Great Guerrilla Advertising

Business Week takes a look at "10 notable examples of guerrilla ads poised to become classics of the genre." [via Speak Up]

37Signals on Penguin

37Signals muses on Penguin Book Covers and the "realness" of well-done print design vs. digital solutions.

Melts In Your Munch

So they've found the missing Munch paintings that were stolen two years ago (The Scream and Madonna, which should be somebody's band name if it isn't already)... but now who gets the M&Ms?

Peter Callesen

Peter Callesen does amazing things with paper, making the conceptual shift between two- and three-dimensionality look effortless.

Flash Turns Ten

Flash is ten years old. In celebration of this, Adobe has put up a site that is sleek yet sluggish, wondrous yet kinda baffling (all of which could be really said of Flash itself, depending on who's talking). [via DO]

Art in Riverside Park

There is free public art in Riverside Park in celebration of their non-profit fund's 20th anniversary. It's been on all summer, but there's still time—the eleven works of contemporary art will be up through September 16th.

Aquent Portfolio Advice, Salaries

Aquent features a nice little movie in which Jennifer Morla dispenses portfolio advice (sample quote: "Your portfolio has to stand on its own—it must inform without you being there."). Aquent, along with the AIGA, also puts out the annual salary survey. Especially interesting is their explanation of different design positions.

On My Desk: Creative Workspaces

Ever wanted a peek at someone else's studio? Recently launched blog On My Desk features the workspaces of creative types. [via Drawn!]

Lippincott, Margulies, and Logo Design Works

Via World of Kane's post on Lippincott & Margulies, the identity pioneers who designed some of the most familiar corporate logos around (a sampling pictured above), I discovered the reference library of logos maintained by Logo Design Works. What a wonderful resource!

Texture King

A growing range of free stock textures are available at Texture King. [via swissmiss]

Overheard on the Metro-North: Software Lesson

From Overheard in New York:
Dumb blonde #1: Yeah, so, like, Photoshop is better for, like, for photos, and Illustrator is better for, like, illustrations, and InDesign is better for, like, designing stuff.
Dumb blonde #2: Wow, I could never be a graphics person; that's so much software.
Dumb brunette: I could! I use Paint all the time!

Create Your Own Planet in Photoshop

Feeling Pluto's demotion a bit too keenly? Make your own planet (dwarf or otherwise) using this Photoshop panorama tutorial from Photojojo. [Thanks to *g for the link.]

How Design International Design Awards

Just a reminder, the deadline to enter the HOW International Design Awards is September 1st. All winning entries, from posters and annual reports to logos and packaging, will be featured in the April 2007 issue of HOW.

UPDATE 9/6: The deadline has been extended to September 15th.

Anamorphic Cups

These anamorphic cups from Lazybones UK create an interesting design opportunity. The abstract word on the saucer is only legible in the mirrored surface of the accompanying cup—and you can have them custom made with the word or logo of your choice. [via Not Martha]

DOOM

The design word for September over at Speak up is DOOM.

Studio (18) Hundred

Founded by Chris Rubino, Roger Bova and Sean Donnelly, Studio (18) Hundred has some of the coolest silkscreens I've seen in a while. Arresting images, great colors, funky type, detail rich texture AND the occasional illustration from comic bookster Paul Pope? That's a recipe for awesome. [Thanks to Eva for the link]

Timotei Lion

Sometimes all an ad needs to do is make you laugh. Joey Interactive spotlights this grin-inducing ad for Timotei.

Urban Forest Project

From September 1st to October 31st, the AIGA presents the Urban Forest Project, in which Times Square will be flooded with tree-themed banners by leading designers, artists, photographers and illustrators. After their display, all banners will be recycled into tote bags and sold to benefit arts-related charities. Pretty cool.
Pictured: banner by Veejay Archary


UPDATE 8/29: Speak Up asks, "If a tree falls in Times Square and nobody notices, have designers failed?"

Shalgo

Duct-tape pioneers Shalgo have taken the animated gif to new heights (actually, I think they're using flash, but the animated gif reigns as the old-school poor man's animatron and the same principles apply). Their free Podflips put simple animations on your iPod and are more fun than you'd think (or maybe I'm just easily amused). They'll be having a contest soon where you can create your own Podflips—could be some good silly buzz for the resume if you win (you'd also get an iPod Nano). [via Cool Hunting]

Luscious Libraries

The Nonist features photographs of amazing libraries around the world that will have every bibliophile drooling. [via kottke]

Design:e2

"Design today must reflect a new spirit."Our creative roles have already begun to shift towards accomodating sustainable materials. Design:e2 is an 8-part series exploring various issues of green design, from architecture to textiles—here in New York, the first episode starts tonight on Thirteen and runs all week. The beautifully shot series has a lovely accompanying website—if you can't catch the show, there is plenty of media online and the DVD is also available to purchase.

