contemporary

“et” style ampersand that appears to be based on the letter “B”

Just found out about this swell blog called The Ampersand. Yep a whole site dedicated to the little homies. Quotes, design and photos of wild Ampersands roaming the streets.

Also, check out this great new blog by the people of Crew Design. Choc full of design goodness! Many thanks to Meghan for hipping me to this cool site.

Annette Simon sent over two lovely books that I’ve been meaning to post. The first is Mocking Birdies which is the story of two fun loving birds that love to copy each other’s words and whistles. The birds are having a real hoot till a couple of “copycats” come along. Its’ a really funny ending so, you have to read the book to find out what happens. I love how she chose to illustrate the book. The bright colors and simple shapes really catch your eye.

Annette also sent a very touching book titled This Book is for all kids, but especially my sister Libby, which her 5 year old son Jack wrote. The book contains Jack’s thoughts and questions as he struggles to understand the death of his real life sister Libby. Libby died when she was three and half years old due to a rare disorder. Jack’s questions are honest, frank and often humorous. For parents and young ones that are dealing with a similar situation, I’m sure this book leads to some thoughtful discussions.

You can purchase either book at Amazon by clicking on the links above.

Read the rest of this entry »

Lots of Bots c2008 - Text by Kiki Thorpe - illustrated by Ben Butcher

Ben Butcher of Pixar recently stopped by to give us a preview of the new WALL-E picture book Lots of Bots which he illustrated. The book is the precursor to the film, which is due to hit screens this summer. In the interview below, Ben discusses his thoughts and process in the making of this beautiful book. Where it was possible, we’ve included Ben’s original artwork alongside images of the finished book.

Read the rest of this entry »

Many thanks to the good people at Tomorrow for stopping by last week, and for the gift of this beautiful bookmark. The bookmark is part of a promotional piece marking their recent contribution to “Trees for the Future“.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mar Hernández aka Malota aka really cool designer living and working in Valencia, Spain, offers an extremely fun and inspiring collection of work for our viewing pleasure. Mar’s style is really bold and graphic, but very detailed and complex at the same time. She has a nice range of work — from very flat, computer drawn images, to a sketchier, looser, hand drawn style.

Check out the video entitled “Greenville.” Very cool motion graphics.

Cool work from Brooklyn based illustrator and designer Stephen Kelleher aka Frankenstyles.

For those of you in the San Francisco/ Bay area, Geoff McFetridge has a show tonight at Mollusk surf shop.

Details
show 7-10pm

Address:
Mollusk Surf shop
4500 Irving st.
SF, CA 94122

(Big thanks to Nicole for passing this along)

Marcus Walters, a designer and illustrator from the UK, loves washing machines. A lot of his work is similar to the above image — which reminds me of putting felt onto a feltboard as a kid. They have that very flat, semi-dimensional quality to them which I love.

Marcus is also a part of New Future Graphic, which is more graphic design-oriented (posters, ad’s, books, etc).

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while. I first came across Tyler Lang a few months ago when his Universal Demand poster for Ringling School of Art and Design was making the rounds on select blogs. His portfolio is filled with great work, I just wish I could see more. I especially like his logo system for the Sarasota Design Summit and the Ford piece seen above.

Wayne Pate runs GoodShapeDesign, a Brooklyn, NY based design shop and all around fun place. I’m really into his “Flock” series — if you’re a fan of our feathered friends, now you can have 18 on a single poster!

Also check out his artwork section for some really inspiring collages.

I’m just in awe of Canadian comic book creator and illustrator Pascal Blanchet’s work. It was tough to decide what image to post, everything is so good.
(Many thanks to Julia at Book by its cover for passing this along)

Mike Krol designs for musical bands, sandwiches, accordions, gorillas, light bulbs, and maple syrup, among many other things. He has a very good sense of humor, wit, and typography. I love finding work where the designer’s personality shines through. Especially if that includes heavy metal and Eskimos.

Check out the walking backwards to school video. I loved that!

Invisible creature has a slew of great design and illustration work at their site including the album art for the latest Hawk Nelson record.

Be sure to check our interview with Invisible Creature.

Design Studio/ gallery Wonderful Union have an upcoming exhibition of work from brothers Don and Ryan Clark (better known as Invisible Creature).

The Exhibition is entitled Haven: An Exploration of Domestic Life and opens on Saturday, April 12th, 2008. The art work highlights the tension between modernism’s smiley-faced rejection of things past and their own coming of age domesticity from an autodidactic, punk ethos point of view.

Details:
Saturday, April 12th, 2008, 6-10 PM
The Wonderful Union Gallery
2221 NW 56th St. Suite 201, Seattle WA 98107

For more details check out the Wonderful Union gallery.

