Archive for November, 2009
How Can Design Help?
One of my current projects is creating a book that contrasts middle-class American living with third-world life. There is a certain power in seeing two images side by side. An image of our dinner vs. their dinner. Our shoes vs. their shoes. And on and on. During my research I came across this site that [...]
Josef Müller-Brockmann and the Myth of Objectivity
It seems like a lot of the Modern design practitioners were rooted in their early years in illustrative design. Josef Müller-Brockmann was no exception. In fact, when asked What was his most creative period? he mentioned it was his pre-40 illustrative years which was also his worst period as well (in his opinion). His design [...]
Amazing Typophile Film Festival Video
Typography motion at its best. In a world of digital creation and manipulation, it is refreshing to see something beautifully handcrafted in stop-motion. Thanks for creating this, BYU design students! Typophile Film Festival 5 Opening Titles from Brent Barson on Vimeo. Handcrafted with love by BYU design students and faculty, for the 5th Typophile Film [...]
Create a Character with Adobe Illustrator CS4
Whenever I find a good resource, whether for training/how-to or simply inspiration, I will pass it on here. I needed a good tutorial on creating vector characters in Adobe Illustrator CS4 and came across this little gem from Colorburned. It walks you through the entire process, step-by-step, from sketch to final render with shading. I [...]
An Affair of Wine Poster
This design project involved a chosen item. Could be a paperclip, your dog, cars…I chose wine. Once chosen, my job was to visually show “wine” in 50 different ways. The first 20 or so ideas were easy. It was the remaining 30 ways that became the challenge. It was a practice in seeing an item [...]
TOMS: Design Making a Difference
Design. Can it make a difference? Can it be used to do more that propagate commercialism and corporate identity? I think it can. Design is for people, ultimately. Toms, a shoe company created to make a difference, takes this basic tenant and gives flesh to it. Not only do they design great looking shoes that [...]
Type Organization and Classifications
Can I just say that I love all-things-typography? But it is so easy to lose track of your fonts once you compile 100+ of them. I have found these two tools helpful. FontExplorer: A free explorer from, you guessed it, FontExplorer, which helps you corral all of those fonts. Sick of those hard-to-see previews in [...]
