Hand, rock, scissors...
Nice hand lettering and illustrations from Rockwell.
History of Icelandic Graphic Design
In Iceland, we nickname our money bills kall! or guy!. "Hey, I lost my 1000 guy!" Jóhannes Kjartansson observes, that until recently, all bills were designed with male figures.
For those of you in or passing through Reykjavik, there's a quite interesting exhibition of the history of Icelandic graphic design.
Only 500 guy! at the door!
A Type of Traffic
Typographica reports that the US Federal Government has approved a new typeface, Clearview, as an alternative on Federal roads.
This means that the delightfully rigid Standard Highway Alphabet font might disappear from your commute, replaced with a more legible, humanist, Meta inspired Clearview.
RoadRunner's Flash news site
Finally, an extensive Flash take on the traditional news site UI. Click around and check out the nice touches like embedded video, image resizing, and bubbly nav action.
Graphic Designers Speak Up
Graphic designers intepret themes, as defined by Speak Up
Madison Avenue is Scared of the Blog
So, Madison Avenue is contemplating blogging.
Hellooo?
In today’s NYTimes, Nat Ives gives an unofficial shout out to some agencies who < wince >get it< /wince >. Take a look. I submit that this list is puny, but then again, Madison Avenue’s embrace of industry change traditionally has also been that: weak. These examples aren’t poignant, assertive or in many cases, all that relevant. They are terrifyingly safe. Ives points out that agencies think blogs are risky – imparting too much freedom from the controlled message. To agencies with creative types that really have something to offer, I say get off your high-horse and get down to the business of relating to your tech-savvy, razor-sharp audience before they no longer relate to you.
Link (from the NYTimes, requires log-in)
P.S. Somehow, this feels related and it’s from gapingvoid.com, one of my favorite advertising-related blogs: “How to be Creative”
Miles Aldridge
Beautiful fashion photography.
Toyota launches Put It in Play.
This is worth mentioning, since it's a large corporation trying new things on the internet -- but stylistically it's too enthusiastically all over the place. It attempts an old school hip hop look mixed with the overdone "yesterdays new trendy retro" look.
See, lets for a minute think of graphic design like alcohol. Before boisterously attempting to drink people under the table with mixed cocktails, you better make sure you can stomach it. If not, you end up with rainbow gradients, spray can leaks, Cooper Black, Bauhaus and star bursts thrown up all over your new car.
Bruce Mau's Massive Change
Bruce Mau -- or Manifesto Mau, as I like to call him -- is not known for picking the low hanging fruits. He's attempting to, what my daddy always told me not to, change the world.
Grrr...
Wieden + Kennedy's Honda game is silly fun.
Vasava Artworks
The Spanish Vasava Artworks have been busy churning out luminous designs.
Linking To and From
Mark Glaser at the Online Journalism Review examines recent changes at popular news sites regarding linking strategies. Some sites, such as the BBC and News.com, have expanded their external links from stories. While other walled garden sites, such as the NY times and WSJ, are releasing free stories or staging "free days" to encourage linking into their archives.
A sample quote from Jai Singh, founding editor of News.com:
"We cannot pretend to have eyes and ears on everything that's going on out there," Singh said. "So you have to accept the fact that you have to engage the readers the way they want to get the news. You have to accept the fact that you can't be the sole gatekeepers."
Worth the read.
Josh Boston is Josh Boston
You got that right. We love Josh Boston.
Delicious Vinyl
They just don't design record covers like they used to.
abc News Gets an A
abcnews.com has uprooted their old website and planted a new. It's not only a facelift and flow rework, but an improvement in code, introducing embedded Flash, CSS and web standards that dramatically improve performance and torque.
The information architecture is comfortably familiar with some notable envelope stretching. We have the left hand navigation, special feature horizontal bar, search top right, main headlines in buckets leading you down the page. All classic stuff. The real breakthroughs are in the broadband efforts, especially as the embedded Flash video feature top right on the main page.
The graphic design is appropriately conservative and more consistent with abc news on television than before, while tactfully avoiding the outlandish 3-D television aesthetic that plagues so many news sites. Graphic designers will notice that all headlines are set in Futura, another nod to their TV comrade.
One small step for the evolution of news sites, a giant step for abcnews.com!
