Well, I’ve officially learned my lesson: Never plan a road trip on the same day as a contest. During yesterday’s final moments of voting for the Part One finalists in the Design Your Own Alphabet Contest my trusty WordPress Poll plugin unfortunately did not turn off when I had set it to end (1pm). I logged in from the road to turn it off manually but it meant that additional votes were cast and we ended up with a tie between two talented artists and their alphabet designs: Andy Babb’s “Dog Eared” and Ben Parson’s “Black Toast”. Unfortunately I’m not able to separate out the votes that were cast after 1pm so today we’re going to have a tiebreaker vote to determine which artist goes on to be in the top 3. I emailed both artists yesterday to apologize for the technical glitch and informed them that there would be a new day of voting today. So I’ve gathered additional information and images to help you make your decision. If you already voted on Monday this is your chance to vote again for your favorite of these two designs.
Voting will be open for one full day, from today at 9am EST to tomorrow, November 18th at 9am EST. I will be sitting at my laptop tomorrow at 9am to close the poll manually so I promise we won’t have any technical glitches like this again.
CLICK HERE to VOTE after the jump after seeing additional photos and information from both artists.
Images above: Ben Parson’s “Black Toast”
About: Ben referenced an existing font to work with the toasting and modified some of the letters to get the look he was going for. Each letter was hand-burned onto the toast by Ben and then photographed to create the final arrangement.
Images above: Andy Babb’s “Dog Eared”
About: Dog Eared is a work-in-progress typeface. Each character of the face began its life as a half-inch wide strip of paper, folded and Scotch-taped into formation (see process photos above). These paper letters were then scanned and digitized. All numerals and upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet have at least one alternate version. Andy’s goal with Dog Eared is to build in comprehensive OpenType support. To preserve the letters’ 2-sided/folded appearance, Andy intends to offer Dog Eared as a 2-component chromatic typeface.
VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE BELOW. POLL CLOSES NOVEMBER 18TH AT 9AM EST
[poll id="8"]
49 Comments
Thank you for sharing these artists’ processes. Super-interesting.
its so hard i love them both!
agh these were my two favorite, now i dont know who to pick
I like both of these much better than any of day two’s group. Can’t we vote for both? ;) This is a really, really tough decision.
Dog Eared is just more usable, in my opinion. Black Toast is super creative, but I really want to use Dog Eared in future projects!
Love seeing the processes, thanks for posting those.
I agree with Claire. I love black toast and the way the designer presented it, however, I also love dog eared and what wins me over is how usable it is.
These are both great, but Dog Eared is unique and usable (I think I could actually use it in a project). This is so awesome. Thanks for posting the process of the artists.
Dog Eared is my favorite.
Burnt Toast is very good also, but
limited in its applications. It would be
best used in first aid instructions for
certain poison .
Dog Eared has many more possibilities .
Both are very creative. Black Toast is my pick.
Since I am just enjoying my toast – Black Toast it is!! ;)
I voted for Black Toast. At first glance it does not seems very usable for anything in real life. But I thought up a few potential uses. An invitation to brunch. Your resume for a breakfast cook position. A letter of complaint to a toaster company. That is all I have thought of so far. Happy voting everyone.
LOVE BLACK TOAST because….I used to “talk” to the toaster when I was a kid! I could see my cute reflection and so I had an instant friend:-) Good Luck Ben!!!
Who would ever use either of these fonts? As a designer, I know I never would. I thought these might be a practical font design contest.
The originality of black toast makes it a clear choice for me.
Tough decision, but I ended up picking Black Toast. Would love to have a poster of it in my kitchen. :)
your website won’t let me vote again today. just got in office and haven’t voted already. others are having problems too. needs to reset the voting.
Easier for me to use “Dog Eared.”
It’s really cool to see these two designers’ processes. LOVE the different versions of each character for Dog Eared. The fact Black Toast is a modification/physical treatment of an *existing font* is a little iffy. But, regardless of the outcome of the contest, Black Toast’s designer should submit it to a site like You Work for Them that sells hand-set photographic typefaces…seems like something they’d be interested in.
BLACK TOAST is distinctly original. Dog Eared is the same as any normal letter. Creativity is endless with Black Toast. Congrates Ben Parsons for using skill and originality to make such a unique entry.
Dog Eared is more versatile I believe, which is what I voted for, but Black Toast is truly original! So creative. I think both fonts will be cherished, hopefully this allows them to shine!
tracy
try hitting refresh and reloading- if that doesn’t work shoot me an email and i’ll see what i can do.
grace
Honestly, these are both fantastic. Such creativity!
