March 2009

You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March 2009.

House Industries interview

alexander girard

House Industries is not your typical type foundry. Unlike most foundries that strictly focus on type design, House take things one step further. Their fonts become springboards to new ideas and products that are often integrated into themed experiences complete with lush packaging and slick catalogs. A great example of this is their work on the 2004 release of Neutraface. They created a reproduction of Richard Neutra’s Boomerang chair and pillows to coincide with the release of the font collection. In addition, they created limited edition packaging (with die cuts and metallic inks) to accompany the hard copy of the fonts. In an age when people more and more seek cheap and immediate goods,  I cherish these premium experiences.

House Industries most recent project pays tribute to the modernist designer Alexander Girard. In my opinion it is their most impressive collection to date. It includes a Type Family, a Nativity Set, t shirts, alphabet blocks, lettering, Marilyn Neuhart designed Casa dolls and more. We spoke with Andy Cruz (Co-owner and art director) about the research and development of the products.

Read the rest of this entry »

New Giveaway this Monday

 house industries

Yep its true, we love you guys (or maybe we’re just desperate for attention) so we’ve put together another giveaway for Monday. I’m really excited about this one. If you missed out on our last giveaway, heres your chance to take home some goods. Make sure you sign up for the Grain Edit RSS or email updates so you can be involved in this giveaway. Visit us on Twitter as well @grainedit.

Upcoming & Ongoing events

CHARLES HARPER EXHIBITION

The Public Trust / Charley Harper Exhibition

Charley Harper fans rejoice! The Public Trust is currently running an exhibition of Mr. Harper’s works throughout April. That massive Charley Harper book is amazing, but man, wouldn’t it be great to see the actual paintings in person? If you’re in the Dallas, TX area and happen to go, let us know how it is!

Thanks to James for passing this along!

————————————

THE PRACTICE SESSIONS APRIL 2 – 4 2009

The Practice Sessions

The Practice Sessions is a workshop and panel discussion by Antonio Carusone, Frank Chimero, Duane King and Matt Owens taking place at the National Student Show & Conference in Dallas, Texas. The Practice Sessions was created by Thinking for a Living, an ever-growing platform dedicated to the concept of open source design education. Through a network of topic specific design sites with a focus on education and resources, we share our thoughts, inspirations, critical analysis, design histories and individual experiences relating to a career in design.

Read the rest of this entry »

A must have for a designer

 

 

It’s becoming more and more important to have an online presence if you are a designer. Clients and potential employers have come to expect immediate access to your work and offering a strictly paper based portfolio is no longer an option. In addition to being a place to display your latest projects, having a website will allow you to easily share your resume, collect payments and notify users of the various associations and social media channels you participate in.  In the past setting up a website was intimidating and often limited to designers with coding experience. With the wealth of tools now available it is no longer necessary to have coding experience to create a well-designed portfolio. Below are just a few of the options.

 For those looking for a simple and clean platform that is free or low-cost, Carbonmade or Cargo Collective should fit the bill. Both options include hosting and allow you to easily modify the look. In addition, you can embed audio and video files and add slideshows.

 If you are looking for a solution that includes ecommerce capabilities, Squarespace, Shopify, and Goodsie are worth looking into. In addition, 1and1 offers lots of tools  to create a robust website. All of these options will allow you to sell products and manage your orders.

Erik Nitsche General Dynamics Convair 880 Jet Poster

Erik Nitsche

The Swiss-born modernist graphic designer Erik Nitsche created some amazing posters for General Dynamics including the well known Atoms for Peace series. This poster for the Convair 880 commercial jetliner is one of the harder ones to find. I wish I had an extra $1000 laying around the house because one popped up on ebay last week.

Huge thanks to Ebay seller gbs4783qxq for letting me use this image.

Also worth checking: Erik Nitsche Subway poster & Erik Nitsche General Dynamics Annual Report

Shiny New grain edit iphone icon

grain edit iphone

For those of you who want to bookmark grainedit on your iphone, we now have an icon thingy. Note to self, I need to update my apps.

The “Lost” Ads: Retro DHARMA Advertisements

Lost ads

For the LOST fans in the house. Adam Campbell put together these mock vintage/retro ads inspired by the tv show. Fun stuff…..Get “lost” here.

Read the rest of this entry »

Andy J. Miller: Design & Illustration

YES! I am really digging this fun and colorful design by Andy J. Miller of Koma Design. Created for Palmercash T-shirts, this design reminds me of one of my favorite animation shorts from Sesame Street featuring an out of this world pinball machine. Miller’s composition is dense, but it’s constantly keeping the eye moving. Every shape and figure melds and trickles it way into another someplace else, creating an overwhelmingly pleasing pattern.  His candy coated color scheme is pretty yummy too!

