Letter News Newsletter
Remembering
Robert Rauschenberg
Rauschenberg
The world is a little grayer now that Robert Rauschenberg has passed away. His insight, humor and incredible lightness of being filled everything he did. Not only was he one of the most fabulously talented and innovative artists of the past century, but I have a special fondness for him as I had some wonderful, zany encounters with him when I lived in LA. I asked him to sign the picture of us (above) that I'd printed off of a video taken at a previous opening of his work at Gemini on Melrose. He signed his name and drew an arrow from it pointing to me. We shared a lot of laughter.

He leaves an immense artistic legacy, not the least of which is a challenge to all of us to listen to and follow our most individualistic, independent muse. He certainly did.


See more of my work
Lettering & logos
Fonts
Illustration

And read my take about doing handlettering for Hollywood
&/or
the spiritual experience of creating art and calligraphy in
The Flow of Ink

 writings about writing




Leo, 2008
The Clay Cart lettering

What's better than creative, custom lettering
to take your brochure, catalog or theater program to the next level? The playfully sensuous hand lettering of The Clay Cart was one of three titles lettered for plays in the 2008 season of The Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, a most respected and admired theatrical venue and company. It's a joy doing fun and fanciful work like this.
Design: Looking

Type
Custom font sampleCustom fonts are BIG with businesses
Commercial fonts are fun to create because the style is of the type designer's choice and they spring up unexpectedly anywhere and every where. But custom fonts can be a client's dream providing uniqueness, exclusivity, functionality and longevity. This is a sample of a proprietary font I am very fond of that I recently created for a Nescafe Taster's Choice Gourmet coffee ad campaign.
Currently in progress: another entirely different proprietary font project (romans with serifs) based upon a major retail chain's logotype. The possibilities for need and use are many, and the value of having a custom font can far surpass the investment.


Resources
Bibliotheka Augusta Zapf's legacy in Wolfenb�ttel
If you are anything like me, you probably have no idea where Wolfenb�ttel is, let alone know that the body of Hermann Zapf's work is archived there. This spring I had the opportunity to visit this quaint city, about a three hour train ride north of Frankfurt, Germany and go to the Herzog August Bibliothek. It's a stately old building, or actually about six, as the large collection is continually expanding. Zapf's work is on permanent display in a room dedicated to his art. The consummate craftsmanship and beauty of his work never fails to impress. The library has published a quality hardbound catalog of the Zapf collection, Sammlung Hermann Zapf. A bonus is that much of the city's original architecture from the 1600's is still in tact, so the city is worth exploring as well.

About this newsletter
This is the inaugural edition of my monthly Letter News Newsletter. To those of you who signed up to receive this some time ago, thank you for your patience while I stalled pondering the best way to go about it.

Feel free to forward it to friends and colleagues, to contact me with questions or suggestions, or to enquire about my services.

Thanks!
Jill
Jill Bell Brandlettering provides distinctive,
one-of-a-kind lettering solutions
tailored to your individual needs.
www.jillbell.com