Font Savant by Beta Orionis, Dr. Subtle
September 1st, 2008 8:29 PMOne afternoon, Doctor Subtle and I sat in a Starbucks, passing the time before we were due some place. In lieu of the book I had forgotten, I grabbed some hot drink sleeves from the counter, whipped out my colored pencils and some pens, and began to doodle. At the end, I produced this:
Doctor Subtle thought it was amusing, and sketched one of his own. Originally it was just an inked drawing with the text over the existing logo, but later I fleshed it out with Gesso and colored pencil to produce this:
As an employee, he has some pent up frustrations with picky customers. :)Before we left, I grabbed a handful of blank sleeves for later.
At home, after looking through SF0 for a while, I remembered this task. Already I had plans to modify the wording, but didn't think about it in terms of fonts. The Starbucks font is simple, but striking, and readily available on the sleeves.
I set to work making a reference card. I grabbed a blank sleeve, one of my smaller sketchpads, and one of Dr Subtle's pens.
The first attempt was not so great. The pen started running out of ink early on, so I was distracted with coverage more than proportion or shape.
It trailed off a little, so to be more precise, I decided I would mimic the logo's circular form.I grabbed my trusty compass and dialed into the radius, estimating the chin/mouth of the siren as the focal/center point. (That turned out to be nearly spot on)
I drew the small circle next to my existing mimicry, dialed in to the outer circle, and finished off my frame work with estimations as to where the words should end.
I tried to recreate the font again, with minimal improvement.
I made some notes about the lettering, then moved on to creating the whole alphabet, inferring what letters not available (marked with a dot) might look like. Thusly I finished my reference sheet.
I guess the next portion is not exactly true to the task. Because I was working with a sleeve, although I blocked the other letters or the ones being modified with color/gesso/bits of paper while lettering my words, I had an advantage with the proportions and the visual input during illustration.
I couldn't avoid the font being so fresh in my memory, but I think that the Starbucks logo and font is sufficiently burned into my memory and the memory of others that it didn't feel like cheating.
I did my best to ignore any unavoidably visible letters, and stuck to the reference sheet. Lettering for each of the sleeves was completed after each illustration.
The results:
They have since been placed back into circulation. Hopefully someone gets a kick out of them. I continue to create more as ideas come to me, and continue to place them back into the public supply.See media files for video of me leaving one today (Watchmen version.) (Film credits to Dr Subtle)
Soon after, someone discovered it and there which gave to much amusement on the part of customers waiting on their drinks and the barista working at the bar. I was too far away to record the reaction in any way, nor do with whom it left, or even if it was taken at all!
I'll try to capture reactions in the future.
Additionally, I intend to complete this task with a different font(more complicated)/product/message(more personal or unique)/vendor in the near future.
37 vote(s)
- Robert Burt
- C.M. Gonzalez
- Spidere
- Darkaardvark
- Tricia Tanaka
- JJason Was Not Really Mothra:
- teucer
- Jon
- Brandon W.
- Ben يامين
- help im a bear
- Someone
- Loki
- Flash Harry
- GeneShark Tom
- Adam
- Haberley Mead
- Brigadier Walrus
- saille
- Sombrero Guy
- anna one
- Lank
- Julian Muffinbot
- Miniscule Monk
- Myrna the Minx
- ♫ babe
- GYØ Ben
- Waldo Cheerio
- Lincøln
- rongo rongo
- Augustus deCorbeau
- Rainbow Bright
- Ink Tea
- phia
- lara black
- Absurdum
- teh Lolbrarian
Favorite of:
Terms
shplank19 comment(s)
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
JESUS CHRIST STARBUCKS!!!
WATCHMEN STARBUCKS!!!
EVERYTHING ELSE STARBUCKS!!!
YOUR POST IS IN ALL
CAPS IN SHORT
COLUMNS! ARE YOU
STEALING MARGIN
BLANKS' SCHTICK?
WELL WHAT DID HE
EVER DO TO YOU?
The fact that there are multiple new logos at the end, each well done, creative, and fun, earns this a well-deserved vote from me. Nice work!
Yeah. I think my personal favorite is Shuriken Coffee.
You do this so much better than me.
I enjoy changing Starbucks to Starfucks and think I'm hillarious.
my favorite is Starbucks Colony.
Mine too, though I kept thinking I'd see a Brittania one (by which I mean I was actively looking forward to a Brittania one - the siren is very Brittania-esque). Vote
oh wow! Thanks for all the votes! I was expecting like.. 3? I thought it was a very small completion!
I especially like how this didn't even start off as deliberate tasking
Can we expect any updates showing the lucky customers who received these collectibles? How about an announcement of where these will be distributed so the insane among us can try to hunt these down? Perhaps for your next fontastic effort?
So far, I haven't been able to successfully capture customer reactions, although I do stick around to see them get taken. I'm piecing out a solution, but once I devise a stealthy plan, I will, indeed, update.
I also plan to add designs as they come into being.
All of the sleeves are distributed in several locations around Pittsburgh, but most sleeves get found within an hour of being left (because there are so few available to customers at a time.) Although I do place them fairly early in the supplies.
That's a really great idea you've got there! I suppose I could mail some to some one in SF to place at the bottom of the stacks or hidden in the merchandise/around the stores, coordinate an announcement, and make it a scavenger hunt? That way I won't post them prior to discovery and players can post pictures of their find here. hmmmmm
Maybe we should turn it into a current era task? Like the taking tree. Hide sleeves in trees!
Either way, I've made a few more, and more should be on the way!
says the creator of this task:
gimme a break!
vote.
You win.