Marimekko Mice

Need a mouse that's just a bit more graphically exciting? Try one of these from good ole Marimekko. These aren't available on the actual Marimekko site (though some other office accessories are), so if you're burning for one, you'll have to dust off your Japanese until they hit the global marketplace... [via Print & Pattern]

Swimming in the Void with Geoff McFetridge

Coudal Partners has a great little movie about Geoff McFetridge as part of their Western State documentary series. Listening to him talk a bit about his process really does add another layer of depth to his visuals. McFetridge is third in a series that also currently includes Andy Miller, Cory McAbee and Jason Gnewikow. [via DO]

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House

I just watched a Cary Grant film from 1948 called Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House—essentially the original Money Pit. While most of the plot revolves around the house, there is an advertising/design subplot that is pretty amusing. In the film, Grant is a New York advertising executive who makes "about $15,000 a year" (a six-figure salary today) and who's big assignment is to come up for a decent slogan for WHAM, aka a "whale of a ham" (the previous man on the account was let go because of lines like "for a grand slam in ham, try Wham!"). Grant's daughters calmly inform him that their teacher describes advertising as a "basically parasitic profession" filled with "crass commercialism". At one point Grant and his wife run roughshod over their architect in a classic example of the nightmare client, demanding the impossible on a miniscule budget and literally seizing the pen from his hand to sketch on their own. Later Myrna Loy has a rant about color that would make Pantone proud—she gives careful instructions about colors for the interiors (ex. "a soft green, not as blue-green as a robin's egg but not as yellow-green as daffodils...", "if you'll send one of your workmen to the grocer for a pound of their best butter, and match that yellow exactly...", "as you can see, it's practically an apple red, somewhere between a healthy winesap and an unripened Johnny..."), after which the workman turns to his buddy and says "Got that Charlie? Red, green, blue, yellow and white." It's always a nice surprise to enjoy films from a design perspective, and Mr. Blandings was no exception. If you're in the mood for an old movie (and the gender and racial assumptions that come with the territory) or some classic Cary Grant, it's worth a watch. The film was released on DVD in 2004 and is available from Amazon, where one reviewer nails the film as an analogy for [substitute your creative profession here] and says that it "contains almost every gotcha ever seen on a project."

The Blandings DVD includes an old Tex Avery animation called The House of Tomorrow, which depicts the future of domestic progress and is one of the strangest things I've seen in a long time. The animation is standard early Looney Tunes style (Avery created Bugs Bunny), and holds up nicely, but the tone and quips are mildly offensive and the slew of mother-in-law jokes seem oddly cruel, even for the 40s. Something of a relic, I suppose.

Creativity Potion

Need a creative boost? How about a witch-sanctioned creativity potion?

FontShop Spotlights Type and Packaging

Trusty FontShop put out two newsletters this month, the first focusing on typography in supermarket brands and the second on typography in other packaged goods. Worth a look—in some cases fonts are used in surprising ways, and hey, now you can be the nerd who says, "Method... you know they use Avenir, right?" While on the FontShop site, don't miss their free fonts.

Ze Frank on the Evolution of Ugly

It's true, there is indeed a lot of ugly on MySpace. In an episode of "The Show" from July, the remarkable Ze Frank proposes that this specifically, along with other attempts at amateur design, is not necessarily a bad thing in the long run: "Ugly as a representation of mass experimentation and learning is pretty damn cool." How refreshingly non-elitist! My favorite quote from this particular episode is "The fact that tons of people know names of fonts like Helvetica is WEIRD." Obligatory gush: I have loved Ze Frank for years and years. I'm so glad he's finally getting some proper attention. [via Grande Talk]

Color Wheel Toy

Who knew Pottery Barn Kids was breeding young artists and designers? Check out their cool Color Wheel Toy—forget the kiddies, I want one of these for myself! [via swissmiss]

Politically Incorrect Alphabet

Well, I missed this when it surfaced in October 2005, but the politically incorrect alphabet by UK designer Mark Jones is an interesting exercise. Even if you're not into the PC thing, it's worth a look for the iconographic illustrations—are they entirely successful? I like that he was inspired to do this by the realization that "I for Indian" (as in Native American) was no longer an acceptable alphabetical option... my high school mascot was the Indian, believe it or not (it's been changed since—go Lions), so I'm suddenly twitching with misguided nostalgia for less sensitive times... [via Make Ready]

Solar-Powered Miyazaki

Animation fans, take note: Hayao Miyazaki's masterpiece Princess Mononoke will be shown for free this Friday SUNDAY, August 27th, as part of Solar One, the Solar-Powered Arts Festival. Catch it on the big screen and within a setting that jives with the film's eco-message!

