Black Widow

Following up yesterday's post of some old art, I'm now in the post comic career work. These next few posts will be of work that I have been noodling with in some effort to not be completely through with drawing. I had been hired to do some sketches for a few pin-ups by an independent comic creator, who upon review, rejected them. Later, a friend of his told me that he was reluctant to have work in his book that looked better than his. I know it's subjective, but this "creator" was never cited for his draftsmanship and I trusted the source. In an effort to not waste paper, I changed the character, re-worked the idea and got to work. The result is a linefest, maybe I'll block in more blacks next time. I can't remember if I've inked this, I'' check when I get home. But, enjoy it for now.

Out with the Old!

Alright, I'm in full tailspin with my creative life/career(s). This is leading me to post a bunch of my old art, much would be able to drive, maybe vote, were the living breathing citizens of this fair country. Note: These are not in chronological order.

The New Rupee

Just about a year ago the government of India announced a contest to design an alpha-numeric mark to represent the nations currency, the rupee. I learned of the effort listening to Erik Spiekermann speak about it on NPR.

This may not sound amazing but I found it a truly exciting moment, graphic design was being put on to the world stage. The second largest nation (in population) was turning to my profession to brand this exploding economy and make it a world currency. No small matter, our closest example is the creation of the Euro, a modern economic invention.

It’s clear that India wishes to place it’s currency on the same international platform as the US Dollar ($), UK Pound (£) and Japanese Yen (¥). Having an economic symbol that is internationally recognized raises the perceived value of your currency amongst it’s competitors. Let’s face it, money is a money-making business and the more stable your currency, the more value it has in the world.

Currently the Rupee is represented in the marketplace with a letter-pair (Rs), as are other countries; Venezuela (Bs), Bolivia (Bs), Belarus (Br), Pakistan (Rs), Hungary (Ft), Indonesia (Rp) and Switzerland (Sf). Top economic currencies all bear their own unique symbol and this is where India has set their sights. A simple mark will aid them

Now, India has released the five finalists in this design contest, and [frankly] I’m not impressed. My concern with the five final options is they don’t look like typographic forms. If this symbol is to be become a part of the countries and the worlds culture, it must conform to the same rules letterforms do. There are still people grumbling over the euro sign.

Three things that will make the final design a success:

1. It must be is simple. Can it be duplicated by hand in three strokes? If it is, then the people will adopt it.
2. It must conform to the rigors of typography. Will it look good on a computer screen and print well? If it does, then the countries will adopt it.
3. It must make sense. Does it connect you to nation? If it does then the world will adopt it.

I hope that the Indian government can achieve this, the world is watching closely, well at least it’s graphic designers are.

Really, really?!?!

I'm a bit confused here, didn't they get rid of the "express" already?

Riding the elevator, this morning, with a pleasant employee of this courier service, I joked about the name and he tried to explain to me that the the company name is not Federal Express, just FedEx. I smiled in response, not willing to spend all seven of my flights trying to timeline the history of the company name.

Will there come a day when when Landor is hired to do FedExEx? We can only hope.