Read the rest of this entry »

Evan Hecox Paris Sketch print

evan hecox prints

I’m big fan of Evan Hecox’s work. I have the two Tokyo Fishmarket prints hanging in my office. I love how he’s able to capture the subtle and beautiful moments in everyday life. The latest addition to his body of work is inspired by his travels in Paris. He was particulary fond of the hand lettering found on the signs of the street vendors.

The Paris Sketch Print drops in April, but is available for preorder now.

Read the rest of this entry »

Jacques Auriac Posters

Jacques Auriac


So, I’m hanging out my with friend and fellow book nerd Sean Flores a while ago and he’s breaks out these incredible posters designed for Bally in the 1980s. My jaw drops! He tells me they were created by French designer Jacques Auriac. Who the heck is Jacques Auriac?  I’m thinking.  Then Sean mentions that a Paris based publisher produced a catalog of his work. Ahh crap!! just what I need, another expensive import book to track down. A year later and a trip to Tokyo I finally got my hands on this thing.

Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to Everyone That Entered the Giveway!

Thanks everyone for taking part in our giveaway! We had over 1,400 people enter. It was great to see all your comments and look forward to another giveaway.

We randomly selected our 4 winners in the Grain Edit Design Stimulus Giveaway earlier this evening. 1st person we randomly picked will receive 1st choice of the 4 prize options. 2nd person picked will receive 2nd choice and so on. From those four winners we then randomly selected a winner for the grand prize.

Our winners will be listed at the bottom of the Grain Edit Email Update and Grain Edit RSS Feed.  For those of you who subscribe to the email updates, the email should arrive soon.

——————————————————

Many Thanks to all the wonderful designers and stores that sponsored today’s giveaway. Without them this wouldn’t of been possible. Please visit their websites and support their work.

2K Gingham, Aesthetic Apparatus, Arkitip, Tad CarpenterCD Ryan (CD Ryan is currently having a sale so visit his shop), Frank Chimero, Chronicle Books, Damien Correll, Doane PaperEnormous Champion, Brian Gossett/ Quality Goods IncSteven Harrington, Hybrid Design/ Hybrid Home, Morten IvelandSteve Mehallo, Pardon My Hindi, Studio on FireTes One, Thinking for a Living, Tim Gough, You Work for Them,

——————————————————

Stay tuned for our next giveaway, coming soon!

Giveaway is Now Closed

We’ve shut off the comments for the Grain Edit Design Stimulus Package Giveaway. We will now prepare for the drawing and select our winners. We will announce the winners later tonight.  The winners will be listed at the bottom of the Grain Edit Email Update and Grain Edit RSS Feed. For those of you who subscribe to the email updates, the email will arrive sometime between now and tomorrow morning.

Thanks everyone for taking part in our giveaway and have a great weekend!

Giveaway ends at 6pm PST – Not too late to sign up

grain edit giveaway

If you haven’t signed up for the Grain Edit Design Stimulus Package Giveaway, It’s not too late. Giveaway ends at 6pm Pacific standard Time.

Grain Edit on Dwell

grain edit dwell

Huge thanks to Sam Grawe and the rest of Dwell for featuring Grain Edit in their Blog Round up. I’m a long time Dwell fan so, this is a huge honor for me.

You can see the post here.

Svetoslav Simov

Svetoslav Simov

Fontfabric is an awesome independent type foundry run by Svetoslav Simov. All of the faces have great concepts and personality to them. I like the balance between experimentation with dimension and geometry and the playfulness of the faces. Each one is so unique and specific, they seem to be the perfect fit for that “one project.”

Read the rest of this entry »

50+ Designers on Twitter: Our favorites to follow.

Grain Edit / Designers on Twitter

Alright, so Twitter is the hot thing right now. Somewhere in-between blogging and instant messaging, it’s a super addicting way to see what the design community is up to. Frank Chimero just ate a muffin? It’s crepe day at Chronicle Books? @gogograce just blipped The Style Council? I’m in!

Read the rest of this entry »

New Grain Edit Fan Page on Facebook

grain edit

In addition, to the Grain Edit Facebook group we’ve created a fan page. This will not replace the Facebook group, but we do plan to use it to announce special events and giveaways.

Join us at the Grain Edit Fan Page.

Also catch us on Flickr and Twitter.

Props Radio – Designer Music vol. 1+2

props radio

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!

