Every time I gain a sizable growth of facial hair, my interest and empathy for other bearded gentlemen, such as myself, grows a considerable amount of traction in my daily cerebral wanderings. It seems almost entirely juvenile in nature: only the addition of a big wholly mop of curly hair around my fragmented jowl, seems to hold little power if seen in a purely objective light. But there's some hidden mystery about a bearded figure that strikes my interest. It may be that I've never seen my own Father without a beard...

Whatever the case, I've for a while wanted to make a gang of people in town with beards. Membership would be inclusive, rather than exclusive and nothing of any sort would have to be done to join, to keep membership and shaving wouldn't force someone to exit the gang. A gang for those who wanted in, for the pure reason of just enjoying the enthusiasm of beards, for the positive qualities they represent and the sheer ridiculousness to do so.

For the past few months - probably since I've been back to the states and sporting a growth since September, I've been asking people: "Hey! Do ya wanna be a part of my gang?! - it's BEARD GANG!" And if they say, "Yes!" they usually ask what one needs to do for inclusion and I tell them, "Nothing!". Sometimes, they say, "Well, I don't have a beard/I'm a woman!" I tell them, that's no problem, as the beard gang is open to all who are enthusiastic as to the idea of Beards and would like to gain admission into the gang. The. Gang. It's no longer my gang. In fact Beard Gangs span the entire history of People Kind and I am only a vessel - and hearer of the faint whispers of the energy force, pulsating around us all, since time forgotten. Yes, it's that big. And I am oh, so small.

This, naturally is all silly tom-foolery. I don't find this type of project superfluous. Fun, silly, creative adventures of all sorts should take some sort of precedence in one's life. Allied closed to love, than hate, war, suffering. Important to not take oneself so seriously all the time.

First, I did a photo shoot of some killer beard. Naturally, since I'm cheap, lazy and was available, I used myself.
 

From there, it was a quick little sketch, to see if I liked where things were going,

I mostly draw using a crow quill pen. It's hard to use, the ink sometimes doesn't want to flow out of the pen nib, sometimes it won't stop. Difficult and aggravating sometimes. Savage when unchecked.

I was pleased with the results. Emphasis on the beard, less on the person. Simple silhouette so your mind knows what it's looking at. Frame half the face, up the eyebrow. I took more than 5 minutes and whipped up the final drawing,
 

And that was that. I was surprised to see how similar the quick sketch and the rough draft looked. If I was to do another drawing, I doubt it would look much different. Life moves too quickly, anyways.

I needed a type face to use. I mainly stick to tired, old, soul-bereft type faces: Futura, Avant-Garde. There are reasons.

Those weren't going to work. I needed a typeface that was unique to this project - something that eludes and emanates Beard-ness, without being a cheesy onomatopoetic of a beard. Inspired by beards, but not, exactly bearded (type) faces. Something organic. Fun. Something that goes well with the drawing.

I wanted to make an entire typeface, because I wanted multiple versions of the poster. I could have just hand-lettered one version of the poster, but gangs are territorial, and local. The beard drawing would tie everyone together in a common theme, but the label for the drawing needed to be residential.

For a model, I delved into some weird old book on typefaces - I really loathe using typefaces on computers, sometimes. Font management programs seem so... goofy. There's no joy to it. I need to have some sort of relationship with the type face I wanted to create. It's also a good idea to find alternative sources for inspiration, so you're not using the same source material as everyone else.

I settled on a old looking face - probably a treatment of the face, Memphis.

It was just labeled, "Doric".

I made some sketches, to figure out how to communicate, "Beards" without making it too direct,
 

I took a piece of a nice drawing paper and made a wash of blue over it, hoping to be able to pop the type I was going to draw out of the blue, like blue/green screen in films.

I think the face came out really well,

Here's a closeup
 

This was also made using a crow quill pen and a little brushwork. I tend to get depressed if I stare at a computer screen for too long. For me, paper is much more delightful medium to work with. Scanners can be found at thrift stores for practically nothing.

Sadly, it didn't really work too well, once I scanned it in, and tried to use it, in a small mockup ,

Too busy. Barely readable. I like the idea of pushing that sort of boundary - how, unreadable could it get? But the nuances of all the pen and brush work were completely lost. From experience, it just makes the readers a little annoyed and very confused as to what you're trying to d.

Back to some more sketching,

OK, onto something. More form, less flimsy. Almost made out of a hard material, instead of, well, hair. For this project - it works. Type should hold a form, to aid in communicating an idea.

Another sheet of paper - this time, I didn't do the wash.

Scanned in and cleaned up (just a little), it seemed to be a lot more successful.

Love to try yet again, but hours have already been poured into this - anything more and all spontaneity will be lost. Using what you have, at the time you have it is good advice. In the future, you'll have something else. Don't hold onto old ideas - use them up. They will infinitely replace themselves. That's a good secret to reveal for anything creative.

I haven't named the type - and I doubt I will. All names just sound super snarky and lend themselves too much to just ass-hattery.


With the final drawing and my poster type face, I needed to design the poster, itself. One thing that was certain, the drawing itself is very vertically symmetrical. Part of me doesn't like this: you have the problem of losing a lot of dynamic feel in a design with too much symmetry.

Then again, faces *are* symmetrical, and a huge indicator of attractiveness is a vertical symmetric body. Since symmetry was somewhat avoidable, might as well not hide the fact, but instead enhance it.

It also continues the thread of this being a design based on the back patches of something like a cheesy biker gang. And this is a cheesy beard gang.

Some rough drafts. To make these timeless and simple, only Black, White and Red are used in the design. I am aware that there are different colors.



Something like that. The design of the flow of the type is supposed to make one think of a beard itself. The various cities will have different styles of beards, as well.

"Denver Beards"

"LA Beards"

"Portland Beards"

"Barbes de Paris"

I'm sort of at the point where I can print these out. I don't have post-sized screens right now, where I can burn the image on, but I made a tiny, one-color mockup, for the refrigerator, of course.
 

I think I'm happy with it.

Other than print up the posters, I need to make a Beard Manifesto, so my reasons for a Beard Gang aren't abused and start distributing these things.