In a Bad Space

The once social networking giant Myspace unveiled its new logo last friday at San Fransisco's Warm Gun Design conference. This logo is just the tip of the social networks long-rumored iceberg of redesign. Aimed to help the faltering social network keep up with the competition, I fear this redesign may just turn Myspace into the titanic of social networks.

The new logo does not hold much promise for whats next to come, and is simply a visual train wreck. Aesthetically parallel to a design students fatally literal thinking, the new Myspace logo is the last nail in the coffin.

Edit Undo Logo

After the whirlwind of criticism that followed the Reveal of the new Gap logo the past few weeks Marka Hansen (president of Gap Brand North America) announced that they have scraped the new logo and reverted back to the original.

It is not often you see a a company as well situated as Gap bend so easily under the pressure of the media, and even though I as well considered the newest version of the Gap logo a large misstep, I cant help but be suspicious of their true intentions. Could it be that this "branding shift" was all a ploy to boost the fading recognition of a thought "peaked" company? Was this simply a means of keeping Gap on top by reminding the public of why they show loyalty to this timeless brand?

It is doubtful that we will ever know for sure, but if you ask me, theres definitely some public deception going on.

Glowing Inspiration

A look into the history of neon signs by photographer Camilo Jose Vergara depicts the famous signage of Americas past. Highlighting the peak of American industrialism and consumerism as well as the heavily favored "paint stroke like" typefaces of the time, this collection of signage is truly inspiring to those interested in vintage design.

Slideshow Link

Showing the Creative Process

What a great way to show the creative process from start to finish.

http://www.banditodesignco.com/

The Origin of Good Ideas

Cognitive Media has always created brilliantly illustrated real time studies, and this particular video (created for the release of Steve Johnson's new book "Where Good Ideas Come From") is no exception. The video tries to reveal the origin of great ideas by focusing the search from an environmental perspective.

Exploring what were historically places that birthed great ideas such as salons and tea rooms, Steve discusses how incubation and interaction are essential to the formation of a good idea. These social and interactive spaces allow for ideas to mingle, transform, and intertwine with each other to create said "good ideas." Also accepting that chance, divine timing and serendipity have there place in the formation of a sound idea, Steve closes the video with a strongly rooted, almost poetic statement: "chance favors the connected mind."

Original Article

Painting with Light

Making Future Magic: iPad light painting from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

Painting with light, once an idealistic notion to most is now possible thanks to the recently released device known popularly as the iPad. By using a combination of photography and animation Dentsu London is able control the luminosity of the iPad by making rapid multiple exposures of 3d templates that flash across its screen. Creating a truly beautiful and almost unbelievable result.

The Web Catches Up

This past tuesday, Monotype Imaging released a catalog of nearly 8,000 fonts for use on web pages, with more to come in the near future. Until now web designers have relied on exhausted combinations of the following...

-Use the small library of "Web-safe" fonts such as Arial

-Render text into graphics in the form of jpegs

The creation of web fonts is an exciting development in the realm of electronic media. With web/media design expanding through the creation of kindle, iPad, and applications for smart phones, a large library of web fonts allows designers to be more creative and flexible. One of its most important uses is amongst branding. Allowing companies to embrace and stay within the limits of an excepted aesthetic helps to maintain brand identity.

Collaborative Consumption

Rachel Botsman is a Social Innovator who is soon to release a book about the rise of collaborative consumption. This book: "What's Mine is Yours" discusses how the trend of social networking and social marketplaces is resulting in a reinvention of old market behaviors, that were lost at some point during Americas industrial and technological revolutions. These old market occurrences of sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, swapping and so on can be correlated to sites such as craigslist, swaptree, bay. As well as rental services like Zip car and Relay rides.

This trend of collaborative consumption, also spurred by the financial crisis, is creating a smarter consumption, where a product obtains a longer, and more useful life span, with a product changing hands multiple times within its usable life. This collaborative exchange can also be implemented amongst less tangible items such as space, skills, and time.

Implementing a new collaborative lifestyle can help create a smarter more connected community, where goods both tangible and intangible have a more responsible life cycle and where humans interact in a more intimate, and natural manner.

