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August 2007 Archives

August 1, 2007

BAST






Frederic Teschner


It seems everyday ManyStuff has something brilliant

Non Format


Albert Folch Studio


Skullcandy


Typotheque: Greta


59 Of The Coolest Toilet Signs Around The World


lovigin




VINTA: Loop clock


User-Designed products


August 2, 2007

Thorbjn Ankerstjerne


Peter Callesen


Rachel Cartwright


PEZ advertising


The Simpsons at colette


Andrio Abero | 33rpm


HALFTONE DESIGN


Rocketbelt-Man


August 3, 2007

DO NOT…


The Reykjavik Grapevine


Jen Renninger


Nice chart


The London 2012 olympic logo


Ron Mueck


Flickr user The Modern has posted this eerie set of photos from the installation of Ron Mueck's giant sculptures (a foetus and various huge adults) at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

Nice casemod


Simply photo


August 4, 2007

1968 Hermes 3000 typewriter


August 6, 2007

Tommy Guerrero


Tim Haynes


Penguin modern sociology Monographs


Eine Goes Big in London


Ryohei Yanagihara


light transmitting concrete


Litracon™ presents the phenomenon of light transmitting concrete in the form of a widely applicable new building material. Litracon™ is a combination of optical fibres and fine concrete. It can be produced as prefabricated building blocks and panels. Due to the small size of the fibres, they blend into concrete becoming a component of the material like small pieces of aggregate. In this manner, the result is not only two materials - glass in concrete - mixed, but a third, new material, which is homogeneous in its inner structure and on its main surfaces as well. Thousands of optical glass fibres form a matrix and run parallel to each other between the two main surfaces of each block. The proportion of the fibres is very small (4%) compared to the total volume of the blocks. Moreover, these fibres mingle in the concrete because of their insignificant size, and they become a structural component as a kind of modest aggregate. Therefore, the surface of the blocks remains homogeneous concrete. In theory, a wall structure built from light-transmitting concrete can be several meters thick, because the fibres work without almost any loss in light up until 20 meters.

Another excellent chart


If you have to wear a stupid badge…


Lauren Moriarty: Sunrise


The Hacenda


Braun


Daido Moriyama: Stray Dog


August 7, 2007

Ben Stopher


SM goes to YH


The dashed line in use



Via SM via CP

gocco loco


August 8, 2007

Mimobots


Pantone-tastic $33 MP3 player


Nice color set


PDF mags


Bell Magazine Rack



via Print Fetish

Foldable portable BBQ


iconfinder


Data Visualization: Modern Approaches


Cartoons for HTTP error codes


August 9, 2007

Thout Design


WrapSHADE

A single piece of veneer is wrapped to form both the shade and the hanging structure. Light reveals the form of the structure and the quality of the grain.

Dimensions: 12" Diameter


Via Poppy

Richard Paul Lohse


Helmhaus Zürich allianz, exhibition poster, 1954
© Richard Paul Lohse Foundation | ProLitteris, Zürich

Modernism/Postmodernism





Andrew Hatcher : “a mini-project involving the redesign of the popular ‘introducing’ books. included a set of promotional posters. this work was featured in creative review”.

Toko Graphic


Michael Lugmayr & Eva Dijkstra

toko


Annual report "The Hague in facts and figures"
Quote: we don't want an ordinary report! Can you make it more arty?
So we did, literally. We turned the graphs into works of art. Every page displays a visual
which can be read as a graph or seen as a work of art. Some of the graphs were also
presented on actual canvas.

toko*****


The book "European Favourites" portrays 24 Europeans, one from each EU member state,
working and/or living in Rotterdam. In this publication and the exhibition with the same
name, they show us Rotterdam by their favourite building.
The images are removable and can be used as postcards.
more

toko*****


Invitation and poster for "Architekturtreffen Rotterdam-Dresden.
Architecture Institute Rotterdam.

Puzzle Design


trackosaurus


Kithaus K3





Kithaus offers modular prefab kits that provide a smart solution to the never- ending quest for (outer?) space. K3 is a 9‘ x 13’ module that can function as a backyard office or studio and no foundation is necessary. Because of this, the K3 may be permit exempt in many municipalities. What’s included? An MHS aluminum construction system, dual insulated windows and doors, data port and electrical connection box, finished walls, floor and ceiling and more. Imagine the uses – meditation room (inner space), clubhouse, personal getaway that can be booked by members of the main household … Larger modules are also available, at 17’ x 17’.

Mac vs. PC


Spin studio


Art/Life


August 10, 2007

89 Swiss Poster


Last year when Richard Hollis released his new book, Swiss Graphic Design: The Origins and Growth of an International Style, 1920–1965, Jannuzzi Smith organised a presentation, discussion forum, and book launch. For this occasion, Jannuzzi Smith designed a poster using all the illustrations of the book. A very usefull tool to have always around.

You can download the hi-res pdf

Lou Dorfsman



Design Set to Music


If, as Goethe said, architecture is frozen music, then what are pop songs about modern architecture? The recent work of a few indie bands seeks to answer just that question.

