Copter Design Studio » Lettering

Kelly Slater Chia Shop Signage

cj — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 20:38:23 +0000

I designed this lettering to be used on signage in a Kelly Slater commercial and pop-up shop. Kelly Slater, the 11 time world champion surfer, cares greatly about healthy living and a healthy diet. Working with The Chia Company, he created a pop-up shop across from the world-famous Banzai Pipeline surf break to give out free Chia Pods to the local community.

After doing some brush lettering test, I refined the script with pencil before drawing the final vector art. I paired my script with D’amico Gothic from Photo Lettering which I found to be a perfect fit.

Good Times masthead

cj — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 17:36:40 +0000

I drew the masthead for Good Times, a weekly publication in Santa Cruz, California. Roger Black lead the publication redesign and the internal team came up with the initial masthead sketch. Roger then reached out to me to re-space and re-draw the masthead based on this sketch, balancing the weight, harmonizing the slope and improving the flow between connecting letters.

Initial process notes:

This is The Town: A Tribute to Nilsson custom lettering

cj — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 23:56:39 +0000

Harry Nilsson is one of my favorite song writers of all time, so I was honored to create custom lettering for “This is The Town: A Tribute to Nilsson”. I was lucky enough to work with the very talented Annie Nilsson on this project, who’s beautiful illustrations of her father grace the covers of the album.

Produced by Kenny Siegal, the album is being released on February 4th 2014 by Brooklyn-based record label The Royal Potato Family including limited edition yellow vinyl! Available for purchase here.

Legacy of Letters logotype

cj — Sun, 07 Jul 2013 21:55:04 +0000

Legacy of Letters is a tour and workshop in Italy lead by Paul Shaw, Tony DiSpigna, and Lucio Passerini. I was beyond honored when Paul Shaw asked me to create vector drawings for the Legacy of Letters logotype, based on hand drawn lettering by the legendary Tony DiSpigna. I worked directly with Tony to finalize the design, taking great care to maintain smooth curves and weight transitions throughout.

*Now available on a t-shirt via Paul Shaw’s Shop

Eastern Suns art show

cj — Sun, 05 May 2013 16:54:15 +0000

Eastern Suns is an art show curated by Sean Kelling featuring artists from the world of skateboarding. The show’s venue, Max Fish, is a famed lower east side bar long known as a hangout for skaters and artists. Along with designing the identity for the show, we created a promotional Max Fish pint glass.

In addition, a series of my hand painted signs were featured in the exhibition.

Mojo Barbershop: Handsome not Hamajang

cj — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 18:59:39 +0000

Working with Mojo Barbershop’s creative director Kalani Fujimori, I designed a mural for the shop using traditional brush lettering. Mojo is Honolulu’s premiere barbershop, rooted in tradition and history but geared toward the modern day men of Hawaii.

In Hawaii’s local slang, the word “Hamajang” basically means the opposite of handsome, so “Handsome not Hamajang” is a fitting mantra for this local barbershop.

Mahalos to Marian, Matt, the Mojo ohana for your support, and to Kalani for bring me in on this project. Photos by Marian Lee and CJ Dunn.

Windows Cafe: hand-painted signage

cj — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 05:38:30 +0000

I created hand-painted signage for the 5th annual Pop Up Flea menswear shopping event in Chelsea.

I designed the lettering and painted it in a traditional sign painter style, making directional signage for the main floor of the event as well as interior signage for the Windows Cafe upstairs.

How to be Stoked Everyday: film titles

cj — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 05:41:53 +0000

I created hand lettered titles for a short film entitled “How to be Stoked Everyday”, a lighthearted guide to positive living.

L’usine: branded poster

cj — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 21:56:09 +0000

L’usine is a retail space, café, and gallery in the heart of Saigon. For their new Le Loi retail space and café I worked with Anthony Nguyen to design a “branded poster” in the style of vintage French poster art, which was rendered as a 6′ × 9′ wall painting inside the shop.

Language Arts: Contrast Magazine

cj — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 16:47:15 +0000

Contrast Magazine interviewed me about Language Arts, the type & lettering exhibition I had at The Human Imagination in May.

Some the of the handpainted signs I created for Language Arts
Original typeface I designed for the exhibition which I had laser etched into wooden blocks