the mehallo blog. beta.

Wine label inspired by the work (and life) of font designer Eric Gill (1882-1940). Student-designed project.

Tags: cool finds, culinary, design, design history, fonts, typography by steve
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Like Helvetica? Like the Swiss International Style?

Armin Hofmann’s Graphic Design Manual (1965) is what I learned out of – and if it weren’t out of print, I’d be using it in my basics classes. (right now, I have a few slides made from my dog eared edition as part of a form lecture)

Graphic Design Manual breaks composition into basics: dot, line, confrontation, plus letters and signs. And it shows by example how these basics can be applied to good, clean graphic design: form, composition, typography.

I’ve seen it going for upwards of 90 bucks in some listings. As I write this, there are 22 used available at Amazon starting at $4.10.

Tags: cool finds, design, design history, typography by steve
2 comments  . . .   

Found via Reserves on TwitPic

Plus, there’s some more Evolution of Logos charts at the Best Ad blog.

And, here’s a link to the ‘official’ Pespi rebrand strategy proposal [pdf]. The most involved snow job in the history of brand design. Worth downloading and  . . .  reading with awe!

Tags: cool finds, design by steve
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i’m digging all this
I’ve had these merchandise ideas for a few years and just never got around to building them until recently. Production issues always held me up   . . .  so did fulfillment, pricing   . . .  inventory   . . .   [Read more →]

Tags: fashion, fonts, mehallo merchandise, originally posted on my myspace blog, typography by steve
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Image via dvisible magazine

Graphic designer Reid Miles and the Blue Note label – incredible album cover design. Here’s a great article on Miles.

And here’s the Wu-Tang albums as Blue Note releases. Found via Twitter.com/Sandoer.

Tags: cool finds, design, design history, music, typography by steve
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Good graphic designers are trained to do amazing things in the realm of communication. And many clients just see the surface: make me a logo, I like yellow, so you should use yellow.

This article really nails it:

How to (and not to) work with a designer by Daniel Will-Harris

(Nails it so well, I’ve posted it as a link as part of the Manifesto at my website)

Tags: design, education, thoughts by steve
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Swiss International Style guru Massimo Vignelli has released a new book on using type in graphic design. In it he explains in concise detail how it’s done. And as with all his work, it’s precise, clean, neat. Also, it’s free.

Download here: The Vignelli Canon [PDF]

Tags: cool finds, design, education, originally posted on my myspace blog, typography by steve
1 comment  . . .   

Picked up this book while in El Lay.

More images from the book can be seen at the Victonary site.

Tags: art, cool finds, design, illustration, thoughts by steve
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History of the Internet from PICOL on Vimeo

Plus, check out The National Science Foundation’s official Birth of the Internet page.

I keep meaning to add a short web history component to my graphic design history class – and found some great classroom-friendly sound bytes in NSF’s collection.

Also found this fun little history of Twitter ditty.

Tags: cool finds, design history, education, originally posted on my myspace blog by steve
2 comments  . . .   

Found via Apartment Therapy

IKEA sets up a mock Oval Office in Union Station – bringing a touch of low cost Sweden to the White House. (or to make a Carter reference: Looks like IKEA is bringing ‘Billy’ back to the White House.)

Tags: cool finds, design, exhibitions by steve
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I will be one of the presenters at Sacramento Pecha Kucha Night 6 [Read more →]

Tags: design, design history, education, originally posted on my myspace blog, thoughts, typography by steve
1 comment  . . .