Copter Design Studio » Type

Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs: performance posters

cj — Wed, 12 Jun 2019 21:16:50 +0000

Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs is a Los Angeles-based interdisciplinary artist and composer who creates immersive public rituals with sculpture, video, costume, and collective performance. The core theme of her practice is the conviction that the creation of new mythologies can lead to the deconstruction/devastation of real-life hierarchical structures. These performances often take place at museums and performance spaces including The Broad Contemporary Art Museum, House of the Book, REDCAT (Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater), and The Triforium in Downtown Los Angeles.

The programs for Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs’ performances were designed to serve as a poster on one side, announcing the performance, and a program on the reverse side, listing information such as the names and order of pieces performed, words and lyrics from selected pieces, and credits for performers, costumes, etc. The typesetting of the lyrics follows their performance, for example call and response pieces such as Who Do U Want 2 Love use different widths of text to indicate individual vs chorus lyrics. There in the Inbetween and A Journey That Wasn’t have songs which are sung in a loop so the words are typeset in an oval shape with no beginning and no end. And A Journey That Wasn’t additionally includes backwards text for lyrics which are sung backwards. The programs also include photography from the artist which relate to the specific, such as costumes, masks and sculptures used in the performances.

An die Musik NYC – Print Collateral

cj — Tue, 05 Dec 2017 22:24:31 +0000

An die Musik NYC is a concert series bringing the people of New York City high-quality classical music at affordable prices. It presents internationally renowned performers alongside rising talents from the NYC community.

We developed a flexible identity system, using big bold typography in a playful way to showcase the composers around which the programs are built. The circular and diagonal forms move like melody and harmony, working as a counterpoint to the rhythmic gridded elements.

The logo mark is built of geometric shapes which get deconstructed and rearranged for each poster and application. For the printed materials such as posters, flyers, and programs, we use Pennypacker for big bold headlines, in both wide and compressed widths. The website uses Dunbar Low for its largest text. The very low x-height of this typeface gives it lots of vertical movement and an expressive, lyrical quality. For body copy and navigation Dunbar Text provides solid and complementary accompaniment.

An die Musik NYC

cj — Thu, 03 Aug 2017 14:48:28 +0000

The logo mark is built of geometric shapes which get deconstructed and rearranged for each poster and application.

The website uses Dunbar Low for large headlines. The very low x-height of this typeface gives it lots of vertical movement and an expressive, lyrical quality. For body copy and navigation Dunbar Text provides solid and complementary accompaniment.

CJ Type

cj — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 15:12:44 +0000

Identity and website design for CJType.com, an independent digital type foundry.

The site includes e-commerce for selling digital fonts as family packages or individual styles.

The first release for CJType is the Dunbar series, including Dunbar Tall, Dunbar Low and Dunbar Text families. For promotion of this release, we built a Dunbar “mini-site” to show off the design features, research, and process.

More than just eye candy, the site includes meaningful content via an essay by typographer and professor Indra Kupferschmid on the history of geometric sans serifs, which helps to contextualize this release and provide meaningful background information.

Polaris: Typographic Popup

cj — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 00:30:32 +0000

Polaris: A Typographic Popup is a collection of typographic designs by CJ Dunn for MORI, a design boutique in Honolulu.

The collection of graphics was printed live in MORI’s retail store for the opening. Screen printing was done by Travis Sasaki and customers were able to choose which graphic would be printed on which object so each item was made just for them.

Pangram Poster @ Cooper Hewitt Shop

cj — Wed, 20 May 2015 16:48:57 +0000

I created a series of posters called “Pangram Pattern Poster Project” which are available at the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum Shop in conjunction with the museum’s “How Posters Work” exhibition. They are also available to purchase online via shop.cooperhewitt.org.

From their site:
The “Pangram Pattern Poster Project” by CJ Dunn illustrates a sampling of “pangrams” used for proofing typefaces throughout the design process. These hilarious phrases, although seemingly obscure and abstract, are a common sight for designers. Typographer, CJ Dunn has created a DaDa-esque poetry and visual pattern from some of his favorite pangrams, set in a chronological sampling of iconic sans serif typefaces.

Kiel Mead × CJ Dunn: diamond etched monograms

cj — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 20:03:34 +0000

Brooklyn based jewelry and product designer Kiel Mead commissioned me to design a bespoke typeface for a series of diamond-etched monogram rings and coasters. The rings feature solid letters, while the large brass coasters feature decorative versions of the letters.

Types We Can Make & Type@Cooper exhibition

cj — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 22:29:03 +0000

My typeface design work will be on display at Cooper Union as part of the Types We Can Make & Type@Cooper exhibition. The exhibition includes original typeface designs from the New York City based Type@Cooper (postgraduate typeface design program at Cooper Union), along with a selection of contemporary Swiss typeface designs from ECAL/University of Art & Design Lausanne (Switzerland).

Range, the typeface family I designed in the Type@Cooper postgraduate program is featured below.

Types We Can Make & Type@Cooper

41 Cooper Gallery
41 Cooper Square, The Cooper Union

Exhibition Hours:
October 23 – November 17, 2012
Monday – Friday 11am-7pm, Saturday, 12-5pm, Sunday, 12-5pm

Opening Reception:
Tuesday, October 23 from 6:00-8:00pm

Free and open to the public

Event Details

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

Polar Shift: lettering & custom typeface

cj — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 00:25:14 +0000

For Polar Shift, the latest record from the band Judgement Day, I created custom lettering for the cover as well as a custom typeface for the tracklisting and spine, inspired by old victorian books from the artistic printing tradition.

Why create a custom typeface? Well, I was originally interested in using an existing revival typeface from that period like Brioche by Jessica Hische or Alabaster by Jesse Ragan, but Brioche wasn’t bold enough and Alabaster wasn’t released yet. So rather than compromise, I decided to draw a custom typeface to match exactly what I was looking for. I researched original source material from the turn of the century, drawing inspiration from historical sources and adding details of my own.

Some original sources I looked at are below:

And here are some of my early sketches:

And a specimen of the final design:

Also, an early sketch for the cover: