FINALLY!

I have been waiting and waiting for someone to come up with typographic cookie cutters that were worth using. Hats off to Fred for coming up with Letterpress Cookie Cutter/Stamps.

swissted

“swissted is an ongoing project by graphic designer mike joyce, owner of stereotype design in new york city. drawing from his love of punk rock and swiss modernism, two movements that have absolutely nothing to do with one another, mike has redesigned vintage punk, hardcore, and indie rock show flyers into international typographic style posters. each design is set in berthold akzidenz grotesk medium, all lowercase. many of these posters are now available for sale in three different sizes at print-process. every single one of these shows actually happened.”

I love that these posters are actually for sale. This type of thing should exist as a project for a first year design student. Visit the website here.

What I like to think about when create something new

1. Don’t be a middlebrow designer. Creating something to make everyone happy, including yourself, isn’t always the most effective solution.

2. Is the overexposure of everything skewing my perception of what’s good and what’s authentic? In order to remain unique and true to yourself, try not to be too influenced by outside forces or sparkling examples of design.

3. Is this design about conformity or about pushing the envelope? I see a lot of really bad design choices and unsophisticated typography. I don’t think a lot of new designers are looking at the appropriateness of things. Making it look cool is beginning to take precedent. Make something that inspires others to think objectively about their design.

4. Is this about form, function, both and what order?  Just because you can apply a drop shadow, bevel or glow doesn’t mean you should. If your layout requires you to add a filter, maybe you need to reconsider your entire design.

1. Eames House Bird  2. Black Bird Stockings  3. Birds on a Wire  4. Swallow Tank

Song of the day

Best heard at a really loud volume on your headphones. I can’t express how much I dig this song.

My type

Before I was an in-house designer working on just one brand, I still used only a handful of typefaces. Keeping in mind the basic fundamentals of design, esthetic value, usability and emotional response, there really are only a few that a designer needs in their back pocket. Here are the ones I loved the most with a sloppy description and rationale of each:

Before there was Gotham, there was Futura. I have always loved this typeface for it’s clean lines and how modern it still looks. It’s especially works well thin and uppercase.

I used this one a lot for bodycopy. It works well as the serif counterpart to the san serif typefaces I like to use.

What I perceive to be a contemporary take on the modern typeface, Futura.

This is about as ornate as it gets when I lay out type. Clarendon makes headlines look less imposing – yet prettier.

I used Copperplate frequently when I wanted to make something look old school. Best used small in a logo.

If you need to fit a lot of body copy together, Univers is your typeface. I used to call it “squishy Helvetica.”

and of course…

End of holidays roundup

 

Fishscape is a gorgeous hand-blown fish bowl featuring an amazing underwater landscape to make life more interesting for your fish. Designed by Aruliden, and you can get it from Conranusa.