Graphic designEye blog
Today LA logo attack. H5's 'highly caffeinated' Logorama wins the Oscar for best short film- Earlier this week, H5's Logorama won the Academy Award for best animated short. Here's the film, followed by Matt Soar's review from the current issue of Eye. Logorama Directed by Hervé de Crécy, Ludovic Houpain and Francois Alaux, H5 Reviewed by Matt Soar An entirely troubling aspect of debates about product placement (an egregious and underhand marketing practice that has already clogged up certain genres of Hollywood movies) is the industry claim that it boils down to a need for more real... (more)
- Yesterday Fit to print. Newspaper Club shows what we can do with tomorrow's papers
- Newspaper Club didn't think they had a hope of following Shepard Fairey's Obama poster and winning the Graphics category at the Brit Insurance Design of the Year 2010, writes Chloë King. It was always going be a tough choice for the judging panel: how to follow a campaign that became perhaps the decade's most definitive image? But their selection was smart. Instead of choosing a single work, they commended the realisation of a system that helps amateurs and professionals publish good-looking p... (more)
- 3 days Ms Understood in Whitechapel. Eye looks back at 1970s campaign posters on International Women's Day
- These campaign posters may never have been widely seen, but they should be, writes Sally Jeffery. They are up on the walls again now for 'Ms Understood', an exhibition at the Women's Library in Whitechapel, London now extended until 17 April. The show charts the launch and exuberant growth of the Women's Liberation movement in Britain, through photographs, press-cuttings, posters, books, first-hand accounts and even dresses. Above: 'Y B A wife', poster for a campaign for women's legal and finan... (more)
- Grease is the Word. The chipboard lexicon of London's latest literary festival
- Eye visited The Chip Shop run by the Henningham Family Press at the launch of the London Word Festival, which started on Sunday 7 March 2010. Looking like a full size chippy, The Chip Shop is a fully functioning screen-printing workshop that serves up screen printed words on chipboard for the price of a bag of chips! Watch and wait while your chosen word is prepared, screened, inked and dried, then wrapped in paper ready to go. All words submitted will form the basis -- the lexicon -- of an o... (more)
- Up in the Cloud? Editors and designers huddle together for 'What's on your iPad?'
- The sold-out 'What's On Your iPad' event, organised jointly by the BSME (British Society of Magazine Editors) and the EDO (Editorial Design Organisation), attracted a broad mix of editors, publishers, designers and art directors, all curious to speculate about what the future might bring, and what their colleagues, rivals, advertisers and publishers might be doing. And where our current jobs might end up, if anywhere. Were we the equivalent of dot.com entrepreneurs, checking out the potential of... (more)
- 'Unimaginably powerful, infinitely fragile.' Jason Epstein's article about digitisation & the
- This article has been much quoted and Tweeted over the past couple of weeks, but if you haven't seen it yet, we recommend you get hold of a copy (print or online) and read it in full. The article in question is 'Publishing: The Revolutionary Future', first published in The New York Review of Books. The printed version we read was a in supplement published with The Guardian Review (above) on 20 February. You can read the original NYRB version here, also with drop caps. And read it again -- ther... (more)
- Signs of a city. Eye revisits the typography of Athenian street signs
- When Minos Zarifopoulos wrote about Athenian street signs in Eye 45, he worried that a project to remove modern billboards and other 'visual disturbances' could give the impression of 'walking around an open-air museum of how Athens used to be', writes John Ridpath. Eight years on, it's still up for debate whether tidying up the main squares and thoroughfares has rejuvenated the city or glossed over its recent history. But in the back-streets of central Athens a rich history of shop sign typogra... (more)
- Back to the future. Day two at the 'Decoding the digital' conference at the V&A
- Day two of the 'Decoding the Digital', conference at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, kicked off with a change of scene, writes Liz Farrelly. Graphic design, branding and advertising were centre stage, with filmmaker Johnny Hardstaff in conversation with Shane Walter of onedotzero. Here was the first mention of gaming, as Hardstaff showed extracts from his two short 'manifesto' movies, History of Gaming and Future of Gaming, the second of which was commissioned by Sony Playstation in 200... (more)
Typeradio
- 3 days David Schrigley 1/1
