|
Thanks for subscribing.
In the United States, this is the time of year that the weather begins its slow turn from warm to cool and students return to classrooms.
It is a marked change for many of us -- clients are back from vacation and work begins to slide back into a higher gear.
Design is a joy isn't it? Each year, with each client, we return to a season of learning and renewal. It may not be as secure or predictable as other ways of life but it is those same attributes that can make it such a blessing.
Be well,
Chuck
Have you seen my InDesign Ideabook?
315 template files in 19 different categories -- Everything from brochures, newsletters, and direct mail to packaging, calendars, and books (one CD works with both Mac and PC). Use two or three files and you'll pay for the entire book and disc...
For Adobe InDesign... Here For QuarkXPress... Here
Meet illustrators Don and Ryan Clark
This is really interesting. Invisible Creature is a team of brothers - Don and Ryan Clark. Their work is superb and who does what is, at first blush, completely transparent.
The whole portfolio... Here
Typographic and design inspiration through airline ephemera
Here's a comprehensive collection of airline label and timetable ephemera. Watch for a wealth of design inspiration.
The label collection... Here
The timetable collection... Here
There is no single best design solution
In academic and media circles Edward Tufte has long been touted as the master of data visualization. If that is the case, why do I find so much of his work (and the explanation of it) nearly incomprehensible?
Sacrilege? You tell me.
In a recent interview with Advertising Age he said, "Graphics are at their best for really large data sets, as in sparklines for time series and NASA's photographs of the Earth. Sensibly-designed tables usually outperform graphics for data sets under 100 numbers. The average numbers of numbers in a sports or weather or financial table is 120 numbers (which hundreds of million people read daily); the average number of numbers in a PowerPoint table is 12 (which no one can make sense of because the ability to make smart multiple comparisons is lost). Few commercial artists can count and many merely put lipstick on a tiny pig. They have done enormous harm to data reasoning, thankfully partially compensated for by data in sports and weather reports."
Really? Only "Sensibly-designed tables?"
Is "100 numbers" a hard number or does it have a margin of error? Are "commercial artists" less intelligent than artists who are not paid for their work?
Hmmm. Mr. Tufte is one of those experts who seems to know exactly how everything should be done and how inadequate everyone around him is at doing it. Yes. If I read far enough and analyze long enough I see some of his points and sometimes agree with his assessments. But I think too that there are often ways of doing things that don't fall within these margins or the perceptions of a single human being.
Edward Tufte: The AdAgeStat Q&A... Here
Tufte has a new exhibit opening in September. What follows is a document that previews that exhibit. All Possible Photons: The Conceptual and Cognitive Art of Feynman Diagrams (3.4MB PDF)... Here
Tufte is the author of Envisioning Information Here
From the Ideabook.com Design Store
Tintbook CMYK Process Color Selector: A palette of 25,000 CMYK process colors in print... Here
Color Harmony Guide: From French designer Dominique Trapp... Here
Communicating With Color: Based on Leatrice Eiseman's seminars on the psychology of color... Here
Graphic Design, Referenced: A Visual Guide to Graphic Design: One of my favorite design books... HereAn excellent example of straight-forward, pure branding
If you doubt the power of branding, take a look this project designed and illustrated by Tad Carpenter.
I believe graphic design is becoming more important with each passing day - some people get that, others don't. First and foremost you've got to have a great product. But once you've made it to the table, you've got to distinguish yourself through your packaging and presentation. Organizations that pay attention to the details are the ones that will survive and thrive.
I love the fact that the folks who started this burger place found a designer to collaborate with.
Tad Carpenter's Yeah! Burger... Here
A more detailed collection of images on flickr... Here
A new resource for graphic designers from Neenah Paper
This looks interesting. Neenah Paper has added an app called Cabinet to their already impressive collection of online resources.
They define Neenah Cabinet for Desktop as, "...a first-of-its-kind cross-platform Adobe Air application created for PCs and Macs that provides users with the most effective way to find, specify, compare and test the perfect
paper for their projects."
Some of the other Neenah resources for designers include... Personal Proof: Have your image printed on your choice of Neenah paper stock... Here
Webinars: Here's one about color strategy with Jack Bredenfoerder, formally a Design Director with the behemoth identity shop, Landor Associates... Here
Winners of Neenah's UnShow Competition... Here
The Neenah Blog, Against the Grain... Here
Media Temple... Rock-solid hosting services. Click her for a free trial. Here
Topaz Labs... Killer add-ons for Adobe Photoshop. Here
Lynda.com... A huge library of top-quality, design-oriented tutorials. Click here for a 7-day free trial. Here
An effective way of indexing video
The Archive of American Television posts in-depth video interviews (in some cases hours long) with folks involved with the writing, acting, producing, and directing of television programs. The example features a four-part interview with Vince Gilligan, the originator of the series Breaking Bad.
The index (my term) divides the interviews into segments and summarizes each with a text blurb. You simply read down the list until you find a segment you're interested in and click it to see that portion of the interview.
Nice way of doing it.
In the right-hand column click the "Interview" tab to see the index pane... Here
In case you're interested: the list of interviews... Here
Many of the best typefaces cannot be purchased -- for any price
Here's beautiful custom typeface commissioned by creative agency Saturday from the pan-European design collective Underware. It, like many great typefaces by top typeface designers, was designed exclusively for use by a single client - in this case, MrPorter.com, a men's luxury-goods webshop.
If you have the resources, there's nothing quite so un-usual as a typeface that is your's alone. This one, to me, is particularly distinctive. Mr Porter... Here
The typeface in use on MrPorter.com: Example 1... Here
The creative agency Saturday commissioned the typeface from Underware... Here
Thought this was interesting too... a media kit that explains the inner-workings of MrPorter.com (12.2MB PDF)... Here
These are some of the Underware typefaces you can buy... Here
Will you join me on Facebook? Here
| 
