In her own words, "The Daily Drop Cap is an ongoing project by typographer and illustrator Jessica Hische. Each day (or at least each WORK day), a new hand-crafted decorative initial cap will be posted for your enjoyment and for the beautification of blog posts everywhere."
It is a sight to behold.
A stellar Christmas present type lovers...
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McConnell & Borow creates props, displays, and editorial illustrations for a long list of clients including Absolut, AT&T, IBM, and so on.
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Don't know if you caught this. Pranav Mistry, a PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT's Media Lab, invented a wearable device that demonstrates one possible direction for future user interface. I am less interested in these early prototypes than I am in his broad vision for how we might integrate the digital with the physical down the road.
Though you certainly don't need a crystal ball to predict it, it would seem that the future of graphic design, likewise, will be more about 3D than 2D.
Thanks to my friend Wayne Belvin for pointing us to this.
Pranav Mistry discusses his ideas...
More about Mistry and SixthSense...
More projects from the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT...
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This week marks the opening of the Tim Burton exhibit at the The Museum of Modern Art. Best known for his film making, Tim Burton is also a designer, an artist, and is, as you might suspect, a tad bit crazy.
The website created for the Burton exhibit...
About the exhibit and the design of the accompanying web site...
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Here's another good way to show off you work. I suppose you could use it as a primary destination, or as a way of boosting your visibility by offering an alternative source. In any case, Carbonmade offers both free and paid versions.
An example portfolio for copywriter Kathleen Honey (nice stuff)...
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Wow, what a gift for lyrical lines.
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I wish other things worked like the web. In many cases it provides lots of value for very little money. Wouldn't it be nice, for example, if you could buy a years worth of chocolate cake for the cost of a cupcake?
Well that's roughly the equivalent of an offer I stumbled across today. As of a couple of days ago, you can hire Khoi Vinh, Design Director for NYTimes.com, and WordPress authority Allan Cole to design the underlying structure of you web site for a grand total of $45. Not $45 per hour--$45 period.
How? By purchasing the WordPress theme/template they took a year to develop. Is it good? You tell me. Vinh says, "If I were to redesign Subtraction.com today, it would look like Basic Maths." (Subtraction.com is his much written about and admired personal web site.)
It would seem to be worth the price if only to deconstruct it to see how it works.
This is a live demo of the theme/template...
This is where you purchase the package...
Read developer Khoi Vinh's announcement of the release...
Allan Cole's WordPress blog...
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My interest in the aspects of graphic design that can be "proved" continues to grow. By "proved" I mean visual and informational structures that are actually based on some type underlying formula.
I thought this article was particularly intriguing: "The mathematics behind the Droste effect." It poses that when M.C. Escher drew his Print Gallery, he was, without realizing it, following a rather complex mathematical formula.
It reminded me of our discussion a few months ago about whether there exists some type of "design DNA" that we do not yet understand.
Seb Przd's conformal mapping imagery...
The mathematics behind the Droste effect...
Our earlier discussion, "Is there such a thing as design DNA?"...
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Stephen Bau has created a terrific collection of commonly used web elements built on Nathan Smith's 960 pixel grid system. As he explains it, "I have been looking for a means of rapidly developing interactive prototypes for our site designs at Domain7. So I have been building a library of commonly used HTML elements, combining these with CSS for typography and layout, and adding some basic effects available from popular JavaScript libraries."
Even if you don't use the code, the page itself will get you thinking about elements you might want to include in your design.
If you are unfamiliar with the 960 Grid system, I have also included a link below.
Stephan Bau's "design incluences" page...
Nathan Smith's 960 Grid System...
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If you want some terrific presentation inspiration, head over to The Art of the Title Sequence. It demonstrates how top film title designers, past and present, combine pictures with words to communicate ideas in thoughtful and intriguing ways.
While there, check out the wonderful collection of alphabet posters created for the film Coraline. Take note of how each letter of the alphabet is modified to provide a secondary meaning.
These are the titles for Coraline...
For fun... the Coraline movie site...
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I recently mentioned Pictorial Webster's: A Visual Dictionary of Curiosities and received a heads-up about another great resource from Caroline Fortin, Publisher of QA International. She referred us to The Visual Dictionary Online--an interactive dictionary with a long history and a futuristic approach.
"From the image to the word and its definition, the Visual Dictionary Online is an all-in-one reference. Search the themes to quickly locate words, or find the meaning of a word by viewing the image it represents."
Very cool.
Try it out. Choose a theme and drill down to a specific subject...
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The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) offers a two-year course of study that centers on the creation and dissemination of comics, graphic novels and other manifestations of the visual narrative. It's curriculum of art, graphic design, and literature reflect the wide array of skills needed to create comics and graphic novels. CCS emphasizes self-publishing and prepares its students to publish, market, and disseminate their work.
The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS)...
Download a free copy of CCS's How To Brochure (3.63MB PDF)...
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Next time you are brainstorming an advertising or marketing piece, consider the idea of using an illusion to illustrate your point. I'm thinking, if you find just the right illusion (something somehow related to your topic) and write a thoughtful tie-in for it, you'd have a built-in reason for people to stop, look, and get interested.
Thanks to my brother Jim Green for sending me this link to the 2009 Finalists of the Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest.
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