- Glasgow-based artist David Shrigley works in various media, but is best known for his slightly bizarre and humourous illustrations. David enjoys his artistic freedom, he considers himself lucky. He talks about humour, how he is perceived, his DJ-ing and taste in music. He sometimes says he’s not really good at it, but drawing does come naturally to him. 30 sheets of paper every day, he tries to put a lot of variety in his drawing. There are lots of people he admires, but he contemplates ab... (more)
- Annelys de Vet 1/1
- Annelys de Vet is head of the design department of the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam. She tells us how she became a graphic designer, and why. Spending her time between Brussels and Amsterdam, she talks about the differences and boundaries between art and design, and Belgium and Holland. She thinks design should be service minded and functional. Annelys always tells her students to question their approach, to see design in a bigger context, and the role of design in society. She talks about he... (more)
- Büro Destruct 1/1
- Büro Destruct is a graphic artists’ collective based in Bern, Switzerland, comprising of four members. Lopetz and HeiWid share their thoughts about swimming, fonts, heroes, their fascination with Japan, the similarities between Swiss and Japanese design, Amiga and Commodore computers. And finally the answer to what happens to designers after the age of sixty. Büro Destruct :: Büro Destruct III book :: BD fonts :: BD shop :: Lopet... (more)
- Bob van Dijk 1/1
- Going out to bars and cafés is Bob’s ritual, and this social interest plays a part in his design work. He talks about why he became a graphic designer. The most important lesson he learned is not to take design too seriously, there are many different ways to approach it. His work is changing a lot over the years, but in general he likes different layers, stories within stories. Bob talks about his former The Hague studio NLXL and his life after closing it down, making drawings with hi... (more)
- David Crow 1/1
- Professor David Crow is Head of the Art and Design faculty at the Manchester University. He discusses his motivation for his move from design to teaching, and his eventual move into being an academic manager. He reveals his experiences as a teacher and the importance of encouraging cross-disciplinary education. Crow talks about his initial interest in typography, his later work with semiotics and theory and the specifics of Manchester and British graphic design. Recorded at the 33pt conference 2... (more)
- Sven Ehmann 1/1
- Sven Ehmann is editor at Die Gestalten publishers in Berlin. He talks about his working process and how he juggles multiple projects. He moves on to discussing the origins of the book Dataflow at Die Gestalten and talks about the field of design publishing and his personal motivations in making books. Recorded at the 33pt conference 2009 in Dortmund. Die Gestalten :: Etc publications :: File Download (22:55 min / 32 MB)... (more)
- Von B und C 1/1
- Barbara Hahn and Christine Zimmermann are Von B und C, a design studio in Bern, Switzerland. They start by explaining how they got interested in infographics, visualising data as their graduation project, and how they work together (of coarse their collaboration can be best viewed in their self-designed ‘collaboration visualisation’). Analysis and visualisation is a much more complicated and time consuming process than design. They don’t have a preference for either, form and c... (more)
- Autobahn 1/1
- Jeroen Breen, Rob Stolte and Maarten Dullemeijer are Autobahn, design collective from Utrecht, The Netherlands. They first describe the special project they did for their presentation at 33pt in Dortmund, they tell us how they met and how they got interested in typography. They elaborate on their typographic experiments, and how they collaborate. Do they have specialities? Heroes? We finally hear about their big dream. Recorded at the 33pt conference in Dortmund. Autobahn :: F... (more)
information aesthetics
- Yesterday Google Public Data Explorer
- Google Public Data Explorer [google.com] is yet the latest entry in the ongoing race to democratize data access and its representation for lay people. Similar to Many Eyes, Swivel, Tableau Public and many others, Google Public aims to make large datasets easy to explore, visualize and communicate. As a unique feature, the charts and maps are able to animate over time, so that any meaningful time-varying data changes become easier to understand. The goal is for students, journalists, pol... (more)
- 3 days Obama Loves Infographic Movies (and Edward Tufte)
