Not having the right type for the job can make your design workflow suffer. While licensing a large collection of fonts can mean a major up front investment. We’ve got you covered, though!

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You’ll unlock the Monotype, Linotype and ITC typeface libraries, which feature signature designs like the Neue Helvetica®, Avenir® Next, and ITC Franklin Gothic™ families—as well popular new releases, including the Metro® Nova and Neue Haas Grotesk™ collections. See how easy and affordable it can be to have complete access to the world’s greatest type.

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This post is brought to you by Fonts.com – a leading provider of desktop fonts and Web fonts. With an exhaustive inventory of type related products and subscriptions, Fonts.com can help you get your design work done quickly, easily, and more beautifully.

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We’re super excited to present this wallpaper designed exclusively for Grain Edit by one of our favorite illustrators…. Maxim Dalton. We approached Maxim about the wallpaper a few weeks ago and was thrilled when he agreed. Since he is based in Buenos Aires, I asked if he would include the Buenos Aires National Library in the illustration. This beautiful, spaceship looking, brutalist beast was designed in 1961 by the architectural team of Clorindo Testa, Francisco Bullrich, and Alicia Cazzaniga. The library is the large building on the left hand side of the illustration.

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Exclusive new desktop wallpaper coming later today.

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Maxim Dalton

1024×768/1280×800/1280×1024/1400×1050/ 1440×900/1680×1050/1920×1200

also available: iphone wallpaper

Designed by Maxim Dalton c2009

Sigrid and Hans Lammle Cityscape #2

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Sigrid and Hans Lammle Cityscape #1

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Rico Greb is a German designer who often crafts album covers and posters for bands and music festivals. Employing flat shapes and inviting colors, he creates geometric illustrations filled with subtle nuances. A deep look into his compositions reveals minute details that expose hidden characters and telling symbolism. As faces, landscapes, and other images emerge, so does the full story of each piece. Greb’s affection for geometry can also be seen in his collage work, in which he uses mirroring techniques for a heightened effect. These dynamic arrangements are often vibrant and kaleidoscope-like.

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Now you can whip up a product mockup/screenshot in less than 10 seconds, all without even using Photoshop. Yep, it’s a snap with the Smartmockup app. Available for MacOS, Windows and Linux, this simple-to-use app features more than 300 stunning mockup templates. Each template allows you to easily upload and incorporate your product image into the mockup and thus saving you loads of time and money!

For a limited time you can purchase Smartmockup for 50% off at Mighty Deals.

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CreativeLive educates and inspires the creative world by providing affordable skill-based education 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Founded with the belief that world-class education can (and should) be available to everyone, CreativeLive is the first online education company to combine high production value, social interaction, and renowned experts with a live, free 24/7 format. The interactive nature of CreativeLive’s classes creates an environment that fosters community, creative breakthroughs, and lasting personal change.

CreativeLive launched their Design Channel this January with a roster of amazing instructors including James Victore, Stanley Hainsworth, Brandon Rike, and more.

Don’t miss Hand Lettering School this week on CreativeLive where you can catch rebroadcasts of the following classes and purchase them at sale prices:

4/13 – Hand Lettering 101 with Annica Lydenberg
4/14 – Illustrative Stylings: Lettering and More with Chris Piascik
4/15 – Methods for Custom Lettering with Brandon Rike
4/16 – Chalk Lettering with Annica Lydenberg
4/17 – Bold & Fearless Poster Design with James Victore

Check out all of our hand lettering classes right here.

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Here’s our picks for home and office gifts! Included are prints, desk sets and plenty of stocking stuffers. See all the goods after the jump.

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With this deal, you’ll receive more than 90 different fonts! Included are 18 unique font families delivered to you in an .OTF file format. What’s even more amazing is that thanks to this Mighty Deal, you can save more than 95% off the regular price! See all the details here.