Original Article

A New Design Frontier

In March the Parsons New School of Design and MoMA, in collaboration with IFF, Seed magazine, and Coty brought together scientists, designers, and artists in a one day collaborative effort to explore the potential applications of a new design medium. The medium of Scent.

To this point, the design of scent has been restricted within the perfume industry. Placed behind the spotlight of visual, tactile, and auditory senses, the term smell has been associated with bodily fluids, trash, and poverty. Discussing in reference to the enlightenment era and how it shaped our perceived notions of scent Eva Wisten comments: "We seem to still be shaped by that dichotomy and we therefore miss out on one of our great cognitive gifts."

We have, through societies influence, cultivated an acute understanding of taste, visual, and tactile perceptions. This heavy admiration and recognition has led to a large creative push within these senses and areas of design. Yet, "It’s interesting to look at the ways in which we have engineered scent out of our lives, and when we do try to reinsert it, it is in gaudy, obnoxious, or un-subtle ways. There’s very little room between unscented—and hence, olfactorily sterile—environments and those that are over-perfumed. It seems as if there is too little imagination or creativity when it comes to thinking through ways in which we can enhance our olfactory environment without overwhelming it."

This new initiative named Headspace is an exciting new exploration that can prove to be an extremely valuable tool to designers amongst all fields. Utilizing humans sense of smell in a new way can help us bridge the gap between scent being purely decorative and scent being utilized in a functional way.

"You can make an analogy between perfumers and typographers: Both are nearly invisible as designers; both create highly refined and nuanced products that are virtually unnoticed by the entire population; and both affect the texture and experience of our everyday lives in countless ways, despite their lack of recognition."

Sheet Cake Invoice

Last year Neil Berrett quit his job by presenting his resignation letter, which was piped onto a sheet cake. Last month People magazine featured Neil in an article called "Take This Job and Shove it!", an online article about unique ways of quitting.

Unfortunately People.com failed to obtain the licensing that would allow them to post the picture of Neil and his sheet cake resignation. Which, in turn, inspired Neil to send an invoice to People.com, charging them for the online usage of his photo. Of course Neil found it fitting to send the invoice on nothing other then a sheet cake.

Im sure there's some bitterness at the People magazine office towards Neil and his smug delivery of an invoice. Yet, at least they have sheet cake to take the edge off, and help sweeten up the situation.

Staying Connected

It can be difficult staying connected with family members when your separated by state lines and sometimes internationally. This was the case for Designer Nicole Ziegler whose immediate family is spread throughout three different countries. So in order to keep family better connected on each others lives she created the Ziegler Family Newsletter, officially called the Mushroom Gazette.

The entire production is done by Nicole using newsprint and printing on her color epson printer. She then uses a sewing machine to bind the pages together, a truly intuitive way to bind the family newsletter.

This inspiring project holds no high production costs or elaborate production methods and shows that a little ingenuity and a great idea can take you a long way.

For Print Only is a great blog that deals with print based design material. It includes valuable information such as production time, production costs, produced amount, paper used, printing methods, and a great description of each project.

The Wikipedia of Typeface Research

Having trouble choosing a font for your next project? why waste time researching a contextually and visually agreeable solution? Get..."SO YOU NEED A TYPEFACE." This project by Julian Hansen is a cheeky representation on a new way to choose a typeface for a project. Although the flow chart is loosely based on research of popular fonts for specific uses I really hope no one is using this as their main source of choosing fonts. For one, after you choose a specific project (book, magazine, etc.) it goes on to ask you questions not relating to your client and their needs, but to your personal tastes.

I feel as though both Julian Hansen and most viewers see it as a fun typographical experiment, visually pleasing and something to chuckle at. Yet for those who don't understand this and are actually implementing this flow chart into their design choices.....please stop.

Broken Fingaz

Broken Fingaz -Graffiti Stop Motion from Broken Fingaz on Vimeo.

Mike Giant for The Tenderloin Project from Sean Desmond on Vimeo.

Just the tip of the ice burg when it comes to the highly talented collective of Broken Fingaz. The extremely high level of creativity is mind numbing, and the ease with which Mike Giant creates visually stunning typography, BY HAND! makes me want to start sketching right now. Check out there site if you want to collect some great inspiration and view some amazing work...http://brokenfingaz.com/

Im a Slave to Advertising!