Be sure to check our interview with Invisible Creature.

Antonio over at Aisleone just released a great new typeface called Enotmik. It’s a two weight display font that pays homage to Helvetica and Avant Garde.

You can buy the font here.

Frank Chimero is having a great time, apparently. His portfolio is full of super fun, exciting work. As a design student, it’s always thrilling to see work that is equal parts vision, humor, inspiration, and a snappy idea.

He also has a cool blog, and a flickr.

The Futile Vignette is a design studio run by Mick Marston, out of Sheffield, UK. Mick’s work is a fun combo of contemporary and vintage illustration styles. Lots of rabbits, cats, girls with pig noses, hands holding things, and 2 George Saunders book covers! (Anyone know if those are in print?)

Bonus points for an interesting website, too!

Leonardo Hss comes to us all the way from Flickr. I couldn’t find any info on him other than what is on his Flickr page. Lots of different styles represented here. Corporate, logo, and some more playful graphic work (like the above image).

Be sure to check out his experimental work as well.

Letterpress cityscape print by lab partners

Ryan and Sarah aka lab partners sent me a sweet print. My wife and I have been wanting one of these, so we were super excited when the package arrived at the doorstep.  I didn’t realize it was letterpressed till I opened the mailer. That really blew me away. I can’t stop touching it! ha

If you like the print above, then you have to stop by the lab partners ETSY shop. Gocco prints and goodies for everyone. Also be sure to check out their wonderful design and illustration work as they post it from time to time on their blog.

Mike Davis aka Mike the 2600 King is part of a design collaborative known as Burlesque of North Of America. In addition to their design work they are a full service screenprinting studio.

I first ran into Mike while on a cross country record digging trip in 2003. My friends and I were crashing with some of the cool cats at galapagos 4. They heard that Mike was spinning at one of the local clubs, so we decided to check it out. Mike was laying down some serious funk/ soul heat that night and the club was packed. Later I found out that in addition to be a great dj, he was an excellent designer creating posters for my friends at anticon.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hello Freaks are based in Paris, and led by one Jerome Castro (who has a cool blog, in French.) Their illustration work is really impressive, and includes lots of mouth-watering type. Be sure to check the motion work as well. It’s a nice departure from the standard motion reels we’re used to seeing all over.

Thanks to Sharon for the heads up on Hello Freaks.

Un Sedicesimo issue #2 - Italo Lupi

Last week we looked at the first part of a package I received from Italian publisher Edizioni Corraini, which included a copy of the Pino Tovaglia book. Today we’ll look at the second part of the package.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m digging Colorcubic’s identity work for Nueva Forma. You can check the rest of their portfolio here

Cover illustration/typography for the Yale University Art Gallery spring catalog

Garrett Morin does great work. He draws lots of type and makes people happy. You may have seen his works in the likes of Mike Perry’s Hand Job book. If you click on over to his site, you’ll find lots of happy characters, t-shirt graphics, corn-cob pipes, animated GIFs, skateboard graphics, magazine covers, and a great animated spot for Death Cab for Cutie / MTV.

Garrett’s also a member of the Rad Mountain collective, which recently did some yummy illustrations for Good Magazine. Check it.

Jesse Kaczmarek is a one-man, super-clean design shop located in NYC. His clients include BMW, Sony, Pepsi, HBO, and on and on. The work remains consistently clean, sophisticated and fun — all at once! Just look at those happy families in their Hertz rental cars!

Also, bonus points for a super slick website.

Silkscreen Print for a Drama magazine sponsored show at Nonesuch Gallery

Cool design work from Wyeth Hansen (Casual Aesthetics). His website includes t-shirts, posters, type faces as well some motion design. I’m loving the type work above.

(Via Wrong distance)

Luke Williams is a third year graphic design student at the Maryland Institute College of Art. While making sweet calendar-meets-packaging cubes, he is also working for Abbott Miller/Pentagram in Baltimore. From magazine and book layouts to posters and self-initiated work, Luke’s work is fresh. It’s nice to see a large body of work with this much variety, attention to detail, and experimentation with other mediums.

Portland based designer Gavin Potenza (Exploratory Design) has cooked up a series of sweet stamps. The series which was inspired by the work of Otl Aicher is entitled Homage to the Stamp.

Many thanks to Laurent for sending me this animated short. After watching it, I couldn’t believe that it’s a student film. It looks like something straight out of PIXAR. Laurent mentioned that films, cartoons and design from the 1960s were the inspiration for the project. Excellent animation and great use of James Bond soundtracks to set the atmosphere.

