Studio Notes #82

Greetings, Friends. Here are this week’s Studio Notes™—quick bits delivered to you each Friday.

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Lithuanian artist, Ray Bartkus’, Floating World art installation had me stop in my tracks this week. The idea of painting an upside down mural on the side of a building so that it shows a realistic scene right side up in the water's reflection...that's just brilliant.

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I haven't tried it yet myself, but Noah Deledda's soda can denting tutorial looks insane. He creases and dents aluminum cans using only his hands to make intricate art pieces with seemingly mathematical precision. Kudos to him for sharing his process. Will I be able to make beautiful, dented can art? I'll need to finish off this six-pack of Coke Zero first.

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Sometimes, a brand and product work together so well that it just feels right. The latest example? Olauto. This little company makes, essentially one thing: car air fresheners. But they do it so well, with natural fragrances that are nuanced and pleasing. It reminds me that a successful business in a category that, on the surface, is assumed old and tired and “done” is often all about just completely nailing the details. Things I like about Olauto: The scents are great (“OMW” and “Formula Sun” are my current favorites). The magnetic clasp so you can easily hang it from the rearview mirror. The logo mark being the actual shape of the product, which has a Southwestern, desert highway kind of vibe. Anyway, as always, no advertisements here—just a fan of little companies like this one.

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Tonight at midnight is the deadline for submitting your type work to the STA 100! I'm looking forward to venturing to Chicago next week for the event with the judges and maybe getting an Al's beef sandwich.

This Week’s Poll

Last week I asked, “Are Papyrus and Comic Sans ‘bad’ fonts?” And the winner was clearly, “There are no ‘bad’ fonts, just wrong situations to use them”. Good work, people. That was the correct answer IMO.

Latest Fonts

What are you working on?

I made some faux lockups this week while thinking about how some of our typefaces can work together.

I've also been thinking about how awful it is to market things as a small, independent business right now. One of my long-time favorite shows is Shark Tank. But what I'm noticing in recent seasons is the current state of the “Customer Acquisition Cost”, and how if you have a decent product and are willing to spend large amounts of money on Meta advertisements, you are almost certain to sell that product. And that massive ad spend and risk has become a default necessity. Bootstrapping your company and don't have the advertising cash? You're often out of luck and perhaps you'll be the 1-in-1000 that organically gains sales. All of these advertising dollars are going to the same corporation that suppresses non-paid promotion on their platforms.

I realize most of that is stating the obvious—but it's yet another reminder to myself to focus on channels I can actually control and reach the folks I want/need to. This newsletter is certainly the most crucial of those channels. Email, in general, is still mostly an "unowned" line of communication, and it's why I've decided to double down on it. Viva la email.

Have a newsletter? Let me know and please share it. I'd love it if there was a well-considered aggregator for newsletters, much like RSS from the old blogging days—or just more curation in general for quality newsletters. There probably is! But unless they pay, I'll never hear about it ;-)

Thanks, as always, for reading and the continued support. There's so much to read and consume in this crazy world. I hope you have a peaceful weekend.

Cheers!