Brockmann’s “Musica Viva” Triple ReDesign
Remaking classics. A common task, but this time with a twist. The project was to take an existing poster and redesign it using the styles of three other unique designers. In other words, if the identical design task was given to three other prominent designers, how would they communicate and design the message?
The poster content I had to use was the above by Josef Müller-Brockmann from a series of posters he made entitled, Muica Viva. Brockmann’s ‘Musica viva’ poster series for the Zurich Tonhalle drew on the language of Constructivism to create a visual correlative to the structural harmonies of the music.
So here are my Musica Viva poster redesigns. The three designer’s styles I chose were Alexander Rodchenko, Stefan Sagmeister and Charles S. Anderson. Click to enlarge.
Photoshop CS5 Video Sneak Peaks
Yep. Here are some videos highlights of what’s coming up in Photoshop CS5. (very secretive, shhhhhhh, don’t tell):
Dance of Life
This is a personal design of mine created a few years ago. Thought I’d share.
iPad: Apple’s Branding Debacle, or is it?
Steve Jobs and the Apple marketing/branding team need to watch more TV.
Check out this prophetic spoof from MadTV made 2 years ago. How Apple missed this and STILL named their state-of-the-art tablet the iPad is beyond me.
Branding idiocy at its worst.
Or is it branding brilliance?
[see embedded video]
Mrs. Eaves, Meet Mr. Eaves
Ahhhh, marriage can be a beautiful thing. After saying “I do” something happens. Over the years the couple begins to act and think alike. Sure, they have their distinctions and uniqueness, but they also pick up each others mannerisms and quirky habits. If you spend any amount of time with a couple who have been married for many years you will witness this strange occurrence.
Well in typography, the Eaves couple is no exception.
Mrs Eaves is a serif typeface Designed by Zuzana Licko in 1996. It is inspired by John Baskerville’s work and “is named after Sarah Eaves, the woman who became John Baskerville’s wife. As Baskerville was setting up his printing and type business, Mrs. Eaves moved in with him as a live-in housekeeper, eventually becoming his wife after the death of her first husband, Mr. Eaves.”
But Mr. Eaves didn’t stay dead for too long. In 2009 he was reincarnated as a sans-serif typeface to compliment his serif counterpart. Talk about a match made in heaven. And he comes in two different styles: Sans and Modern. Mr. Eaves Sans is the closest in relation to the popular Mrs. Eaves. sharing common shapes and subtleties. Mr. Eaves Modern is just that, a stripped down, straighter version of Sans that sets very well with Mrs. Eaves. Here are the three of them dancing together:
If you are looking for a quirky and elegant serif and sans-serif font combination, look no further. I plan on spending a lot of time with this typeface couple, dancing and getting to know them more intimately. Personally, I find them to be fantastic fonts that add that little extra something.
One word of caution: Their X-heights are a little short in stature, so set them accordingly.
(Update: as of today, 1/26, they just released Mr Eaves XL which has a larger x-height for body text and matches Mrs. Eaves XL. Now the family is complete).
What’s Next? Helvetica Skywriting?
Just in case you are not quite sick of seeing Helvetica, now you can eat it. That’s right, Helvetica cookie cutters.
Now don’t get me wrong, I think the idea of Typography cookie cutters is pretty cool. “Mom, can you pass me the milk? I need to eat my capital T.”
But Helvetica? I guess it’s like Dr Pepper: you either love it or hate it.
It could be worse, I suppose. They could have made Comic Sans cookie cutters.
(ht Makeesha)
New Website Launched: Specialty Concrete
I love the challenge that a new design job brings, particularly web design. I lose sleep, in a good way, thinking about all the design details and solutions. My newest project was for a concrete company called Specialty Concrete. Their only form of outward advertisement (besides magnetic signs on their vehicles) was a local Craigslist ad. They asked me to help them change that with a website.
Plumer (the owner) was a great person to work with and was very prompt in generating content for the site. We had very good collaboration and I believe the final product shows this. One element I personally enjoyed was adding an interactive showcase gallery using lightbox.
Here are some of the pages:
