Notes in the margin of Design Writing Research & On Writing Well: The Economist Style Guide (the title speaks for itself) and How we work: “We’re interested in the habits, rituals and small (and occasionally big) methods people and teams use to get their work done. And in the specific anecdotes and the way people describe their own relationship to their own work. Here’s a list of some stories and habits.”
So you know: The full listing of 2009 ReBrand 100 Global Awards Winning Brands. In rare cases even a crappy logo can’t hinder well-crafted identity system. Though, for others there’s no hope.
The Type Directors Club 2009 Winners: 18 winning entries and Typography 29 Winners.
“Design takes into account people’s needs and concerns, helping them live better within the broad context of the world; it maximizes the available means to achieve the most satisfying outcome, and produces culture in the process.”
Paola Antonelli: Core Principles: How science can help form a theory of design.
We intend to become a good resource of graphic and typographic posters to serve all your research needs – either historical or inspirational. So, here you have it: typographicposters.com .
Should a logo be self-explanatory? It is only by association with a product, a service, a business, or a corporation that a logo takes on any real meaning. It derives its meaning and usefulness from the quality of that which it symbolizes. Paul Rands’ Thoughts on Design. [via subtraction.com]
“A stellar team is greater than the sum of its individuals’ ideas—from the Beatles to Google to Regis and Kelly, the world teems with proof of this exponential synergy.”
Dream Teams: From a songwriting duo to engineers who spawn doe-eyed robots, meet four pairs who define—and defy—the terms of a creative partnership. Carlin Flora on collaboration dynamics. [via Guy Kawasaki]
Penguin Art Department: list of their favourite book designs of 2008: 1 best book design you worked on, 2 best Penguin book design, 3 best non-Penguin book design.
The 4th instalment of the Typophile Film Festival: the full program with links to movies (whenever available). Esp. Tread Softly by Heebok Lee, visualising the William Butler Yeats’ poem He Wishes for the Clothes of Heaven. (I’m biased: it’s Yeats, Mrs Eaves and sentimental.)
Vintage German Illustration (flickr set) with Grand Prix in Nürburgring Poster by Alfred Hier and the master of posters: Ludwig Hohlwein.
“I love systems and despise happenstance. I love ambiguity because, for me, ambiguity means plurality of meanings. I love contradiction because it keeps things moving, preventing them from assuming a frozen meaning, or becoming a monument to immobility.
As much as I love things in flux, I love them within a frame of reference – a consistent reassurance that at least and at last I am the one responsible for every detail. And that is why I love Design.”
Massimo Vignelli: The Design Canon [pdf] Definitely worth reading. [via: Design Observer]
“The ‘wish we’d done that’ projects of the year” by Johnson Banks. CultureBus (Pentagram) along with Omroep voor Kunst en Cultuur (Dunbar) and Alliance for Climate Protection (Brian Collins) listed best in logo design.
Absolutely no relation to id/design/webdesign, but it’s just brilliant: Hockey mom and piano playing moose .
Please recommend a book that you have found particularly inspiring or meaningful to your development as a creative person? Outstanding graphic designers and their reading list: Inspired reading.
Images of Airport Signage from cities all over the world, using the photo website flickr: A showcase of airport signage designs and wayfinding systems.
I have devoted 30 years of research to how creative people live and work, to make more understandable the mysterious process by which they come up with new ideas and new things. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: The Creative Personality: Ten paradoxical traits of the creative personality.
Constant setting is a simple website that displays in real time, any sunset images taken and posted to Flickr as creative commons that correspond to the cities where the sun is setting at the moment. One might say it’s kind of entirely useless, but it’s one of the most creative projects using flickr I’ve seen in the recent months. However truistic it may sound, we’re getting global. And unpretentious.
When applying this ever-wider embrace to green products and services, the shift looks somewhat like this: we’ve gone from ECO-UGLY (ugly, over-priced, low-performance, unsavory yet eco-friendly versions of the ‘real thing’) to ECO-CHIC (eco-friendly stuff that actually looks as nice and cool as the less sustainable originals) to now ECO-ICONIC. Two briefings from trendwatching.com: How brands from around the world are already making the most of ECO-ICONIC trend and New ways the offline world is making the most of the online steamroller.
If you can see the interface as the brand, the brand being the interface: You might understand the success of modern branding concepts: The Interface of a Cheeseburger.
Avoid notifying users of success & Give users the chance to ask for forgiveness rather than forcing them to confirm — two of 12 excellent guidelines on interface design: What reading Tufte won’t teach you [via: hicksdesign]
History of Graphic Design by Nancy Stock-Allen [via: thinkingforaliving.org]
In the past year lots of us have had a grand of time proclaiming the death of the micro-site, and with some validity. Fact is that the internet is littered with thousands of them, and the majority are either promotional in nature, designed to win awards vs. serving up value or simply provide no incentive to ever return to them. David Armano proclaiming the “un-dead” nature of micro-sites (and rethinking the format).
Ellen McFadden, turning 80(!) this year is a person behind the prominent Alki1 profile on Flickr. Years of earning a living in graphic design, and teaching graphic design and art classes for many more years. Constantly bringing order to chaos — check out her flickr sets: chinese and japanese graphic design, as well as polish and russian. Lots and lots more.
Design Matrix of the XXth century and paper ware for spiritual enrichment i.e.disposable paper plates inspired by traditional Japanese forms and aesthetics. [via: swissmiss]
Creative, computer-generated (though with human-based design) print on demand covers: Marian Bantjes for Faber and Faber. Software by PostSpectacular.
In 2004, Penguin published the Great Ideas series (…). Penguin’s art director Jim Stoddart asked a junior designer, David Pearson, to develop the design identity of the series which he did by dressing each cover in the lettering or typographic style typical of its time. Why was it revolutionary? Brief history of Penguin’s design here, the series itself: David Pearson Design and also: Jan Tschichold’s Penguin Composition Rules adapted for web writing.
So you know: 30 essential PDF documents every designer should download. [via: swissmiss]
There is only One machine. The web is its OS. Kevin Kelly: Predicting the next 5,000 days of the web.