Digital Shortcuts

The title "Commands" for this series of 3 digital prints (each 5x7 and available for purchase) couldn't be more fitting... but the success of the muted color palette and mass-produced look is questionable. I'm curious if a harsher, crisp, digital approach would be more appropriate for the subject matter.

Follow-Up: Vernacular Design Isn't Boring

"Intelligent Design" by Scorsone Drueding Poster Design shows a contrived evolution of the paperclip in a cool/jovial yet mechanical/tech style.

MenuPages Upgrade

MenuPages.com, the site perfect for helping find menus, reviews, and information on restaurants in major cities across the U.S., has finally updated its logo and website design. Now no longer tied to beveling or its diner aesthetic, MenuPages gives consumers new faith in the quality of restaurants it features. No greasy spoons here (unless that's what you're going for). Graphic design firm Mucca Design really stepped up to the plate with this one, creating a sleek and metropolitan (yet approachable) identity.
Map from MenuPages' Manhattan section of the website:

Jeff Krichmar Has Wit

The "qualifications" section of Jeff Krichmar's website (www.krichmar.com) begins: "24 years ago I left my mother's vaginal canal. 20 years later I won the Adobe Design Achievement Award for interactive design. Two days later, I got kicked out of art school..." This guy's designs are as bold and humorous as he is. His identity/collateral system created for a Kentucky-based gourmet fast food restaurant is almost sophisticated enough to make grease look good for you. He created an absurd (yet cute) line of cereal with corresponding packaging for astronauts--Buzz Lightyear would surely approve. My favorite: his print ad campaign for Birthright Israel. With slogans like "Cheaper than JDate. Easier to get into than med school," Krichmar clearly understands how to appeal to his target audience.

Anonymous Design Made Known... Sort of

"Anonymous," "ad hoc," and "vernacular" design should by no means be viewed as unappealing or unimpressive, and graphic designer George Tscherny is making bold moves to share his enthusiasm for the everyday designs "born of necessity; often spontaneously, always pragmatically." When it comes to his new book Where Would the Button Be Without the Button Hole? Unsung Heroes of Anonymous Design, ordinary is in. The book's black cover with simple white/gray typography is fitting for the praised anonymity of the book's focus. The book features many objects from Tscherny's own collection, and includes a folding lunch box, vintage re-closeable bottle, the paper clip, safety pin, wire hanger, cheese grater, corn dryer, and various measuring devices. The empty layout and careful placement and organization of objects on the inner pages let the vintage designs shine.

Back to the Obama Drawing Board

What if the Sol Sender, principle of design agency Sender LLC who also joined VSA Partners as a strategist and led the design team for the Obama '08 logo, had chosen a different identity for the campaign?

Sender was in charge of the design strategy and directed a team of designers on the project, which began in late 2006. In just two weeks, Sender and 2 other designers developed 15 or 16 options (usually they only develop 2-4, maybe 5) and then focused on 3 finalists (which included the chosen identity). The team’s refined chosen Obama logo made its official debut in February, 2007, when Obama announced his candidacy for president in Springfield, Illinois.

Here are a few that I found inspiring and just as innovative as the chosen design:
About one of the other finalists: “There was a lot of excitement about this. People felt this was really something new, something different. It was a kind of populist expression — everyone’s excited about Obama, people are talking… (but) it was a little too far out of the box. We felt that having a little more tradition in the mark was the smart way to go.” I definitely agree with Sender's view. The identity below works extremely well for outdoor advertising (especially since it has 3 different versions), but the shapes would be too awkward for a button/sticker.

AIGA 365 Design

AIGA members recently received by mail copies of the annual 365: AIGA Year in Design (this is the 29th issue). The book, this year designed by Paula Scher, is a larger format than previous years (now 8x10 inches with 368 full-color pages of design). Appropriate to Paula Scher's autobiography, her goal was to "make it bigger." The book was printed with 4 different covers, each a different pastel color. "A concentric motif is carried throughout the interior pages in the form of the table of contents, end pages and color-coded chapter openers." It is a difficult task to design a cohesive look for a book that is filled with hundreds of other designs without having the aesthetic detract from the featured work, but Scher's contrasting color palette and over-the-top style prove successful. Divider pages scream out at the viewer, while the remaining pages give the work the attention and spotlight it deserves.

COVERTABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER OPENER

MAD Museum Follow-Up

Great pictures and blurbs on each piece in the "Second Lives" exhibit at the Museum of Art and Design in NYC.
http://www.core77.com/gallery/photos_search.asp?context_id=1&album_id=84

Increase Self-Esteem with Donuts

From an article in the January 20th Media & Advertising section of the New York Times:

The power of positive thinking has been promoted down through the decades by everyone from sages and self-help gurus to hucksters and swindlers. Now, in particularly parlous times, comes a campaign that offers an encouraging word, albeit with a reference to a brand name baked in. "You kin' do it" is the theme of the upbeat campaign that began in early January in the form of television and radio commercials; print, online and outdoor ads; signs in stores; and promotions. As can be guessed from the replacement of "can" with "kin'," the campaign is courtesy of the Dunkin' Donuts division of Dunkin' Brands.

Clever and works visually too. The perfect way to integrate the message with the existing recognizable brand visuals. Link to commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ino6sVc6-ug

The NYTimes Gets Typographic

In wrapping up the year, the NYTimes Magazine 12/28/08 issue chose to honor certain individuals who had passed away during the past year and "The Lives They Lived." Illustration by Nancy Harris Rouemy, a designer for the magazine, and typeface design by Pattrick Griff/Canada Type was carried from the cover to the table of contents and through to individual biographies of each of the deceased. The style of the type evokes the delicacy of life and is reminiscent of things past.

