The Noun Project is a bold idea with a simple mission statement: “Sharing, celebrating and enhancing the world’s visual language”. Essentially, the Project aims to collect, organize and add to the universal library of symbols and images that make up our visual language.
Brighton University Graphic Design student Dan Mountford has an incredible series of portraits titled The Worlds Inside of Us. Dan describes this series as “a visual journey through our minds by calm and tidy means which the reality of everyday life does not show.” He explores the use of double exposure in his photographs, successfully isolating parts of an image in camera with no help from our friend Photoshop. His images are captivating with their thoughtful execution and composition, and there’s no doubt that we will be seeing more exciting work from him in the future.
Cody Haltom is a designer working in warm Austin, Texas. He has a nice handle on things large and small and in between. The above logo has a simple yet fun whimsical execution to it. These characteristics, I feel, carry over nicely to his other, more complex pieces. The stationery systems and and Public School identity are good examples of this — all the details seem to simultaneously sing together in design harmony.
Japanese cute & dreamy music duo Lullatone recently posted this great video of small noise-producing exercises, titled “Experiments Around the House.” I really enjoy the simple yet very visually appealing colorful scenes, with content that draws upon a cuter parallel to the work of artist Koki Tanaka. Lullatone has many other great videos and visual projects that a design inclined mind would appreciate and are very much worth checking out.
I just downloaded the Gerd Arntz memory app and I’m giving it a test spin. The game contains 250 from the more than 4,000 pictograms Gerd Arntz drew between 1928 and 1965, and were scanned from the original prints in the Arntz archive of the Municipal Museum The Hague.
Micah Lidberg is an amazing young illustrator with an incredible portfolio. What really caught my attention is the fact that he also manages to seamlessly incorporate type into his intensely detailed compositions, and does so with the skill of a seasoned letterer. Since Micah has already been named a Young Gun by the ADC and featured in many prestigious magazines, he is definitely one to watch. I predict great things from him in the future!
Jelle Martens is a young image-maker from Gent, Belgium. He creates highly geometric and minimal work, borrowing much inspiration from the roots of his not so ancient ancestors. I really enjoy these simple shape and collage experiments most out of his work. They have a very striking and organic feeling to them, and are like precursors to logotypes. More work is also viewable at his Flickr.
I’m really digging the deceptively minimal work of Mark Brooks. The illustrations are sparse and the images full of contrast, and I feel that the concept quality is top notch. For example, whatever is happening with the exploding — or shattering — giraffe below is amazing.
Another exciting release from the fine folks over at Unit Editions.
TD 63-73: Total Design and its pioneering role in graphic design is a unique insider’s account of the evolution of Total Design, one of the most important and influential design groups in the history of visual design.
Written by Ben Bos, a key member of the studio, the book describes how a group of idealistic Dutch designers came together to form a multidisciplinary design studio that helped shape the future of graphic design.
Brecht Vandenbroucke is a Belgian based artist and illustrator that I can’t get enough of. His narrative work is bright, bold, humorous, and torturous at times. This print, titled “Sounds to Learn…,” is incredibly captivating with its vibrant colors and images of a hurly burly gentleman nervously rocking out on guitar. Originally created for the Finnish comic art studio Kuti Kuti, this print is absolutely drool-worthy, much like Brecht’s other work.
