Thursday, May 24, 2007

GDBar will return in June

Happy Memorial Day Weekend to all—I'm extending the holiday with a bit of Midwestern travel (it's amazing how road trips start to sound like mythic adventures after a several years in NYC). I'll be back in blogging action the first week in June.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Felix Heinen: Social Networking Info Design

As a student project, Felix Heinen created visually intruiging info design posters that graphically map an online social networking community "like MySpace". Using demographic data readily available from user profiles, the posters display memberships statistics and various community attitudes. Heinen has received lots of recognition and business interest from this endeavor, and is a semifinalist for a 2007 Adobe Design Achievement Award. [via DO]

Print & Pattern on Flickr

Print & Pattern has always been a great source for graphic inspiration, and it's even easier to browse images now that there is a Print & Pattern Flickr stream. I recommend viewing sets as slideshows for maximum effect. If you've never explored Print & Pattern's regular blog, you should consider a visit.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Switchrings

If you are constantly on the lookout for ways to get a little goofy pattern and texture into your everyday wardrobe (you know who you are), consider a set of Switchrings. Rings are customizable and "ridiculously interchangeable"—work the smooth plastic color palettes of the plain versions, or try one of the wallpaper series. [via Veer, who deftly describe the wallpaper rings as "William Morris meets crazed preteen."]

Gursky running dry?

An interesting article in New York Magazine's Art Review asks: is Andreas Gursky—the highest-priced photographer alive—running out of ideas? Gursky has eleven large pictures on display at the Matthew Marks gallery through June 30. [via DO]

Monday, May 21, 2007

Thomas Allen: Pulp Fiction

Minnesota photographer Thomas Allen cuts figures out of old pulp fiction novels then photographs them to create carefully staged 3-D scenes. Inspired by his childhood experiences with pop-up books and View-Masters, Allen creates entirely new situations with his figures, sometimes with just the slightest alteration of visual depth—though still connected to their source, the figures take on new stories and different lives. [via BoingBoing]

UPDATE: An anonymous commenter points out that Chip Kidd showcased Allen's work when he served as guest designer of Zoetrope All-Story magazine: "It's as if the characters have suddenly woken up, that what's happening to them is so intense and vivid it can't be contained." [thanks, Anonymous!]

National Stationery Show: Good On Paper

Poppy showcases beautiful calendars and other new work from Good On Paper, who will be showing at the National Stationery Show. The Stationery Show, which is open only to the trade and requires online registration, is on now through Wednesday at the Javits Center.

UPDATE: Design*sponge has coverage of the Stationery Show.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Gillian Blease

Fun for Friday: the work of illustrator Gillian Blease is a familiar-yet-fresh alternative to the glossy special effects that have bled into most realms of design (even Apple's silhouettes in the iPod ads, so startlingly simple four years ago, have, perhaps naturally, evolved away from a purely flat presentation). Blease, who focuses on magazine and newspaper editorial illustration, keeps it simple but concentrates on color, shape and inherent motion. Don't miss the Works For Sale section of her site. [via Print & Pattern, who showcase some additional pattern work from Blease]

Tattoo Typography

Fun for Friday: Boing Boing features a tattoo typography book (and also, via a reader, a Flickr group) that showcases type on skin. Reminds me of the Eames tattoos previously featured here.

Opinion: Unfortunate Wording

Usually I maintain neutrality, and RIP Charles Goslin, but this Design Observer "Observed" headine—and on a site that prides itself on its fine writing—is questionable (unless Pratt was the actual cause of death): "Charles Goslin, the influential design educator, died Tuesday after teaching two classes at Pratt Institute."

Stand and Deliver

In an article on A List Apart, David Sleight of BusinessWeek.com and Stuntbox offers new designers some pointers on preparing for challenging presentations. "Developing a clear, concise communication style is probably one of the most important things you’ll ever do for your career."

Thursday, May 17, 2007

This Day In Type

Aiming to build a community hub of type discussion, This Day in Type is a collaborative venue for typography that has an open call for artwork based on any individual date. Today's entry, for example, uses the Hyperion Alp typeface. [via Quipsologies]

Improving Your Creative Life

A nice rant over at American Copywriter proclaims that improving your creative life for tomorrow starts today, reminding us all that common sense is often strangely lacking from our design practices. Sample: "When you like a suit and your wife doesn’t, you don’t just cut off the right pant leg or splash yellow paint on the jacket (revisions)."
[via swissmiss]

Bring The Love Back: The Break-Up

An ad being developed for Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions called The Break-Up (or The Couple—there is conflicting info on the site about the ad's title), calls for a better relationship between today’s advertiser and today’s consumer. An ongoing blog about the process of making this ad can be found at bringtheloveback.com. [Thanks Alex!]