Paper Design Taken to New Heights

Yulia Brodskaya is a Russian-born artist who began "producing contemporary office decoration artwork for Moscow-based companies while studying for (her) first degree in Graphic Design." Now working out of London, she is creating some really innovative 3D paper forms with illustration and typography, which she titles "papergraphics." Some samples of her work:

Medical Design to Tickle the Funny Bone

Each year, a jury of "365: AIGA Annual Design Competitions" selects a group of examples of outstanding design produced over the previous year to be mounted as a public exhibition at the AIGA National Design Center in NYC (the exhibition opened December 10). Some selections also become part of the AIGA Design Archives, an online visual database of inspirational designs on AIGA's website. Here are some of my favorites from this year's selections that incorporate medical themes into the designs.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute May 2007 Bulletin (selected illustrations)
Editorial Design Category
Designed by VSA Partners, Inc.
Description: Our aim is to engage the reader’s interest through a fun and intriguing opening spread.
Juror Notes: For this type of magazine, the design is surprising – play between illustration ad opener type beautiful – playful.

Sparklehorse Poster
Promotional Design and Advertising Category
Designed by Planet Propaganda (Madison, WI)
Description: Gig poster for live-music venue

Rant
Book Design Category
Designed by Rodrigo Corral Design (NY, NY)
Juror Notes: Fetishistic fiction design perfectly considered—gruesome and jewel­like at the same time

Inspiring Logo Redesigns

Pepsi: The relaunched branding and packaging for Pepsi and its flagship brands is quite the jarring change. The "Pepsi Globe" logo is supposed to now represent a lively and cute smile--an attempt to more directly connect the product with consumers' emotions. I definitely agree with Chris Glass' blog, which mentions how the design is definitely more feminine. Surely the thin san-serif lacks the testosterone that the Pepsi labels possessed in the past. And while I agree that this might not be a good or bad thing for Pepsi, I think it's smart that they are trying to create shelf recognition based more on an icon than type with a background pattern/image. Pepsi shouldn't need words to appeal to its consumers.

Museum of London: As a part of the museum's £20.5 million renovation (aimed to open in 2010), London-based firm Coley Porter Bell designed a new identity for the main museum and the Museum of London Docklands and Museum of London Archaeology. From a press release: "The striking new logo, designed by award winning agency Coley Porter Bell, takes the conceptual form of London's thumbprint. Coloured layers map the shape of London over time, reflecting the ever-changing, diverse and dynamic make up of London and Londoners, past, present and future. The brand mark has been crafted to create visual impact, and link the Museum venues." The new typography is modern and simple, and the integration of layers and topography is interesting. The brand extensions are beginning to work, but the "Docklands" and "Archaeology" seem a bit too off-kilter, especially in their lighter weight and darker colors. Like the London Olympic logo, I seriously question the main logo's new color palette. Couldn't they have come up with something a bit more classic to reflect the city itself?

Tasti D-Lite: The "frozen yogurt" that isn't frozen yogurt recently launched a redesign to be carried throughout all of its stores in New York City. I applaud the effort to make Tasti-D look as drool-worthy and seductive as a full-calorie banana split sundae. From the blog "Brand New": "Avenir is refreshingly light as a support to brand the otherwise slick and generic symbol. The lockup is proportionally top-heavy with the huge dollop of product floating over the loose type." The focus is now clearly on the product. Tasti-D finally realized it needed to raise the bar to compete with brands like Pinkberry and also to compensate for many people's innate aversion to mystery substances.

Typographic Treatments

Justin Thomas Kay is a Wisconsin-based art director and graphic designer, working in New York City since 2004. He recently received one of the 2008 "Young Guns" Awards from the Art Directors Club. He works mostly in editorial/print and apparel, and has some great typographic explorations. This was one of my favorites: typographic explorations for apparel for the Zoo York Juniors '08. Zoo York is a style inspired by New York City graffiti culture from the '70s. The name originates from a subway tunnel running underneath the Central Park Zoo, where graffiti artists gathered at night. Ned Wright, a designer located in the Midwest, is also using creating some unique designs with typography. His type and package design for Legacy Chocolates taps into the warmth and comfort that homemade chocolates can provide, and are complemented by small "needlepoint" details.

This is one of designer Cameron Moll's letterpress posters, "handcrafted character by character over the course of roughly 100 hours." The Salt Lake Temple is formed by the typefaces Bickham Script Pro, Engravers MT, and Epic. The Salt Late Temple is the largest and best-known temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A polymer plate was created with the raised plastic of the reversed design. A perfect example of text as image... gone OCD.

Designs for Sports Fans

Football mania has arrived with the Superbowl quickly approaching. Even though the redesigned Arizona Cardinals' stadium opened in 2006, I still thought I would share these designs. After all, last year's Superbowl was held at this new stadium and the Cardinals are still alive in the playoffs. Pentagram's solution for the interiors of the stadium, specifically selecting upholstery for the seating in the Club Lounges, is appropriate, clever, and fresh. They developed a "reversible fabric that features an abstraction of the game in its own language: football play diagrams.



More recently, in mid-December 2008, the Boston Red Sox revealed their redesigned logo and uniforms. The designs include a new alternate blue road uniform resembling the team's road gray uniforms from the 1980s and the "Hanging Sox" to serve as the primary logo for the team--"a reincarnation of a logo that has been used by the club since 1931." The secondary logo is still the "Circle Sox" logo that is used on apparel and souvenirs, but it's also been revised. According to a poll by Boston.com, roughly 45% of fans didn't like the changes and wished they kept the traditional cap and jersey designs. Another 35% liked some of the changes, but not all; the last 20% account for those that liked the redesigned logo and uniforms.