‘My mouse cursor path over the course of a week’

Designer Gavin Potenza keeps track of his mouse.

Image borrowed from his blog; read more here.

Often there’s this thing – where the graphic designer – feels like shouting, ‘I’M A PROFESSIONAL, I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING. REALLY.’

It usually arises from the idea that graphic design is a voodoo art that many do not understand. Or they think they do, but only understand a small portion of it. Trained, professional designers do spend at least 4–5 years studying our craft – and the years after finessing what we know.

Keeping communication open to clients is also important. But really, there’s some of us who know what we’re doing.

Mostly.

Button design by UXPin.

Found via Sandoer Berg

Fan-made video for Garbage’s new single, Battle in Me.

New album – Not Your Kind of People – drops May 22 (May 15 on itunes) – and I’m really loving this beautiful g they’ve found  . . .

Found via Garbage

Typeface sheet set. Available thru Anthropologie.

‘My paper weaving technique — a process of interlacing objects with memories — attempts to redefine the commonplace book structure with chapters emerging from seams. The garments reveal new beginnings, life lessons and notable achievements. Memories evoke garments; garments evoke memories.’

The work of paper artist, graphic designer Julie VonDerVellen.

Website here, Twitter here.

‘Inventive costume project – created for Anne Boleyn.’

Found via Alice Smalley

‘The concept I’m trying to portray is: Nothing can cover the flaws we have, and the flaws, the flesh we were born with is who we truly are. They are even more truthful to what we are trying to make ourselves; this is why some of the area of the dress are not meant to be covered up. The dress barely covers the whole body. It is meant to be see-through to display the body in its whole and that since we all are imperfect is an important concept.’

The work of Hui-Ni Su.

Found via ‘Adrian Frutiger’

‘For our first release, Alphabuild for iOS, we wanted to pay tribute to the process of building letters (which is the other fun work we do here at our studio). We wish building letters for our clients was as zany and colorful as it is in Alphabuild. On the other hand, we’re glad we don’t have aliens, glue bottles and sawblades trying to mess up our letter drawings.’

Featuring types from the great Psy/Ops library (including my own Jeanne Moderno) as well as a few tikis (see below) – James Beall’s Alphabuild is a fun, quirky educational alphabet game for iPhone, iPad and iPod.

Snag it in the App store. Website here, Twitter here. And free goodies here.

Happy alphabuilding!

Simone Massoni’s Chicks & Types calendar, still available here.

The work of Jessica Jones.

Found via CMYBacon

Behind the scenes here.

Karlie Kloss by Gabriele Revere, LIFE Magazine, 2011.

Found via fuckyeahmagazinecover

Cover art by Pedro Henrique Ferreira for Tokyo Savannah.

Julie Tierney is an incredible designer; part fashion, part graphic design, part something else. That something else landed her a spot on last season’s Project Runway.

Julie is now working on a snowboard-inspired Americana clothing line – and seeking funding on Kickstarter. Drop her some bucks, k? She needs a few things.

Go here.

‘Built in Belfast’

Go for the whiskey. Cause I know that one can’t actually purchase sriracha in Belfast.

Package design by Adam Crane.

Found via Lovely Package

Graphic designer Tim Parsons’ Adoboloco Jalapeño Sauce.

Red label, two headed rooster. Snag it here.

Found via Lovely Package

The work of Heather Perry.

Found via All the World Will be Grand

‘This collection of stories, instructions, memories and scrumptious ‘must try’ recipes makes a fascinating, entertaining, and revealing read’

Available this month from Baseline, What’s cooking? Famous designers on food.

‘Émilie Vast’s third Herbarium is dedicated to plants that find the strength to creep into our urban space, into the joints of gutters and pavements, in the wall’s cracks, at the bottom of the trees, the park’s grass, on the roofs  . . .  just like their cousins from the woods, they have a history, uses and mythology.’