Read more about the technology breakthroughs
A Very Long Engagement
Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the creator of 'Delicatessen,' 'City of Lost Children' and 'Amelie' has a new movie coming out. 'A Very Long Engagement' stars Audrey Tautou and by the look of the trailer, this is going to be another sensory feast!
Getty's "Fluid" e-mail
Sure, spam and the resulting War on Spam continues to weaken e-mail marketing. But some companies are pushing ahead, creating useful, content-packed e-mail that you'll actually read (if it squeaks through your spam filter). Add Getty's "Fluid" to the list of promotional e-mail I love to get. It's evolved to deliver nice copy and engaging imagery while promoting their products in an unintrusive way.
Check out the Web version here.
"The most compelling Web sites are platforms"
Here's a good review of a key theme in the Web 2.0 conference -- that Web services and search will be the primary driver of the "next" Web.
If the original HTML-based Web began as a better interface between humans and information stored on servers, said Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, "Web 2.0 is about making the Internet useful for computers." He predicted that as more APIs [application programming interfaces] open up, developers will come up with more innovative ways to share and access data.
> InternetNews.com article
Lightroom Redesigns
Congratulation to our multitalented friends at Lightroom on their new redesign and the Communication Arts award for their cozy Imagination Brewery website.
Deconstructing GOR
Young Icelandic graphic designer and illustrator Sól Hrafnsdóttir has been doing some interesting visual experiments with deconstructing my first typeface, GOR.
She's looking for an internship position in NYC this summer.
• Deconstructing GOR
• Sól Hrafnsdóttir's Portfolio
Weapons of Mass Design
New York Times' Scott Dadich analyses what the two presidential campaigners have to offer in terms of graphic design.
You might ask what graphic design has to do with politics? I would say it's about as important as a box of make-up. Just ask Mr. Nixon.
SportKa killed the cat (Viral gone vile)
As a part of a £27 million account with Ford, Ogilvy & Mather UK created a "leak" campaign for Ford SportKa. One video clip has been spreading around the internet like wildfire, where you can - in horror - watch an unsuspecting cat get decapitated by SportKa's sunroof.
Both agency and client are officially and eagerly condemning the leak of this perticular clip, calling it "totally unacceptable and reprehensible."
Is this an "any publicity is good publicity" ploy, or an unfortunate case of leaving the intern with the office keys? You tell us.
• Read Telegraph article
• Watch movie (mpg)
Why You Fly
American Airlines' "Why You Fly" is an online intermix of their clever marketing campaign.
Unuseless (sic) Japanese Inventions
Unintuitive. Uncomfortable. Unusable. Unbelievably brilliant!
ITC Garamond. You're fired!
I don't think I've seen as many legendary graphic and type designers in one room, Bierut, Heller, Hoefler, Spiekermann, Carter, etc. - all in agreement. They hate, hate, hate ITC Garamond.
If you are have any interest in graphic design - never has the font world seen so much drama. It will either inspire you clean it off your hard drive or, as in my case, want to paint the town red in Garamond.
Ad Blog Blogs Ad Blogs
Adland cites a boom in advertising blogs, and has managed to compile a huge descriptive list for your review, offering up a few Gold Star!s for the ones they like best. Nice compilation, guys:
Coast Design in good shape!
A fantastic portfolio by Coast Design, a Belgium graphic design agency. Big ideas. Bold executions.
A Look Under Toyota's Hood
Last week, Toyota launched a new integrated ad campaign using the tagline "Moving forward." The campaign integrates television, print and Web. The Web component, called "Planet Kaizen," provides innovations and technologies that are not usually shared with customers.
It's nice to see an integrated campaign, but the Web component doesn't extend the campaign's theme very well. It's not clear what Kaizen means or has to do with anything and, while the content does include some forward thinking pieces, I found it shallow and uninspired compared to its potential. For starters, how about adding some motion to leverage the "moving forward" theme? A for effort, C for execution.
ING MONEYMENTOR
Armchair Media was tasked with designing and directing an engaging brand experience for ING, using Time Warner entertainment assets. ING MONEYMENTOR is a cluster of microsites on financial subjects that include the Scooby Doo infused "annuities," and as you learn that your child's college education might cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars, "The Flash" flexes his muscles. ING MONEYMENTOR is a brave marketing move for ING and an exciting project for Armchair Media. Go check out the new microsites.
See Case Study PDF
Go to site:
Love Letters
Master letterer Jim Parkinson and his portfolio of perfection: