NICOLA GINZLER

Senior Graphic Designer
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First Nations Font Thursday 3 — Thanksgiving/Day of Mourning

Red-tinted photo of a single caribou with a white rectangle superimposed. Two lines of black type inside that: "Nurraq" in English letters and in the "Nurraq" Inuktitut typeface.

Nurraq Font Friday – Typefaces based on Canadian First Nations Alphabet. See also my posts First Nations Font Friday 1 and First Nations Font Thursday 2. To many non-Native Americans, Thanksgiving Day is a celebration of family, friends and the founding of this country, and an opportunity to think about the things we’re grateful for. […]

artnet: Artists May Have a New Weapon in the Fight Against A.I. Generators—a Data ‘Poisoning’ Tool

In the midst of Britain’s industrial revolution, the Luddites protested the impact of rapid technological adoption on working people by sabotaging factory machinery. Weaving frames were smashed, engines jammed, and in extreme instances whole factories burned. Today, artificial intelligence poses a similar threat to the labor of creatives. Tech companies, perhaps a digital grandchild of Victorian industrialists, […]

Fun with AI Font Friday 1 – blending images

OK, I’m still playing with Midjourney AI image generation software, but this time using my own images to avoid copyright infringement. This round actually involves some fonts, or rather, Midjourney’s attempts at type. None of the image generation software I’ve found is currently good at reading, understanding or reproducing text, although it may (but doesn’t […]

Pics ’n Vids from Nicola’s Burningperson 2023

Here’s a bunch of visuals from Burning Man (or as we should all call it, Burningperson) 2023. Follow the day-by-day retelling below, or just jump directly to the photo gallery or videos. This year I attended the event as a member of the Flaming Lotus Girls (FLG), a woman-run, all-gender art collective based in San Francisco. […]

FLG Fundraiser Font Friday: “Mutant Zoo: Monster Ball”

Taking us back a bit to May 2023 and the Mutant Zoo: Monster Ball event presented by the Flaming Lotus Girls and Heavy Petting Zoo, at 7th West in Oakland, CA. Twelve DJs! (DJ Icon was a late add and didn’t make it onto the artwork.) The HPZ art car! FLG’s “Mutopia” and “Angel of […]

Would you like some OWEOs?

This year at Burning Man I’m gifting OWEO cookies in little packs of 2! OREOs, in name-brand packaging, you say? Doesn’t that go against the Burning Man principle of Decommodification? No, OWEOs! I designed special PARODY labels and had them made into stickers to put on packages of the real thing. Who wouldn’t want the […]

Eyeball Youball

Behold what Max is holding up! It’s an art piece I made—a steel eye socket with copper leaf and a resin eyeball that will light up. It will be attached to one of the “pods” of Mutopia Evolution, a fire sculpture by the Flaming Lotus Girls that will debut at Burning Man 2023: https://www.flaminglotus.com/ and […]

Elder Mother – designs for merchandise

Elder Mother is an immense movement and light sculpture designed by renowned artist Charles Gadeken of San Francisco. (Gadeken is the creator of Entwined Meadow, an installation of steel trees and bushes with interactive lighting controls, seen in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.) It’s a massive 30-foot metal tree with long strings of plastic cubes […]

Favorite Adobe Fonts, Sticker Fonts, Font Friday

I wrote this post a while ago, after I created the Burning Man sticker designs but before I knew that three designs had been selected for printing. So here’s a little peek behind the scenes. The greeters at the gate of Black Rock City, the temporary city built by Burning Man workers and participants each […]

FLG Font Tuesday

The metal/fire/sculpture art collective I’m part of, the Flaming Lotus Girls, or FLG, was interested in having merchandise made that, unlike these, wasn’t associated with a particular event or sculpture. I took on the challenge! I found a beautiful illustration of a lotus flower at stock house Shutterstock and used it as my base image: […]

FLG Font Friday – The Merch Edition!