Cool find. This ‘wild plants in the city’ edition also features my Jeanne Moderno fonts.

Found via Iconoclastic and le lièvre de mars

Design by Lewis Moberly’s Poppy Stedman for Waitrose. Details here.

Found via Popsop

Found via  n i g h t m a r e

From 1970.

Boombox: Doomsday Train

Sleeve found via Klaus Hiltscher

‘Chemins de fer de l’état, Cie. Gle. Transatlantique.’

Vintage travel poster, art by Albert Sébille (1874-1953). More here.

The original Van Halen broke up when I was a senior in high school. And yes, I am an old fan of David Lee Roth, read about it here.

And the reunion no one thought would happen happened and the album no one thought would happen was released yesterday. 28 year wait. The sound harkens back (harkens is the word) to Van Halen I and II – apparently the tracks are based on notes written back around 1975–77ish.

The sound is old – with parts feeling like an odd 1990s solo album Dave put out. Album cover design by SMOG, art directed by Jeri Heiden.

New track: Tattoo, with Dave explaining it here

You Really Got Me acoustic

And an update: Dave’s been posting new videos on Vimeo all week. Love the ‘recreational director’ discourse and this one about his dogs.

‘The ads were inspired by Philippe Petit’s 1974 ‘Man on Wire’ act – an illegal tightrope traverse between the Twin Towers – as well as Charles C. Ebbets’ classic 1932 photograph, ‘Construction Workers Lunching on a Crossbeam.”

Green Day – art directed by Yard and photographed by Danny Clinch for (Howard Stern’s favorite designer) John Varvatos, Spring/Summer 2012.

Found via Fashion Indie

The work of Christian Marclay. Monograph here.

Found via This Blog Rules

Found via Heidi Andermack, mashKULTURE

‘Yeah, for the logo the ‘g’ took longer to design than all the other letter forms put together.’ -bb

Former typography student. New band. Custom drawn g.

Brett Berry survived my graphic design courses and recently formed The Tangs with his brother Brandon.

Their debut EP Let It Out can be snagged on iTunes.

Website here, Facebook page here.

The Tangs: Take Me Down

‘I just like the typography, honest.’ -wkd

Found via whatkatiedoes

“Every initiative we pursue,’ starting February 1, reads the press release, ‘will be guided by our core value to treat customers as we would like to be treated — fair and square.”

In just under a year, JCPenney rebrands again. Out is Helvetica, in is Gotham. Also in is a whole new approach to store organization and product pricing.

Brand New article here, press release here.

Changes start tomorrow. Bold design move, bold ad campaign.

‘The graphic images were an instant success when they premiered in bus shelters around the city. San Franciscans loved them. Too much, in fact, as some of the posters were stolen from the shelters.’

Often copied, Michael Schwab’s posters for Golden Gate National Parks. Brand implementation by Rich Silverstein and Jeff Goodby, circa 1993-7.

Case study here. Parks Conservancy store (Schwab’s art on prints, mugs, shirts, chocolate tins and more) here.

‘This poster was created by L.N. Britton circa 1918. It promotes food and resource conservation.’

Many years ago I found a small brochure at the National Archives building in San Bruno, CA. From it I ordered a bunch of inexpensive reproductions of early 20s century posters (pictured) – direct from the government. Framed, they looked great in my first apartment.

Everything is now online. All around 10 bucks a pop.

‘Originator of Type Fashions’

American Type Founders’ complete 1912 specimen book. 1348 pages.

Entire book posted online here.

The industrial revolution changed the size of font offerings. What were once posters or broadsheets from small type foundries, ‘type specimens’ became elaborate volumes – today collected as rare editions.

more
Since 2007, Open Library has been digitizing rare type specimens. Available to read online or as PDF downloads.

