Michael Perry

I instantly fell in love with a book called, 'Handjob: A catalog of type.' On my latest assignment.

"In Hand Job, graphic designer and hand typographer Michael Perry curates a selection of work from fifty outstanding designers, illustrators, and typographers, who integrate hand-drawn type into their designs. Each entry is shaped entirely by the artist’s hand and unique process, including the unplanned “accidents"of line, color, and craft. In addition to exhibiting a spectrum of styles and approaches, Hand Job also includes photographs of found type and artists’ studios to give readers a stronger understanding of what goes into creating hand-drawn type."

I didn't really get to use it much in the actual work I was producing but the book itself is wonderfully full of various types of typography. It was so inspiring, it made me want to produce a million and one different letters all in my own way.  Much of his work is produced by hand, and this is something I can relate to, but generally because I'm not very good with a computer. The fact that his work is hand drawn adds a quality to the work that is somewhat diluted today, as computer's are the thing to use - apparently. In the book are a range of typographies that are designed by individuals, which is helpful to me, as it showed me a wide range of other designers work. In my work I would love to produce something that is had drawn that could stand up against something computer generated and hopefully win. I think some of the work is absolutely beautiful and shows that the hand can be better that the computer. 


I love just going on to Perry's website and looking through his work, he has so much work as he believes that creating loads is an important part of the creative process.

I wasn't at all interested in typography until I found him, I thought it was too much about straight lines, and I think his work shows it can be fun and personal.

I love these pages that he does, they show I range of ideas - this is something I would like to do more in my work...experiment. The experiments almost become little works of art themselves, no longer type but art. "Most days, Perry can be found working away in his Brooklyn-based studio, ceaselessly creating new typefaces and sundry graphics and exercising his belief in the transformative power of making things." 

I love this photo off Perry's website, it's not necessarily what he's showing in the painting, it's everything that surrounds him, his clothes, the vibrancy and all the work in the background. He is by far the most inspiring person for me at the moment.

On his website he says he did a '100 nudes drawing session' where he and artist Josh Cochran 'held a marathon of nude drawings. Over the course of 2 days we drew over 30 people and compiled over 300 drawings.' This more me only emphasises his need to compile a lot of work, not necessarily quickly but he certainly does a lot of it and this allows him to get a wide range of ideas and find ideas that work and one's that don't, and because he has so many, who says he can't use them again elsewhere?