In our current day and age we have a plethora of opportunities to view designers’ sparkling clean, polished work. It’s not as often that we get to view the process or beginnings of this work. Julia Rothman‘s new book, Drawn In takes us into the pages of sketchbooks from 44 artists, designers and cartoonists.
Love the quality and breadth of work from Ireland-based designer, Duane Dalton. Mr. Dalton has a great minimal, restrained style which relies heavily on a strict adherence to the grid and the sparse use of color.
The name Grady McFerrin should be easily recognizable if you’re a reader of The New Yorker or New York Times, where his illustration work shows up frequently. But, what I like to (of course) focus on is his lovely lettering style. The thing that makes Grady’s work unique is the un-rendered, folk quality of his text; paired with his minimal color palette, he manages to create pieces that could have come straight out of early Americana. What Grady does is highlight the old and oft-forgotten, and sends the viewer a beautifully nostalgic feeling of the past.
Contemporary Sculptor Takenobu Igarashi started his career in the early 1970s as an extremely talented Graphic Designer, quickly attaining international acclaim for his axonometric style of form and typography. Takenobu Igarashi has created identity systems, signage, products, packaging and graphics for notable instituions such as GRAPHIS Magazine and MoMa, and has work now rests in the permanent collections of museums all over the world. In 1994 he put his design talents to rest and moved to Los Angeles to pursue his career as a Sculptor. He is currently the President of Tama Art University, where he had originally helped to set up the first program for “computerized design” education in Japan.
Paper Punk is a startup company that’s equal part hands-on toy, art piece and educational tool. Founded by Grace Hawthorne (ReadyMade magazine co-founder), Paper Punk is the result of her many years engaging people with design and encouraging them to create with their hands.
Punks are constructed out of foldable, brightly colored die-cut paper blocks — each kit comes with stickers and instructions for building and customizing your robot, dog, or car. I love the built-in ability to remix and customize your own creations. The systems uses simple shapes and a variety of patterns allowing you to build a wholly unique creation.
St.Louis Based Moosylvania and All Along Press have teamed up to put together a series of posters to benefit relief efforts in the tornado-stricken city of Joplin, Mo. Each poster is signed by the artist and screen printed by hand to order. All proceeds will be donated to the Southwest Missouri chapter of United Way to aid in the economic reconstruction.
As a freshman in college, I was introduced to the intelligent and thoughtful work of Keetra Dean Dixon. As one of my earliest design influences, she helped me look at typography in a totally unique way. Whether it is using tactile materials (like wax) or lazer cutting or even just a regular pen, her playful take on type brings language to an entirely new level.
Everything-Type-Company is a new design studio collaboration between Geoff Halber (Brooklyn) and Kyle Blue (San Francisco). Their portfolio boasts a nice variety of work for clients such as Yale School of Art, Arkitip, Dwell magazine, and the Walker Art Center.
Great work from designer Colin Dunn. While still in the design program at MICA, Colin is designing work one would expect to see from someone with more experience. Also, in addition to being enrolled at MICA, Colin is a designer at Pentagram. I love the boldness and clarity of his portfolio — he makes good use of simple typography and a clean layout.
The work of Will Staehle is inventive with an incredible range of style and content. You might know of him because of his artwork aptly named the Silhouette Masterpiece Theatre, using silhouettes and some delightfully snarky text. Most of his design and type work is with his studio, Lone Wolf Black Sheep—producing iconic book covers, recognizable as some of the best selling books in recent years. He also has a really interesting blog of sorts, called the Dollar Dreadful Family Library, featuring amazing Victorian display type.
