In this design primer, Lupton and Phillips represent graphic design basics for 2008 with profundity and clarity. The text reconsiders principles from the Bauhaus legacy, but in tune with current digital tools and culture. The approach is systematic, rigorous and brimming with postmodern inspirational examples from professionals and students. Finally! I’ve been waiting for the celebratory return of formal...
Sustainable ink and the graphic designer “Sustainable design gives an authentic value to the consumer.”– Katarina Graffman (Ethnographer) In the second portion of this continuing essay, I turn my focus to another integral component to the graphic designer’s daily language: ink. Ink was developed, for commercial purposes, by the Chinese thousands of years ago and was constructed of various...
It’s time for the prestigious Red Dot Communications Awards again! The competition, which is organized by the renowned German design institute Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen in Essen, is calling for designers, advertising agencies and clients of communication designers from all over the world to submit their entries. The communication award was launched in 1993 and the winners are awarded...
Building Findable Websites Web Standards, SEO, and Beyond by Aarron Walter I just read the excellent book, Building Findable Websites, and it truly is the book I’ve been searching for over the last couple of years. I’ve been interested in search engines and how they work for a long time and I’ve been dismayed with the emphasis on Search...
Eye Saw Last week, 40 international graffiti artists and lots of enthusiastic amateurs proved that a little paint and color really can cheer up the dreariest place.
In recent years, Yves Béhar has emerged as one of the most important industrial designers on the contemporary scene. Through his San Francisco-based design and branding company fuseproject, the Swiss-born Béhar has shown that a futuristic, hi-tech approach to design can be deeply humane. The fluid forms and innovative function of his products are impressive enough, but it’s Béhar’s...
I have been asked this question on several occasions: “Where is the best place to work: at an ad agency or an in-house design department?” So, I though it might be helpful to give a breakdown of what are generally considered benefits and drawbacks of both. For the sake of a broad comparison, I include design studios along with...
Beth Dillon at our sister blog Notes on Game Dev wrote a very personal post yesterday about her frustration with the subtly chauvinist attitudes in the game industry and issued a call for other women in her business to share their experiences. Beth recounted how, again and again, she would hear the same line from by recruiters at industry...
Inspired by Kate Andrews’ recent related post on sustainable typography In my typography course project at Maryland Institute College of Art, sophomore students are designing packages for eco-friendly compact fluorescent light bulbs. Not surprisingly, eco-asethetics have inspired their work and became active parts of class discussion. We debated hotly the role that design plays in creating expectations for the...
Findability and Search Engine Optimization have been on my mind lately (and on everyone else’s I suppose). Some SEO experts seem to look at the whole thing as a game that you win by getting your page ranked number one on a search result with particular keywords. I do appreciate that search engine ranking is a concrete result (for...