Read the rest of this entry »

Grain Edit on Inspiration Resource

british stamps

I want to thank Michelle Mccormick for inviting me to contribute to her wonderful blog Inspiration Resource. I’ve been a fan of her site for a while, so I was excited when she asked if I would be willing to share a few pictures of how I organize and collect inspiration. I happily agreed and broke out the camera. In the post you’ll see a few pictures of the folders I use to store labels and the mylar envelopes I use to store brochures and maps.

You can see all the pictures here.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ad for Jupp Ernst Chair by Helmut Lortz

helmut lortz

I want this chair! It was designed by Jupp Ernst and manufactured by Polstermobelfabrik Eugen Schmidt Gmbh during the 1950s. If the chair wasn’t cool enough, Helmut Lortz nailed it on the design of the AD. Someone needs to buy me this chair along with a Robin Day Form Unit Sofa. Please?

Read the rest of this entry »

Exclusive Maxim Dalton Desktop Wallpaper for Grain Edit

Maxim dalton

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

New Prizes Coming in The Grain Edit Giveaway

grain edit giveaway

New Prizes coming…

If you haven’t signed up for the Grain Edit Stimulus Package Giveaway it’s not too late! We’re giving away over $1000 worth of goodies. So What are you waiting for? It’s quick, easy and free to sign up.

Click here to learn more about the giveaway.

Exclusive new desktop wallpaper

Exclusive new desktop wallpaper coming later today.

Introducing Grain Edit Wallpapers

hans lammle

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.

Designer’s Bookshelf: Amy Cartwright

Amy Cartwright is a talented illustrator who designs and illustrates cards, books, and other products for clients including: Hallmark, 3M, Scholastic, and Proctor & Gamble. In her spare time she curates one of our favorite blogs, Stickers and Stuff. The blog showcases vintage kids books and wonderful examples of modern design. Here for grain edit readers Amy shares pictures of some of her favorite books and the stories behind some of her finds. Enjoy!

And now over to you Amy…

Read the rest of this entry »

Borja Bonaque

Borja Bonaque city scape

Love, love love! this work from Spain-based Borja Bonaque. I’m a huge fan of city-scape illustration (à la Evan Hecox and Andrew Holder) — so I was pretty enamored with Borja’s work to say the least. The texture, composition, and (superb!) color choice all work together to give these illustrations that heavy punch. That city above reminds me a little of Sin City, and those other comic book-to film adaptations.
Read the rest of this entry »

Andrew Holder Interview

andrew holder

We’ve mentioned Andrew Holder on grain edit before, but I just got word of a cool interview with him over at Defgrip. In the interview he discusses some of his recent work for arkitip. He also shares some of his favorite artists. I was suprised to see David Weidman on the list.

After you read the interview, check out the rest of Defgrip. It’s a great site that covers BMX culture, photography, art and design.

Not signed up for the Grain Edit RSS yet? Give it a try. Its free and yummy.

NEW GRAND PRIZE – Evan Hecox Limited Edition Signed Print

evan hecox

We’re proud to announce a new addition to our Grand Prize in the Giveaway. Along with the $150 gift certificate from 2k Gingham and collection of goods from You Work From Them, one lucky winner will be walking home with a limited edition Chinatown Summer print by Evan Hecox courtesy of the rad folks over at Arkitip.

Read the rest of this entry »

Frank Chimero interview

Frank Chimero Coffee and Tea

I’m very excited about our next addition to the Grain Edit interview series. When the gigantic Grain Edit interview arrow landed on Springfield, MO we knew just who to call: Frank Chimero.

You’ve likely seen Frank’s designs and illustrations making the rounds on the design blog circuit lately. And with good reason; Frank’s work effortlessly combines humor, wit, and style with a fresh and honest point of view.

Frank opens up and shares some of his thoughts and insights regarding his design background, his influences and teaching experiences, and of course his famed process. If you’re a fan of the States’ series, then there’s also a super surprise waiting for you further down in the interview.

OK, enough. Here we go:

Read the rest of this entry »

New Grand Prize coming later today!

Keep checking in!  We’ll be announcing a new addition to the Grand Prize in the Grain Edit Stimulus Package Giveaway!

Jorg Hamburger

jorg Hamburger

Chum mach mit 1962 poster designed by Jorg (jurg) Hamburger / Photograpphy by Hans Peter Muhlemann for Eidg Drucksachen und Materialzentrale – Bern Swirzerland

Beautiful poster by Jorg Hamburger. Swiss minialism at it’s finest. I love the kids climbing in the background and how the poles make for a perfect natural grid.

