Daily Drop Cap 

ary Taxali is an amazing award-winning illustrator that you’d have to be under a rock not to know. I was absolutely thrilled when he agreed to be a part of Daily Drop Cap since I’ve been a fan of his work since I was a college student—he could probably build a Roman Empire-sized army from all of his young fans. He’s an illustrator, artist, and now children’s book author, releasing his first book this past year. High five Gary! G is for Gum!

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<img src="http://dailydropcap.com/images/gary-taxali-small.png" title="Daily Drop Cap by Gary Taxali" align="left" alt="G"/>

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ailing from the great city of Philadelphia, The Heads of State is a ridiculously talented duo of designistrators—Jason Kernevich (my bff for life) and Dustin Summers. These guys do everything. Posters (which is what catapulted them onto the design scene almost 10 years ago), logos, book covers, illustration, ad campaigns, you name it, and each project seems smarter than the last. Their brains are as enviable as their beards. They opted for an old school production method for their drop cap—linocutting—and the result is awesome. Unrelated but sort of related, I ordered one of their Gatsby prints earlier this year and it is at the framers as we speak!! I am unbelievably excited to get it back as it’s quickly becoming my favorite possession.

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<img src="http://dailydropcap.com/images/headsofstate-small.png" title="Daily Drop Cap by The Heads of State" align="left" alt="H"/>

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absolutely love Linzie Hunter’s work! Based in the UK, she has been a leading lady in illustration and lettering for a little while now. I first stumbled upon Linzie’s work when we were competing for the same job (which she won, because she is awesomer) and when I saw her AMAZING spam lettering series, which I had the most insane case of concept/project envy for ever. I actually have a print that was a part of her 20×200 release from the series on my bedroom door. It definitely makes me giggle on a regular basis.

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<img src="http://dailydropcap.com/images/linzie-hunter-small.jpg" title="Daily Drop Cap by Linzie Hunter" align="left" alt="I"/>

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ust five years ago I met Gina and Matt through the Philadelphia illustration network (tiny as it is). Their work totally blew me away—two artists equally talented that were able to combine their powers and make some sort of super illustration? That is some Captain Planet shit right there. Gina represents the more patterny end of their collaborative work and Matt’s the more painterly parts. They’re the perfect art power couple—amazing separately but better together. I’m very happy they had time in their crazy busy schedules to participate in Daily Drop Cap! For their J, they kept it pretty and botanical, something I’m sure their little one (named Juniper) would appreciate.

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<img src="http://dailydropcap.com/images/ginaandmatt-small.jpg" title="Daily Drop Cap by Gina & Matt" align="left" alt="J"/>

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ickstarter (or really, all you fine internet folk) is about to pay Frank Chimero a buttload of money for his upcoming book The Shape of Design, and that is awesome. I’m assuming you are all as jealous as me that he has a legit excuse to take a few months off to write, but thankfully he had time to draw this awesome K before retreating to the woods of Oregon. Aside from being a writer, thinker, educator and general internet person of interest, Frank is also a designistrator with a style rooted in printy textures and Paul Randish plays of shape and color. His K feels like it would be as at home in 1954 as it does in 2011.

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<img src="http://dailydropcap.com/images/frank-chimero-small.jpg" title="Daily Drop Cap by Frank Chimero" align="left" alt="K"/>

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ovely doesn’t begin to describe the work of Deanne Cheuk, the awesome art director, illustrator and artist that crafted this L. Her list of accolades is super impressive: She got her first job as a magazine art director at the age of 19 immediately out of college and has since art directed or designed numerous publications, including Tokion Magazine. Her client list is ridiculous including the likes of Swatch, Target, and American Express. She has worked with David Carson, Doug Aitken and Conan O’Brien. In 2005, Cheuk released her first book, Mushroom Girls Virus — which sold out worldwide immediately. That same year she was the inaugural designer chosen for the (sadly now defunct) NYTimes On Language section. In 2006, Target launched a line of “Deanne Cheuk” products. So yes, she is awesome and I hope you now have as big of a girl-crush as I do!

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<img src="http://dailydropcap.com/images/deanne-cheuk-small.jpg" title="Daily Drop Cap by Deanne Cheuk" align="left" alt="L"/>

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ost of the guest contributors to this alphabet are letterers, illustrators or designers, but Leanne Shapton is all three and more. She was the art director of the New York Times Op-Ed page, she’s an author of several books, she used to contribute a travel column to Elle Magazine, She currently contributes an illustrated series to the NYTimes opinion page website called “A Month Of…”…the list goes on. Leanne was one of the first people I knew I had to ask for this alphabet, and I was absolutely thrilled that she was able to contribute! Her hand-painted and drawn lettering is beautiful in its simplicity. I particularly love her wooden book series, and picked up a few of the titles myself last year. Her drop cap is modeled after the hand-painted store signs in Paris painted directly onto buildings.

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<img src="http://dailydropcap.com/images/leanne-shapton-small.jpg" title="Daily Drop Cap by Leanne Shapton" align="left" alt="M"/>

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o introduction needed for today’s guest contributor Louise Fili Ltd. Louise is a legend and my number one hero in design. If it wasn’t for her, I definitely wouldn’t be where I am today career wise—she was an epically amazing teacher and just general all around great person to work for so of course she was first on my list to ask to contribute to the guest alphabet. If you’re not familiar with Louise’s work, for shame—immediately hop over to her site and buy every book she’s ever been a part of. This beautiful N is definitely among my favorites of the guest alphabet, crafted by Louise and her handy senior-designer-sidekick John Passafiume, who currently holds the position at team LFL that I held not that long ago. I could wax on for days about how awesome Louise is, but you probably know this already, so instead I’ll leave you to gawk at this gorgeous letter.

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<img src="http://dailydropcap.com/images/louise-fili-small.jpg" title="Daily Drop Cap by Louise Fili" align="left" alt="N"/>

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h my is Darren Booth a talent! For one, he’s hilarious (you should really follow him on twitter, it’s hard to not RT everything he writes), but he’s also a super talented letterer and illustrator. For his drop cap, he worked in his signature painterly collagey style with awesome results! You have probably seen a bit of his work lately because of his awesome cover for Steve Martin’s book (which was shown on Letterman! Soooo Jealous!), but I’ve been a fan of his for a while, particularly his lovely color palette.

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<img src="http://dailydropcap.com/images/darren-booth-small.jpg" title="Daily Drop Cap by Darren Booth" align="left" alt="O"/>

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art and Parcel is Damien Correll’s collaborative effort with designistrator pal Garrett Morin, and they make some insanely imaginative playful work. Damien doesn’t disappoint with today’s drop cap, which would put a smile on anyone’s face from preschool and up. When I first moved to New York, I was made aware of an awesome dude collective that had formed by Damien, Garrett and Ryan Waller called Rad Mountain (now defunct). It took a while before our paths overlapped—first when Garrett won Print’s 20 under 30 the same year as me, and then when Damien won ADC Young Guns we finally met in person! (Can you see how small of a city/scene New York is??) Anyhoo—Damien, while no longer part of a mountain, is still quite rad.

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<img src="http://dailydropcap.com/images/damien-correll-small.png" title="Daily Drop Cap by Damien Correll" align="left" alt="P"/>

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