Posts in Print

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHuH8P_Vqc0

Polish designer Jacek Utko on the impending doom of the printed newspaper, and how good design could turn things around. His statistics certainly are convincing, and I hope for the sake of my morning routine that he’s right. I would really hate to see the printed edition become extinct. Watch the TED version here.

He mentions it briefly, but when he says “this is the new role of the designer: to be in the process from the very beginning to the very end”, that is the biggest take away for me. The role of the designer is definitely changing, and our value now has a lot more to do with how we think than what we can do with a blank page.

A few beautiful pieces by Buchanan-Smith, a New York City based design firm. I love their type sensibility, especially on the first image, and I find their image style very effective in its simplicity and subtleness. Much more work can be found on their site.

Assorted work by designer Olle Eksell to kick off your Tuesday right. What great typography! (It’s all late 40’s, early 50’s work.) All of the above are scanned from a book I picked up in Tokyo. I thought I had stumbled upon the secret of all secrets when I found it, but you can buy it on Amazon just as well.

As you may already know, Alex Cornell — the same Alex who posts on this blog — is also my intern around the studio. A while back Northwestern University asked him to take on the daunting task of layout and design for their “Day For Night” magazine. The previous design was pretty much your run-of-the-mill college publication without much thought put into the design so this was a great chance for him to really evolve the visual language of the magazine. The big constraint was colors; apparently he can only use black, white, and one spot color of his choosing per issue. As you can see, the finished product is superb, Alex’s excellent eye for typography and layout really shine through in his first issue for the magazine. This project was featured (and deservedly so) by Behance last week and is up on Alex’s portfolio page there. Congrats Alex, very nice work!

e-Types did this newspaper series for Learning Lab Denmark. I am a big fan of the compositional style at work here. Anything with a strong grid, effective use of scale, and highly refined details will win me over quick. I especially love the second one; the slightly off center target gives it a really refreshing balance. (I should also mention that I’m a sucker for black and white.)

I actually thought (and hoped) these were posters when I first saw them. I prefer posters that take a minute to digest. For me, the more sections, information, and images you can incorporate into a poster, the better. Sure it may not be effective in terms of getting a message across quickly, but I think the end result is usually more visually intriguing and effective, from a design standpoint. (Advertisers would certainly disagree.) Seeing as these aren’t posters, perhaps it’s beside the point, but regardless of their deliverable form, I think this series is very well executed.

An excerpt from e-Types 10 Rules for Modern Living:

When a design doesn’t work – go old school. Forget hype, think craftsmanship. Heavy skills prove over and over to be the best tool to overcome the creative crises we all encounter at least five times a week. Creativity is nourished by structure.

I had seen Cristina Couceiro’s work here and there before but this most recent series really blew me away. What classic style; I really like how she employs found imagery without crossing that fine line into kitsch that so many others seem to stumble over. The typography is spot on as well. You can see more of her design and photography here.

Talk about inspiration; these are all simply incredible. I used to obsess over tapes when I was a kid, always looking for the coolest packaging or interesting design. But never in all those years did I come across any as cool as these. Most of these look to be a little before my time and, of course, are of European origin. I always wonder what effect growing up around such interesting design might have had on me. All we had in the states was this crap, while German kids got to record Ege Bamyasi to little plastic boxes coated in design goodness. Maybe it’s for the best, I guess now I can appreciate things like this more. Jubru has posted these scans to a flickr gallery where you’ll find many more great examples.

Via thened

Hot on the heels of our recent, and thoroughly rousing, discussion on the subject, I came across B.Caruther’s gallery of “inspired” designs and their original counterparts. I thought it was an interesting illustration of the the whole concept of “borrowing” artwork. If you’re going to make the argument that someone like Shepard Fairey is stealing (and therefore their work has no merit), you would have to make the exact same argument for each and every one of these and the countless others out there.

Sure, that argument would be pretty easy for a lot of them. Many are sort of tongue-in-cheek riffs on design classics while others are what I would characterize and blatant rip-offs. But some do stand up as something new and engaging for reasons other than the imagery they borrow. The “Clockers” poster is a perfect example. Yes, it borrows heavily from Bass’ original, but it takes the imagery and re contextualizes it in a way that creates something fresh and provocative. Nevertheless, Bass regarded the poster as a “rip-off” while it’s creator, Art Sims, called it an homage [source]. I guess with an issue as subjective as this, people will never reach consensus, but it’s fun to try!

M.S Corely redesigned the Harry Potter Series to look like Penguin classics. They haven’t actually been published like this, but it looks like it would have been a fun project. (He also gave the Lemony Snicket series the same treatment.)

I’ve been buried down in the studio working on this new album for so long I almost forgot how much I love design. But when I see work like this I can’t help but be reminded; Tavis Coburn’s style is very inspiring to say the least. It’s always nice to see an illustrator who has a good design sense, the combination can be quite powerful. And loving the way he uses that moire pattern effect.

Tavis Coburn via abuzeedo