I took the weekend to visit some friends in Philly. I totally forgot how much I love the city. And no, it's not what you think. I could care less that I'm constantly surrounded by people. That part is overrated. I like cities because they have character (and because you can walk, take a bus, a trolley or a train and get just about anywhere in the city). 

Cities are filled with artist-inspiration. Buildings, type, words, forms and just about anything that can inspire an artist. Take Herman Zapf. He took a vacation to Italy and was inspired by the forms in Rome and Florence. He then dedicated 8 years of his life to created the font Optima. Jorn Utzon designed the Sydney Opera House after being inspired by the Sydney Harbor and ship sails. 

It's not that we don't notice the small things outside of the city. It's more like everything is crammed in one place and that makes it easier to see, because you see them all at once. I could probably take pictures all day long of just about everything I see here. For the sake of the people with me, I try to limit myself to the objects that really jump out at me instead of constantly taking pictures. Here's two for your own enjoyment:

The back of a door to a store. Check out the awesome letter with all its florishi-ness. It made my day. Then, walking down the street with my friend, I saw this door knocker and liked the shape.

Train ticket to Philadelphia: $18
SEPTA ticket: $4.
Thoroughly enjoying the city and getting to see friends. Priceless.

Over the last two posts, I've had blog issues. My tool bar wasn't appearing. I had to put everything in as one paragraph in HTML mode instead of just typing. I'm still not totally sure how or why it happened, but I do know how I fixed it. I reset the Safari preferences. (Safari menu –> reset safari)

Thanks Al for your help! 

It's been over a month since I last posted. Sadly, there hasn't been many new things to report. I'm still doing church bulletins and textbooks. I did start writing and illustrating several children's books. Other than that, my sketch book has been filling up with type and random sketches as usual.

I'm also working on reading "Thinking with Type" by Ellen Lupton. So far, it's a great book and I'd highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning about type, its history, and technical terms.

Favorite keyboard shortcut besides cmd + z: the escape key

Overall, I'd say I'm discovering the life of a hard-working professional and how draining it can be. :)

This coin was found in my grandparent's meadow in Lancaster County, Pennsylvannia. I haven't been able to identify it yet, but I thought the rust and uneven surface were interesting.