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 Thursday, March 27, 2008
Vintage Logos
Designer Eric Carl has posted 120 scanned pages from a mid-70's edition of World of Logotypes. It's a fascinating look back in time and great place to find future inspiration.  via DrawnPosted by Megan
Design Resources
3/27/2008 12:45:35 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) 
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Collage Illustration
Illustrator Julia Bereciartu, based in Spain, creates lovely collages with vintage images and ephemera.    Posted by Megan
Illustration
3/27/2008 9:27:44 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Best Opening Credits
Creativity
3/27/2008 8:58:33 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, March 26, 2008
We Like Your Type
Typography
3/26/2008 2:09:04 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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A Bit of Friendly Competition
Over on the HOW Forum, we've started a little contest called Show Us Your Desktop, where designers can post screenshots of their Mac desktops and vote on the best ones. The designer whose desktop gets the most votes wins a free one-year HOW subscription. You can only post one image, but you can vote as much as you want; the contest ends April 18. Wanna play? Post your desktop and vote.
Just for Fun
3/26/2008 9:45:25 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Are You A Recent Grad?
If you are, you should definitely check out Chronicle Books Design Fellowship program. The program offers five *paid* six-month fellowships in Chronicle's different in-house design departments: publishing, children's, marketing and products. The deadline for applications is April 25. The Chronicle Books Design Fellowship program offers five recent
graduates a
six-month, paid, hands-on education. There is a Design
Fellow for each of our publishing groups, and they become an active
member of the in-house design team, working on a range of
projects while gaining professional skills and a portfolio of printed
work. In addition, the Fellows collectively compose the Chronicle Books
Design Lab: a think-tank charged with brainstorming the future of
Chronicle's products.
Posted by Megan
Call for Entries
3/25/2008 12:26:33 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Color Inspiration
Creativity
3/25/2008 11:42:50 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, March 24, 2008
Auto Advertising Done Right
Having spent much of the weekend glued to NCAA basketball games, I spotted this way-cool ad for the Pontiac G8 several times, and my jaw hit the floor with every replay. It's a riff on the old computer game "Spy Hunter" -- and all the gamers are proclaiming how true to the original the ad is.
Just for Fun
3/24/2008 4:28:41 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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A Little Birdy Told Us ...
... that the Early Bird registration deadline for this year's HOW Design Conference is Friday. C'mon, peeps! Sign up this week and save 80 bucks -- that ain't chicken scratch. </bad bird references>
Events | Industry News
3/24/2008 10:11:21 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Graphic Design Vs. Fine Art
Designer Stefan Bucher sent over a link to an interesting story in the Los Angeles Times about the blurring lines between art and design. The story specifically focuses on Ed Fella and Geoff McFetridge, but also mentions Gary Baseman, who is the subject of an upcoming feature in HOW. In one instance, a teetering tower of squirming hand-drawn fonts spells
out the title message. Fella employs the central units of graphic
design -- text and image -- to craft a self-contained pictogram that
advertises nothing but its own joy. Besides sharing a fondness for
hand-drawn whimsy, Fella and McFetridge match up in Worthington's view
as a telling timeline that illuminates the evolution of graphic design
as a purely creative outlet. "Geoff has essentially turned upside down
the traditional designer-client relationship with this massive
overlap," Worthington says. "He works as an illustrator and he shows at
art galleries but still essentially has design at the core of his
practice, whereas Ed always had to keep his experimental practice
totally separate from his commercial practice. By putting Geoff and Ed
together, you can see how design has shifted culturally in relationship
to art and illustration."
 Posted by Megan
Industry News
3/24/2008 9:27:11 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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A Crest for Your Car
If you're a Scion driver, that is. (My fellow blogger, Megan, should show this to her husband, who steers a Scion to his web-design job.) Advertising/marketing firm StrawberryFrog developed a website for die-hard drivers to create a coat of arms or crest for their trusty Scions. ScionSpeak.com allows users to play with graphic elements created by graffiti artist Tristan Eaton, then post their designs in an online gallery or download them to print and apply to their cars. via NYTimes.com
Creativity
3/24/2008 8:43:01 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thirty-Thirty
Still going on through the end of this month: 30 Days–30 Pieces, an online gallery where 20 designers and artists are posting a new work each day from March 1 through March 31. Amid a nifty Flash interface, you'll find daily artworks in media ranging from photography to illustration to collage. via the HOW Forum
Industry News | Just for Fun
3/24/2008 8:33:23 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Peeps Nightmare
Love them or hate them, Peeps are a sure sign of spring and also of creativity. For the second year in a row, The Washington Post sponsored a Peeps diorama contest. One of the five semifinalists is graphic designer Peter Byer whose entry is titled " Nightmare in Pink." The bedposts are crayons, and the slippers and vases are made of
Sculpey. The dresser and wall mountings (including a portrait of a Peep
labeled "Mom") were drawn in ink on white paper, then scanned into a
computer and reversed into white lines on a black background. As
evidenced by the precision, Byer is, in fact, a graphic designer. But
he deals mostly in print and has never worked with models or dioramas.