I felt it was time to indulge in my first brew of the "summer," so I headed down to my local package store to grab a six pack of a good summer ale. As my eyes scanned the packed shelves I came across the most beautiful packaging I have ever seen in a dingy package store. But my excitement exited only a moment later when I realized that the packaging belonged to a Brooklyn beer. I have always purchased Brooklyn Brewery beer on occasion to try and find one that i enjoyed. After five failed attempts to find one, I gave up on my search and on Brooklyn beer.

Yet there I was, at the register purchasing Brooklyn's summer ale, once again hoping to be pleasantly surprised. As i took the first sip of what turned out to be a bland and disappointingly heavy summer beer, It finally hit me as to why I have time and time again purchased Brooklyn Brewery beer. The packaging is AMAZING! Great color palettes and a beautifully simple design focused around a perfectly designed logo by Milton Glaser suckered me into purchasing a beer I don't even like!

The colors used within the summer ale packaging reminded me of summer, and gave off a feeling of history and novelty that i couldn't resist. I can not help but applaud them on making such visually persuasive packaging designs, but I wouldn't mind getting my money back...

IQ Font

iQ font - When driving becomes writing / Full making of from wireless on Vimeo.

Two typographers teamed up with a professional racing pilot to create a font by tracking the movement of a car utilizing special software. After viewing the video it is easy to see the extensive efforts that went into creating this typeface. Definitely an interesting approach to type, although I personally find the font to be inadequate visually. You can download it for free with the link provided below. Not that anyone will because no one reads this damn thing.

http://nl.toyota.be/cars/new_cars/iq/iq_font.aspx

A blog is a broadcast, not a publication. If it stops moving, it dies.
- Andrew Sullivan

Flipping Typical

Flipping Typical is a great website that allows you to type in text and view it in a multitude of fonts all at once. If your favorite font doesn't appear, simply type it into the black bar at the top of the page. I have yet to type in a font that isn't in the Flipping Typical database. Great site to help narrow down font choices quickly.

http://flippingtypical.com/

Im in Miami Trick...

Created a small tribute to what may be the worst "band" to ever come into existence. Distractions can really take you in odd directions, but i think i finally got the damn song out of my head.

Technical Difficulties

This poster by rework just exposed my favorite excuse! Logical bastards... Now ill just have to blame my highly time consuming education for robbing me of my creative moments. Yes... yes, that might just work.

Inspiring Thoughts

Rethink Scholarship at Langara 2010 Call for Entries from Rory O'Sullivan and Simon Bruyn on Vimeo.

Great video brought to you by Langara College.

Inside Look - Steven Harrington

Steven Harrington from Arkitip, Inc. on Vimeo.

A glimpse into the creative process and life of the great Steven Harrington. Easily one of the best illustrators around.

http://www.stevenharrington.com/site.html

The Music Series

A great poster series depicting music genres by Estudio Minga in Argentina. Most of their portfolio consists of corporate branding and identity, but their personal work takes a more creative approach with numerous poster series; one of my favorites being the "impossible symmetry" series. Check Minga out....http://www.estudiominga.com/personal.php

86 Great Book Covers

A collection of 86 beautiful book covers to persuade even the illiterate into giving the "archaic" act of reading a try. Above are some of my favorites from the collection.

http://www.youthedesigner.com/2010/03/19/86-beautiful-book-covers/

the Heads of State-Travel Series

The Heads of State recently released their new travel poster series, which can be purchased through their website. More clean, brilliantly constructed work from the coast to coast duo. Check it out...http://theheadsofstate.myshopify.com/

Memo: the Heads of State are giving a talk through AIGA NY this thursday in the city!

High Calorie Art

Hoping to buy lunch with the shrapnel in my pockets, I walked into my local Burger King expecting a lack luster meal. I was right. But in spite of the heart stopping, cholesterol bomb I detonated into my blood stream, I discovered to my surprise, beautiful and smart illustrations gracing my drink cup and food bag. So beautiful in fact that I felt it necessary to photograph and share with the world. Now how about that...