This year I’ve been working with an art collective called the Flaming Lotus Girls. Started in 2000, FLG is a female-led, all-gender group that creates large-scale sculpture that moves and shoots fire. Interaction is key; we invite audience members to press buttons or pull levers that create a jet of flame or make an arm […]

Phasing-in Fauna Font Friday

On left: 2x2 images of a fox-bird hybrid, about 80% rendered; on right: 2x2 images of black-tailed jackrabbit, about 40% rendered

The images below are from Midjourney AI image generation software. Midjourney shows blurry intermediate images as the final art is being created. I’ve been capturing these as screenshots and using them as art in their own right. I’ve recently discovered that users can specifically tell the bot to stop at XX percent rendered by using […]

Firefly Fox-bird Friday

AI generated images of a fox with blue wings in a desert environment, created using Midjourney and Adobe Firefly software. Type below images reads "See Image 26 for an AI-generated “blend” of these two images."

I was recently authorized to try out the Beta version of Adobe Firefly, the company’s offering for AI image generation. Adobe has since thrown open the gates and anyone can use Firefly Beta, no waiting. (This post isn’t about fonts at all, so it’s not really a Font Friday, but this AI stuff is too […]

Frequent Font Friday

Six sticker designs are described in detail in post. Left to right, top row: "We are all so beautiful"; "Animalia" with curvy, fanciful beetle; "(AI)nimalia" with pink fox-bird; Left to right, bottom row: Taxonomy of a cat with an attitude; "Animals of the Black Rock Desert"; "They visit us here" dragonfly

The greeters at the gate of Black Rock City, the temporary city built by Burning Man workers and participants each year, hand out welcome materials to everyone entering. Among these are always stickers emblematic of the event in general or that year’s theme. In the last three weeks I’ve submitted no fewer than thirteen (13) […]

Fake? Font Friday 5: Copyrights in the Age of AI

This short video, by artist Neil Blevins, gives a good explanation of a recent US Copyright Office document that covers the AI that is suddenly everywhere. I haven’t read the whole document, but the parts I have seem well-translated. The main point is that only work that is the product of a human—as opposed to […]

Flyball (the Space Cat) Font Friday

The adventures of Flyball the Space Cat are detailed in four charming children’s books by author Ruthven Todd and illustrator Paul Galdone. The original books are collector’s items now, but reproductions are readily available. Published starting in 1952, the books imagine a small, gray, intrepid kitten who stows away on a rocket to the moon, […]

Friends Font Friday

This glorious enameled color wheel pin was a gift from my good friends Chris and Mickey. It combines two of my favorite things: colors and type. The outer circle is a 12-section color wheel—doubling the usual number of colors. The inner, moveable circle is black, with cutout arcs. White type follows the arc and gold […]

Combining obsessions

Cats! Color! Chart of cat coat colors! I’m obsessed with both color (vocation) and cats (avocation). Here’s an exhaustive chart showing many (all?) possible coats seen in the average housecat, with notes about purebred distinctions. According to this chart, my cat Eights (below) is a Blue and White Tuxedo Short-hair. Scroll down for my kitties […]

Flaming Lotus Girls 2023 “Mutopia” sculpture stickers

These are promotional/fundraising sticker designs for the Flaming Lotus Girls’ metal/fire sculpture Mutopia, which will be going to Burning Man this year. I image-traced photographs of the artwork to start off, then added color and type. Photo #1: Image trace stickers: Photo #2

Phonological Font Friday

An interesting article by UK layman Peter Irons from his blog, “To Read or Not to Read: This Blog will chart the progress of the emergence of the use of computer screen technology to enable more people to maximise their reading performance across the world.” In his blog Irons explores reading deficits such as dyslexia, […]

Fibonacci Font Friday

Fibonacci spiral with sequential arcs of a circle cutting through squares in the Fibonacci sequence

A glorious number of type designers have created fonts based on the Fibonacci spiral. Some of the designs are lovely, such as Sarah Samira’s, some are incomprehensible, such as Nicola Ball’s, and some are just terrible, such as Rachel Sinclair’s, but it’s the (mathematical) thought that counts. Fibonacci Font—Sarah Samira Design The Fibonacci Spiral Fibonacci […]

