casualoptimist:

The Pelican Shakespeare 

I am obsessed with these book covers. I LOVE the illustration style, the simplicity, and the use of color.

*stands* *claps*

Around the world with type

These are stunning. Super simple, elegant, and sharp. 

Favorite letters: C, H, O, R

So.my WBFF (work best friend forever) Erin has left our company and moved on to new & exciting adventures. Partly because I love making & writing cards for people, and because I needed a venue to write all of my silly, sappy, thankful, and nostalgic thoughts, I made this card for her.

She is leaving the office world behind and entering the fun world of specialty food, and I could not be happier or more excited (and a tinge jealous) of her. 

The top three illustrations are of commonplace items/objects she encountered while here at the office, and the bottom three are just some of the many, many, many exciting items she will be writing about and styling/photographing (not jealous at all, promise ;P ).

I experimented with a new illustration style (for me) - using colored pencils and then adding detail, outlines, and shadow with a Micron pen. I will continue to pursue this style. 

Photo via Erin on Instagram

Type Exercise: 376

ABC

While working on a logo concept for a project at work, I started playing around with these geometric shapes. I liked their inherent puzzle nature (as they were derived from a compound shape and then broken apart), but I also found their edges and angles intriguing.

This is not perfect, but that’s okay. I am trying to push myself to be more creative and put more work up.

This video shows the process and collection of covers that were designed (and presumably pitched) for the new novel Hausfrau.

I love this! I could have continued to watch for another 10 minutes. 

Chinatown

“Chinatown is a Chinese translation of the trademarks in a graphical way.
It’s a carefully arranged series of artworks showcasing 20 well-known western brand logos with maintained visual and narrative continuity.

‘Chinatown’ pushes viewers to ask themselves what it means to see,
hear, and become fully aware. ‘Chinatown’ also demonstrates our strangeness
to 1.35 billion people in the world, when you can’t read Chinese.”

Fascinating. Be sure to click the link above to see more popular logos.

NYC / 1.16.15-1.18.15

I recently spent the weekend in NYC and had the chance to stop by the Museum of Arts & Design. The main exhibit is titled “New Territories”, which is subtitled “Laboratories for Design, Craft and Art in Latin America” - a terrific look into the emerging art world in a variety of Latin American cities.

Above are some highlights, my favorites being the shoe (surrounded by other innovative/weird shoes) and the large-scale 3D typography (made from interlocking postcard sized pieces of ephemera.)

The first photo was the rainy, foggy, gray view from my hotel room Sunday morning.

Best of 2014 (Movie posters / Album covers / Book covers)

Movie posters

• Gone Girl: One of my most anticipated movies of 2014 was David Fincher’s adaption of Gillian Flynn’s thriller “Gone Girl”. As posters and production stills started being released, posters like this one not only spoke to Fincher’s signature style, but also a visual adaption of Flynn’s mysterious and haunting book. The cheeky/clever use of the text and it’s meaning work incredibly well as a teaser for the film. 
• Inherent Vice: As of this post, I have not seen Inherent Vice, but the poster immediately grabbed my attention. The poster feels both referential of earlier decades and completely new and fresh. The design is playful, and the typography is elegant and purposeful. The composition is somewhat expected, but all of the pieces come together to create a memorable poster. 
• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1: The Hunger Games movie franchise has always had some incredible creative direction and marketing rollout. While this isn’t the full movie poster, this teaser photograph/poster conveys so much interest and mystery in one image. The all-white photograph is haunting and makes the subjects look both statuesque and futuristic. 

Album covers

• St. Vincent, St. Vincent: I’ve written about this album cover before here, but it’s still one of my favorites from the year (and one of my favorite albums.) St. Vincent’s bright, rich, and enigmatic sound is replicated with a simple, stirring, and (fake) minimalistic-inspired cover. The typography is weird and geometric, her pose is regal and elegant, and the severe contrast of colors work to make the cover visually stunning.
• FKA twigs, LP1: There’s something so unique, moving, and subtle about FKA twigs’ music, and this cover helps to communicate all of those things. Photographed and manipulated by artist Jesse Kanda, the bright, stirring, surreal cover is one that I think will be continually regarded as an important and “classic” album cover.
• Tycho, Awake:  This minimalistic and restrained album cover is elegant in it’s simplicity. The range of colors and geometry convey the ambient and calming music that Tycho releases. 

Book covers

• Wolf In White Van by John Darnielle: While almost headache-inducing, this weird, challenging, and maze of a book cover is really eye-catching. The two-color cover evokes a sense of mystery, curiosity, and confusion - all while being visually appealing and well-designed.
• Your Face in Mine by Jess Row: I love this book cover for it’s simplicity, character, and elegance in it’s geometry. The abstracted geometric shapes come together to form an interesting shape (I see a geometric interpretation of an ampersand.) I particularly enjoy the change in typeface for the word “in” - it’s simple and almost goes by without notice, but everything comes together to form a simple, geometric, and pleasing cover.
• The Silent History by Eli Horowitz, Kevin Moffett, Matthew Derby: This cover utilizes a clever typographic solution - a combination of geometric letters and blank spaces, with hand-written text set inside. The book is about a new generation of children who are born unable to understand language. It’s a dense topic, but the cover is deceptively simple and features some mystery in the combination of the set/written text. 