Paula Scher's notebook



Earlier this summer Paula Scher participated in Detour, an exhibition at the Art Directors Club in New York presented by Moleskine. The exhibition featured 70 Moleskine notebooks filled by various designers, architects, artists and writers. The raison d’être for the exhibition was to introduce the new Moleskine City Notebooks, announce the launch of the accompanying Cityblog and raise money for the non-profit foundation Lettera 27. Now Moleskine has posted video of the participants paging through their books. Paula’s is filled with 14 whimsical fonts she drew while on an airplane and sitting by the sea in Jamaica.

August 11, 2007

An Original Oz






John W Golden






sarahparrott825


Queen Annes Lace - Retro

Damian Hirst



A very hungry god

Magazine Illusions


Bertrand Clerc


Bureau LImprimante


furoshiki (wrapping cloth)


Marc Burckhardt: The Annoying Wasp


PLASTICA: Bento Box (Round)


PLASTICA: Washing Up Bowl


Bubble chimney


Designed by Andrea Crosetta and produced by Chimney Anthrax (whoa), the Bubble chimney makes a real statement in any home with a space-age floaty feel, thanks to its suspended configuration.

Insulating windows with water


More windows is something every urban dweller wants, but in the summers all that sunlight can make your place sweltering. Double-glazed windows do a decent job of insulation, but researchers at the Polytechnic University in Madrid have done them one better with Intelliglass. The special windows feature a layer of circulating water sandwiched between the glass that absorbs heat, reducing a/c bills by an estimated 70%. Not yet ready for prime time, though they hope to have it on the market soon.

F3 architectos


The use of wood for every surface, from the floor, walls and roof gives to the house cohesion with the forest. The Forest House created by F3 architectos is located in Cachagua, Chile.

Platinum FMD


Jean-Sebastien Monzani: The Still Travelers


Fishing with Charles Harper


Jorn Olsen: Mammatus clouds


Everyone Forever


Conjoined Pillow


Glow hoops


August 12, 2007

JEAN SNOW


Liten Ljus Lager


koen demuynck


Shinmura Design Office


Superscriptイ / deValence (luxー)


at-elier : RE


August 13, 2007

elemento


The New College Beat


The New College Beat


Chema Madoz: Incendio


Ampliacion Fotografia


Suisserland


International Journal of Design


Noa Bembibre: Postbook


Noa Bembibre: Cats let nothing darken their roar


Syd Mead


The drawings of Paul Chiappe


A Crow Left of the Murder (detail). 2005
8B pencil on Bread & Butter paper

Cima ladders


August 14, 2007

alexey brodovitch


Kenneth Wingard meets Jere Curtis


The Framework Formally Known as ’Prints


MAQINA


A Dozen Pencils


Nalgene Kits


Nalgene - its not just a container… now they are using it as packaging! Brilliant and noteworthy move by nalgene which has already spread into so many markets - for being basically a container manufacturer… so its for scientific purposes, then outdoors, then travel/airport security checks, then kids, then various caps and kits and flasks… and now you can get Auto, First Aid, Preparedness, Heat Stress, Dog, and Kid kits! All in your usual 32oz classic nalgenes… each with a signature color for branding naturally. All of the contents of each kit are listed after the jump as well as more pics… and if you don’t find something like the First Aid or Preparedness kit as tempting as i do to leave in the car, etc… well it’s just an interesting idea… make your own! I’m sure you have a bunch of nalgenes unused around the house too.

Continue reading "Nalgene Kits" »

August 15, 2007

Robert Holmkvist







found via it's nice that

Speed Kings


the mass storage stone


Creature Comfort


people and their shoes


The Politics of Design


It is no secret that the real world in which the designer functions is not the world of art, but the world of buying and selling. For sales, and not design are the raison d'etre of any business organization. Unlike the the salesman, however, the designer's overriding motivation is art: art in the service of business, art that enhances the quality of life and deepens appreciation of the familiar world.

Design is a problem-solving activity. It provides a means of clarifying, synthesizing, and dramatizing a word, a picture, a product, or an event. A serious barrier to the realization of good design, however, are the layers of management inherent in any bureaucratic structure. For aside from the sheer prejudice or simple unawareness, one is apt to encounter such absurdities as second guessing, kow-towing, posturing, nit-picking, and jockeying for position, let alone such buck-passing institutions as the committee meeting and the task force. At issue, it seems, is neither malevolence nor stupidity, but human frailty.

The smooth functioning of the design process may be thwarted in other ways, by the imperceptive executive, who in matters of design understands neither his proper role nor that of the designer; by the eager but cautious advertising man whose principal concern is pleasing his client; and by the insecure client who depends on informal office surveys and pseudo-scientific research to deal with questions that are unanswerable and answers that are questionable.

Unless the design function in business bureaucracy is so structured that direct access to the ultimate decision-maker is possible, trying to produce good work is very often an exercise in futility. Ignorance of the history and methodology of design -- how work is conceived, produced, and reproduced -- adds to the difficulties and misunderstandings. Design is a way of life, a point of view. It involves the whole complex of visual communication: talent, creative ability, manual skill, and technical knowledge. Aesthetics and economics, technology and psychology are intrinsically relate to the process.

One of the more common problems which tends to create doubt and confusion is caused by the inexperienced and anxious executive who innocently expects, or even demands, to see not one but many solutions to a problem. These may include a number of visual and/or verbal concepts, an assortment of layouts, a variety of pictures and color schemes, as well as a choice of type styles. He needs the reassurance of numbers and the opportunity to exercise his personal preferences. He is also most likely to be the one to insist on endless revisions with unrealistic deadlines, adding to an already wasteful and time-consuming ritual. Theoretically, a great number of ideas assures a great number of choices, but such choices are essentially quantitative. This practice is as bewildering as it is wasteful. It discourages spontaneity, encourages indifference, and more often than not produces results which are neither distinguished, interesting, nor effective. In short, good ideas rarely come in bunches.

The designer who voluntarily presents his client with a batch of layouts does so not out prolificacy, but out of uncertainty or fear.
He thus encourages the client to assume the role of referee. In the event of genuine need, however, the skillful designer is able to produce a reasonable number of good ideas. But quantity by demand is quite different than quantity by choice. Design is a time-consuming occupation. Whatever his working habits, the designer fills many a wastebasket in order to produce one good idea. Advertising agencies can be especially guilty in this numbers game. Bent on impressing the client with their ardor, they present a welter of layouts, many of which are superficial interpretations of potentially good ideas, or slick renderings of trite ones.

Frequent job reassignments within an active business are additional impediments about which management is often unaware. Persons unqualified to make design judgments are frequently shifted into design-sensitive positions. The position of authority is then used as evidence of expertise. While most people will graciously accept and appreciate criticism when it comes from a knowledgeable source, they will resent it (openly or otherwise) when it derives solely from a power position, even though the manager may be highly intelligent or have self-professed "good taste." At issue is not the right, or even the duty, to question, but the right to make design judgment. Such misuse of privilege is a disservice to management and counterproductive to good design. Expertise in business administration, journalism, accounting, or selling, though necessary in its place, is not expertise in problems dealing with visual appearance. The salesman who can sell you the most sophisticated computer typesetting equipment is rarely one who appreciates fine typography or elegant proportions. Actually, the plethora of bad design that we see all around us can probably be attributed as much to good salesmanship as to bad taste.

Deeply concerned with every aspect of the production process, the designer must often contend with inexperienced production personnel and time-consuming purchasing procedures, which stifle enthusiasm, instinct, and creativity. Though peripherally involved in making aesthetic judgments (choosing printers, papermakers, typesetters and other suppliers), purchasing agents are for the most part ignorant of design practices, insensitive to subtleties that mean quality, and unaware of marketing needs. Primarily and rightly concerned with cost- cutting, they mistakenly equate elegance with extravagance and parsimony with wise business judgement.

These problems are by no means confined to the bureaucratic corporation. Artists, writers, and others in the fields of communication and visual arts, in government or private industry, in schools or churches, must constantly cope with those who do not understand and are therefore unsympathetic to their ideas. The designer is especially vulnerable because design is grist for anybody's mill. "I know what I like" is all the authority one needs to support one's critical aspirations.

Like the businessman, the designer is amply supplied with his own frailties. But unlike him, he is often inarticulate, a serious problem in an arena in which semantic difficulties so often arise.
This is more pertinent in graphic design than in the industrial or architectural fields, because graphic design is more open to aesthetic than to functional preferences.

Stubborness may be one of the designer's admirable or notorious qualities (depending on one's point of view) -- a principled refusal to compromise, or a means to camouflage inadequacy. Design cliches, meaningless patterns, stylish illustrations, and predetermined solutions are signs of such weakness. An understanding of the significance of modernism and familiarity with the history of design, painting, architecture, and other disciplines, which distinguish the educated designer and make his role more meaningful, are not every designer's strong points.

The designer, however, needs all the support he can muster, for his is a unique but unenviable position. His work is subject to every imaginable interpretation and to every piddling piece of fact- finding. Ironically, he seeks not only the applause of the connoisseur, but the approbation of the crowd.

A salutary working relationship is not only possible but essential.
Designers are not always intransigent, nor are all purchasing agents blind to quality. Many responsible advertising agencies are not unaware of the role that design plays as a communication force. As for the person who pays the piper, the businessman who is sympathetic and understanding is not altogether illusory. He is professional, objective, and alert to new ideas. He places responsibility where it belongs and does not feel insecure enough to see himself as an expert in a field other than his own. He is, moreover, able to provide a harmonious environment in which goodwill, understanding, spontaneity, and mutual trust -- qualities so essential to the accomplishment of creative work -- may flourish.

Similarly, the skilled graphic designer is a professional whose world is divided between lyricism and pragmatism. He is able to distinguish between trendiness and innovation, between obscurity and originality.
He uses freedom of expression not as a license for abstruse ideas, and tenacity not as bullheadedness but as evidence of his own convictions. His is an independent spirit guided more by an "inner artistic standard of excellence"(1) than by some external influence.
At the same time as he realizes that good design must withstand the rigors of the marketplace, he believes that without good design the marketplace is a showcase of visual vulgarity.

The creative arts have always labored under adverse conditions.
Subjectivity emotion, and opinion seem to be concomitants of artistic questions. The layman feels insecure and awkward about making design judgments, even though he pretends to make them with a certain measure of know-how. But, like it or not, business conditions compel many to get inextricably involved with problems in which design plays some role.

For the most part, the creation or effects of design, unlike science, are neither measurable nor predictable, nor are the results necessarily repeatable. If there is any assurance, besides faith, a businessman can have, it is in choosing talented, competent, and experienced designers.

Meaningful design, design of quality and wit, is no small achievement, even in an environment in which good design is understood, appreciated, and ardently accepted, and in which profit is not the only motive. At best, work that has any claim to distinction is the exception, even under the most ideal circumstances. After all, our epoch can boast of only one A.M.
Cassandre.

- Paul Rand
from "A Designer's Art"

(1) Anthony Storr, "The Dynamics of Creation", (New York, 1972), 189.

August 16, 2007

The Internet


Blue bits: .net, .ca, .us (America)
Green bits: .com, .org (Global)
Yellow bits: .jp, .cn, .tw, .au (Asia-pacific)
Magenta bits: .de, .uk, .it, .pl, .fr (Europe)
Cyan bits: .br, .kr, .nl (Others)
White: Unknown

Chen Chen


Toothpick and Nails Art



Freshly Signaled from the CP

Batman-o-types




NDG baby

photo, film & sound ephemera


Book Covers


live train schedule display


clothes hanger lamp


August 17, 2007

Blanka


Warhol


Douglas Gayeton




Mix Tape USB drive


Chris Jordan: Plastic Bottles, 2007

Depicts two million plastic beverage bottles, the number used in the US every five minutes.


Partial zoom:


Detail at actual size:


Confederate: Renovatio



And the Wrath

The Official Treasures of le Tour de France


The Official Treasures of le Tour de France provides a unique and well-researched history of the Tour as written by two experienced journalists, Serge Laget and Luke Edwards, who between them have over 50 years of experience covering cycling's greatest race. Laget and Edwards document many of the great riders that have taken part in the race's 104-year history and take a look at why this race is so intriguing to so many.

In addition, the book includes over 275 rare images, forty removable reproductions of several pieces of TdF-related memorabilia, as well as the stories behind them. Among the artifacts is a letter written by Tour founder Henri Desgrange and the contracts that the riders had to sign in order to take part in the 1910 Tour.

August 18, 2007

a minima


Mattias Adolfsson



Recycled Graphic Design


August 19, 2007

Matt Willey de Studio8 Design


Brian Dettmer


Brian Dettmer’s exquisite carved books at Urtopia, a group show curated by Kelly McCray at Toronto’s Edward Day Gallery. In a sense, these works are the opposite of collage. Using surgical tools, Brian Dettmer removes paper like an archeologist releasing a fossil from layers of sediment, thereby unveiling connections between words and images hundreds of pages away from each other. The results are breathtaking: solid and sculptural, with a texture resembling the wood from which the paper pulp once came.


Will Perrens


An eye-catching and interesting typeface called Drift designed by Will Perrens , granting him a D&AD Young Blood award in 2004.

Richard Avedon retrospective


August 20, 2007

Six-part vintage Coffee Table



>>>>>>>DesignMilk

Otl Aicher - Munich 72


Otl Aicher - Munich 72

the complete pattern library


Levin


PAYSAGE D'HIVER


Black Metal can be extremely hard to navigate. Recently a lot of it suffers from misanthropic maudlin myopathy : heavy on masculine mechanics of terror, minus any real understanding of the grand atmosphere & genderless excitement that the greatest BM bands have had to offer. But, in the twilight behemoth of the genre, past all night winds, winter frost, black forests and racist albatross’, rests the freezing hot monochromatic tape hiss of Paysage d’hiver.

Armed with an acute retardation for clarity, thick globules of sonic landscape & a studied abundance of cryptic gloomy theatre : Paysage d’hiver sounds like an entire ocean trapped inside a deeply sullen, bare wintered basement.

Benjamin Cove


Flying frog of the day


I Love Typography


Feral Designers


MyCuppa Mug


2 color letterpress action



C&P Letterpress: 2 color job from Armato Design and Vimeo.

Paint Chip Card Holders!


