entries Tagged as [education]

Paper cuts

So this past semester, I added a more comprehensive safety lecture to the learning to use an X-Acto knife portion of my beginning design classes.

And this was the first semester that some serious injuries actually occurred.

I’m thinking I should have not warned them so conscientiously. Usually I just say, a sharp X-Acto can cut thru pretty much anything. Paper, boards, plastic triangle, fingers. That’s my disclaimer. Don’t want to go into any more detail.

Elsa Mora does cool things with cut paper. She has a great X-Acto tutorial here.

(Yes designers still use X-Acto knifes. Mostly for presentation/mockups. And yes, I was once trained as a paste-up artist; something I could fall back on if computers just suddenly vanish. Sort of. Ahh, the smell of fresh Amberlith in the morning!)

Found via Natasha Newton

Love Fonts Memo

‘Love Fonts Memo is a classic memory game where it’s all about finding a matching pair of cards. At the end the player with most card pairs wins. The cards represent love stories about different kind of type faces.’

The work of Swedish design student/freelance designer Sara Strand.

Found via The Dieline

12

The Dirty Dozen: 12 Things Which Kill Creativity. Article here.

Dirty Dozen poster by The Silent Giants. Info here.

The Silent Giants blog here.

Incomplete Manifesto

‘Always a great read for creatives’ –retinart

Designer Bruce Mau’s Incomplete Manifesto for Growth, begun in 1998.

Read here. Great ideas – many of them resonate with my own design process; which took years to develop and is still constantly evolving.

I stay up late, I don’t clean my desk, I make accidents, my first drafts of anything are often random mistakes, most of my best ideas happen when I’m not working, I think computers really fuck things up (that comes from Tibor Kalman, actually), I’ve been avoiding award competitions like the plague, I ask stupid questions, imitate, drift, scat, jump fences and most important,

I laugh. At everything.

I believe evolution is key to creative growth. If it stops, stagnation seeps in. And things become dull really fucking fast.

Anti-anxiety management


‘By fitting a standard vending machine with breakable objects set to shatter upon purchase, the Anger Release Machine offers passersby an easily available vent for their frustration’

Found via PSFK

10

Steven Snell’s 10 keys to growth as a designer. Article here.

Sketchbook photos found via Design Mom

Trajan: The movie font

‘Try playing the Trajan drinking game’

Simon and David

‘Please design a logo for me. With pie charts. For free.’

Here’s another snarky client/designer email exchange, this time between Simon Edhouse and David Thorne.

Read here.

Pie charts included.

Found via Justin Nelson

Client from hell: Mike

‘This is without a doubt the nuttiest, most epic email exchange I’ve ever had with a prospective ‘client’, made more so by the fact I only responded to the guy once and he kept going.’

This isn’t my story, I found it at the Clients From Hell blog.

But  . . .  I’ve had similar experiences. One just a few years ago. Wonder if it was the same guy.

Just read thru the posts. Start here.

Meatballs, worms and bugs


NASA Meatball

Here’s a brief history of NASA’s logos, including the ‘meatball’ (above) and the ‘worm’ (below).

The worm was put to rest in 1992. If you wish, condolences can be left here.


NASA Worm

When it comes to official type, NASA is Helvetica, Futura, Times, Garamond and something  . . .  Victorian?

Article here.

Plus
Here’s a look at some goofy names for some other classic ‘bugs.’

50 years of space exploration

Click on the images to explore/make bigger/jump.

Interactive edition here.

Art by Sean McNaughton, National Geographic Staff; Samuel Velasco, 5W Infographics


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