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I was first introduced to Josh Brill and his work though through his Flora Fauna collection. With nature serving both as a catalyst and a muse, the ongoing series explores and catalogs the identities of plants and animals from around the world. To illustrate these explorations Josh chose to eschew conventional realism in favor of a style that echoes cubist techniques. The end result is vibrant, bold and visually intoxicating.

In addition to sharing the same passion for illustration and design, I was excited to discover that Josh and I shared a similar upbringing. We unknowingly haunted the same swimming holes and drank from the same slush puppy wells while growing up. This served as fodder to fuel our friendship and with this in mind, i’m delighted to present today’s interview with him.

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Gioviale is a curvaceous yet legible script font from Laura Worthington which includes 300 swashes, more than 1,000 glyphs, 20 ornaments, 20 discretionary ligatures and more!

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A softer and warmer companion to Thirsty Script, this new Thirsty Soft Font Family features 6 different weights, dozens of languages and a variety of stylistic alternates. Available only at Mighty Deals, you can save 80% off the regular price for a limited time.

Interested in sponsoring grain edit? Visit our sponsorship page for more info.

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A Huge thanks to squarespace for sponsoring this week’s RSS Feed!

Design a visually rich website with magazine-quality layouts that scales to any screen size – all without touching a line of code. Squarespace 6 is a revolutionary new website creation platform with over 50 new features. Squarespace’s breakthrough LayoutEngine technology allows anyone to create magazine-quality layouts within the browser that responsively scale to any screen size, from mobile devices to desktops. The platform comes equipped with 20 new, fully customizable templates and offers sophisticated media management, robust blogging engine, deep social network integration, real-time statistics, multiple author support, and more. For a free trial, visit www.squarespace.com.

Interested in sponsoring the Grain Edit Feed? Visit our sponsorship page for more info.

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A Huge thanks to squarespace for sponsoring this week’s RSS Feed!

Design a visually rich website with magazine-quality layouts that scales to any screen size – all without touching a line of code. Squarespace 6 is a revolutionary new website creation platform with over 50 new features. Squarespace’s breakthrough LayoutEngine technology allows anyone to create magazine-quality layouts within the browser that responsively scale to any screen size, from mobile devices to desktops. The platform comes equipped with 20 new, fully customizable templates and offers sophisticated media management, robust blogging engine, deep social network integration, real-time statistics, multiple author support, and more. For a free trial, visit www.squarespace.com.

Interested in sponsoring the Grain Edit Feed? Visit our sponsorship page for more info.

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Thanks to Ryan Putnam for sending us this sweet Amperbranch print! This limited edition print is letterpressed on 65pt natural recycled coaster stock and makes for a wonderful gift for nature lovers and type aficionados alike. Also available on the amperbranch site are downloadable wallpapers for your phone, pad or desktop.

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As users of an ever-changing internet, it’s amazing to see large project come together by someone that we’ve been following for years. In this case, I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview of a really great new typeface by Dan Cassaro, called Highway. Easily manipulated to create the look of lettering, but tight enough to use as ready-to-go typography, Highway fills the gap of versatility that many will find just perfect for their next project.

To get a bit more insight into the process and how the idea began to come together, I asked Dan a couple of questions.

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We’ve featured the Madison, WI based design studio Swink on Grain Edit in the past. Their self-promo desktop campfire set was a huge hit with our readers as well as the rest of the design blog scene. Currently Swink is looking to hire an art director with experience in print as well as web work. As they say, “if you’ve got the whomp” send them an email with samples of your work and a blurb about what makes you tick.

For more info on this job listing see the grain edit job board.

You can subscribe to our job listings via RSS, Email or follow at Twitter and Facebook. Read the rest of this entry »

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Australian designer Les Mason passed away in 2009, but his work lives on in this beautiful limited edition publication designed by Dominic Hofstede. Les Mason: Epicurean Magazine 1966 – 1979 features color reproductions of covers and a selection of internal spreads from the 77 issues of Epicurean Magazine that he served as creative director. Les was an influential figure in the Melbourne design community and many consider this to be his defining work.