Finnish Font Franz Font Friday

From edenspiekermann.com: Finnish font wins Russian Award FF Mister K, the font developed by the Finnish designer Julia Sysmäläinen, won the International Type Design Competition ‘Modern Cyrillic’. The latin version of the typography inspired by Franz Kafka had been introduced at the TYPO 2009 conference. Mы пoздравляем Mister K! The competition was held by ParaType with support by […]

Festive Felines Font Friday

Well, I missed the the beginning of Hanukkah and the Winter Solstice this year, but I’m just in time for Christmas. Here are some cartoon kitties celebrating the holiday with “Merry [or Meowy] Catmas”. Type-wise, the designs all have hand drawn script that that gives them a sweet and homey look.

Flash Font Friday

Classic typefaces in tattoos, flash or custom, fall into two main groups: block capitals with thick, filled-in verticals and/or mid-height serifs, or swooping, unreadable script. Type in many classic knuckle tattoos and banners is in the former camp; type in classic large back and chest tattoos in the latter. See my blog post Foot Font Friday for script tattoos on […]

Fuzztak Font Friday

The evolution of the Fuzztak logotype by Lebanese designer and calligrapher Joumana Medlej: The logo for Fuzztak, the game distribution platform operated by Quirkat of which I am part. Both companies underwent a rebranding in late 2010 and I needed to design a logo that would be game-related, iconic, convenient for use in print and online, on light […]

Forceps Font Friday

From BLDGWLF.com: Norway-based designer Daniel Brokstad’s “Medic Type” font uses forceps for the lowercase “v.” Also note blood spurting from a brain for the uppercase “Q.” Daniel Brokstad is a graphic designer based in Stavanger, Norway. Find out more about him and his work here.

Food Font Friday 3

Fontmeme.com provides font sources and information for typography in many fields, from airlines (see my post, Flight Font Friday) to movies to sports. See also my previous posts Food Font Friday 1: A Typographic Map of American Foods, and Food Font Friday 2: Typografische Schokolade (Typographic Chocolate). Food and Drinks Fonts Page 1 / Page […]

Food Font Friday 2

Typografische Schokolade (Typographic Chocolate) From Behance.net. (See also my blog post Food Font Friday 1: a Typographic Map of American foods and Food Font Friday 3: Typography of Food and Drink Logos.) Typographic Chocolate is a student project of the University of Applied Sciences Berlin, Department of Communication Design, under the direction of Prof. Jürgen Huber. The aim of […]

Food Font Friday 1

Feast your eyes on this typographic map of American foods! From UK seller Lucy Loves This. (See also my blog post Food Font Friday 2: Typografische Schokolade (Typographic Chocolate) and Food Font Friday 3: Typography of Food and Drink Companies.) Hungry for travel? From Cobb salad in California to pretzels in New York, the American […]

Free (Tattoo) Fonts Friday: 55 of the Best Designs

From creativebloq.com: By Rosie Hilder Top free tattoo fonts perfect for use in your body art designs. Choosing tattoo fonts is a big task – you don’t want to have the wrong design inked on your skin forever. And if you’re using the font for a project, you want to make sure you get it […]

Film Fonts Friday 1

See also (Bond) Film Font Friday; Film Font Friday, Wes Anderson Edition; Font Film Font Friday; and (Oscar) Film Font Friday. Here’s a link to a fascinating 2008 graduate thesis by Li Yu at Iowa State University: “Typography in Film Title Sequence Design.” The paper covers such topics as: A Historical Look at Film Title […]

Facepalm Font Friday

Duke at Yahoo! Answers asked: Who can type me a picture of a man doing a facepalm? Veronique answered: . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . ,.-‘”. . . . . . . . . .“~.,. . . . . . . .. . . . […]

