Apr 23, 20091
Portfolio: Micah Lidberg
Micah Lidberg has a wonderful artist portfolio, full of illustrations, patterns, and hand-rendered type. The artist uses a variety of media, including digital, to produce these incredibly detailed works.
Apr 19, 20093
Travel Brochure Designs from the 1920’s & 30’s
David Levine has an extraordinarily large collection of international travel ephemera from the 20’s and 30’s. There are some extremely inspiring graphics featured on some of these brochures, and it is quite humbling to imagine that more than 80 years ago someone thought of these great ideas and executed them without the use of a computer. Be sure to check out the brochures from Switzerland.
Apr 19, 20090
Nike SB Custom Series
The latest series of ads for Nike’s SB Custom series have tons of style. The photos, by Jon Humphries are both simple and complex. Each of the riders coordinate with the car that they are skating, not just using the color from the riders’ shoes, but their overall styles as well. The composition of each photo is individualized for the rider, but the series as a whole holds together perfectly. I also like the design of the “label” on the side of the ad. It feels scientific, and it makes each photo look like a specimen, which is a wonderful concept.
Apr 15, 20090
Portfolio: McFaul Studio
McFaul Studio creates the kind of client work that a lot of designer/illustrators aspire to produce. The studio does a lot of work for large, corporate clients, but their fun, youthful style is always present.
Apr 10, 20090
Illustration and Lettering by Letman
Letman (Job Wouters) has some great illustrative and hand-lettered work in his portfolio. It’s refreshing to see that many of his projects do not contain any digitally-rendered typefaces. I also really like the video project, ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ, in which Wouters has a lettering session with his nephew. It’s really interesting to see how children interpret the letters that they see.
Apr 8, 20090
Lou Dorfsman and the CBS Wall
Lou Dorfsman was the Creative Director at CBS for more than 40 years. One of his many contributions to the CBS working environment, Gastrotypographicalassemblage is an incredible work of three dimensional typography that occupies a large wall in the cafeteria. I’ve seen quite a few photos of the work, but I recently viewed this interview, which features images of the process, as well as commentary by the late Lou Dorfsman.
Click through the link below to view the video.
Mar 30, 20091
Experimental Jetset at The Walker Art Center
Experimental Jetset is an incredible design studio in Amsterdam. Most of us recognize their work from Gary Hustwit’s documentary, Helvetica. This podcast, filmed at The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, reveals the backgrounds of the designers and some of the processes behind some of their iconic pieces (I had no idea that Experimental Jetset was behind the John&Paul&Ringo&George t-shirt designs until I saw this lecture).
Mar 24, 20090
Czech Book Covers of The 1920’s & 1930’s
The Smithsonian Institution Libraries site has a beautiful collection of Czech Book covers from the 20’s and 30’s. Many of the books feature hand-drawn type and those books which utilize set type retain a human quality about them.
Mar 9, 20090
Portfolio: Borja Bonaque
Borja Bonaque’s work is a marriage between contemporary vector illustration and the textures created through antiquated printing processes. Make sure to look in the design section of the site, I especially like how type has been integrated with the illustrations.
Mar 6, 20090
Jeanne Moderno Typeface by Steve Mehallo
I really love the Jeanne Moderno typeface, designed by Steve Mehallo. This face can be described as:
“A synthesis of Bodoni Italic and 19th Century Ultra-Bold ‘Fat Faces’ – distilled with personality taken from early 20th Century Modernists; the Futurists, Dadaists, Suprematists, Constructivists.” – Steve Mehallo
This typeface also has some of the sexiest numbers that I’ve ever seen, especially the 5 and the 3.
Via grain edit.
