42/52: Dingbot

4/7/18 • 2 min read

This post was originally posted on April 8, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Ten years of Fontstruct

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 42.

Ten years ago, I came across a web app called Fontstruct that allowed me to build modular type. I signed up and produced my first typeface, Pixa, which must have been terrible because I deleted it. But I blogged about Fontstruct and Pixa on April 6, so considering the site launched on April 1, I must have been one of the first wave of users.

Since then, I’ve released dozens of typefaces through Fontstruct. Some of these designs have been selected as Top Picks and some are pretty bad. Fontstruct designs have served as prototypes for several of my commercial designs. I don’t create much on Fontstruct anymore, but every so often, I’ll show up and enter one of their contests or knock out a quick idea that’s rolling around in my head. I love creating type, and Fontstruct is absolutely fun to create in. I really do need to find time to build more on Fontstruct.

It’s really amazing how the tool and the community has evolved over the last ten years. Users are building increasingly complex typefaces and now with the Google Fonts integration, the better designs might get a wider audience.

To commemorate joining the Fontstruct community ten years ago, I wanted to make a shirt featuring one of my glyphs… but which one? One of my pixel art designs seemed like a good idea, so I settled on my favorite robot from the original “Dingbots and Monsters.”

You can buy “Dingbot” on my Threadless store.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

41/52: Empty Tomb

3/31/18 • 1 min read

This post was originally posted on April 1, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

Exit only

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 41.

I love Easter Sunday. The sunrise service. The hymns. The special music. The flowers. But most of all, I love the joy and the excitement. After the reflection of the Lenten season and Holy Week, we celebrate — we rejoice — that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead.

The release date for this week’s shirt falls on Easter. The stone is rolled back and our savior exits the tomb.

You can purchase Empty Tomb on my Threadless store.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

40/52: Kudzu Palace

3/23/18 • 2 min read

This post was originally posted on March 24, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

No one ever wants to eat there…

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 40.

When I was little, we lived in Stanley, North Carolina. Every so often on the weekend, we’d make the trek over to Gastonia to have dinner, go shopping or catch a movie. We’d drive along a road where every tree seemed to be covered in kudzu. If you aren’t familiar with kudzu, it’s a vine that grows relatively uncontrolled across the southeastern United States. It’s legendarily impossible to kill.

At some point on the trip, my dad would ask us where we wanted to eat. He’d give us three options, but the third option was always “Kudzu Palace.” Kudzu Palace didn’t exist, of course, but every time, my siblings and I would yell “Not Kudzu Palace!”

Now that I have kids, I often offer up Kudzu Palace as a dining option. Surprisingly, they never pick it either.

When I started this project, I actually planned to do a bunch of fake restaurants and brands. Kudzu Palace was one of the original ideas from my first set of sketches. The project has taken a different direction and the designs have been more conceptual, but I’m glad I finally got around to creating a shirt for my favorite fictional restaurant. Now, I’m wondering what’s on the menu.

You can purchase “Kudzu Palace” from my Threadless store.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.

39/52: God and Science

3/17/18 • 2 min read

This post was originally posted on March 18, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

You can believe in both.

Each week for a year, I’m designing a shirt and releasing it on my Threadless store. This is the design for week 39.

I recently read an article by Don Lincoln, a physicist at Fermilab* describing a potential new discovery that sheds light — pun intended — on the formation of the universe. But what struck me about the article is his discussion of what happened after the Big Bang, how the universe expanded and formed planets and stars.

For some reason, science advocates and religious advocates are diametrically opposed these days. If you believe in basic scientific principles, some people assume that you don’t believe in God. And if you are Christian, some people assume that you believe that science is a hoax and the earth is only 6,000 years old.

But I’ve never felt my faith in God and my belief in science have been at odds with one another. I believe in evolution, climate change and vaccination. I also believe in the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. I feel that modern science is just one of the tools that God has given us to experience and understand his creation. I can believe in God while accepting that the Earth formed in more than 6 days.

In short, I believe in both God and science. And this week’s shirt is a rather direct statement of that belief. Of course, the shirt is only available in shades of gray…

You can buy “God and Science” on my Threadless store.

* I grew up in Batavia, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago and the location of Fermilab. I took many a field trip to the particle accelerator in our neighborhood.

Bob Wertz writes about design, technology and pop culture at Sketchbook B. Bob is a Columbia, South Carolina-based designer, creative director, college instructor, husband and dad. He’s particularly obsessed with typography, the creative process and the tools we use to create. He’s currently in the middle of a project to design a new shirt a week for an entire year.