October 30th, 2009 by owentroy So, I’ve been obsessed with blackletter type for years, and putting off blogging about it for who knows how many TypograFridays. Before I start in on, “what exactly is fraktur/blackletter”— that’ll be part two! — I thought I’d show you a few of the projects I have used it on recently as a means of showing how obsessed I’ve become (click here if you can’t wait until next week to find out a little more history).
 
It started when, for a book arts class in 2007, I made a short book about blackletter, sort of a rambling discursive monologue about its contemporary use and non-use: blaming the Third Reich for why Gutenberg’s beautiful type has now been reduced to being used only for certificates and death metal, setting some of On the Road in it, analyzing its form (“arrows pointing heavenward and to the ground at once. Its dark strokes are heavy but because of its stilletto heels it still manages to float,” &c.), discussing contemporary attempts at revival, recounting my nervousness that I’ll land on an FBI watchlist when I looked for the verboten Nazi fraktur/roman hybrid ‘jackbook grotesques’ online, and so forth.
 
This year, I’ve hand-drawn blackletter for three projects: it’s apparently my new favorite thing. Most recently, our newest Christmas card uses hand-drawn blackletter that fuses heavy metal pointiness and spurs with classic fraktur shapes and interweaves it with a black scroll studded with lettering for something which leans slightly more toward dangerous than traditional. It may be my favorite card yet; we’re really happy with this one.
Continue reading TypograFriday: Fraktur, Part One
October 22nd, 2009 by samanthatroy It seems hard to believe, but the holidays are quickly approaching. Owen and I have been printing and designing like madmen and should have the shop filled with new holiday designs soon.
While we do our best to photograph the cards accurately, they actually look much better in person than they do online. If you are in the Bay Area, we will be selling our cards at:
- Indie Mart at Thee Parkside on Sunday, November 8th
- RISD Alumni Sale at Ft. Mason on Sunday, December 6th
Hope to see some of you there!
 
August 5th, 2009 by samanthatroy 
We have another new card in our Etsy shop. We’re pretty psyched about this card and had a lot of fun experimenting with the Gocco process inks. We think that the combination of process colors and xerox-y reticulation make this card perfect for the design geek, 80s punk, zinester, electroclasher or grandmother in your life.
May 1st, 2009 by samanthatroy 
We’ve just added our new Father’s Day card to the etsy shop. Owen and I are both really happy with how they turned out. The Father’s Day cards are available as a single card and also in a set with a Mother’s Day card for a little discount.
Just a reminder: Mother’s Day is May 10th and Father’s Day is June 21st.
Special: get 10% off any May etsy order from Design des Troy by mentioning you read theexpertsagree.
April 24th, 2009 by samanthatroy As we’ve mentioned before, we are members of the Etsy Greetings team. Here are a few great selections from a handful of our team members. To view tons more cards from Etsy Greetings, click here.
 
 
 
 
 
Row 1: Armato Design & Press; Spotbear
Row 2: Melissa Kate; AJKArtistry
Row 3: LiSo Cards; Half Empty Press
Row 4: Two Hand Design; Twin Ravens
Row 5: Wheeler Studio; Grey Moggie Greetings
March 25th, 2009 by tiniestj I believe it was Jessica Troy who first brought the greatness of someecards to our attention. In a sea of painfully unfunny, unclever e-greeting sites that offer cards you’d be embarrassed to send, they stand out as the kind of place that actually makes you want to search for a reason (any reason) to send an e-card.
For all of you prudes out there, be forewarned that some of the cards on the site are a little graphic, but that makes their often ironic imagery that much more amusing.
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