You can pick up a copy at The Narrows.

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Today’s Grain Edit interview series takes us to Brooklyn, New York, home to illustrator Julia Rothman. I remember first being introduced to Julia’s work through her repeat pattern tutorial on Design*Sponge. The process blew me away, and caused me to fall in love with the multitudes of energetic inventive patterns and fresh illustrations she creates.

In this interview, Julia discusses being a native New Yorker, the influence of Sweet Pickles books (YES!), and the process behind the creation of her latest book, The Exquisite Book. She also reveals something that most people don’t know about her…find out more after the jump!

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Untitled painting casually referred to as White Block Quadrupeds

Jim Flora was a fine artist/illustrator best known for his album cover art for RCA Victor and Columbia Records, as well as his illustrations for children’s books. In this uncirculated and untitled early 1940s painting, he presents us with a (literally) twisted cast of characters. As mentioned on the Jim Flora website, the work “depicts an inscrutable panorama of disconnected facial features, headless quadrupeds, and someone’s nightmare of a fanged horse”. This piece along with select paintings from the Jim Flora collection are now available as limited edition prints for purchase over at the Poster Cabaret.

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Timba Smits, what a name! He also happens to be a very accomplished illustrator, designer, and maker of fine typography. It’s pretty fun looking through his’s work—everything is so juicy! From the textures to the unique typography, to the presentation, to the icons, I was definitely engaged clicking and looking.

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Aerial wonder! These birds-eye illustrations from Philippe Nicolas are pretty fun. Simple, colorful, and oblique—I love how angular and well composed these pieces are.

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Ah, the joy and merriment of the carousel! This record cover by Portland based illustrator, S.britt, depicts all the fun adults can have riding on whirling whimsical animals.

Created for Canadian based bands The Low Tones and The Redstripes, this illustration juxtaposes cheery animals and people with the morbid title of “Spin Till You Die.” The assortment of colors remind me of my mom’s Tupperware from the ’70s, and the textures add a familiar worn-in touch. The pink and white of the carousel top are also like Mother’s Circus Animal cookies. Yum!

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Mogwai Concert Poster by Mark McDevitt of Methane Studios.  Handmade four color silkscreen measures 19″ x 25″ .

Continuing with our poster pick series we’ve selected this eye-catching, Mogwai concert poster designed by Methane Studios. I really like the bold use of color and all the geometric patterns that take form. The coloring reminds me a bit of the Technicolor logo (a favorite) used in old film posters. I’m also diggin’ the form of the type and the contrasting background.

Methane hails from Atlanta , GA and was formed by artists Mark McDevitt and Robert Lee. The pair have been designing screen printed posters since 1998 for a variety of US and foreign bands such as Pearl Jam, Wilco, and Dave Matthews Band to name a few.

You can order this poster and others by Methane at postercabaret.com

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Designer Music #1 – A Special Music Mix for Grain Edit Readers

Once a week I look forward to receiving a hot dj mix from my friend Freddy over at Props Radio. Sometimes it’s funk, other times it’s Soul, Disco, Jazz or Hip Hop. Two weeks ago, he blew my mind with his 3 FEET HIGH AND RISING turns 20 mix. The mix paid tribute to this classic De La Soul album (easily in my top top 5 Hip Hop albums of all time) and included many original songs that Prince Paul sampled to create this masterpiece. This week Freddy serves up not one, but 2 special mixes especially for Grain Edit readers!

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After we posted this cityscape by Sigrid and Hans Lammle we received a few emails from readers that wanted to have the image as a wallpaper. We thought that was a great idea, so we loaded the image into Photoshop and lovingly chopped up some new sizes.

You can download the cityscape at our new Designer Desktop Wallpaper Page.

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This illustration spent some quality time as the desktop background on my laptop, and was the subject of many rave comments. London based illustrator/designer Jean Jullien did the illustration for Kitsune Noir‘s very cool desktop wallpaper project. I really love these dimensional illustrations, very bright, playful and quirky.

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