100 Years of Fashion Illustration

The Drawn! blog spotlights Cally Blackman's new book 100 Years of Fashion Illustration. "Loaded with images spanning a century of fashion design, the book is not only a document of the evolution of culture and fashion. It also serves as a visual timeline of illustration techniques." I love the cover illustration—very simple, but full of light and motion.

Never Ending Drawings

Oskar Karlin started creating his Never Ending Drawings in Stockholm in 2000. Partially inspired by Douglas Coupland’s Microserfs (the idea of determining whether you have a life via documentation), Karlin started mapping his movements in the city and creating visual representations of those movements with both outlines and color fills. [via Coudal Partners]

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

National Design Awards 07: Chip Kidd

Chip Kidd is among the winners of the Cooper-Hewitt's National Design Awards 07, beating out C&G Partners and Paula Scher in the Communication Design category. I'm a little baffled by their prominent inclusion of Kidd's Superman cover—Kidd himself derides this piece in his lecture (previously featured here). [via DO]

Ridsect Roachtraps

AdGoodness spotlights these ads for Ridsect Roachtraps, which infuse ornamental interior patterns with... well, look closely. Tagline: Don't let them settle in.

One Picture Books

The One Picture Books series is an ongoing series of limited–edition books by individual artists that focus on a single image (or a short series of related images). Each small book contains 16 pages of text and illustrations, including an original print by the artist. The end product is a collectible, focused exploration of individual pieces. Pictured: Taft Street by Todd Hido, On the Clouds by Boomoon, t r u e by Susan Hornbeak-Ortiz, Bill Brandt by Bill Jay [via Cool Hunting]

Design student show in Second Life

Students from London's infamous Goldsmiths College are living up to their neo rep by staging their degree show in the online virtual world of Second Life. "Now it doesn't matter where you are in the world, you can still see our show, and even meet us at our event." [via Artkrush]

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Dot Grid Book

As a sketchbook option, the Dot Grid Book offers a "light geometric dot matrix" as a subtle alternative to traditional graph or lined paper. Developed by Behance in specific response to requests from graphic designers. [via HOW]

Open Manifesto 3

Australian design journal Open Manifesto asks eighteen design minds to define graphic design. "Each issue contains writing of consequence and ideas that are worth returning to," lauds Michael Bierut. Excerpts from issue 3 are available on the site. [via swissmiss]

JPG: What I Learned

The internet is all a-buzz with the story of JPG Magazine (and, I must admit, when JPG was previously featured here, I wondered about the whereabouts of those first six issues). But what I think is most valuable from Derek Powazek's explanation of the situation is his "What I Learned" list. A few choice elements:
  • Communication between partners is mandatory. And you cannot communicate with someone who is not communicating with you.
  • When someone says one thing, but acts in a contradictory way, you have a choice between believing their words or believing their deeds. Believe their deeds.
  • Don’t stay where you’re not wanted, respected, or happy. Even if it’s your company.
This advice is meant for entrepreneurs, but it is equally valuable to anyone in an unsatisfactory work situation. [via kottke]

Tomoko Sawada: ID-400 Series

I completely missed this project when it first made waves in 2003—oddly enough, I was in art school myself at the time, being forced to do Warholian photo booth projects of my own. I wish I'd known then about Tomoko Sawada's ID-400 Series (it never occurred to any of us to alter our identities, Cindy Sherman-style). Sawada took multiple photoboth portraits, changing her physical appearance each time (even facial expressions undergo character shifts) to create 400 different versions of herself. [via Coudal Partners]

Monday, May 14, 2007

Mondo Pasta Noodleslurpers

Ad Goodness features these great ship-side ads for Mondo Pasta, created by German agency Jung von Matt. These giant heads, dubbed "Noodleslurpers", were finalists in the One Show ad contest (Innovative Use of Media: Outdoor category).

