Magazines and newspapers are among my favorite sources of design inspiration. Garcia-Media has spearheaded several high-profile media makeovers in recent months—no less than The Wall Street Journal and San Francisco Examiner. Their Web features articles about each of these fascinating projects complete with the theory behind the designs and plenty of samples of transformed pages.
I'd be surprised if there is a total of 800 words on the whole of designer Gerard Huerta's Web. His logos, magazine covers, illustrations say everything that needs to be said. Recognize any of these publication nameplates?
http://www.gerardhuerta.com/mastheads/display.htm
His lettering illustrations are second to none.
http://www.gerardhuerta.com/lettering/display.htm
Want more? Take the entire tour.
What more could you ask—a beautifully designed site, brimming with valuable insight, a deep list of resources, and FREE artwork.
Download your choice of metal type ornament reproductions.
Reading about life from a designer's point of view is therapeutic—it's nice to know I'm not the only one who obsesses over the aesthetics of life. In his latest book, “My Wife and Times, ” Daniel Will-Harris, recounts the sometimes touching, often hilarious consequences of two designers living in one house and the ramifications of being a warm person in a cold world.
Start with a tour of his site...
Complaints about Flash sites have become cliche, “Nothing but zooming typefaces and blinking arrows,” they say. While it is true that much of what I see is mere decoration, panning the process discounts those who are using Flash to rethink how we organize information and to build interfaces to extraordinary new tools.
If you think Flash is just flash, to meet 2advanced...
I think of IDEO as the Tiger Woods of industrial design firms—it redefines the game everyone thought they knew. Recently, they unleashed their brain trust on the concept of business cards. How might they be used and what might they look in years to come? |
The business card exercise:
If you're not familiar with IDEO to take a few minutes to see what a well-oiled innovation machine is capable of:
Simple looking/sounding communication is complicated to produce. XPLANE specializes in turning complex business issues into easy to understand visual explanations. I suggest it in the hope that it will trip the same switch for you as it did for me. Marketing futures are brightest for those who are able to reduce their message to its essence.
http://xplane.com/xplanations/executive/
Richard Saul Wurman is the original information architect. He has a genius for using illustrations and words to simplifying complex ideas and for making information accessible. If you have not already seen it, Understanding USA is one of his recent projects that is well worth a visit. You'll see that he enlisted the help of sponsors and notable designers such as Nigel Holmes, Clement Mok, and Kit Hinrichs to paint a portrait of America through the visual display of statistical data. Sound impossible?
Quick quiz: Can you be held responsible for the advertising claims of your client? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says advertising agencies have a duty to make an independent check on the information used to substantiate ad claims. This section of their Web also offers specifics about everyday issues such as free offers, catalog details, pricing claims, and lots more stuff we as designers, copywriters, and their clients need to be aware of.
Marketleap's link popularity tool shows you how any site (including yours) stacks up against its competitors and other major sites on the World Wide Web. Type in your Web address to see how where you stand—add your competitor's URL to see who's generating the most interest.
The Hoefler & Frere-Jones Type Foundry, to my way of thinking, ranks among the top type foundries on the planet. Jonathan Hoefler, the founder, has created original typeface designs for no less than Rolling Stone, Harper's Bazaar, The New York Times Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and Esquire. If you've not yet discovered Knockout, the redevelopment of Hoefler's first typeface, Champion Gothic, run don't walk.
I've always been a catalog nut. I enjoy getting them in the mail and leafing through them to identify by specific item numbers, sizes, and colors, all the stuff I don't need. Plus they're a good source of design inspiration. If you're a catalog junky, you'll flip over Google Catalogs. They scan the pages of recent print catalogs (over one thousand of them), and provide the tools necessary for viewing and keyword searching them. Great idea, great execution.
And now for something completely different:
http://www.ledpants.com/NEWoldsite/index.html