- Yesterday, I tweeted the quite surprising news that information graphics guru Edward Tufte will be joining the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel [edwardtufte.com], which aims to track and explain $787 billion in recovery stimulus funds in the US. I was convinced this news event had been given sufficient attention. Little did I know. I just discovered the Obama campaign actually loves infographics so much, they recently have featured an infographic-style movie on their official websit... (more)
- 3 days Tim Berners-Lee: The Year Open Data Went Worldwide (TED Talk)
- The very short TED talk by internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee shows a few of the interesting results where open data gets mashed up in various compelling data visualizations. The talk includes many examples the avid infosthetics reader should already know, including Where Does my Money Go?, California Stimulus Map, data.gov.uk Newspaper and OpenStreetMap Edits. Other projects, not blogged about before on this site, include Making Water a Matter of Race [time.com], Afghanistan Election Da... (more)
- 3 days Accusing Google's Business Practice through (another) Infographic Movie
- It seems the now classic infographic movie "Google Master Plan" from early 2007 is now finally outdated, as the main allegations have been recently updated by another infographically-style film, aptly titled The Beast File: Google [abc.net.au] (movie not viewable outside Australia, but watch a YouTube version below). The new movie, which itself seems to be inspired by the visual zooming effects from the presentation software Prezi, defines Google as an advertising giant whose main goal... (more)
- Clavilux 2000: Generative Music Visualization Composition
- Clavilux 2000 [jonasheuer.de] is a subtle music visualization installation that represents the playing of sounds by way of a simultaneous animation that can be interpreted. For every note played on the keyboard, a stripe appears of which the dimensions, position and color correspond to the way the particular key was stroke. The length and vertical position of stripe is mapped unto the velocity, while the stripe's width reflects the length of each note. By mapping the color wheel on th... (more)
- Live Labs Pivot: A Massive Interactive Zoom on Data (TED Talk)
- "Viewing information and data in this way, is a lot like swimming in a living information infographic." During his very impressive TED talk, Gary Flake, Technical Fellow at Microsoft, demos the novel and still experimental Pivot [getpivot.com] technology. Pivot is a completely new way to browse and arrange massive amounts of images and data online. Built on the Seadragon zooming technology, it enables spectacular zooming in and out of web databases, and the discovery of patterns and li... (more)
- DaVis'10: Deadline Extended!
- You might have seen our previous announcement of DAVis, the 5th International Symposium on Design and Aesthetics in Visualisation, co-located with the much bigger IEEE IV010 conference in London. For all those of you who missed the quite tight submission deadline, here is some very good news: Submissions are still possible until March 21! Make sure to check out the rules about the style, maximum length, important dates, etc. at the IV'10 website (click on "Papers"). Here some answers to the qu... (more)
- What Do You Suggest? Exploring the Collective Lives of Google Users
- What Do You Suggest? [whatdoyousuggest.net] is a fun, interactive visual guide on a journey through the 'suggested' collective lives of millions of Google users. The suggested words appear in the order in which Google suggests them. Each word is connected by a line of varying thickness representing the relative number of search results for a given Google search on the phrases which that word. The suggestions provided by Google Suggest represent real searches which in all likelihood ... (more)
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grain edit
- Today Mi Diccionario Ilustrado in the Shop
- Mi Diccionario Ilustrado - Illustrations by Acosta Moro Mi Diccionario Ilustrado is a fun little dictionary for kids. Each page is filled with colorful illustrations of animals, musical instruments and various modes of transportation. I was able to get my hands on a couple copies of this hard to find book from the 1970s. If your interested in purchasing a copy, stop by the grain edit shop. -------- Also worth checking: Miroslav Sasek - This is the United Nations Not signed up for the G... (more)
- Yesterday La Boca Design
- La Boca is a London based design firm specializing in transporting its viewers to places of the future by means of the past. This record sleeve, created for Arcadion, has a nice composition with the symmetry of the two magnetic looking objects on the edge of what seems like a portal into space. The warm gradient behind the bold text nicely juxtaposes the cool waves of the galactic landscape. This is where I’d like to be today. In addition to creating record sleeves, La Boca has a... (more)
