A nice sentiment on typography.
A twitter has been created for (passed) designer Paul Rand. The short and sweet pieces of design advice are priceless (and too true).
Some favorites:
You kids need to get your hands dirty when making design for a change. Spilling a f*%#ing soy mocha latté on your MacBook doesn’t count.
A portfolio website done entirely in Flash is the graphic design equivalent of a vuvuzela. -
Jacob Cass recently had Jennifer Moline as a guest blogger on Just Creative Design, and she posed an interesting question to the audience: Designers, why do you do what you do? Here are some of my favorite responses. “As a book designer I am always excited to see my work come back from the press. Seeing the project turn from a layout on a monitor to an actual book, or business card etc never gets old for me.” -Stuart from SoSmithyDesign “…out of all design disciplines (besides engineering and architecture), graphic design, especially when it comes to text, probably has the most rules. Finding ways to reinterprate those rules is very satisfying to me.” “For me, a career in graphic design was the perfect choice – a mixture of creative and logical thinking. You get to use your left brain and right brain equally. Design is about problem solving and visual communication, not art or technology.” And lastly, short and sweet: “because I want aesthetic justice!”
I love to bake. I have cookies in the oven as I type (and I just snuck one from the tray that just came out!) and I find it relaxing and rewarding. In college, though, I’ll be without my trusty tools and supplies here at home. I’m choosing to look on the bright side, though: this means I get to buy new ones. Ones that are more “me.”
Now, is this a stretch to being graphic design related? Yes. But are they aesthetically pleasing? Yes. Was a lot of design work put into these? Definitely. Will you let me slide? Hopefully.
Key ingredient (pun intended) to land in my favorites? A fabulous use of color. Especially blue. And red. And, well, the rest of them. Here are some of my favorite designs that I’ve found along the way.
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Getting the cookies out of the oven break!
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Anthropologie has a great selection of kitchen goods online that are so fun to browse through. They also have some cute dishtowels, aprons, and cookie jars.
Up next:
$5.95 Cupcake Papers from Sur La Table. I was in there the other day and pretty much had to be forcibly removed from the whole selection of cupcake papers. SO pretty! And a great selection.
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And lastly:
$199.95 (ouch!) 7-Piece Mixing Bowl set from Williams-Sonoma. Gorgeous but pricey and delicate. That purple, though, is just beautiful. All the colors are!
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For now I’ll just stick with my purple measuring cups and red mixing bowls from Target!
First thing I’m doing when I’m rich? Hitting up all of these stores and spending my heart out. Then starting a bakery. Which will not, I promise, use comic sans. Ever.
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Edit: sorry if the formatting is a bit off on the view of the page! I can’t get tumblr to align the photos the way I want it to. If you know what might help, I’d be grateful. Thanks!
Karen Kavett is a vlogger, nerdfighter, and graphic designer. Here’s a wonderful video she just posted about type anatomy and definitions of type terms! She also has some other great, engaging videos about typography and art school. There’s even a sequel to this video!
A blog focusing on this article.
I’ve just read a piece that I found via Jacob Cass about what the general public often (unfortunately) considers graphic design.
The piece is written by Alexander Ross Charchar over at Retinart. I would give you some background information, but unfortunately, their “about” page is a little buggy! Essentially it is a blog that focuses on the “Joyous Elegance of Graphic Design and Creative Thought,” as their tagline explains. I’ve subscribed!
One of my favorite things about this blog piece was that, along with a very well written article, Charchar had accompanied it with a draft-like illustration for the title. Quite a nice treat. In looking around at other articles, I’ve gathered that this is a common occurance. Unfortunately for RSS subscribers, we miss out! I’ll have to click through.
On to the article!
One of my favorite lines:
The idea is not validated by the tools used to craft its expression. But the tool does find validation in the expression. The tool relies on it to be considered valuable. Photoshop is no different than any other tool.
I think Charchar makes a brilliant point there. Tools don’t make the artist. I think it’s similar to the discussion of skills versus creativity. You can have the technical skills to execute a work, but if there’s nothing new or intriguing about the work, are you creating much of anything?
We should bother to do so because of the coming years. With a loose definition of graphic design it’ll become harder to study it independently and talk about it with those who call themselves graphic designers.
I’ve actually heard of graphic designers no longer calling themselves “graphic designers” for fear of the connotations. Some schools, even, have programs that are, in most aspects, the same, but call themselves “visual communication” programs. It’s a point of clarification, as “graphic design” has grown to such a broad term.
Again, the article. Worth the time!
