My friend recently gave me a wonderful gift: A 142 page book containing all our email correspondence from 2002 - 2003. I couldn't put the book down; not only was it fascinating on a personal level, but it also read like a document from a previous ...
DIY Stationary Kit Deemed An Unanimous Success!
Last month I put together a semi-DIY stationary kit for my 11-year-old sister's Christmas gift. Over the summer, Fiona gave me a sketch of a "logo" she created, based on her nickname, Fifi. It had been tacked to my board for months before I had th...
Books!
Latest exciting additions to my reading list, thanks to a recent birthday.
Disney Goes Down A Fashionable Rabbit Hole
(Stella McCartney) What is it about the fashion world and movies aimed at children? (Or to be specific, DISNEY movies aimed at children?) After the Mouse rolled out last year's untraditional promotional collaborations with Opening Ceremony and Ugg...
Emigre's Mind-Bending Priori Acute Font
Inspired by M.C. Escher, 19th Century display type and the Stealth bomber (?), Jonathan Barnbrook and his studio created the newly released Priori Acute, part of Emigre's Priori font family. Initially the letterforms seem peppily, but unexceptiona...
January News Digest: Best Vinyl, Future of Print Mag
??? Art Vinyl announced the winners of its 2009 Best Art Vinyl competition. First place goes to Muse album "The Resistance," designed by La Boca.Browse all here: http://www.artvinyl.com/en/nominate/nominations.html ??? I.D. has folded, will Print soon...
Addendum: The Wallpaper Project's Holiday Wallpaper
Right on the heels of my previous post, The Wallpaper Project now includes the winners of a holiday-themed wallpaper competition. I particularly relate to Hendra Permana's design. Happy Holidays! (by Luke Pearson) (by Hendra Permana) (by Humanhand...
Found! Reliably Awesome Desktop Wallpaper
Yes, having "wallpaper" on your "desktop" reveals just how delicate the whole computer metaphor is, however, thanks be to Bobby Solomon and his blog Kitsune Noir's feature "The Desktop Wallpaper Project," an on-going series of fab options for our ...
Very Steep Ramp Leads To Crocodile Pit
Sometimes I wonder if the makers of civic signage are extremely earnest safety-fiends or would-be comedians with a really great medium at their disposal. December's National Geographic has a short piece on the wide variety of safety signs that pep...
Year In Ideas: PageRank A Bear or I Think That Poster Just Smiled At You
The annual New York Times Magazine "Year In Ideas" issue came out this past weekend. This year's collection was a bit slimmer than years past, probably more due to the magazine's cost cutting measures than a dearth of original thinking in 2009. Ne...
Ommwriter: Experience A Zen Writing Retreat From Your Desktop
Ommwriter from Herraiz Soto on Vimeo. Spanish creative agency Herrioz and Soto created Ommwriter, a simple text editing program, to help its employees filter out the distracting elements that are a dime a dozen when you work on a computer. As desc...
New York Magazine Cover 2 Ways
Many magazines frequently print two covers for a single issue, one for newsstands and the other for subscribers, which will typically feature a more arty???and therefore less checkout aisle friendly???image of the same subject. Such is the case for th...
N-n-n-Neutra Face
This spoof of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" (made for and by typographic nerds) has been making the rounds. And yes, the creators did admit in the YouTube description of their video that "'NEUTRA' is actually pronounced 'NOY-trah', but that escaped our...
Holiday Shopping : #iGiveTwice Edition
This holiday season my crony-at-large Olivia has started a Twitter campaign (search #iGiveTwice) to encourage people to purchase gifts that return something to the world. As she writes on her website: "Choose gifts that have a social or environmen...
Pomplamoose
Here's a novel idea for a music video: Show musicians actually playing, sans gimmickry or cut-aways to the band caught in some sort of brooding narrative. Musicians Nataly Dawn and Jack Conte of the band Pomplamoose have revived the WYSIWYG form w...
The Matrix : Lego Style
There have been some incredible Lego creations out there, including the thorough (and no-longer-with-us) Lego House, music videos, and monuments galore, but I think this Matrix recreation is especially well done. There's just something about seein...
Assorted Album Inspiration Part 2
Following up Part 1, here's more from the record archives. Quaint yet subtly unsettling illustrative style. I like the typographic diagrams on this Blood, Sweat & Tears album. (detail) (back) WOW! Brief history of Frasconi, who is 90-years-old. ht...
Sunday Digest: Pope Sez GO Forth & Create; The Map As Art; Tim Burton at MOMA
??? Of 500 invitees, about 250 members of the creative class (architects, artists, musicians, directors, writers, composers) arrived at the Vatican yesterday for an audience with the Pope. According to organizer Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, the goa...
Snazzy TOMS Shoes Support Design Scholarship
A handful of graphic design's bold face names including Jessica Helfand, Ellen Lupton and James Victore, have customized a set of TOMS shoes currently for sale on Ebay in support of the Art Directors Club's scholarship program. Each pair starts at...
Adland by James P. Othmer
Video trailer/promo for James Othmer's book Adland (Doubleday), which debuted in September, and is part bio, part analysis of the industry.