferring the cooler climates of northern European and North American regions, there have been suggestions — and even heated debate — among the Insectivorous Plantae community about just how far Iridenoptere crosses the line. Iridiacs declare that stem patterns and leaf variations are too similar to Irideae to permit separation from the family, while Hymenopterists argue the crossover to Insecti is blatantly apparent through analysis of body segmentation and locomotive traits— even going to far as to suggest that Iridiacs are simply looking for attention— often citing outspoken iridiac Buress’s now notorious comment at the 2009 Iride conference of “falling funds due to the banality of Iris study”. Planticarnatics choose to disregard locomotion, expressing the importance of the protocarnivorous traits, but even these have not been confirmed. A lot about the Winged Iris is still unclear, due to the rareness of the genus, but also due to the imminent danger surrounding close study. Most agree that they clearly do not ingest flesh. This was concluded in the applicable iris biopsy report Inner Workings of Agile Irideae (1996) as well as the few subsequent — and tragic — reports that followed. However they have been documented to consume flesh. The most important example of this is the footage collected in 2005 by Robert Scherrer, in which a swarm of iride consume an adult human male (albeit an immature one) in roughly 5 seconds.

Famous Intertitles that never were… Series, 2012 Having fun with...

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 15:44:00 -0800

Famous Intertitles that never were…

Series, 2012

Having fun with the intertitle style developed from early Charlie Chaplin films and created for Rico con Amor— but also reflecting on the differences between written word and spoken word for moving pictures, and how different these famous movie quotes look in this dated silent-era format. How would audiences of that era read them? What of these would have been memorable without the actor’s delivery? Are there famous silent-era intertitle quotes? I think of the Metropolis line “The Mediator between the Head and the Hands must be the Heart!”— perhaps it was quoted outside the movie theater as people walked out. I’m not sure, really.

New work: Rico con Amor, a film short by my brother Jacob...

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:34:00 -0800

New work: Rico con Amor, a film short by my brother Jacob Wilhelmi.

Filmed five years ago (!) and then put aside due to time constraints, the project was only recently revisited and completed in December of 2011. I worked with Jake in the final stages, doing the intertitles, color editing & effects. (I also branded his filmmaker identity Alwayseldom a while back) Rico con Amor was my first time working in Final Cut, and I’m already looking forward to the next project.

Jake came up with the idea while driving on a long stretch of highway. He was listening to Pink Martini’s classic album Sympathique, and when Andalucia came on, the silent-era scenario played out in front of him, and he quickly had to jot it down. A fun project, done out of love for the silent-era greats and Pink Martini’s music, we hope you enjoy it. Thanks for watching!

The End is Near Guy, 2012

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:23:29 -0800

The End is Near Guy, 2012

New work: Cassette Jockey, 2012

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 07:29:06 -0800

New work: Cassette Jockey, 2012

So I recently acquired a smart phone of the Apple variety,...

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:47:58 -0800

So I recently acquired a smart phone of the Apple variety, enabling me to join the Instagram community. You can follow me and/or browse those photos via this link which, as it turns out, can also now be found on my lacking-sophistication-but-still-rather-up-to-date ‘About’ page.