- 3 days Frank Eidlitz Posters for Shell
- Awesome collection of posters for Shell Oil Company dating back to 1964. The series was created by Australian designer Frank Eidlitz. (via The Silver Lining via Re:collection) ---- Also worth checking: Vintage Porsche Posters Not signed up for the Grain Edit RSS Feed yet? Give it a try. Its free and yummy. ---- No TagsShare This ... (more)
- Go Faster: The Graphic Design of Racing Cars
- This video provides a very interesting look at the design of racing cars in 70s. The graphics on these care are incredible -- very minimal and nothing at all like the logo-plastered cars of NASCAR. From the Gestalten.tv website: “You’d never guess it, but these big toys for big boys were at the height of their design during the 1970s -- by sheer chance. Mechanics and team members -- not designers or marketing strategists -- adorned racecars with all of those flashy stripes, logos, ... (more)
- The Books Concert Poster by Sonnenzimmer
- The Books Concert Poster by Sonnenzimmer. Measures 18″ x 24″ Our poster pick for the week was created by Sonnenzimmer. Sonnenzimmer is an art and screen print studio based in Chicago. The studio is owned and operated by artist’s Nadine Nakanishi and Nick Butcher. We’re certain you’ll find their work as appealing as we do. The poster pictured above really puts the negative space to good use. The simple, colorful shapes balance the overall composition while the brok... (more)
- Homework: Modern Polish Poster Design
- If you are in the London area, Kemistry Gallery is currently showing works by the warsaw-based design studio homework (Joanna Górska and Jerzy Skakun). On display is a selection of over fifty of their prints including classic cinema and modern Polish theatre posters. The exhibition runs from March 5th through the 17th of April. (via designboom) ---- Also worth checking: Dirk Fowler + Jason Munn / Small Stakes interview Not signed up for the Grain Edit RSS Feed yet? Give it a try. Its fre... (more)
- Celyn Brazier
- London based illustrator and animator, Celyn Brazier, sure has a way with color! Reminiscent of George Dunning’s psychedelic Yellow Submarine, this particular image depicts the sea and earth with its abundance of creatures, homes, and people. The composition is positioned so that everything feels connected. The images of floating jellyfish, zooming cyclists, and carefree birds also provide a nice natural rhythm within the imagined landscape. To see more of Celyn’s work, visit ... (more)
- Goodby for HP Retail Publishing
- I love this set of ads put together by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners for the HP Retail Publishing group. The illustrations were created by Ryan Meis (also of Lab Partners fame) and later rendered in 3d by Australian design firm Electric Art. creative directors: Steve Simpson, Brian Gunderson copywriter: Dan Hofstadter creative director: Steve Simpson print producer: Dan Southwick ---- Also worth checking: Johnny Kelly Cecilie Ellefsen Not signed up for the Grain Edit RSS Feed yet? Give ... (more)
NewsDesigner.com
- Kind Of a Personal Question, Isn't It?*
- Update:...... (more)
- Judging The Best of Newspaper Design
- I'm in Syracuse assisting with the judging of the Society for News Design’s Best of Newspaper Design competition through Monday. There’s comprehensive live blog coverage, as well as Twittering and Flickring....... (more)
- New York Times Sells First Front-Page Display Ad
- The New York Times will sell display ads on its front page and, in fact, already has, as you can see in the above image of Monday’s front page. The Times would not disclose the rates it charges for...... (more)
- Save NewsPageDesigner
- NewsPageDesigner, the venerable newspaper design portfolio site, is in need of new servers and programming to redesign the site from the ground up. And they need to do it soon so they don't lose the thousands of portfolios that are...... (more)
- Election Front Pages
- Here are the front pages from the top U.S. papers this morning. I’ll add some smaller papers and international ones as they reflect the results in Thursday’s editions. Update: I’ve added a few more pages, including some international pages....... (more)
- Chicago Tribune Redesign
- The Chicago Tribune launched its long-awaited redesign today. A bunch more pages after the jump. The SND site has a look into the project in slideshow and video form, and Poynter has a Q&A with Design Director Jonathon Berlin....... (more)
- SND Vegas Backchannel
- The aforementioned SND Vegas workshop begins Sunday, and I've hacked together a page that collects some of the online conversations generated by the workshop. Content from blogs, Twitter, Flickr, etc., should show up on the page in a timely...... (more)
- Sarah Who?
