typewriters | Outside The Lines

What do you call a graphic artist who does not need a computer?

A typewriter artist.

Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Álvaro Franca is often called a graphic designer but may be better known as a typographer or type designer. He creates fonts.

What is your favorite font? You might use Calibri, Arial, Tahoma, or Times New Roman. Franca develops fonts that are seen online and in print. He has developed fonts for reading purposes and as parts of advertisements. He even designed labels for beer bottles.

Franca uses a computer to craft font types, but it is what he creates with a vintage typewriter that makes the 22-year-old artist most impressive.

In a collection of work titled, Typewritten Portraits, Franca creates portraits by using a vintage typewriter to strategically placing single characters on a blank sheet of paper. To deepen the complexity of his work, he defines, shapes, and shades the faces of infamous authors so they are recognizable and, in some cases, may be mistaken for sketch art.

The method for creating Typewritten Portraits was conceptualized by Franca in 2013. While he might be the first person to use a typewriter to recreate portraits of Jose Saramago, Charles H. Bukowski, J.D. Salinger, Jack Kerouac, and Clarice Lispector, he was not the first artist to use a vintage typewriter as an art medium.

In 2012, Segmation wrote a blog about vintage typewriter collector and artist Keira Rathbone. Rathbone lives in London and uses over 30 typewriters to create original works of art.

While both artists use typewriters, Franca and Rathbone have contrasting approaches to creating art. Using his computer, Franca created a method that allows him to know exactly where to put characters on a typewriter page. For instance, from the start, he maps out where to add the letter “m,” which is the character he uses to add depth and dimension to portraits.

Rathbone, on the other hand, does not sketch or outline any of her art. With a well-trained eye, she is able to create scenes from her imagination and recreate images she sees. By going over parts of a picture multiple times she produces the perfect amount of shading. This gives her images the level of depth and dimension that Franca factors in from the start.

These two artists live a world apart but both use typewriters to create masterpieces. Rathbone truly needs no computer while Franca uses his for precision. Watch the artists at work and let us know which approach you like better. Leave us a comment at the bottom of this page.

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/90642350″>Typewritten Portraits</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/alvarofranca”>Álvaro Franca</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>

Read more Segmation blog posts about art and color:

Retire in Style with Artistic Flair

Childhood Stories of Paint by Number

How to turn your Passion into Profit

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Can you believe a vintage typewriter created this image?

Believe it. This unique art is made possible by the ingenuity and creativity of one woman: Keira Rathbone.

Keira Rathbone is a vintage typewriter collector, but as you may be able to tell, her collection of old typewriters is not at home collecting dust. Her vintage machines are put to good use!

The London based artist creates detailed and unique pieces of art with only a piece of paper and a vintage typewriter. Rathbone has thirty typewriters in her collection. This fact alone is impressive, but how she uses these typewriters to create art is even more inspiring.

Rathbone’s style is similar to a sketch. It has been praised and called distinctly different because she is able to go over the same area of the page multiple times with the typewriter’s keys. She goes over and over a page to create shaded areas and white spaces. Others have claimed that her style resembles a digital art style, ASCII. But her typed pieces have an additional dimension that hints at a more traditional artistic style.

Another interesting fact about the creative Keira Rathbone is that she does not only work on her typewriters indoors. She ventures out into the world with paper and typewriter in hand. She also wears clothing that reflects the era each typewriter is from. While she works, she chats with those who admire her artistic talent and appreciate the fact that she has saved these vintage machines from extinction. Rathbone has also encountered many who love to reminisce about the glory days of the typewriter.

Are you impressed yet? If not, this next piece of information is sure to make your jaw drop: Keira Rathbone doesn’t begin any of her typed pieces with a sketch or an outline. She has a natural eye for how to shade a space on a page to create an image. She enjoys the challenge of creating pieces of art on various models of vintage typewriters.

In a day and age when we constantly seem to be doing away with the old, it is nice to know that these vintage typewriters are serving an artistic purpose and delight so many – especially Rathbone.

Do you have a unique interest? Can it become your artistic style?

Read more about Keira Rathborne and her vintage typewriter art here: http://weburbanist.com/2012/04/07/typewriter-artist-creates-prints-one-line-at-a-time/

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