Offi Ovum Bassinet all from yokiddo


August 21, 2007

EINE: Mash The Tate


Book covers: on the road again


PAUL RYDING


Book cover for The Government Inspector by Elena Kalorkoti


From Ten Sorry Tales by Astrid Atihuta


Pool Table Modded Volkswagen Bus


Tobias Battenberg


Tobias battenberg, from Germany, made a nice experiment with video projections in several buildings and structures in the city, about the font "akzidenz grotesk".
Akzidenz grotesk is known as a font that tolerates a lot, that holds out a lot - my plan was to get a proof by the font herself. the font demonstrated her character at its best.

Beautiful Specimens


Wikipedia tells us: “A microscope slide was originally a ‘slider’ made of ivory or bone, containing specimens held between disks of transparent mica. These were popular in Victorian England until the Royal Microscopical Society introduced the standardized microscope slide in the form of a thin sheet of glass used to hold objects for examination under a microscope.”

I’d like to add the following: Antique microscope slides, looked at from a strictly aesthetic standpoint (egged on by a design obsessed brain obviously) are some of the most elegant and perfectly beautiful human artifacts on planet earth. You can quote me on that. See below for irrefutable scientific aesthetic evidence.

Via CP

Alexander Rodchenko


Aleksander Mikhailovich Rodchenko was a Russian artist, sculptor, photographer and graphic designer. He was one of the founders of constructivism and Russian design.
Rodchenko was one of the most versatile Constructivist and Productivist artists to emerge after the Russian Revolution. He worked as a painter and graphic designer before turning to photomontage and photography. His photography was socially engaged, formally innovative, and opposed to a painterly aesthetic. Concerned with the need for analytical-documentary photo series, he often shot his subjects from odd angles—usually high above or below—to shock the viewer and to postpone recognition. He wrote: “One has to take several different shots of a subject, from different points of view and in different situations, as if one examined it in the round rather than looked through the same key-hole again and again.”

Much of 20th century graphic design stems from the work of Alexsander Rodchenko. His influence on modern graphic design is so pervasive that to pick out particular designers he has influenced would largely be a pointless endeavour.
His 1924 portrait of Lilya Brik has inspired a number of subsequent works, including the cover art for a number of music albums. Among them are influential Dutch punk band The Ex, which published a series of 7″ vinyl albums, each with a variation on the Lilya Brik portrait theme, and the cover of the Franz Ferdinand album, You Could Have It So Much Better. The poster for One-Sixth Part of the World was the basis for the cover of “Take Me Out”, also by Franz Ferdinand.

Richard Sarson


August 22, 2007

Dirt: XLR8R


Alex DeArmond


Note to security: Have fun rifling through my underwear


Good 50x70


Mehr Marin


Hole Punched


Vitra: Cardboard Wiggle Stool


Cardboard is still hot these days. The Wiggle stool is new at MoMA - reissued by the Vitra Design Museum in Germany.

August 23, 2007

Stereo 3D retro erotica


Julien Previeux


Russian book covers


More Russian book covers





Whizz Mail Here


Refinery29 Countdown Videos


Hat to the Max


H.C.-B.


Today is Cartier-Bresson's birthday. He would have been 99.

lisa solomon prints


alicia bock notecards


Take-Away Sink


David Carson: Stajl by Malmo


Angry Retail: Skeleton Dog Lamp


Twitter's customer support form


Love this

Polaroids by Grant Hamilton.


Knotan


Seconds - Title Sequence by Saul Bass

Rss'd from Serif via CP

Introducing Fieldnotes


CP is being all vague and shit, so here's what I sussed…

vengeance trail


Via DDC

August 24, 2007

Tony Bruno


Pencils, pencils, pencils, and more pencils



The Jubilator Kopier Mittel

Via the C to the mighty P

Tag: the Ring meets zombies


Modern Clothes Pin


DOOM DRIPS


via It's nice that

s-nonblog


Great title sequnces

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN

007 CASINO ROYALE

BY SAUL BASS:

ANATOMY OF A MURDERER

IT'S A MAD MAD MAD WORLD

PSYCHO

COWBOY

OCEAN'S 11

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM,

HUGE thanks to (N©N) Blog for compiling these

Little Oranges of California


Analog.Systm




Excellent logoists

CPLUV'd

Modern Printed Matter


Aaron Hobson || Cinemascapes



Tweaking the mundane to create the bizarre, each of Aaron Hobson's images suggests a plot line for the imagination to fill in the blanks. He constructs his "cinemascapes" using multiple images, stitching them together to create a scene filled with small details that hint at a complex narrative.

Raised in industrial Pittsburgh but now based in a small Adirondack Mountain town near the Canadian border, Hobson has a keen eye for beauty in rural decay. "The best thing about living here is that you are forced to do something or you can go batty," Hobson says of life in rural upstate New York. "Living here I am always feeling the need to take things further and push my limits, and I think that is how cinemascapes came about."


While in some, Hobson's appearance is limited to a Hitchcockian cameo, in others he takes a starring role. "Shooting a simple shot wasn't enough," he explains. "I wanted to shoot multiple images and stitch them. Then I said, shit, why not go another step further and place a character in the scene—and from there the narratives began."

Via Josh Rubin

Picture-Taking Balloon 22.27 Miles High




Behold the view from 117,597 feet, taken on August 11, 2007 by a camera hanging from a helium balloon launched by a group of guys in Alberta, Canada. Called the SABLE-3 (Southern Alberta Balloon Launch Experiment #3), it was packed with a Byonics MicroTrak 300 APRS tracking device, a Nikon Coolpix P2 digital camera set to snap one picture per minute, and filled with enough helium to take it to the edge of the earth's atmosphere.

catalogtree 4.0


via Shaun of the Inman

Marc & Justus Comandare: Aeron Chaise


Dutch design team Marc & Justus Comandare have adjusted the most iconic piece of "task" seating to suit today's youth who live a "rather sedentary and TV-filled existence." The result is ideal for supine computing, in hopes that the young and the listless will take it upon themselves to increase productivity in exchange for a more "familiar" lounge-y position.

Guerrilla usability



via C to the em-effin P

ROYAL MAGAZINE


August 25, 2007

No I haven't…


got caught readin' the Serif

stephan Jandl: Unbenanntes Dokument


Peter Bruhn Redefines the Lowercase 'g'


The Swedish foundry Fountain has released a few very good typefaces in the past few years including Eason, and the swashy Gábor Kóthay blockbusters Zanzibar and Incognito. Proprietor Peter Bruhn’s chops have matured since he first launched Fountain in 1993, but he hasn’t released a retail typeface of his own in several years, focusing instead on proprietary commissions and working with other designers on their fonts.

Fortunately, this is about to change very soon if Bruhn’s blog is any indication. In recent weeks he has given us a sneak peek at typefaces in progress. There’s a script in the spirit of Aldo Novarese’s Fluidum, two revisions of his Corpus Gothic, a strong book typeface called Adrian, a woody grotesque, and a Didot, as seen above, that pushes the boundaries of classic type in the same way that Tom Caranase and Ed Benguiat did in the ’60s–’70s. I don’t think anyone has ever tried a ‘g’ quite like this, though. Marvelous.

Bjork: All is full of love

Sweaty Sightseeing


via NotCot

Moped Lamps



August 26, 2007

BAUMM RECYCLED



From Inhabitat

A few weeks ago at Buenos Aires’ Feria Puro Diseño, I stumbled across an eye-catching booth featuring Baumm’s colorful recycled bags. Repurposing old vinyl posters and billboards to make bags isn’t a new trend (Freitag seems to be leading the way in Europe and now companies from Alchemy Goods to Feuerwear are doing similar things). But we love Baumm’s use of even more colorful and one-of-a-kind publicity banners, billboards, and advertisements reclaimed from the streets of Argentina and elsewhere.

Buenos Aires-based Baumm certainly seems to be upping the ante for all of the recycled-bag producers out there by fashioning gorgeous original designs in a great selection of sizes and functions for both men and women.

It looks like they're going to do furniture too.

<

Demano Recycled


Via Inhabitat
The cultural activity in Barcelona generates a huge number of advertising banners every year, which are hung from street lights to advertise exhibitions and events. In 2000 there were approximately 19,800 banners that were largely not reusable. Enter Demanoto the rescue: the Spanish company recycles these banners into a variety of cool products for portage (similar to Baumm’s recycled banner bags).

Demano has also begun to recycle materials from a variety of other sources about town including polyester canvasses used during building renovations, to make their beautiful bags. If you’re looking for a cute back-to-school book bag, make sure to check out Demano to step out in eco-style.

offf BARCELONA 2007

SIZE:
29 x 36 x 10 CMS.

MATERIAL:
Recycled (PVC) canvas from banners

DESCRIPTION:
Interior size DIN A4. One interior pocket and two external ones, in the front and back side. It has a banner for hanging on the shoulder. Designed for different urban activities: office, university, etc. Light weight. Small interior purse.


Girona

SIZE:
28 x 20 x 8 CMS.

MATERIAL:
Recycled (PVC) canvas from bannerss cloth without chemical processes.

LINNING:
Recycled umbrella fabric.

DESCRIPTION:
Handbag with shoulder strap. Multipurpose, ideal for daily activities. It has a small inner pocket and an external one. Capacity: DIN A5.

CLOSURE:
Metallic tic tac.


Colegio L

SIZE:
26 x 36 x 8 CMS.

MATERIAL:
Recycled (PVC) canvas original fabrics from the 70's.

LINING:
Recycled humbrela cloth.

DESCRIPTION:
Handbag with shoulder strap. Multipurpose, ideal for daily activities. It has a small inner pocket and an external one. Capacity: Larger than a DIN A4.


Borne

SIZE:
29 x 36 x 8 CMS.

MATERIAL:
Recycled (PVC) canvas from banners

DESCRIPTION:
This bag is specially designed for djs, since vinyl records fit perfectly inside. It has a small interior pocket and another external one covered by the flap. It has a nylon strap.

Via Inhabitat

Armando Milani


Armando Milani (Milan, Italie et New York, États-Unis)
Book Shop

Logotype

Pour une librairie à New York.

Sturm Blond


Joy Division Sneakers


On display at Ran in Manchester is a custom NB by a mysterious Canadian with a thing for Joy Division / Factory Records.

The art from the band’s 1979 debut record is used in the tongue tag and insole.

“The album cover, designed by Peter Saville based on a graph of 100 consecutive pulses from the pulsar CP 1919, is regarded as a classic of minimalist sleeve design. The image was found by Sumner in a book of astronomy and represents “the final flashes of a dying star.”" — Wikipedia

Gwon, Osang


8zm//Work in Progress


Kazunari Hattori




NOT QUITE YET BENEATH THE WATCHFUL EYES


Via William Gibson

Inka Javinen


Vinyl Kaiju


August 27, 2007

ShoeGuru | Unmatched Style


Nice simple site design

This is Velograph


Matryoshkus


via BOOM, DesignBoom

Drains of Canada


The Toronto Power Company Tailrace at Niagara







Excellent letterhead



It also happens to be an internal information memo on the Disney Haunted mansion audio-animatronic experience

Toasty Toaster


Exhibit of previously "lost" auto sketches


Trailerwrap: Project Complete


Giving that double-wide a face lift

The Swamp Collection: Temperature sensitive furniture


Erin Hayne and Nuno Gon軋lves Ferreira of the Visual Reference Studio have completed work on their first collection of thermochromatic furniture, stools and benches that change colour when touched. Colour-changing crystals are activated in response to heat, so sitting or touching the pieces will leave an imprint of various body parts, but just until the piece cools down. Black furniture turns blue and red turns violet, but the variety of temperature fluctuations will bring about a range of shades. The Swamp Collection is inspired by the flora and fauna of the Mississippi cypress swamp, where the studio is located.

Blue Ant Studio: Latest 3 of the series of 12...


ELSPETH DIEDERIX


Bundle Wrapping Instructions


2d furniture


August 28, 2007

Control Room


Control room of a now demolished power plant with cyclone coal boilers

Created for the boys over at Typophile


Savant Tard

urban cowboy


Helvetica DVD sneak peek #2 - Wim Crouwel


Here's another one of the 41 short films that'll be included on the DVD: Dutch designer Wim Crouwel discusses the Proposal for a New Alphabet, his revolutionary 1967 response to the emergence of digital technology in typography.

Hello From Me


Paula Scher Designs Free Templates


Today Hewlett-Packard launches a new website featuring Paula Scher, Jake Burton and Gwen Stefani as part of its $300 million Print 2.0 campaign designed to inspire and empower customers with free customizable, printable content. For her part, Scher designed five business templates, including letterhead, envelopes, business cards and notecards, that provide users with a complete graphics package. Named Bold, Modern, Edgy, Elegant and Friendly, the templates were designed to appeal to a diverse array of businesses and personality types. Two templates, Friendly and Modern, are available for download today, with the others being added over the next few weeks.

The site also features an interview with Scher in which she speaks about how to build a successful brand identity. “The characteristic that matters for every good brand is that you look like you made your decisions based on who you are for specific reasons, not that they were accidental,” she says. “A small business should ask itself who its customer is, who are they talking to. They should think about how to present themselves and what their tone of voice should be.” Shot in Pentagram’s New York office, the interview is accompanied by commentary about some of her most celebrated designs.

Rounding out the site’s content, Jake Burton offers advice on how to produce a successful marketing campaign and the importance of a strong visual brand, while Gwen Stefani offers customizable Harajuku-inspired paper dolls, party invites and CD covers.


pajaristico 3



Via the Poppy

Misericordia


Mobile Web Design


V


DIY Cork Coasters


Plan B Fotokopierer: Turn an Expensive Copier into a Cheap Camera


The result of what appears to be some sort of student design project, the "Plan B Fotokopierer" is an accordianesque lens that clips to the scanning platform of a standard office-grade photocopier, turning it into the world's largest (and crappiest) Polaroid. At the least, it'll allow office pranksters to take candid shots of their anuses without risking a fall through a shattering plate of glass.

Hellovon


Siggi Eggertsson


Felt replica of a vintage Underwood Noiseless typewriter


August 29, 2007

20 Standard +1


Old school


Advices to Award Show Virgins


it doesn't matter what you think




Some design wisdom from Milton Glaser:

"Last year someone gave me a charming book by Roger Rosenblatt called 'Ageing Gracefully'. I got it on my birthday. I did not appreciate the title at the time but it contains a series of rules for ageing gracefully. The first rule is the best. Rule number one is that 'it doesn't matter.' 'It doesn't matter what you think. Follow this rule and it will add decades to your life. It does not matter if you are late or early, if you are here or there, if you said it or didn't say it, if you are clever or if you were stupid. If you were having a bad hair day or a no hair day or if your boss looks at you cockeyed or your boyfriend or girlfriend looks at you cockeyed, if you are cockeyed. If you don't get that promotion or prize or house or if you do - it doesn't matter.' Wisdom at last.

A week or two later I read a joke that I haven't been able to get out of my head. A butcher was opening his market one morning and as he did a rabbit popped his head through the door. The butcher was surprised when the rabbit inquired 'Got any cabbage?' The butcher said 'This is a meat market - we sell meat, not vegetables.' The rabbit hopped off. The next day the butcher is opening the shop and sure enough the rabbit pops his head round and says 'You got any cabbage?' The butcher now irritated says 'Listen you little rodent I told you yesterday we sell meat, we do not sell vegetables and the next time you come here I am going to grab you by the throat and nail those floppy ears to the floor.' The rabbit disappeared hastily and nothing happened for a week. Then one morning the rabbit popped his head around the corner and said 'Got any nails?' The butcher said 'No.' The rabbit said 'OK. Got any cabbage?'"

Matrix Deux


erik otto



La Última Noche


Maison Martin Margiela


Craig Frazier



His Site

Joe Newton


The 5 and Dime Redeux



Pure Design

We just got an interesting press release about Sweat Equity Enterprises (SEE), a design and entrepreneurship program for underserved youth, and their recent partnership with Nissan North America (NNA). The partnership brought together 18 high school students from New York City and Providence, RI to develop a concept for a low-cost vehicle targeted toward youth in metropolitan areas. From February to May, the students worked with Nissan Design America designer Bryan Thompson to conduct market research, predict upcoming trends and produce detailed professional-quality designs for the car’s exterior, accessories and interior elements.

Working in teams, students came up with six car concepts which were submitted to Nissan for competition. Nissan chose the Pure concept vehicle designed by Chris Jones, Paul Ayala, Alex Rodriguez and Shakirra Torain. The designs were so well received that Nissan created digital animated models of all six designs, and a 3-foot professional model of Pure, which they will reveal at the Los Angeles Auto Show this November.

“The goal of the Nissan Pure is to be as iconic as the original Mini Cooper, as legendary as the Nissan Skyline and as economical and fun as the Datsun 510,” says 16-year old SEE designer Chris Jones. “The Pure gives you that classic car feel and all the right things to bring the essence of what made us fall in love with cars in the first place.”

Mimobot


DEC Programmed Data Processor


average rainfall in the UK



Excellent chartage

Via the miss of swiss

Chipp Kidd: Divided Kingdom


Jake Burton.




HP has done a very inspirational feature on Jake Burton, founder of Burton Snowboards (where I [Matt-Moore] work as a web-designer). The site and featured videos are fantastic. Check it.

The CONET Project




Distant, warbled voices drowned by seven brief tones…interrupted by Swedish Rhapsody being played on an over-amped musicbox…repeat.. repeat…repeat…numbers read by what sounds like a young girl…the musicbox again…repeat…repeat…the girl, more numbers…

So strange, SO beautiful

*includes full download (133.9MB, mp3 +76pg.pdf)

Thanks CPLUV

August 30, 2007

If You Can Read This, You're Hired


Via the C-rss-p

Flooding the Farnsworth



So sad

Zeichen. Angewandte Asthetik: Signs - Applied Aesthetics


.JUSTIN THOMAS KAY


Garland monospace, modular typeface built from a reference off of the cover of Ken Garlands graphics handbook

The Great Knock-Off Debate


Ping to the Pong


Kristina Bowers




Brief To create a moving piece of type, such as a song lyric, quote, etc., without using fancy programs.

Solution I decided to take a song lyric and show the movement using a flipbook, I chose a delicate typeface and a soft colour for the paper to reflect the mood of the song, and the subtle movement of the man’s head reinforces what the lyric says, while keeping it subtle and focusing on the typography.

Tobias Roder


toko


found on FFFFound

Posters de GrindHouse: Death Proof


Burn Down The Web


August 31, 2007

Tokujin Yoshioka Media Skin


Chris Cunningham: PS1 "Mental Wealth" commercial

Classic

Paul Simmons: Curwen Press pattern book


Magic Jelly: Floyds Epiphany


Floyd's epiphany arrived in the shape of a fat white dove just as he was about to deliver a killer right hook to his opponent. He pulled off his gloves & went for a walk in the sunshine... Everybody needs an epiphany sometime!

Lifted off INT

Alexandre Leray


The redesign of The New Republic


Diane von Furstenberg


Bespoke Tokyo


Sam Potts


Via John Nack

Elettra in the City


taking off


Gallery of Book Trade Labels


Via That is right

Tokyo Undressed


Red is Not Funny


The clumsily obese sans type; the blinding white background safely voiding the cutout actors of context. It's a design ploy as low brow as the films themselves--a desperate attempt to simply be recognized. They dance, jump up and down, and scream at the top of their lungs to get a reaction of any kind... since they must realize that nobody is laughing.

Information Designed Photography


Blowing out the darkness


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