Hi Grace, I tried hitting refresh to reload and open in a different browser but non of that worked. No one in my office can vote.
Thanks for your help.
Tracy
I love Black Toast, but the website won’t let me vote. Grrrhhh
tracy
someone in your office must have voted and it must be a group company IP that’s being recorded. shoot me and email and we’ll fix it :)
g
I want balck toast…Website won’t let me vote!!!
sarah
see my comments above- email me if you’re having an issue.
g
I voted for Dog Eared since it is more usable as a real font. But I have to congratulate the creator of Black Toast – it is truly an amazing piece!
I like BOTH! but what I really love is the way the designers have created the fonts from physical materials.
Hi Grace, I’m not sure what the deal is. We all voted independently yesterday. Let me know how you can fix it. Thanks -Tracy
Tracy
Shoot me an email and I’ll see what we can do. The best bet is sadly to vote from a smart phone or your home computer because you all share the same IP at work :(
Grace
My vote is Black Toast! … my computer still won’t let me vote…
tracy
if you’re on a personal computer please hit refresh and make sure no one else at your home has voted. it shouldn’t prevent you from voting unless someone with the exact same IP has already voted.
grace
This not being able to vote is unfortunate…..
patty
you can vote. please see my comment above. try these steps first:
1. clear your cache, refresh and try to vote.
2. if you’re at work, it’s a company IP issue. please try using a smartphone to vote online if you have access.
3. if you don’t, please use your home computer, that won’t have the same IP matching issue
if none of the steps above please email me and i’ll make sure the IP matching yours isn’t you and log your vote manually.
there is a way for everyone to vote if they’ll take a few moments to trouble shoot and email me if it doesn’t work.
grace
Grace – I can’t vote…is this emailing you?? Black Toast Please.
O tried all the fixes and STILL can’t vote for Black Toast!! :(((
Two terrific and creative fonts! I am especially impressed with how tactile the process of creating these fonts was.
casey
shoot me an email and i’ll double check your IP and then log your vote manually if it doesn’t match your name and email :)
grace
sarah
no, this is leaving a comment. please email me at designsponge at gmail dot com. i’ll check your IP against the matching one in the database and log it manually if your name doesn’t match the one that’a already voted.
aimee-
glad it worked!
grace
This is tough—they’re both very good. Gotta go with DOG EARED though for its usability and how robust it is; out of curiosity, I googled the designer and his site shows *tons* more characters like the caps, numerals, and even some ligatures for the typeface!
Hi Grace,
just so you know, you can’t vote from your smart phone. I have an iphone and it doesn’t work. maybe a blackberry works, but an iphone doesn’t work.
Also, I cleared out my cache, restarted my computer, changed browser…and still wasn’t able to vote from my work computer…. I can’t vote from home because my husband already voted on that computer….
kinda messy and unfortunately for the participants. It all worked fine yesterday.
-T
tracy
no one else has been unable to vote via iphone (that was what worked for most of the people i spoke via with email). i voted myself by iphone so i’m not sure why you were having that issue. i apologize if this feels messy to you, but you still have the option to shoot me a quick email and i offered to register it personally. you are still welcome to do that, you have until 9am EST.
i’ll look into other poll mechanisms next time, but it’s pretty standard to limit voting by using IPs and if your IP has already voted i can see why it would seek to restrict that. that said, i’m happy to log yours manually if you have a second to email me.
grace
I vote for black toast.
Dog Eared all the way!!
I love the concept of this, but voting was SO HARD. Must be simpler next time you do this…you would get more people involved. I voted successfully for Black Toast (amazing design!) but it was really challenging and had I not been committed to try multiple times, it wouldn’t have worked…
bre
i’m sorry you dealt with the IP issue some people faced- i did my best to make it as easy as possible. all you had to do was email me once and i would have happily logged it manually as i’d offered to many times in the comment sections on all posts. i’m happy to do that again for our top 3 finalists if you run into the same problem. most of the people dealing with IP issues have emailed about it and we’ve resolved their voting issues. i’ll be sure we try to find a system that doesn’t have this issue next time. i’ve used this WP poll feature so many times in the past without any issue so i’m pretty stumped as to why this popped up now and never before.
grace
The new “Dog Eared” type is user-friendly. It impresses me as having more contexts for use, but one ‘has to love’ the competition; “Black Toast” is wonderfully creative!
I enjoyed the contest and congratulate the winners. I do have a suggestion. The faces that got recognition were all display faces, not book ones. If the contest runs again, it would be nice to see a category for each style. It’s tough competing with a decorative display face if the one you are submitting is more for readable body copy use.
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