Read the rest of this entry »

Holy Giveaway! The Grain Edit Stimulus Package

grain edit stimulus package

The US Economy is falling apart and people are down. We came up with the “Grain Edit Design Stimulus Package Giveaway” as a way to cheer people up during these rough times and to thank our amazing readers for their continued support.  For the giveaway, we contacted some of our favorite illustrators and designers that we’re featured on Grain Edit within the last 6 months and asked if they would be willing to participate. Thanks to all our sponsors for helping to make this happen!

Sounds Great, but how do I enter?

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s coming…

The Giveaway launches later today. Keep checking in.

Grain Edit on the Read Between the Leading Podcast

RBTL podcast

Read Between the Leading is a wonderful new weekly Podcast that features Aaron Heth and Matt McInerney discussing issues related to design and typography. For episode 5 they invited us on the show to discuss how Grain Edit got started, the skittles website and Modernista’s site, and a bit about typographic terminology.

Read the rest of this entry »

New giveaway this Monday

grain edit giveaway

For those of you who missed out on our last giveaway we’ve got another one big one lined up for this coming monday. Goodies from Steven Harrington, 2K Gingham and many more. You won’t want to miss it.

Don’t want to miss the giveaway? Sign up for the Grainedit RSS Feed or Grain Edit email updates. Catch us on twitter as well @grainedit

Booooooom yea!

Booooooom

We’re big fans of the art and design blog Booooooom,so we’re super excited to see that they’ve included us in their list of 17 creative websites to bookmark (unless you are dumb)! Make it 18! add Booooooom to your boomarks! It’s a great site.

Steve Mehallo / Jeanne Modern typeface

Steve Mehallo - Jeanne Modern typeface

Steve Mehallo - Jeanne Modern typeface

I’m really excited to show this new typeface from long time Grain Edit friend and design-champ Steve Mehallo. Jeanno Moderno consists of nine faces, and bridges over two centuries of type history. Plus, it has some of the spiciest italics you’ve ever seen.

MyFonts is having a great sale on the family right now: For a limited time, save 25% on any single font from the Jeanne Moderno family. This is going on until April 19th. (Perfect idea for my birthday on the 14th). Or you can pick up the entire family for $99.

Get more details here

Read the rest of this entry »

Objectified Film Poster Designed by Build

objectified poster

Objectified Movie poster 27″ x 39″, metallic silver and black, lithograph.

Beautiful poster design from Michael C. Place and his studiomates at Build for the upcoming Objectified documentary. The poster features drawings of dozens of objects from designers in the film and more. I like how the word “objectified” is subtly placed within the contents of the objects.  Clean, minimal and modern. I love it. Should be available in the shop soon.

Wink lecture poster for CSCA

wink poster

I knew the sun had a mustache! Great new work from the guys at Wink for a recent lecture with the Columbus Society of Communicating Arts. If they ever recreated this mobile in real life it would be interesting to see if the bird poop gets its own string.

You can hear excerpts from the lecture here.

On a side note I love their signature. Wink script sometime soon?

Sanna Paananen: Illustration

Although it is raining, I’d love to join this golden man for a relaxing tranquil time at the beach. Finnish illustrator, Sanna Paananen, has a real knack for using rich saturated complementary colors and thoughtful line work. In this pleasingly orchestrated composition, we see a nice contrast between the golden sands of the beach and the blue details of the rain, umbrellas, and man’s speedo. Paananen plays with the positive and negative space, concentration, and shape of the rain drops, creating a rhythmically soothing effect to the piece. I especially like the simplistic details in the shell’s line work. Read the rest of this entry »

Quality Goods Inc – Drive Less Walk More

brian gossett

Drive Less Walk More by Brian Michael Gossett

Lots of fun work over at Quality Goods inc. The online shop features work from George Katz, Stephen Kelleher, Justin Blyth, Evan Di Leo, Bran Dougherty-Johnson and Brian Michael Gossett. These guys have some serious middle name action going on.

Read the rest of this entry »

Grain Edit is on Twitter!?

twitter grain edit

Ok so we are twaddling, twapping, twerding, twoahbowing, whatever it is we’re on Twitter now! You’ll find random musings, extra credit links, and eventually even some giveaways just for our twitter homies.

Catch us on Twitter @grainedit

Sigrid + Hans Lammle

sigrid and hans lammle

Beautiful Cityscapes designed and illustrated by the German couple Sigrid and Hans Lammle. These illustrations were for a calendar published in 1957. Really amazing details and the colors are super bright and saturated. I need more of this! Any guesses as to what city this might be?

Read the rest of this entry »