Tad carpenter arrow how to#
Tad carpenter arrow series#

It seemed so appropriate for a conference because it’s about unlocking your potential and it’s just a fun piece about the process of creation and shifting your thinking. The Strangest Secret vinyl record cover, 1958 You would think it’s Helvetica but it’s not. And that’s based off of what they’d already established with the conference.

You went really basic with the choice of typeface.īR: Yeah! That’s Neue Haas Grotesk. Try to have the piece carry itself only on the merits of the typography. It was an opportunity to get back to basics and do something just with type. Because of how the type is affected in their branding – it’s such a centrepiece of the conference – I wanted to take that spirit and run with it. How did you decide to take a purely typographic approach? Did you have other approaches you tossed around?īR: No, I was really excited about doing a type-based piece! Every now and then I have an itch to really explore typography and figure out how far I can take it. I basically co-pitched them on doing the opening title sequence as well. They took me up on the offhand promise I made two years ago! When they contacted me, they asked me about doing speaker cards. Images from the brand guidelines for Made in the Middle by Alex Anderson and The Carpenter CollectiveīR: I had mentioned that if they were to continue the conference, I would love to do some work for them whether that’s branding or titling things. They’ve got a lot of people that jump in and help. Alex Anderson was the one who more or less was on top of doing the design for the conference. They organize this conference on the side. They’re a graphic design outfit in Kansas City. The festival’s put on by a group called The Carpenter Collective, which is run by Tad Carpenter and his wife Jessica.

Tad carpenter arrow how to#

That was their maiden conference, so they were still trying to figure out how to get things off the ground. How did this project come to you for the conference, Made in the Middle?īR: I had spoken there two years ago, when I was still in Kansas City, as a representative for MK12. It’s still the four of us partners and we take jobs as they come in. We just decided to take everything online. And then in fall of last year we decided to slim down and sell the building in Kansas City so we don’t have a physical studio anymore. There was some interest but it didn’t go very far. That was a three-year labour of love project for us and we hoped that would be a television series. We worked on a couple of short films as well, there’s one we finished called Man of Action in 2017. Particle Fever (2013) main titles, designed by MK12 We got a lot of good exposure from that.Įvery now and then I have an itch to really explore typography and figure out how far I can take it. There’s the documentary we did, Particle Fever, right around the time that we did the Semi-Permanent titles. Some advertising as well but we have been trying to move out of advertising and focus on broadcast.

We’ve worked on some film projects, some broadcast projects. What has been going on since then?īR: I’m still a partner at MK12 and that has been going strong. The last time we featured your work on the site was in 2014, four years ago, with the titles to Semi-Permanent 2014. In our conversation below, Radatz discusses building on the conference’s existing branding, his layering process in After Effects, and how and why he makes time for unpaid work.Ī discussion with Title Designer BEN RADATZ of MK12. Drawing on homegrown talent, the conference tapped Radatz, a partner at MK12, a studio with its roots in Kansas City and a portfolio of title design projects including Stranger Than Fiction (2006) and Bond film Quantum of Solace (2008).

Tad carpenter arrow series#

Helmed by design and branding studio The Carpenter Collective, Made in the Middle 2018 was a two-day series of events that aims to inspire, educate, and connect a wide array of creators in the American Midwest. Strong and commanding and doling out direct questions, the voice tempts us with the strangest secret in the world. The sage advice that follows comes from Earl Nightingale, an American radio host and author of The Strangest Secret, a 1957 motivational book and audio recording. It's also the backbone of designer Ben Radatz’s purely typographic opening titles to conference Made in the Middle, a solidly engaging work that steamrolls and stretches text, moving back and forth between steady restraint and invigorating energy. 'Why do you work? Why do you get up in the morning?”