Shinebox Card Booklets


This is a great idea—Shinebox makes sleek little booklets of tear-out cards, intended primarily for business cards but also a nice solution for things like calling cards, coupons, tickets and mini-catalogs (in fact, I'd be more likely to use them for something other than biz cards, since you end up with a perforated edge). Adobe templates allow nice flexibility and you can create colorful full-bleed designs: check out the gallery for examples. [via JS]

Free Textures: Crumble Crackle Burn

Newly published Crumble Crackle Burn, a visual exploration of texture in design, has an accompanying website where you can snag 5 free downloadable textures (4 of which are used above). [via HOW]

Designing for a Shrinking Canvas

An interesting article about the shrinking canvas of album cover design has relevance beyond the music industry. These days, especially online, most (if not all) manufactured images will be shown small at some point... CD covers on your tiny iPod screen, book covers on Amazon, screenshots of websites, thumbnail galleries of photos... Are you considering how your work will look in miniature? Perhaps it's time to start anticipating thumbnail impact and, if necessary, infusing larger formats with even more tactile bonuses (the feel of materials, the texture of print, special packaging) that create incentive for interaction at actual size. [article via DO, where you can also read a semi-related post by Adrian Shaughnessy, where he writes: "Who ever had a love affair with a JPEG?"]

Eyecatching mini-design is also important in today's world of social networking—I've recently started to Twitter, and I'm always amazed at how uninteresting most user icons are. On the public timeline, where images are shown at 48x48 pixels, my eyes sweep past most photo-based facial icons and are caught by illustrations or typography. On profile pages, where those images shrink to 24x24 pixels within the tiny grid of friends, photos of faces often blur into visually forgettable mini tiles. This is the case on many community sites—Flickr, for example, fares slightly better than Twitter, likely because there is a higher artist quotient among general users. But any profile icon, wherever it is shown online (help forums, index and contact listings, blog comments, etc.), potentially leads people back to the user. So whatever the user intention (selling products, boosting visibility, making contacts), a well-designed icon that represents nicely at several thumbnail levels is certainly an advantage.

Are you thinking small?

Julien Roumagnac

I've been enjoying the photoblog of Montreal-based Julien Roumagnac, which brims with simple, transporting shots of light and shadow filled landscapes, interiors and natural elements. [via Coudal Partners]

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Typeface

Michael Bierut has a great post up over at Design Observer called Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Typeface, in which he discusses how he's reached an operable psychological point between "five-typeface sobriety" (Vignelli-style) and "typographic promiscuity".

Design Remixed: Digital Kitchen

Wednesday at the Apple store in Soho, Paul Matthaeus of Digital Kitchen gives the second in the Pro Sessions: Design Remixed series of talks developed by Apple and the AIGA. Digital Kitchen's stylish, award-winning work includes the title sequences for Six Feet Under, House and more. Admission is free, but you'll have to fight the masses for seating, so get there early! Visit the AIGA event page or the Digital Kitchen site.

Friday, May 11, 2007

MS Mona Lisa

Fun for Friday: Drawn! features a high-speed video of the Mona Lisa being drawn in MS Paint, complete with a high-energy soundtrack that adds some laughable drama to the process.

HOW magazine call for Biz Cards

Got a great business card? HOW magazine is looking for "fun, interesting, cool" cards for showcase in an upcoming issue—great visibility if your card is selected! Details available here.

NY Design Week

Core77 has a rundown of events scheduled for the upcoming NY Design Week (May 19-22). Highlights include a last push of publicity for the Cooper-Hewitt Triennial, the Parsons Product Design Thesis Exhibition, an open house at MXYPLYZYK celebrating 15 years of design in New York, an Icelandic design showcase, and many, many, many more. The Apartment is also giving indie designers a shot at their window space during Design Week—the call for entries extends until this Monday.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Adrian Leskiw: Fictional Road Maps

Self-described "avid map collector and roadgeek" Adrian Leskiw has been designing his own cities and maps since childhood— his fictional road maps mark the digital efforts of recent years. What I love about these is the disjointed feeling of familiarity conjured by the use of actual place names, and the immediate sense of reality that comes from being presented with maps in this style, which we are accustomed to wholly accepting as legitimate geographic guides. [via Coudal Partners]

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Business Cards on Flickr

Flickr's got a treasure trove of business cards, just waiting to spark ideas and inspiration. [via kottke]

New Design Criticism MFA at SVA

Starting Fall 2008, SVA will offer a Master of Fine Arts in Design Criticism, this country’s first graduate-level degree program dedicated to critical writing about design. The program was developed by Steven Heller and Alice Twemlow, who will be on a faculty that will also include other prominent design brains like Michael Bierut and Peter Hall. Having looked at several similar programs in other countries, I'm very pleased to see this domestic development.