Might we suggest a side career?
 Posted by Megan
Just for Fun
3/24/2008 8:31:15 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, March 21, 2008
Tons Of Type In Motion
Popping up all over the blogosphere today is a link to a wonderful post on Always Watching about TV and movie scenes that rely entirely on type and sound. But what happens when you combine typography with motion? That''s the process of kinematic typography and the results, when paired with some excellent scenes from your favorite films and TV shows, can be moving and marvelous.  Posted by Megan
Typography
3/21/2008 11:38:24 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, March 20, 2008
No Bag
Part of It works
with artists to create products for causes they are passionate about.
Sales from products benefit charities chosen by the artists. For instance, sales of this alphabet bag by London-based designer Daniel Eatock benefit The International Dyslexia Association. Posted by Megan
Gifts and Goodies | Typography
3/20/2008 1:58:42 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Bloxes
On the first day of the SXSW Interactive Conference, I noticed one corner of the convention center being taken over by interlocking cardboard shapes. The display morphed and grew over the four days as attendees played between sessions. Turns out, these "toys" are called Bloxes and were designed to build movable walls to dampan sound in offices and just build cool things. A case of 20 Bloxes in white or brown costs $59.95 and each Blox measures 9.5 inches square when assembled.   Posted by Megan
Gifts and Goodies
3/20/2008 9:43:52 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Kawaii Not
"Kawaii" means cute in Japanese, which inspired the aesthetic of illustrator Meghan Murphy's cute creations that are starring in a brand new book from HOW called Kawaii Not. The "not" is what's important as it hints at the snarky personality she gives to anthropomorphic cupcakes, rainbows, cell phones and more.  What makes the book even more fun is that it's spiral bound with a built-in display stand to show off the colorfully off-color drawings.  Plus, each page is perforated so you can pull out individual strips to give to friends or post in your cubicle.  And, as if that wasn't enough, the book includes two pages of stickers in the back.  Want to see more? You can download a PDF preview here. Posted by Megan
HOW Books
3/19/2008 3:31:32 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Upcoming Events: Now through early April
Prepare yourself: The next couple of weeks are jam-packed with design-related events and deadlines. Here's a list of what to mark on your calendar soon: March 27: School of Visual Arts is presenting a design criticism reading night, where speakers will “look at design through the murky lens of evil” March 27–29: AIGA San Diego Y Conference will be taking place and explore sustainable design March 27–29: UCDA Design Summit (in Denver) looks at issues facing creatives, both in and out of educational institutions March 28: Early Bird deadline to save $80 and register for the HOW Design Conference this year in Boston. (The Conference runs from May 18 to 21.) March 28: Graphex Awards Gala takes place in Vancouver to recognize outstanding Canadian design, hosted by Ze Frank Through March 31: MoMA’s “50 Years of Helvetica” exhibition presents posters, signage and other graphic materials that showcase the use of Helvetica March 31: Deadline to enter the Strathmore Letterhead ContestApril 1: Deadline for STEP magazine’s call for entries for Best of Web designs April 1: X-Rite’s “Color Control Freak” seminar will travel to Chicago and Atlanta April 3: The Art Directors Club has invited past Young Guns winners to participate in “The Undiscovered Letter,” where they will create the 27th letter of the Latin alphabet. Come see the finalists at the “Disclosure” show’s kick off. April 3–5: AIGA Jacksonville re:CHARGE 08 is dedicated to getting attendees inspired and recharged about design. Speakers include Debbie Millman, Ann Willoughby, Christopher Simmons and Stefan Bucher. April 3–5: DSVC Student Show & Conference takes place in Dallas, specifically for students and includes a job fair, so students can show their stuff to hiring studios. April 5-6: The 4th Annual Modern Phoenix Expo and Home Tour, through the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, features lectures on mid-century modern home design as well as self-guided walking tours through the area’s modernist tract homes and churches
Call for Entries | Events
3/19/2008 2:24:25 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Hatchy Easter
Design firm Hatch just sent a super fun Easter self-promo in the form of an egg-coloring kit. The kit includes a white crayon for creating resists, dye tablets, stickers and cardboard egg holders. The box itself is perforated with egg-sized holes to use as a drying rack. We haven't seen any other Easter promos, so this one stands out even more. Hatch also created a website where you can upload decorated eggs to be voted on.    Posted by Megan
Designers
3/19/2008 11:32:47 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Nominate A Website
Seen any great websites lately? Every month we highlight 10 top websites of interest to designers. You can nominate a website you created or one that you think is cool. Just fill out the brief form here. Posted by Megan
Call for Entries
3/19/2008 8:33:27 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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