Books I Read in 2014

Goal: 14

Total: 32

Memoirs: 7 (Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Medium Raw, I Don’t Know What You Know Me From, Heat, Joan Rivers: I Hate Everyone Starting With Me, My Horizontal Life, Not That Kind of Girl)

Books with left-justified type in the upper left corner: 4 (In The Woods, Tenth of December, Not That Kind of Girl, An Object of Beauty)

“Classics”: 6 (The Importance of Being Earnest, The Glass Menagerie, Of Mice and Men, Our Town, The Stranger, Frankenstein)

Books written by authors who aren’t white men: 17 (Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Dark Places, This Is How You Lose Her, In The Woods, I Don’t Know What You Know Me From, Harry Potter 1-5, Tell The Wolves I’m Home, Joan Rivers: I Hate Everyone Starting With Me, Where’d You Go Bernadette?, My Horizontal Life, Sharp Objects, Not That Kind of Girl, Frankenstein)

Favorites: In The Woods, Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore, An Object of Beauty

Favorite covers: This Is How You Lose Her, In The Woods, Where’d You Go Bernadette, An Object of Beauty

What are some books you would recommend?

Lacoste - A L!VE pop-up story

This is just too cool. It really demonstrates just how much you can experience within a book. It pushes the senses, the constraints of book design, and takes user experience to a whole new level.

I can’t pick a favorite section/spread!

Paper Critter, v2.0

Unfortunately, I don’t remember exactly what my first Paper Critter looked like, but I was excited to take a stab at it, many years after the first attempt.  I took the second opportunity to add in some of my design work, and some of my personal branding to this edition of my paper critter.

I wanted the paper critter to be a mix of myself and my inspiration: color, simplicity, nature, my deer screen print, and geometric shapes.

HOW WE DID IT — SNL TITLE SEQUENCE

Woah.  I always love seeing new title sequences (or adjustments to existing ones) - so I was interested to see the revamped style for Season 40 of SNL.

In Alex’s post, he goes through much of the team’s process to create new images and the technology used to do so.

My jaw dropped when I saw how they achieved this… it’s mind-boggling to think about the contraption/calculations needed to create the flashing light mechanism which ends up light-writing the show’s title.

A real treat to peak behind the curtain.

At The New Yorker’s Midtown offices, a wall of covers arranged in chronological order shows a distinct change in tone. Today, the magazine’s covers, which have been drawn or painted by artists each week since its founding in 1925, frequently reflect, or subvert, the news.

The turning point is around Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Remnick said, when The New Yorker ran a black cover with a black silhouette of the twin towers, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Art Spiegelman, who has long collaborated with his wife and the magazine’s art editor, Françoise Mouly.

A great article about magazine cover design, illustration, and process. 

bookcovrs:

Eiko Ojala

This cover for The Lovely Bones is a fantastic reimagining of the original cover from 12 years ago. I like the continuation of the same general color palette, and think the use of (simulated?) cut paper is extremely effective and playful.  While I think the cover would probably work with just the cloud and text, I am happy the designer referenced the main character and a key plot location for the book.

I wonder if the cut paper is simulated or if it was cut by laser…..or even better, by hand!

Type Safari with James Victore

This is really fun and feels very relatable.  James and his driver are clearly driving around REAL parts of a city (in this case Brooklyn and Queens) - seeing that wonderful mix of big name brands and smaller outfits, with both beautiful and sometimes unimagined design.  

I’d love to do this in Philadelphia. *starts thinking*

Found via The Casual Optimist

Album Art / CD Cover Designs

In choosing these 10 album covers, I tried to select 10 that would ultimately catch my eye if I saw them in a store or advertised online or in person. Many of the covers feature photography and typography working simultaneously to create one final composition.  In these covers, I wanted examples of the typography adding to the cover, and not looking like an afterthought.

With the more experimental and illustrative covers, I tried to select different styles - all which feel very appropriate to the tone/genre of the music. With the Grizzly Bear and the Shins albums in particular, the illustration styles are geometric and experimental.  These two album covers also utilize the famous rule-of-thirds. 

Björk always manages to produce absolutely vivid, striking, and bizarre covers that often come off looking as if they belong in a high-fashion editorial magazine. For some other examples of her artwork, click here and here.

jedavu:

Fashion illustrations from Dadu Shin

Found this set of illustrations this morning on Behance and really responded to Dadu’s sense of whimsy and form in these illustrations.  I enjoy how weird, geometric, and energetic they are.  The color/print/texture really jump off the page.

lamski:

BEAUTIFUL PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN POSTERS.

For a poster series illustrating ten principles of great design, these are - appropriately - beautifully designed. Otherwise it would have been a bit awkward.

Created by Turkish graphic designer Efil Türk using only paper cuttings, these explore the concepts of hierarchy, rhythm, balance, pattern, proportions, space, emphasis, contrast, movement and unity in stunning fashion.

Admire, and learn, below and visit Efil’s Behance page for more great work.

I love these posters so much.  The posters are playful and really capture each of the principles.  I’m drawn to the cut paper look, and admire Efil’s stunning craft. 

My favorite posters are “Pattern” and “Emphasis”. 

Susan Kare, Iconographer (EG8)

Terrific presentation by Susan Kare on her icon design career and process.  Truly inspiring to see how such memorable and ubiquitous images were created, from concept to use.