Posts in Print

The San Francisco Chronicle just unveiled a redesign of their print edition this past Sunday. According to them, the new look is “brighter and more modern” and retains “its distinctive, classic character.” I’ve never felt like the Chronicle was fantastically designed, but this most recent incarnation is definitely a step down for me. The colors give it a USA Today-esque vibe, and I don’t feel like I can take it seriously at all.

Central to the new look is the incorporation of Archer, the “colorful slab serif” by H&FJ, as their principal headline typeface. I like Archer, always have. I really like the ball terminals on some of the uppercase letterforms, and I think they did a great job crafting a distinctive and more exciting slab serif. I’ve found it very useful for clients that want to look reliable, safe and friendly, and still seem unique and exciting. Given my general fondness for the face, I was surprised to feel such disgust when I saw Archer staring back at me on Sunday morning.

I think it’s a combination of things that ruined Archer for me. First, it’s played out. As much as I love it, I see it everywhere these days (assignments at school, adverts for just about every paper company, home and garden magazine, etc). That sort of typeface proliferation is fine for something like Helvetica, but Archer is too distinctive to work in so many different scenarios effectively, let alone a national newspaper. It reminds me slightly of what happened to Papyrus over the years. It was distinctive font that was rendered completely useless by millions of people browsing through their font list and picking the most “unique” looking. Of course, Archer is not included on your computer when you buy it, or as specialized as Papyrus, but a similar thing seems to be happening at least to some degree. Either way, I was sad to see two things ruined for me on Sunday morning: Archer and the SF Chronicle.

What do you all think? Is Archer the next Papyrus? Any Bay Area readers still receive the print edition of the Chronicle and like the redesign? Let us know in the comments.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5y3px4ovxE

Just some random perfection from Mr. Crouwel for a perfectly random Thursday. Experimental Jetset has an interesting article about the invitation shown above (the third image down).

Ellen McFadden (aka Alki1) has the best design-related Flickr stream out there. Her husband, Irwin McFadden, did some amazing design during the 60’s and 70’s and Mrs. McFadden was kind enough to post up some examples on her Flickr. Bonus: Name that Bauhaus-eque font.

Eley Kishimoto make some very well designed fabrics and wallpapers. Self-described “surface decorators”, the London based firm has been designing textiles since the early ’90’s. More info at their site and their blog.

The top two are meant to be wallpapers and while they’re incredible to look at, I’m not sure I could handle that pattern going on all day. Maybe one small wall in the studio?

I stumbled across this incredible piece by Michael Paul Young today. Young — the man behind Designgraphik and co-founder of We Work For Them — created this image for the band Omega Code. More info on Young and this piece can be found here. Always nice to see such incredible print work still being produced; sometimes I feel like the only good stuff is decades behind us and then something like this pops up.

Blog reader Christopher Edwards has some interesting Polaroid-related projects over at his flickr page. There’s a mock Polaroid annual report with a very nice cover graphic (above) and some packaging concepts too. Be sure to check out his other photography, he’s got some great time zero film examples in there.

Gavin Potenza is back with more incredibly authentic stamp designs. You may remember Gavin from his German stamp series I posted on a while back, this time he brings us stamps from all over the world. Loving these, particularly Canada and Brazil. More images and info are over at Gavin’s site.

Thought I’d post this nice follow-up to the last PDP11 handbook I posted a while back. Gotta love aquamarine!

DEC VT100 user guide ca. 1978. That cover is vaguely reminiscent of the Eames Aluminum Group catalog from a while back and they’re even rocking some Avant Garde. The funny part about all these great vintage computer documents is that some engineer probably designed them as an afterthought on his day off.

 

Fubiz has a post up entitled "70 Amazing Business Cards" and while I wouldn’t go as far as to call all of them "amazing", there are some nice examples in the list making it a good resource if you’re looking to make some for yourself. My personal favorites are the embossed style, I love that texture, it makes the card feel so much more substantial.

I have always been sort of torn on the subject of business cards. On one hand, I love the type-based examples, they’re so clean and to the point. But on the other hand, that doesn’t always say much about the work the holder of the card might expect to find on your site. For mine, I ended up settling on mini posters on each side with the pertinent info worked into the original poster designs, sort of a quick glimpse of my portfolio.