- The Society for News Design annual workshop is about to kickoff in Las Vegas, and the online polling stations are open for members to vote for officers. But before you discharge that most sacred duty, the Concerned Union of Designers...... (more)
Voice: AIGA Journal of Design
- Today AIGA executive director to speak on crowdsourcing panel
- Richard Grefé will speak at Pratt Institute on March 10 as part of “Crowdsourcing and Disruption,” a panel discussion on the shifting economics of design and communication.... (more)
- Today The Measure of a Designer
- Are designers artists or engineers? Inspired by matters of the heart, Collins considers the value design brings to the human experience.... (more)
- Yesterday Don't miss your golden opportunity
- March 26 is the late-entry deadline for AIGA’s annual design competitions. Enter now for your chance to take your place in design history!... (more)
- Yesterday AIGA partners with F+W Media's Design Community
- AIGA and F+W Media have announced a partnership to advance the concept of design thinking, the relevance of design in problem solving and the leadership role designers play in our society.... (more)
- For Your Appropriation: An Interview with Rick Prelinger
- Heller takes stock of the Prelinger Library, which provides public access to historical media to enable new authorship.... (more)
- Case Study: Yearbook Yourself
- A back-to-school campaign for Taubman shopping malls, Colle+McVoy’s Yearbook Yourself website and app scored top grades.... (more)
- It's All Greek to Me
- Athens’ fourth annual Design Walk placed Greek graphic designers on the map. Vienne found a few bright stars in this fledgling scene.... (more)
- 23 Ways to Get Fired
- There are good and bad ways to stir up trouble at your company. Epstein draws the line between being brave and being boorish.... (more)
Vitamin
- Today Setting rather than Resetting Default Styling
- Editors Note: In his first article for Think Vitamin Thierry Koblentz discusses the issue of “resetting” your CSS. “base.css” versus “reset.css” For a long time, the very first line in my styles sheets was: * {padding:0;margin:0;} This simple rule was very convenient as it leveled margin and padding values of all elements across browsers. This “hard reset” was short and simple and it had the advantage of belonging to the main styles sheet rather t... (more)
- Yesterday Freelancing Together
- Editors Note: In his first article for Think Vitamin Matthew Smith, Principal Designer at Squared Eye Design, discusses the benefits, risks and infrastructure required to work effectively with fellow freelancers. Working Alone Working alone can be great. There's a pleasant autonomy of knowing exactly what you're doing and when. There are few unknowns. You work directly with the client and don't have to worry about managing others. In the past I've done everything from branding, strategy, IA, ... (more)
- 3 days Getting Started with Yahoo! GeoPlanet Explorer
- Where are you and what is around you? Geolocation is a hot topic. Google just got the patent on geolocated advertising, mobile phones allow us to pinpoint ourselves on the planet and find things nearby and with augmented reality applications we can even find our way by filming our surrounding and finding hidden treasures by moving our mobile around. Using geolocation as a developer is quite easy, you can do a few things: If you are building something in a social network, you can get the geogra... (more)
- 3 days Future of Web Apps Highlights Video
- Our friends Jim and Nick at Doctype recently attended Future of Web Apps Miami along with their camera gear. They kindly put together a highlight reel of the day including interviews and clips from the main stage sessions. They will be releasing full length interviews over on their Facebook page shortly. Just as a quick heads up the full length videos from the event will be made available shortly here on Think Vitamin. Useful Links Doctype Future of Web Apps episode: http://doctype.tv/fowa Twit... (more)
- Think Vitamin Radio: Episode 3
- After a brief hiatus due to heading across the pond for Future of Web Apps Miami we're back with Episode #3 of Think Vitamin Radio. This week we are joined by Greg Annandale as Ryan is on holiday. A full transcript is available. ... (more)
- The Web as a Database
- One of the things that’s great about the Internet is that it’s open to everyone. There are a million sites, all different, and everyone is free to invent their own way of doing things. Of course, that has left us with a legacy of systems which don’t always work well together. When you are using a web browser things mostly work because everyone adheres more or less to web standards, or at least the bits major browsers support. When you want to get data from the web to use in you... (more)
- 17 Essential Developer Networks
- Recently I have been noticing that more and more tech companies are starting up “developer networks”. Some of these, like the Yahoo! Developer Network, consist of great tools and resources (think YQL, YUI etc) that we can all make use of in our work whilst others focus on more specific aspects of developing with a particular service or app. Whilst tutorials and code examples are great the added bonus of a network is the community that grows around it. It’s likely that you won&#... (more)
- Forrst: Where Designers Who Code meet Developers Who Design
- Editors Note: Forrst is still in beta and as such you will need an account to view the links referenced below. Kyle, the creator of Forrst, has kindly offered 250 Think Vitamin readers an advanced invite. All you have to do is email kyle@forrst.com with subject “I’d love an invite!”. A few weeks ago Carsonified’s Mike Kus gave five good great reasons why designers should know how to code. It generated quite a discussion. Around the same time I stumbled upon Forrst, a new... (more)