Posts in Print

UPDATE: After considering some of the early responses to this post (namely Jacob’s) I’ve added two more versions for your consideration.

So I have been putting together a batch of prints that will be released over the next few months. Included is the poster from the OFFF 2007 festival in New York. There have always been multiple versions and I’ve really had a hard time deciding which I like best, and consequently, which will get printed. So I thought I would try a little experiment and let you guys choose your favorite. They are shown above in order: verions "A", "B", "C", and "D". Let me know which you like best by sounding off for A, B, C, or D in the comments. Or you could just say they are all terrible and to start over. Click the images above to view larger versions of each.

My 2 cents: At this point I think B, C, and D are the strongest. B has a cleanliness and reservation about it that I like. The type is able to stand on it’s own and given that it’s Trade Gothic Bold Extended, that’s a very good thing. But I think the solid bar in C and D really pulls things together.  Right now I am really leaning towards C just because it feels so cohesive. The top portion is reserved for the red / orange color and the bottom, informational portion has the cream. I think this links the main title and the arrow design together nicely and makes the overall composition feel more like a single unit whereas some of the others seem a bit broken up.

Click here to cast your vote in the comments

Jakub sent me this image tonight which is, of course, amazing. It reminded me of my favorite Bossa Nova song "Aguas de Marco" so I thought I would post both. Note this is not the cover of the album this song is from. Impeccable style going on here, typography is top notch and the photographic composition is near perfection. That salmon color in the background is usually a dead giveaway for cross processing, wonder if that’s what’s going on here? If you look closely at his collar you’ll see a bit more evidence of the xp.

As Jakub pointed out, the original version has a black border as well as an alternatively effected version of the photo. Sort of torn on which I like best, the border sort of encapsulates the negative space which is nice, but there’s something about this version I think is a bit cleaner. There’s also a rather nice full vertical version here.

Antonio Carlos Jobim y Elis Regina-"Águas De Marco (Waters Of March)"

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Loving this, already has the tape and everything, so many great details. Could do without the blue lines though. Via FFFFOUND

Not exactly sure what this is for, seems to be some variety of Japanese liquor or wine named "Scarecrow". At any rate, loving the colors and textures here.  I wonder if this was handmade or digitally composited? I’ve rotated the image to fit a larger size in the page format. Click for original horizontal version. Via FFFFOUND

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More great packaging, this time via Everydaylifemodern’s Flickr page. Would be great to have a laser cutter just so you could make concept packaging like this and put it on your shelf.

"Eley, Imperial Metal Industries (1966)
Range of packs for cartridges made by Imperial Metal Industries (Kynoch)

Artist: David Mawford / John Harrison
Agent | Studio: Service Advertising Co. Ltd., London.
Art Director: John Harrison"

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Some nice packaging via Crabstick’s Flickr. I have to say that the quality of product packaging design has seriously declined over the past 20 years. If I ever saw anything in a box like this now I’d buy 15 of them regardless of what was inside.

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Caught this on FFFFOUND yesterday.  Loving this design but lacking much information on it. I really like FFFFOUND but they are sometimes bad about citing sources so it’s hard to find the origins of the work they post. At any rate, this is a very nice print, anyone have any more info on it?

UPDATE: Via Aurélia in the coments.  This is the work of FRÉDÉRIC TACER who, according to his website, is a 22 year old design student at National College of Arts and Design Olivier de Serres in Paris. Looks like Frederic has a pretty good start, this certainly doesn’t look like the work of a student, more like a seasoned vet.

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Ever since I saw his great 2007 Holiday Card on I’ve been waiting to see more from Gavin Potenza.  When I awoke this morning this nice little birthday present waiting for me on FFFOUND. I love the concept and I love the fact that it’s purely a design exercise, which is very fitting considering the name of his site (exploratorydesign.org). As I say in my workshops, that’s when most people will do their best work, when there is no spec, no client, no parameters other than your own.  Just you, your imagination, and your tools. As he says on his site, this piece was inspired by Otl Aicher, one can’t really go wrong with that kind of source.

It’s minimalist, reserved design like this that intrigues me more and more these days.  To me, modernism is about taking all your ideas about color and type and form and expressing them in the most efficient way possible, which I think is the very core of what we are all trying to do as designers. Also, stamps are awesome, I collected them when I was a kid…along with my obsessive hoarding of any other printed material I could get my hands on.  Unfortunately I only had access to boring American stamps so it got boring real quick.

Was talking to the guys from Stereogum today about a design project and they sent me a link to Drive XV, the 15 year Tribute to REM’s Automatic For The People.  I remember when Automatic For The People originally came out, it was really something unique at the time, one of my favorites. So apparently Stereogum has designers sort of re-imagine the cover art for the tribute albums and I thought this one came out quite well.  Really like the type treatment and minimal approach. You’ll notice that it vaguely follows the form of the original. Bonus: name those fonts

Design aside, the Shout Out Louds’ tribute to Man On The Moon is superb, have a listen below. I hear some Paul Simon Graceland in that chorus, anyone else?

Shout Out Louds – Man On The Moon

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Found this on Mahogany’s Myspace page yesterday.  Really nice, unfortunately this is the biggest version they had posted, if anyone has a higher rez copy please send.

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