|a piece of world peace|

Another month, another T-shirt design, this time for Union's International Club. I worked with Bernice, who knew pretty much exactly what she wanted, except we struggled with what shade of gray and which brand of shirt. Thankfully, we were both quite pleased with the result, which ended up with the look and feel of a concert shirt. The words in the hand are all of the countries represented by the club's members, making the design more personal and special.

-J. Gibb

|reading your mind|

One of my most recent freelance projects, the Union College Psychology Club asked me to design their T-shirt this year. They gave me three design ideas, and I chose this one: "I know what you're thinking." The phrase was used on one of their past shirts, but only as white text on a black shirt, so I went in more colorful and fun direction. Thanks to their generous budget, I was able to print four colors on a shirt for the first time. The club officers loved my design and didn't ask for any changes, a welcome—and rare—occurrence!

-J. Gibb

|show them the money|

A T-shirt for scholarship recipients. Seriously? That was my thought when first discussing this project at work. How ironic that this would turn into one of my favorite T-shirt designs so far. After deciding on the concept, I started drawing the design and ended up ditching those sketches. Then I started placing lots and lots of money symbols in my Illustrator file, not sure if the effect would work visually. But once I finished, I loved the look. Finally, I added a short phrase to the design, hoping the audience would get it after a few seconds, and I think that little addition really completed the concept.

-J. Gibb

|typography for kids!|

OK... so maybe kids at heart will enjoy this book just as much, if not more. The Serif Fairy: Explorations in the World of Letters, written by Rene Siegfried, tells the story of a fairy who loses a wing and thus cannot perform magic. It may sound like a children's story, but as you likely gathered from the title, there's more to it. Siegfried uses four typefaces (Garamond, Zentenar Fraktur, Futura Book, and Shelley Andante Script) to literally create visual pictures of the fairy, trees, animals, and more.

Amazon calls The Serif Fairy "an amazing book for type aficionados and their children" (sounds like quite the niche market, huh?). I can't wait to check out this book soon! (You can see more of the book at Creative Review.)

-J. Gibb

P.S. :-O>>> Thanks to Hannah Adams for sharing this with me!

|wanna buy a shirt designed by me?|

Of course you do! Not only is it an original Justin Gibson T-shirt design (featuring an original Justin Gibson font design), it will also be printed on an eco-friendly shirt made of 100 percent certified organic combed ringspun cotton. The cost is $10, plus an extra $2.50 for shipping.

Interested? Comment below or shoot me an e-mail at just.gibs@gmail.com.

-J. Gibb

|what every college grad needs|

OK, so maybe not every college graduate. But imagine my sheer glee upon discovering that a family friend had ordered 8 of these delightful letter coasters for me. This typography nerd got excited!

The company is Little Factory, and you can check out their other charming products, including a serif tote bag and typographic scarfs.

Graphic designer coasters: just another reason to anticipate my future apartment!

-J. Gibb

|shoot Comic Sans|

Rusty on font identification? Two years after my first—and only—course in typography, I know I am. Enter Deep Font Challenge.

This online game quickly quizzes your ability to distinguish telltale font characteristics based on single letterforms, a difficult but noble pursuit. Basically, you are commanded to either shoot or not shoot a specific font before running out of time. I had never seen and/or heard of some the candidates in this game, but I suppose that is to be expected. What really threw me for a loop was when I first received the order, "Don't shoot Comic Sans," a highly counterintuitive suggestion, in my opinion.

Do you have what it takes to master the fonts?

-J. Gibb

P.S. :-O>>> Thanks to Stephanie Ward for passing this site on to me!

|cut it out!|

Doubly delicious. Beverly Hsu has crafted these clever cookie cutters out of aluminum and acrylic, and I must say that I wouldn't mind owning a set (she plans to make more and sell them soon), even though I find Helvetica to be a bit overused right now.

Check out Beverly's blog for more yummy pics!

-J. Gibb

P.S. :-O>>> Thanks to Scott Cushman for this find.