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 Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Last Minute Costume
If you still don't know what to dress up as this Halloween, designer Stefan Bucher has come to the rescue with his adorably silly monster mask. Just download the PDF, print it out and find a way to keep it on your face. The mask is inspired by the creatures at his Daily Monster blog. Get your fill of creepy creatures this Halloween!  Posted by Megan
Just for Fun
Wednesday, October 31, 2007 4:54:29 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00) 
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Happy Halloween
Awesome design/fashion blog Fly has a link to illustrator Andy Smith's portfolio today. I stopped by for a look and realized I'd seen his work before. In fact, the poster below was hanging on my office wall for a while (maybe last Halloween).  Posted by Megan
Typography
Wednesday, October 31, 2007 4:47:46 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Finding The Way
When I heard, a few days ago, that New York City was starting a pilot program to place wayfinding "compasses" outside Subway stations, I rejoiced. Every time I go to to NYC, I walk up the stairs only to realize that I have no idea which direction to go. I have to walk at least half a block before I can see the cross streets and make sure I'm going the right way. So I thought it was cool when I got an email from the company the manufactured the vinyl street decals, GSG. "Though the first four compass decals are part of a pilot program, they’re designed each to be readable and decorative for years to come," says GSG president Ken Madsen. "Once the program is deemed a success, we look forward to producing the additional compass signage per the city’s needs.”  Posted by Megan
Industry News
Wednesday, October 31, 2007 1:38:17 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Hot Wheels
Yesterday, Hot Wheels announced the winners of its first-ever Designer’s Challenge, where the company invited designers from leading automotive manufacturers to design and create an original Hot Wheels vehicle. The Designer’s Challenge was created as a way for Hot Wheels to honor its automotive partners and have them actively participate in the die-cast brand’s 40th anniversary celebration in 2008. The selected designs will be the basis of a new 40th anniversary Designer’s Challenge product line, which will hit store shelves in spring 2008.
One of the winners is General Motors designer Amaury Diaz-Serrano who took the competition very seriously. “If I blew it,” he explains, “I would never have another opportunity to design a Hot Wheels car again for the rest of my life.” Diaz-Serrano is devoted to the tiny cars and has a collection of more than 3,000.
Diaz-Serrano says designing the Hot Wheels 1:64-scale die-cast car was very similar to designing Camaros and Corvettes at GM. “We’re here to design the coolest cars we can, so you give it 100 percent.” There is a twist, however. “With ‘The Chevroletor,’” he explains, “I had to blend the Hot Wheels cool facto‚ with the Chevrolet heritage and General Motors history.” Just as he does with his life-size creations, he sculpted and submitted a 3D version of his entry, which was chosen out of more than 100 submissions by GM car designers.
You can see the rest of the winners here. Posted by Megan
Industry News
Wednesday, October 31, 2007 1:30:28 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Tuesday, October 30, 2007
How (Not) to Enter a Design Competition
Sheesh! I'm post-happy today, no? On the heels of last week's judging, here are some sure-fire ways to be sure your entry to (any) design show gets a fair shake—or not: • DO fill out the entry form neatly and completely. If there's a typo in the show annual, it's probably the result of the entrant's sloppy handwriting. Make sure that doesn't happen. • DO include a paragraph that tells the judges about the project: its particular challenges, why it succeeded, how you developed the concept. • DO consider how you assemble or package your entry. If the judges need a box cutter or jackhammer to extract your project from its wrapping, they'll give up. • DO use design competitions as an occasion to assemble your body of work from the past year in a sort of self-critique. Look at everything you've done, note what worked and didn't, and learn from it. • DON'T let your competition wins go unnoticed. When your work appears in any design show, book, publication, whatever, by all means send a letter or press release to your clients telling them about it. • DO make design awards part of your regular marketing efforts. Going into 2008, consider all the places you'll want to enter your work, make note of entry deadlines, budget for the fees and plan for the follow-up. And good luck!