Menagerie Wallpaper

Design*sponge reports that Brooklyn's hip modern kid's shop Romp is combining pattern, silhouette and animal trends to create very cool wallpaper. What potential this idea has for designers everywhere (and not just the ones with junior versions).

Punk Rock Philosophy Meets Branding

Designer Darryl Ohrt muses on the connections between punk rock and running a successful branding firm: "Within the punk rock credo of my youth were the seeds of a larger business philosophy." [via 37signals]

Video Games with Household Objects

Filmmaker Pes has created Game Over, in which classic arcade games are acted out with household objects. Candy corn spacecraft flames, pizza Pac-man (eggy-eyed ghosts? Brilliant), shooting saltshakers, pretzel logs... one of the most creative in the recent slew of video game tributes. [via BoingBoing]

Taschen: Web Design: Music Sites

Taschen is releasing Web Design: Music Sites in early September. Another in their popular $9.99 Icon series, it joins Web Design: Flash Sites, Web Design: Portfolios, Web Design: Studios and 100 Favorite Websites as the latest in Taschen's growing showcase of online design.

Nonfiction Graphic Novels

Fox News reports that Holtzbrinck Publishers has begun dabbling in "graphic adaptations of nonfiction material." Their graphic novel depicting the 9/11 Report is already available (and endorsed by Stan Lee!), and graphic biographies of Malcolm X and Ronald Reagan are in the works. If you're new to the non-fiction graphic novel, be sure to check out the giants of the genre: Art Spiegelman's Maus, Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, and Joe Sacco's Safe Area Goradze. Note that in 2004 Spiegelman published an illustrated response to 9/11 called In the Shadow of No Towers.

Jason Polan: Every Piece of Art in the MoMA Book

Jason Polan has sketched every piece of art in the MoMA and bundled it all up into an affordable conversation piece of a book ($20). [via kottke]

Paul & Ann Rand Children's Books

Chronicle Books has reprinted two of the children's books created by Paul Rand and his wife, Ann. According to Steven Heller, "Paul Rand did not set out to create classic children's books, he simply wanted to make pictures that were playful. Like the alchemist of old, he transformed unlikely abstract forms into icons that inspired children and adults—and laid the foundation for two books that have indeed become children's classics." Nice price, too! [via Drawn!]

"True" Photography

An interesting rant over at Be A Design Group concerning the use of tampered photographs in journalism (before and after from a recent Reuters job, above). Acknowledging that this is hardly a new practice (with a link to a fascinating rundown of past examples), Adrian instead looks at blurred boundaries between news and entertainment, journalism and design. Be sure to read the spirited comment session.

First Person Shooter Glasses

We've all played "first person shooter" games (I think at least one night of nonstop Doom gameplay was required to graduate from my college). German designer Aram Bartholl takes video game reality into DIY product design territory with his First Person Shooter glasses. Is it me, or are designers finding more and more creative ways to lash out lately? [via Screenhead]

"The Absolute Essence of Comic Book Panels"

Wally Wood’s "22 Panels That Always Work” were once given to incoming artists at Marvel Comics as a crash course in the gold basics of visual storytelling. [via Drawn!]

UPDATE 8/29: 22 Panels That Always Work... Sometimes

Discuss Design for Science

Cosmic Variance, one of the most popular science blogs online, recently put out a call for ideas for graphics illustrating the Higgs mechanism and Supersymmetry. That's right, not the designs themselves, just discussion of existing graphics and concepts for improvements. "When designing a graphic to entice the interest of the scientifically interested public, what better than to actually ask that audience what they like?" Granted, this is a niche audience, but soliciting assistance from potentially hundreds of non-designers hardly seems the most productive route towards creating a graphic solution—I'm sure the designer who eventually has to filter these numerous responses is none too thrilled. Inevitably, low-level chaos ensues as people try to talk out their ideas in what is surely one of the stranger collisions of graphic design, science and critque in recent memory.

Metro Arts

Metro Bits showcases the art and architecture of subway systems around the world, providing nice resource links and details about designers and typefaces. New York's is among the featured systems, and while our aging beast certainly isn't as flash as the modern wonderlands built more recently in other cities, we've at least got a century's worth of public art. [Thanks to Ginna for the link]

Anime on Roosevelt Island

Gothamist reports that an upcoming Japanese animated series called Red Garden will be set on Roosevelt Island. They've got concept sketches and a bit more info.

Graphic Design on Wikipedia

Graphic Design is often hard to explain or precisely define, but the Wikipedia entry on GD is pretty interesting—especially because it, like anything else on "the free encyclopedia" can be edited, argued, disputed, tweaked... And hey, they're calling for "attention from an expert" to hone the entry: "Please help recruit one, or improve this page yourself." Anyone?