I found out about them just this weekend – font specialist Laurence Penney had posted links on his Twitter feed. These are them:

Caslon, 1785
Binney & Ronaldson, 1812
Montreal Type Foundry, 1850
Boston Type Foundry, 1860
Fann Street Foundry, 1874
Cincinnati Type Foundry, 1882
Allison & Smith, 1889
Cleveland Type Foundry, 1895
Inland Type Foundry, 1897
Toronto Type Foundry, 1899
Keystone Type Foundry, 1906
Barnhart Bros. & Spindler 1907

and
One of my favorites, here’s a link to Bauer’s offerings from 1900.

Found via Hoefler+Frere-Jones, Lawrence Penney, Oded Ezer, Nina Stoessinger, Falstaff & Fakir and Kris Sowersby

‘It includes 134 glyphs – both Latin and Cyrillic script plus two different manicules and various arrows’

Crafted by typedepot and available free: Corki is a beautiful condensed slab serif with Tuscan-styling, pointing hands and other extras.

Snag it here.

‘A collection of WPA-era US Travel Bureau Posters as reinterpreted and screen printed by Providence’s Head Light Hotel’

Available thru Tiny Showcase: Reproductions of 1930s ‘See America’ poster art.

So much cooler than the current government-sanctioned offerings of Brand USA, Inc.

‘The ads are hyper-sexual, as fits Equinox and Richardson’s reputation, but Equinox members were pissed off because the models were too thin.’

New ads for Equinox, lensed by Terry Richardson.

Article here, behind the scenes here.

The work of Dominique Fung.

‘With Georgia O’Keefe and Tina Modotti as inspirations, Chiuri & Piccioli looked to create ‘a fantasy setting for a new poetic femininity.”

Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli’s spring collection for Valentino, photographed by Deborah Turbeville.

Found via Models.com

‘On one occasion, referring to Benguiat as a ‘printer,’ Allen asked him what a good typeface was. Benguiat had an affinity for Windsor and suggested it to him that morning. He’s used it in every film since.’

Woody Allen and the Windsor typeface. Since 1977. Story here.

‘Metric is a geometric humanist, sired by West Berlin street signs’

Metric is Kris Sowersby’s companion type to Calibre. Design info and specimens here. Pictured, Metric Black.

‘Elefans began many years ago as a reimagining of the infamous Gill Sans Kayo. It basically started by asking ‘what if Kayo didn’t suck”

Jackson Cavanaugh’s Elefans typeface. Preview here.

It’s a new year. Let’s move on.

Grimes is Claire Boucher and her new album drops in the US February 21. Details.

Album design by Jasper Baydala with Boucher’s own illustrations. At bottom, Genesis.

Thanks for your reads in 2011. Up next, more boldness. Looking forward.

Pictured is an image from an upcoming project I’ve been working on as of late – which with some luck and spit, should see the light of day in the next few months. Click to view larger. Powered, of course, by Gill Kayo.

‘the story of the rise and fall of Black Horse Disco, a youth club set up in the centre of a large working-class estate in North London’

Knuckle Sandwich. Cover photographed by Red Saunders, a.k.a MC Redman. Powered by Gill Kayo. Details.

The Clash: What’s My Name

Found via The Pelican Blog

Percy Sledge. Powered by Gill Kayo.

Percy Sledge: Any Day Now

Found via Buro Destruct

Kriminal-Serie Kommissar X No. 1281. Powered by Gill Kayo.

Found via mickey the pixel

Kriminal-Serie Kommissar X No. 1168. Powered by Gill Kayo.

Found via mickey the pixel

Logo I created for Normandie, adapted from Gill Kayo.

Follow Gill Kayo on Twitter here.

‘The Swiss firm boldly embraced the face’s strong character, making it the singular voice of the Schauspielhaus, a theatre in Zürich’

The work of Raffinerie – theatre branding using the oft-maligned Gill Kayo typeface.

Detailed article by Stephen Coles here.

The work of Australia-based design firm Toko.

Website here, store here. (Unfortunately, the gill ultra bold. tee is sold out)