Category Archives: Art

These are blogs that relate to art, art photography, artwork reproduction, and fine art in general.

Resurrecting Ottmar Mergenthaler

Posted on November 26, 2013 by Brian Lawler

In 1960, John W. Reed, President of the Linotype Company, presented a bronze bust of Ottmar Mergenthaler to the students of Cal Poly’s Printing Department (now called Graphic Communication). The bust is about 2/3 life size, and is mounted on … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, People, Typography | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Danish designer’s logo makes a nice Chinese ideograph

Posted on November 15, 2013 by Brian Lawler

While participating in the ICC Symposium in Hong Kong this week I had a chance to visit and tour the Hong Kong Design Institute, a public post-secondary institution devoted to graphic arts, graphic design, interior design and industrial design. The … Continue reading →

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Kalifornia to Kowloon for Kolor

Posted on November 9, 2013 by Brian Lawler

I’m in Hong Kong this week to attend the ICC conference. I composed this en route: Kowloon via San Luis Obispo, San Jose and San Francisco A melodrama in seven acts I have been sitting in a nearly upright chair … Continue reading →

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Details on scanning film with the Epson scanner

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Brian Lawler

In two earlier blogs I described how I set up a large tabletop arrangement to scan historic panoramic negatives on my Epson Perfection scanner. When using the Epson scanner with the Epson Scan software (you can control the Epson scanner … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventures, Art, Color Management, History, Photography, Photoshop techniques, Scanning, Software | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Drawing a Coleman Lantern with Illustrator’s 3D tools

Posted on August 11, 2013 by Brian Lawler

In my last blog about the failure of my Cinema Display, I included a detailed illustration of a Coleman lantern. This was dredged entirely from memory, and included as an after-note in an illustration of a heliograph that I built … Continue reading →

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Bad typography is not easy

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Brian Lawler

My friend Jim is a car aficionado, mechanic, driver, restorer and collector. His favorite cars are Fords from 1933, and he has one that is very special, a custom built street rod with some 1933 Ford parts. It is a … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Printing and Printing Processes, Typography | Leave a comment

My bookbinding class ends with literal works of art

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Brian Lawler

  Where have I been? I’ve been here, binding books. For the past ten weeks I have been teaching a course called Book Design Technology. It’s a senior-level course for students of Graphic Communication in our Design Reproduction Technology concentration, … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Bookbinding, Imposition and Pagination, Software, Typography | 1 Comment

Bookbinding with needle and thread

Posted on October 21, 2012 by Brian Lawler

I am teaching a class in book design and bookbinding this quarter. I have 30 students in the class; they are working on their manuscripts and will soon be working on their book blocks and book cases. This involves printing, … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Bookbinding, Education, Imposition and Pagination, Printing and Printing Processes, Typography | Leave a comment

A Windy City GigaPan

Posted on October 13, 2012 by Brian Lawler

I just returned from a week in Chicago for GraphExpo, the huge North American trade show for people in the graphic arts industry. I shipped my big tripod and my GigaPan panoramic head to the hotel in advance of my … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Panoramic Photography, Photography | 2 Comments

The Blognosticator’s first anniversary

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Brian Lawler

Today is the one-year anniversary of the Blognosticator-gone-private. I had been blogging for Graphic Arts Monthly for three years until their demise in the Spring of 2010, and then for What They Think until that fall and they could not … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Business, Curmudgeon, Mistakes you can avoid, New technology, Panoramic Photography | Leave a comment