Call for Entries | HOW Magazine
Tuesday, October 30, 2007 2:44:30 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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This Week's News
Buncha news releases have been piling up over the past 2 weeks, so here are a few tidbits: Domtar has released a promotional series titled "Why Paper?" that explains why, even in this digital age, paper is still the go-to for communication. The piece was designed by Dallas-based Squires & Co. and printed by Anderson Litho.  Alien Skin software released its new Exposure 2, which includes effects and settings that add warmth, softness and grain to digital images, allowing designers and photographers to mimic the look of film and darkroom processing. Mohawk tapped Chicago-based VSA Partners for a two-part promo for its Strathmore Writing and Script brands. "From Exploration to Implementation" parts 1 and 2 document the development of identities for high-end clients and showcase (with pull-out samples) the paper's application for letterhead and brand systems. Posted by Bryn
Industry News
Tuesday, October 30, 2007 2:06:24 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Observations on Design
After spending five days last week in the company of thousands of design projects, we came away with some broad observations about the scope of work. As judges Debbie Millman, John Foster and Nathan Hendricks paced among the tables of entries, scoring pens in hand, we asked them to keep track of what they saw. Generally, some of the trends we've seen repeatedly in recent years seem to be on the wane: tiny patterns, cute wildlife, palettes of brown matched with spring green or pale blue, prettiness. The work that rose to the top was a bit sharper, grittier. The handmade aesthetic is still strong, but it's rougher in a deliberate way. The judges noted that they could imagine a designer sketching an image on paper and then, instead of bringing that sketch into Illustrator for refinement, deciding that the sketch itself was appropriate for the project. No need to sand off the rough edges. As in all competitions, the judges bemoaned inconsistency: a dynamite book cover whose lackluster interior pages shot the project all to hell, good ideas poorly executed, great executions of crappy ideas, well-designed annual reports with rotten photography, huge budgets that allowed for reckless production values with no meaningful payoff. Foster especially noted challenges with printing and paper: "The printing gap has widened severely. It seems as if you either have a massive budget and you throw tons of bells and whistles at a piece, or folks are legging it out, digitally printing parts like a belly band or even running stuff off their color laser. On both counts I just caution to never let the printing get in the way of the design. If it's overly extravagant with no purpose other than to spend money it becomes a turnoff, and while I appreciate the ingenuity of using economical resources I hate to hold a piece in my hands and think it feels cheap and thrown-together.
"Paper choices are still amazing to me. I would say a tenth of the work turned me off the minute I felt the gross stock the designer had chosen. Get samples and 'touch' your work beforehand."
We'll publish the results of the trio's deliberation in HOW's March/April International Design Annual. Meanwhile, if you're looking for inspiration, check out the gallery of past HOW winners. 
Events | HOW Magazine
Tuesday, October 30, 2007 1:29:45 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Identity Crisis! On Display
The new HOW book by Jeff Fisher, Identity Crisis, is included in a traveling exhibit (by the makers of QuickBooks software) celebrating entreprenuers.  Posted by Megan
HOW Books
Tuesday, October 30, 2007 1:16:59 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Fresh Font
Designer Marian Bantjes, known for her masterful use of type, has just released her first font, called Restraint. Here's how she describes it: The font contains the 26 letters of the alphabet, numbers, a hyphen, an
ampersand and a question mark, plus a whole ton of squiggly bits for
making fantastic shapes and borders. Simply masses of entertainment
value.
 Posted by Megan
Typography
Tuesday, October 30, 2007 12:58:18 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Monday, October 29, 2007
On Today
This morning, the Today Show featured a segment with HOW author Karen Salmansohn ( Ballsy and Gut) about baring cleavage in the workplace. You can watch the video and get some expert advice by going to the Today Show homepage and scrolling to the left under "Video from Today."  Posted by Megan
HOW Books
Monday, October 29, 2007 4:47:39 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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