Thank you for smoking. You subsidize my art.

If you find yourself in Sacramento in July, Abby VanCannon, Victoria Montgomery, and I will be proving the theory that artists are hoarders — this is just a sneak peak. Gallery 21 Ten. Go see it.

I finished up these Faces of Type cards just in time to take them to Indiana over Thanksgiving and have my über-talented sister-in-law photograph them.

One of my favorites in the set is “R” which was convenient since my 3 year-old nephew — whose name starts with “R” — took an interest in them. It made me incredibly giddy to watch him rearrange, play, and ask me to help him spell words with the cards.

Perhaps my true calling is creating flash cards with faces and tape…

Continuing my exploration of words, type, faces and tape.

I’ve been invited by my alma mater to give an artist lecture on Friday, September 7.

While I feel extremely honored, it made me question what it is that I’m doing that caused them to ask me to address a group of students getting ready to enter the world of graphic design. Looking back to my very first typography course at Kansas State University and tracing that to the work I’m doing today was enlightening to say the least.

So I’ve decided to appropriately title my lecture, “What am I doing?” Here’s the summary:

“We tend to ask ourselves this question too often — or not nearly enough. It’s an uncomplicated question with a complicated answer. In this presentation, Brooke Francesi will disclose her obsession with documenting feet, nonsensical word poems, and magazine cut-outs. She’ll invite you to challenge what it means to fail and discuss how one simple question can impact the creative process.”

Thanks to Vince Francesi, Hunter Stark, and Victoria Montgomery for their contribution.

Feet Portraits
My Feet series will introduce you to the places my feet go and other feet they meet. Some people take pictures of food. I take pictures of feet. There’s more to come. Enjoy.

Trapped on the 29th floor with Typography Sketchbook. Not bad.

Mid-day menu from Dobbs Ferry in Hayes Valley on 03/03/2012.

Retro Taco Train on magazine

Lately I’ve been experimenting with taking my personal work from the digital realm to the physical. The irony of this strikes me because the work I’ve been exploring handwriting (human typography) and dealing with it as imagery rather than written representation.

Lonely Creepy Private Comfortable Train on magazine

It bothers me that someone can only look at my work – I want people to interact with, touch, and be able to look at my work from different perspectives. As a designer who has made a career out of creating things digitally, I understand what a complete cynic I sound like when I say that digital design feels empty when it isn’t paired with some sort of tangible design.

More on this another time. I’m heading back to my sketchpad and cutting board.

Word poem #1: An experiment in human typography

These word poems are part of my Human Typography Experiment. An effort to revitalize appreciation for the ordinary.

Pardon the silence but it’s been difficult to find motivation over the past couple of months. I’ve decided to start posting work I find interesting in order to help spark some inspiration. If you know me, you know I love weird and quirky. You’ve been warned:

I’ve got a secret. I kind of like ugly design.

Shockingly (or not), I don’t seem to be the only person in the design community who harbors this secret. In fact, a few months ago, Design Observer posted an article on How To Be Ugly. It was a controversial article that included 84 comments with varied responses.

You may laugh, but there is a definite difference between bad and ugly design. Bad design typically means the designer failed. Ugly design is intentional.

I’ve collected a few ugly sites that I love and want to hear feedback. Do you secretly love ugly too?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Base Design
Let’s start off with an easy one. Base doesn’t classify as completely ugly. The structure and visual impact of the site is great but they’ve got a great start on ugly with the navigation.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Toormix
I’m a sucker for yellow and black, so combine a little ugly with those colors and Toormix has me swooning. The hovers and navigation interaction on this site are genius.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Irregular Choice
I gasped when I first saw this site, and it wasn’t just because of these shoes. Irregular Choice, a fairly high-end online store, took ugly to an entirely new level. Can you imagine trying to get something like this approved at Nine West? A totally different target market, but I digress.