Emily Dove Gross

I'm enjoying the illustration of Emily Dove Gross, who is finishing up her thesis at Ringling School of Art and Design. Emily recently won first place in the Design*Sponge scholarship competition. Pictured: Rilo Kiley poster, Frankenstein Halloween card, Norton the Narwhal.

Free Photoshop Brushes

In celebration of 5000th downloads of the lo-res version, Screensilk is now offering the hi-res version of their Elegant Star Photoshop Brush pattern pack for free. The pack contains 10 brushes and pattern fills compatible with Adobe CS and CS2. For samples of the patterns in color, click here and scroll down. [Thanks Alex!]

Do Designers Think Alike?

Graphic Design Blog (UK) is undergoing a little experiment to try and gauge how much designers think alike. Two ficticious companies need logos—submit your rough sketches by May 29th and see how your ideas compare. [via Quipsologies]

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Shalgo's Mozaikit

In the hands of the right designer, the Mozaikit DIY vinyl sticker set could bloom into something transcending standard harlequin fare and become a really interesting grid-based design. The kit is made by Shalgo (previously featured here), who do all sorts of fun and colorful things with duct tape. [via Cool Hunting]

Classical Color Correction

The Unfocused Brain blog offers up some interesting tips on improving your photographs using the color palettes of classical art and Photoshop's Match Color tool. As the blog says, "The Old Masters of painting spent years of their lives learning about color. Why let all their effort go to waste on the walls of some museum when it could be used to give you a hand with color correction?" [via BoingBoing]

Moon Type

I recently learned of the existence of Moon type, a writing system for the blind that uses embossed symbols. For people who lose their sight after learning to read the Roman alphabet, and who therefore already have a relationship with typography, Moon type is apparently much easier to understand than Braille. However, since it's significantly faster and easier to produce a work in Braille, Moon writing has diminished in popularity and is now only used by about 400 people (most of whom live in England). [via Coudal Partners]

Monday, May 07, 2007

Tauba Auerbach

Tauba Auerbach’s work, much of it typographic, explores human constructed language systems (such as alphabets) and examines the shortcomings and possibilities of language. Pictured: slices from her treatment of Alexander Melville Bell's visible speech vowels, phonetics of the English alphabet, the letter K and maritime letter symbols.

Saturday, May 05, 2007

Shorpy: The 100 Year Old Photo Blog

The Shorpy photoblog features photography from days gone by, creating a unique window into the past. Paging through the site is surprisingly transporting—a sampling of varied years, locations and people creates a sense of casual social history that I've not quite experienced before. The site is named for boy miner Shorpy Higginbotham, who's grubby face looks out startingly from four photos taken at an Alabama coal mine in 1910. Pictured: Harlem, 1943 by Gordon Parks. [via Doane Paper]

Friday, May 04, 2007

Awamori Labels

PingMag waxes rhapsodic about the colorful labels found on the Awamori brand of Okinawan sake.

Taschen: Advertising Now! Online

The second book in Taschen's advertising series, Advertising Now! Online spotlights "the best campaigns on the web today" and features ads and articles leading agencies like DM9, Tribal DDB, OgilvyOne, LOWE Tesch, and 2020 London. (Hey, nice discount and free shipping at Amazon.) [via Cool Hunting]

Nine Inch Nails: Year Zero

37signals showcases the elaborate Year Zero campaign for the new album by Nine Inch Nails. Created by 42 Entertainment, the campaign blurs the line between marketing and entertainment and is quite involved—hidden clues, cryptic messages, and CDs that change color are all part of "a brand using multiple forms of media to play with its users and leave them things to find and chase after."

COLOURLovers: Color Legends

The COLOURLovers blog explains the history of how and why 11 color legends have achieved longstanding association with certain meanings: red for stop, white for surrender, green for... well, many things. [via kottke]

Thursday, May 03, 2007

FontShop May Calendar

The latest in FontShop's free monthly calendar is available. Each month features a different typeface—May's spotlight is Anisette, designed by Jean-François Porchez.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Urban Forest Project Bags Available

Last fall, the AIGA's Urban Forest Project filled Times Square with tree-themed banners by leading designers, artists, photographers and illustrators (the project was previously featured here). The tote bags they promised to make from the recycled banners are now available, so get your limited-edition piece of New York design history while you can.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Joy

The design word for May over at Speak up is joy (in celebration of the newest addition to the Speak Up family).