View Zoudov on Youtube or check it out on the official Zoudov website.

Have a great weekend everyone!
Speaking of which, after getting a tip from my friend Wes I decided to rent “King of Kong”. Thats on the playlist for the weekend. Anyone else seen this?

“Documentary” directed by Justin Leibow for Superfad

It’s friday and what better way to celebrate then by watching a good ole animated short.

grain edit reader and rad guy Justin Leibow sent in this animated film he directed for the Seattle Film Festival. Nude skydiving wee hoo!!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Poster by John Foster / fuszion

Great posters for a better cause.

Donated by designers and artists around the globe, posters sold at the So-Cal Fire Poster Project raise funds for victims of the wildfires that devastated Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Diego Counties. All proceeds will be given to the Salvation Army, for the 2007 California Wildfire fund.

Posters by: Paul Frank / Park La Fun, Hatch Design,Wink, Modern Dog, Micah Smith, John Foster / fuszion, Josh Higgins / Mike Carnevale, Robert Palmer, Barretto & Co., Frank Chimero, Buchanan Design, Lanny Sommese, Jason Gomez, Madeleine, Ryan Russell Design, Chaz Russo/The Graphic Soul, Nick McPherson, MiresBall, Bernie Tiano and Shepard Fairey.

Get some here

Christopher David Ryan is a “Brooklyn-based graphic artist, daydreamer, pseudo-scientist, wanna-be astronaut and untrained intellectual.” His work shows a similar range of experimentation — photography, collage, illustration, found images, etc. Why! He even makes pillows! On his personal website, Ryan is posting at least one image of his work per day for every day of the year. Busy, busy.

My first introduction to Wink was four or five years ago when their packaging for Sunmilk was making the rounds in the design magazines and annuals. Since then, I’ve tried to keep an eye on their work. What has impressed me the most about Wink has been their ability to consistently produce top notch work.

Read the rest of this entry »

I found this great example of information design in ilusiones_design’s flickr photostream. Can anyone translate the text?

In this card designed by mr.mannun, business ties are flying in the wind as this beast rips down a small patch of Christmas trees all while holding a flock of fudgesicle shaped birds. This is great! One of my favorite finds on Flickr. My top pick in the genre of groucy card design.

You can browse the rest of mr.mannun’s design / illustration work on Flickr. He also has a few poster samples on Gig posters.com

From the makers of Neutra Face, the Alexander Girard Alphabet blocks and the upcoming Tim Biskup fonts comes the kid friendly House Industries factory t-shirt. Click the link to the left to get some of this goodness.

One of the notable things that has come out of producing this blog has been the opportunity to speak with designers I respect and admire. Bo Lundberg is one of those designers. Several months ago we posted some of his work. Since then Bo and I have been exchanging emails which eventually led to this interview. Here he shares a few thoughts on inspiration, as well as his creative process.

Bo’s work has been featured in Old Type/ New Type by Steven Heller, Illustration Now! published by Taschen, Illusive: Contemporary Illustration and its Context by Hellige & Klanten, as well as other publications. His clients include Wallpaper magazine, Elle, Vogue, Neiman Marcus and Scandinavian Airlines.

Without further ado, I’m proud to present Bo Lundberg.

Read the rest of this entry »

Damien Correll is a Brooklyn, NY based “designer/maker/illustrator.” I first came across his work in the fabulous book Hand Job, by Mike Perry. I really love seeing the intersection of graphic design with his DIY hand-drawn aesthetic. This work is difficult to pin down, but it’s quirky and full of personality.

You ever have one of those moments when your postal carrier hands you a package and you can see a tear fall from his eye? He might be crying because of the joy he receives from delivering little packages but most likely its because he opened your package around the corner and is emotionally struggling to give it to you. Well I haven’t had this experience yet, but the delivery of my Field Notes memo books might of been a good place to start.

Thanks to the man behind Draplin design for sending me a fresh package of goodies, including a pack of Field Notes. Field notes memo books are the product of Draplin Design and Coudal Partners latest collaboration and were inspired by “agricultural memo books, ornate pocket ledgers and the simple, unassuming beauty of a well-crafted grocery list”. Each book contains 48 pages pages of lovely gridded paper and a list of practical applications including “escape routes” and “shoddy sketches”.

My previous economy class memo book is a pitiful sight (seen above) so, I was excited to upgrade to the stylish business class Field Notes. I’ve started to fill the book with random notes and silly thoughts. What I like most about Field Notes is the fact that it easily fits into my back pocket. Its pretty durable as well, so if you sit on it, it’s not going to fall apart.

If your still looking for stocking stuffers for Christmas, this makes for a great gift.

