Source: The Office of Frank Chimero

The text seems to be homage to the Guy Fawks Night Poem: “Remember, Remember, the 5th of November”, when Fawks tried to assassinate the King of England by blowing up the parliament. One thing I also like about this statement is the date is never mentioned in the verbiage. Just “That Day in September”, with  the numbers 9 and 11 in the circle above.

Bad design is smoke, while good design is a mirror.

~ Juan-Carlos Fernàndez

Toy Mirror
By Ryan McElhinney, 2007
Made of recycled toys sprayed in
polyurethane glass lacquer.

The most innovative designers consciously reject the standard option box and cultivate an appetite for thinking wrong.

~ Marty Neumeier

]]> http://blog.jeromyj.com/2010/08/designa-thought-innovative-designers/feed/ 0 http://blog.jeromyj.com/2010/08/great-advice-for-a-graphic-design-student-2/ http://blog.jeromyj.com/2010/08/great-advice-for-a-graphic-design-student-2/#comments Fri, 20 Aug 2010 20:11:02 +0000 Jeromy http://blog.jeromyj.com/?p=771

I came across this blog post over at Frank Chimero’s site. It has some great advice for current graphic design students and those just entering the design/studio work force. As a MFA student at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, a lot of his words resonated with me and so I thought I’d pass it on.

For me, these gems stood out:

If you can’t draw as well as someone, or use the software as well, or if you do not have as much money to buy supplies, or if you do not have access to the tools they have, beat them by being more thoughtful. Thoughtfulness is free and burns on time and empathy.

The best communicators are gift-givers.

Think of every project as an opportunity to learn, but also an opportunity to teach.

Helvetica is nice too, but it won’t turn water to wine.

[read more]

Thanks Frank. Timely words.

I think what gets me is its personal meaning. The obvious meaning is a design grid that has been broken. The orderly disrupted by the disorderly. But the deeper meaning to me is very personal. It speaks of my old desire to keep my life clean, neat, orderly, simple, pure…square. And then all of a sudden it breaks. Order snaps. My neat, clean life and mindset gets sprung.

But isn’t it the broken pieces that create the beauty? Isn’t that were life is found? In acknowledging and accepting my brokenness and humanity.

You can see and buy a copy of this and other works by Lian here.

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.

]]> http://blog.jeromyj.com/2010/02/brockmanns-musica-viva-triple-redesign/feed/ 0 http://blog.jeromyj.com/2010/01/mrs-eaves-meet-mr-eaves/ http://blog.jeromyj.com/2010/01/mrs-eaves-meet-mr-eaves/#comments Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:08:08 +0000 Jeromy http://blog.jeromyj.com/?p=538

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).

Versions One and Two:

Compared to Beijing’s:

(ht We Made This)