Call for Entries: I.D. Annual Design Review

I.D. magazine is now accepting entries into the 2007 Annual Design Review. You can enter in a number of categories and winners will be featured in the August 2007 issue of I.D. There is a student competition as well.

Zaha Hadid

Architect Zaha Hadid, who is "widely known as an innovator who consistently tests the boundaries of architecture, urbanism and design," is currently showcased in an exhibition at the Guggenheim that runs through October. True to form, Hadid is not one to limit herself to one strict genre, and has hopped on board with Established & Sons to revolutionize and resurrect leading British furniture design. An interesting woman to watch!

New Veer Shirts

Veer has added new merchandise to their design-oriented apparel online shop (featured previously).

Last Chance for Darwin

This is the final week for the Darwin exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. The exhibit is billed as a "groundbreaking exploration of the life, times, and work of Charles Darwin, the 19th-century English naturalist whose revolutionary theories changed forever how we see ourselves and the world," and that is certainly true. But what they didn't advertise was the design experience—the exhibit is a festival of info graphics, color, sound, texture and the Rosewood fill typeface (which seems a bit played out now but felt surprisingly fresh when the exhibit opened last November). One wall is covered in a Victorian textile pattern that deconstructs like an outdated belief system but also echoes the themes of biological chains and connection—all with metallic animal silhouettes overlaid here and there for texture. Another corner is filled with turtles and trees, the sea of greens and greys broken only by the deliberately placed fire-engine red bird on one of the branches. Closes this Sunday... catch it while you can!

Meanwhile, I'm not the only one who digs the AMNH (I always recommend it as a place to draw): Design Observer recently linked to an AIGA ode to the strangeness of the museum by Nick Currie (Momus).

Science Fiction Book Covers

Fans of sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick (Blade Runner) have flocked to their scanners and created a collection of over 650 book covers. Sure, it's genre specific, but what an interesting look at the designs through the decades—for example, the image above features five different covers for A Scanner Darkly. There is a clear style evolution right up through the Matrix era. Explore the gallery. [via Speak Up]

Macworld's Creative Space

Macworld magazine has launched Creative Space, "a community and information resource for the Creative Design Professional" that combines news, features, forums, products and discounts with a weekly showcase of individual design submissions.

Designers Against AIDS

Designers Against AIDS is a call to artists, designers and musicians to create t-shirts in an attempt to fight growing complacency about the disease. [via Cool Hunting]

Chinese Space Propaganda

Just to balance the scales a bit (those Russian Constructivists get all the press!), here are some interesting Chinese Space Propaganda posters, in which more recognizable propaganda imagery becomes suddenly rich with happy helmeted animals. [via InkyCircus]

Flip Books

Springwise features two resources for flip books. GDBar has mentioned Flippies before, but FlipClips is new and exciting—though the video conversion does put a damper on the fun of creating "low tech animation" the old-fashioned way...

GDBar on Zeldman's Daily Report

GDBar was featured today on Jeffrey Zeldman's Daily Report! Pretty exciting! Zeldman is the current grand guru of web standards—his landmark book Designing With Web Standards has been an invaluable resource at work as we've switched to the new ways of the web, and we all regularly reference his site A List Apart for helpful design and tech tips. Web standards have been mentioned previously (here and here), and are something even the stodgiest of print designers should have on their radar. Meanwhile, thanks for the nod, Zeldman!

Everyday Products, Interesting Ads

The Cool Hunter showcases two ads that elevate everyday products into conceptual conversation pieces. Think of the fun we could have had with this in art school... sigh.

RIP Mxyplyzyk Co-Founder

RIP Kevin Terpstra, co-founder of Village design outpost Mxyplyzyk.

Iconfactory: Arcade Daze

Iconfactory is at the top of the niche icon design market—they've been getting tons of buzz lately since launching a new version of their site in celebration of their 10th anniversary, but it was the emergence of the new (and free!) Arcade Daze icons that finally won me over. Someone needs to do a research study on how growing up with video games has affected the visual consciousness of modern designers (if it exists, let me know!). [via Jason Santa Maria]

Lomos (and more) on sale at Flight001

Ever-cool West Village travel shop Flight001 is having a big sale. Discounted products include two varieties of Lomo cameras: the Frogeye and Fisheye. Flight001 specializes in highly designed travel goodies—many sport 60s airline flair (the brand is named for Pan-Am's legendary round the world flight), and graphic lifestyle and tech items from new designers are also on the shelves. 96 Greenwich Avenue, between W. 12th and Jane

Fontshop August Calendar

The latest in FontShop's free monthly calendar is available. Each month features a different typeface—August's spotlight is Gusto, designed by Rian Hughes. It's described as "meaty"... no kidding!