Font Microsites Font Friday

A post from the League of Moveable Type at https://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/articles/top-10-most-magical-and-magnificent-microsites. The League of Moveable Type is an amazing resource for all sorts of typeface information, font goodies (if you’re a member like me!) and basic drooling over typography in general and open-source type design in particular. Their “Manifesto” is here. by Olivia Kane For those that […]

(Rainbow) Flag Font Friday

A blog post from the Extensis group. It’s not quite clear what the people at Extensis actually do (see below) but it’s a good article. “At Extensis, we believe chaos is a barrier that stifles creatives’ efforts to solve problems through thoughtful design. So our job is to build a route around chaos, one that […]

Fold-Up Font Friday

Want a folded paper 3D alphabet? Of course you do! Check out this extruded origami text pattern generator. This free web-based tool generates your text as a fold-up extruded 3D origami model. It’s based on this paper from Erik Demaine, Martin Demaine, and Jason Ku at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. [From makezine.com […]

Fahrenheit Font Friday

Posted on The History Blog in 2012, but still SO COOL, from both type and history perspectives. Third original Fahrenheit thermometer surfaces An original mercury thermometer made by Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, inventor of the mercury thermometer and creator of the temperature scale that bears his name, is going up for sale at Christie’s Travel, Science and Natural […]

Funeral Font Friday 1

A number of type foundries have font selections suggested for funerals and other solemn occasions. Once you think of it, it seems obvious, but I found it a little startling. Linotype’s Funeral Value Pack includes five solemn fonts appropriate for the setting of death and funeral announcements. Each of the typefaces offers its own unique appearance. […]

Fhtagn Font Friday 2

Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn* Hailed as “A Cthulhuian Font You Can Download and Use to Summon Strange Beings,” NeatoGeek presents a quasi-cuneiform alphabet for your delectation. (See also my previous post, Fhtagn Font Friday 1.) The original post is below, but sadly, the font is no longer linked. You can find the type […]

Fhtagn Font Friday 1

Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn* Howard Phillips Lovecraft was an early-20th-century writer of American supernatural horror fiction. Despite personal traits of racism, misogyny and anti-semitism, he managed to create some of the most significant works in early horror. Lovecraft’s literary corpus is based around the idea of cosmicism, which was simultaneously his personal philosophy and […]

Feather Font Friday, or the Quill Pen

Hand-written alphabet in Copperplate script on graph paper, with quill pen

Here are some tidbits about that venerable writing instrument, the quill pen. I’ve used a quill pen only a couple of times (messily), and am deeply impressed by people, past and present, with the talent and commitment to practicing to make letterforms easily and well. Here’s an account of one modern-day quill pen enthusiast, and […]

Far Away Font Friday: National Geographic’s Cartographic Typefaces

By Juan Valdes from nationalgeographic.com [Ed.: link is not valid.] From the article: Our maps have long been known for their distinctive typefaces. But few outside the Society know little of the history that lies behind them. Until the early 1930s, most of our maps were hand-lettered—a slow and tedious process requiring great patience and even greater skill. […]

First Sans Serif Font Friday

Today’s Font Friday is about the first sans-serif typefaces in history and in the modern era, from the fascinating site “Graphic Design History.” The site has a vast amount of thoughtfully-organized information. Says site creator Nancy Stock-Allen, M.F.A.: This site was first put on the web in 1999 as a quick outline of my lectures […]

Fried Font Friday

From the Handmade Font website: Eggs Font. Put Eggs Letters In One Basket “The Eggs Font was a challenge for us (just imagine how many eggs were fried for this unique font) and now it’s a new quest for all food typography lovers: you need to buy eggs letters and put them in one appetizing […]

Phys.org Font Friday

From the magazine Phys.org. This is from a while ago—2013, in fact—but still really interesting. Scientists use electron ‘ink’ to write on graphene ‘paper’ by Lisa Zyga, Phys.org (Phys.org)—Nanoscale writing offers a reliable way to record information at extremely high densities, making it a promising tool for patterning nanostructures for a variety of electronic applications. […]

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