Now available at Field Notes Brand

I think I’ve found my new favorite illustrator and his name is James Datz. His portfolio of design work found at Neither Fish Nor Fowl is really impressive. Fun and playful material executed really well.

(Via the excellent - Here are things I like)

Seems like everyone has been talking about Tavis Coburn lately and why not? His work is great. A beautiful marriage of vintage illustrative styles and images with contemporary techniques. This makes perfect sense in light of a recent interview with Josh Spear where he admitted to being “obsessed with anything from the 1940s - 1960s”. I was excited to find out that limited edition prints are available at Tavis Coburn’s online shop. Each print is signed and numbered.

For those of you in the bay area, be sure to check out The Small Stakes: a year in posters going on tonight at the The Curiosity Shoppe. Jason Munn will be there in person, so stop by and say hello!

Heres the details:
The Small Stakes: A Year in Posters
Opening Reception - Friday, December 7th, 6-9pm.
At The Curiosity Shoppe, 855 Valencia Street in San Francisco

(via Smarts and Crafts)

Spike Press is the monikor for one John Solimine, a Chicago based designer. In a world overrun by gig-poster designers, it’s refreshing to see someone with a little originality and illustration sense. These posters are fun, whimsical, and full of narrative — each poster has a very engaging mini-story that will pull you and your wallet right in. Enjoy!

Woot! Aesthetic Apparatus is a member of my weekly design web site “do they have any new work up yet?” visiting rituals. So I was happy to find not only new work, but a new web site too! There are plenty of new posters, some new test prints, and if you have not yet seen their “doom” series, it’s worth a look. Very fun.

You can scream along with Dan and Michael on YouTube as they show you how to silkscreen a poster.
Coudal has a nice interview with Aesthetic Apparatus as well.

I’ve always been told that when designing a film festival poster to “NEVER use a camera!” in the imagery. Well, Jesse Kirsch just did it, and I’d say it turned out pretty awesome. While he was at it, he also designed a map of Manhattan as a leaf, and a Beatles poster using only hair! What a rule breaker!

My favorite thing about Jose Rodriguez is not his great work, nice type, or his motion reels. It’s his URL: HeyJose.com! It’s probably the hottest domain name on the web right now. Anyway, the work is definitely on par with the URL. That’s right, solid gold! From the long-suited men of “beginning” to the technical-but-beautiful diagrammatic analysis of FF-Meta, this Sarasota, FL, designer is making some really great images. Go over and check out Hey Jose!

Our story with Jason Munn (The Small Stakes) begins in the summer of 2005. We had recently learned that his studio was located near our office so we decided for a little suprise visit. We arrived at his front door and rang his buzzer. When he opened the door we said something along the lines of..
Read the rest of this entry »

I have a very special place in my heart for poster design. Especially poster design that incorporates type in an interesting, fresh way. I mean, how do they do that? It looks too easy! Andrio Abero, the man behind the poster and design studio 33rpm, is a master at “type and image integration.” This is one of the first firms that kick started my obsession with the poster, way back in the early 2000’s.

Non-Format are a twin-continent based award winning design firm. They also happen to be the kings of super thick and chunky left justified type. They posses the unique ability to seamlessly integrate their big type with organic illustrative elements, with very nice results. In addition to running their studio, they also design Varoom, a journal of illustration and made images, art directed by Adrian Shaughnessy. In addition, they just released a book.

We’re really diggin the online portfolio of Bo Lundberg. He draws influence from modern antiques, objects and patterns that he stumbles across in everyday life.

Marian Bantjes considers herself “independently pursuing a combination of illustration and design.” She really understands how to capture a spirit in typography. Ironically, she designed the Design Matters Live poster, an event we featured earlier this week. Take a look at Marian Bantjes’ website to gain a better understanding of where her organic typography stems from.

Self described as “Wayne and Garth meets Chermayeff & Geismar,” Post Typography, from Baltimore MD, was originally conceived and founded in 2001 as an avant garde anti-design movement by Nolen Strals and Bruce Willen. They specialize in graphic design, conceptual typography, and custom lettering/illustration with additional forays into art, apparel, music, curatorial work, design theory, and vandalism.

Drool! Drool! ( As my wife would say) I’m just drooling over Sanna Annukka’s online portfolio. She has a great sense of color and composititon. I definitely see a link between her work and traditional Finnish Folk art, which would make sense because she is from Finland. Do yourself a favor and goto her website now! No, scratch that, do me a favor… Please goto her site.

Endangered animals always look so cool in teal. Now you can get all your favorites in Present&Correct’s alphabet of endangered species in the british isles chart. I’m loving the spatula tailed dinosaur and the iron my laundry fish.