Chuck Green's Design Likes
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If your design do not deliver the desired result, it is more of a barrier than doorway. Tough but true. Be sure to see "Graphic design is a results equation".
 
Enjoy, Chuck
 
P.S. Don't forget to checkout my design template collections--ideabooks and 300-plus templates on a dual format (Mac/PC) CD-ROM...

For Adobe InDesign > For Adobe PageMaker > For QuarkXPress
 
 
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Come and share your ideas...

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http://www.facebook.com/ideabookfb

  
Meet illustrator Erik T. Johnson

I suppose if your work regularly appears on the pages of publications such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, Mother Jones, and Readymade--it can be said that you have arrived as an illustrator. But I love the idea that Erik Johnson's technique, though obviously sophisticated, remains loose and casual.

Here > Example 1...

 
Here > Example 3...

Here > This is another illustrator whose work reminds Robert McCloskey's wonderful work...

 
  
Graphic design is a results equation

Graphic design is not art--that it is the mantra of anyone who hopes to make a living in the world of graphic design in 2010. You can make things flow intuitively and look smashing, but if you don't deliver the desired result, your design is more barrier than doorway. Results, of course, are subjective--this time you may simply want to capture an e-mail address, the next time the goal might be to complete a complex series of financial transactions.

ABTests.com demonstrates the reality of the nuance and science of current-day web design. It is a forum analyzing two versions of a page and results of which performed best. It is, at once interesting, useful, and frightening. If you love minutia, you'll love graphic design.

Thanks to Jeff Green for pointing us to ABTests.com.

Here > An example: Firefox: 3.6% improvement on landing page...

Here > The original test writeup...

Here > The ABTest.com home page...


The use of patterns in illustration

I'm fascinated by circular graphic patterns El Mac uses to build his illustrations. Kind of like some type of organic Photoshop filter.


Here > About the mural...

Here > Another example...

Here > You see the obvious influence of Alphonse Mucha who El Mac refers to as an influence...
 

From the Ideabook.com Design Store

 

A brief overview of the interrelation of inches, picas, and points http://ht.ly/1Kqk5

The gecko, the caveman--okay, I get it. It was funny, smart, and wildly successful but now it's time for some new ideas. http://ht.ly/1HAbE

Interview with the designer of Bickham Script--Richard Lipton http://ht.ly/1Gg9h The font http://ht.ly/1Ggda

CS5 > Tracking and reviewing text changes http://ht.ly/1QrKH

Brief, free clip of overview of differences between InDesign CS4 and CS5 by InDesign expert Anne-Marie Concepcion http://ht.ly/1PFPq


A few new (to me) online graphic design tools and resources

Here are some recent finds that you might want to add to your list of links.


Groundbreaking visualization ideas

I'm guessing you information graphics aficionados are way ahead of me on this. It seems that Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg, until recently, were the leaders of IBM's Visual Communication Lab. Now they have founded their own company Flowing Media, a studio focusing on media and consumer-oriented visualization.

Keep an eye on them. They have done some groundbreaking work, some of which you will see here. The first example is a project title Luscious. To create it they used a custom algorithm to extract peak colors from a series of magazine advertisements. For example...

Here > And example...

Here > The Luscious project...

Here > Further explanation...

Here > A variation they created for Wired Magazine back in 2008...

Here > Their new company--Flowing Media...


A grammaphobe's nightmare
 
In high school, my objective in English class was to get the biggest laugh, not to actually learn anything. Onlinestylebooks.com, as I image it, was created by the girl in class who listened attentively and chuckled when someone said "chomping at the bit" instead of "champing at the bit".

For the record, a style manual is a set of style, usage, procedural, and technological standards adopted by a particular organization for the writing, design, and production of documents. Mary Beth Protomastro, the founder of Copyediting newsletter, owns and operates OnlineStylebooks.com--a search engine for 50-plus online stylebooks.

(To the best of my knowledge, she did not attend my high school.)

 
From the Ideabook.com Design Store


Becoming a Graphic Designer...


Searching for the sources of typography
Palaeography is the study of ancient handwriting. Look closely at early handwriting and you will find the roots of much modern language and typography. You can shortcut the process by reading some learned practitioner's interpretations of such study or you can spend some time doing a little digging yourself. I think you'll find it fascinating.

Here > A tutorial about reading handwriting from 1500 to 1800...

Here > What is Palaeography? by Julian Brown...


 
  
About the briefing

I try to remain as objective as possible about the information I share here. Unless otherwise stated, I receive no compensation from the organizations and people mentioned except for occasional product samples. Comments? Suggestions? Write me at chuckgreen@ideabook.com

Chuck Green