Here’s a great find by Paul Soulellis. A massive online gallery of Volkswagen product literature dating back to 1938. Some real gems in there. You can get lost in it for days.

Thomas Williams, one of the talents behind the excellent Process Journal, has documented the changes that were made to the grid system for Edition Two of the journal. Thomas writes:

The Process Journal grid has undergone several updates for Edition Two, the major change being an increase in the size of the internal gutter from 30mm up to 40mm. Although this may appear to be only a minor adjustment, it changes the dynamics of the grid in several different ways.

The extra 10mm was taken from the outside columns, otherwise reserved for image captions and room for the reader’s thumbs to hold the publication (with minimal overlay of the content). The space was removed evenly from these columns to minimize the change in visual consistency from the previous edition.

Increasing this gutter also proved to be advantageous to the overall layout of the publication and resulted in three outcomes: firstly, by centralizing the content further into the middle of the page allowing more padding and easier reading of type that falls within the two central columns; secondly, it allows a larger clearance for images placed over or near the edge of the gutter—thus minimizing the loss of image into the spine; and lastly, the increase results in an overall wider area of content.

The original objective was to create a grid that was flexible enough to deal with a wide range of content, enable flexibility and retain visual consistency. This objective still remains; hence the vast majority of grid has been unaltered and has proven itself worthy for a second time. In our experience it is a rare to have the chance to revisit and refine a project so we have embraced the opportunity and believe that small changes like these contribute to our endeavor of producing an always-improving publication.

Not only does the movie seem like it’s going to be great, but the poster is really well done in my opinion. Designed by Mojo House, the design is reminiscent of the minimal style seen during the 60s, but with a modern touch. The paper is even distressed to give it an authentic feel.

Here’s a good write up on the poster, with some nice examples of original posters from the 60s.

Oppositions was an architectural journal by the Institute For Architecture And Urban Studies that was published from 1973 to 1984. The magazine was designed by the great Massimo Vignelli and it sure doesn’t disappoint with its obvious grid layout. This Flickr set includes a bunch of the covers, some of which feature black illustrations, and this set by Paul Soulellis has some shots of the inside spreads.

I was outbid on a copy of this a few months back. Would have made a great addition to my collection — maybe I’ll start to obsessively search for them now.

Sydney based studio, Toko, has been one of my favorites for a while now. They’re always pumping out fresh new work that’s inspiring. They updated their site with a new look and a plethora or work.

Simply perfect 1968 ad for Sunn Amplifiers. After a quick search I found some more.

Via Iain Claridge

Fantastic collection of German matchbox labels from the 1960s and 1970s. Simple graphics and beautiful color palettes.

Sorry for the lack of posts this past week, I was under the weather.

Swiss Dots, the producers of the Helvetica documentary, have create this new limited-edition screenprint for the film. The print is inspired by a 1960’s design that has been seen on D. Stempel AG brochures, type specimens and posters — which has been making an appearance on the TV show, Mad Men.

The poster is hand screenprinted on archival 300gsm paper, A2 size (16 1/2″ x 23 1/2″) in a numbered edition of 100 copies, each signed by director Gary Hustwit. You can order one here for $150.

When it comes to minimal design, my passion for it extends way beyond graphic design. When it comes to design in general, whether it be a house, a shirt, or a spoon, I also prefer a minimal approach and aesthetic. So when I saw these custom motorcycles by Copenhagen based shop Wrench Monkees, I immediately fell in love.

Most of their bikes have a cafe racer style which I love, and the bikes are stripped down to their bare essentials: a motor, two wheels and a handle bar. The bikes have more a mechanical look to them as oppose to the mainstream bikes that are all cover in plastic.

When looking for inspiration, even motorcycles can influence my designs. I love it.

Project Thirty Three is a fantastic blog that features vintage album covers that have been scanned and archived by the owner of Seattle based used vinyl store, Jive Time Records. Lovely.

Via ISO50      

French photographer Laurent Nivalle has a stunning portfolio, but it’s his Le Mans Classic series that just blows my mind. The mix of vintage race cars, and the faded colors trick you into believing that these are photos from the 60s. The crops and compositions are just perfect, and the buttery shallow depth of field make the images irresistible. Makes me miss DSLRs. Laurent does also have an excellent gallery iPhone photography.      

Cosas Mínimas (Minimal Things) is the personal portfolio of Madrid based illustrator and designer, Blanca Gómez. I’m in love with her illustrations. Every aspect of her style exhibits a sense of minimalism, from the simple geometric shapes, to the solid colors.

Also check out an interview with Bianca over at Grain Edit.      

Not many have heard of Benno Wissing (1923–2008), but in my book he goes down as one of the greatest designers of the last 100 years. Along with Ben Bos and Wim Crouwel, he founded the influential studio, Total Design. Wissing also worked as a painter, illustrator, set designer and architect, but is best known for his signage design for Schiphol Airport in 1967. In the 80’s he was invited to be a professor of design at the Rhode Island School of Design.

The excellent site NAGO has a massive gallery of Wissing’s work. I still haven’t had the time to get through it all — I’m only on page 8. Also, check out the monograph Benno Wissing: Grafische & ruimtelijk ontwerpen.      

Lately, I’ve been hit with the photography bug. It usually happens to me once a year. It goes something like this: I get the bug, I research cameras for a week, I buy an expensive camera, I use it non-stop for a few months, the bug goes away, I sell the camera.

I’m a gear head, so when I become obsessed with something I immediately try to find all the best gear that I can get my hands on. It’s good because I get to learn and experience new things, but it’s also bad on my wallet. And when it comes to photo gear, there’s no stopping me.

Until recently.

After countless cameras, and years of searching for the perfect camera that would push my photos to the next level, I’m now a firm believer that the best camera is the camera that you have with you. Yes, a Hasselblad H4D-60 will blow any other camera away, but you don’t see many people in street with a $42,000 camera hanging from their necks.

I hated lugging around a big ass body, with a big ass lens and a hood attached to it. That was the primary reason why I would stop shooting: I didn’t want to carry around all that stuff. I used to carry around a Hasselblad 503, with a prism and metal hood. The damn thing weighted a ton—and it sure captured some amazing photos—but after a few hours of carrying it, I wanted to throw it in the garbage. I hated that feeling because it ruined the moment and eventually led me to feel unmotivated. The tool was getting in the way of my creativity.

Now I just shoot with my iPhone 4. I already carry it around, and the built-in camera is pretty damn good. When I see an interesting shot, I just pull it out and snap a photo. The joy and spontaneity of shooting is instantly back. I would love it if Apple added some advanced features to the camera app—like shutter and aperture control—and I do miss me some depth of field, but overall the phone produces some fine images.

I think I’ve achieved some good results with this little camera. I took the photo to the left with my iPhone. This guy did a fashion shoot with an iPhone 3GS. Granted, he used a great lighting system, but the images are still impressive. Check out these folks who took a great looking shot with a Canon Powershot SD630 and some basic lighting. Professional fashion photographer Terry Richardson does entire shoots with a Yashica T4 point and shoot and the photos look great.

Don’t get me wrong, it is much easier to produce a great photo with high-end camera. That’s why it’s even more impressive when a great photo is taken with a lower-end one. The talent truly shines in that case.

My point is, in any creative field, the tool isn’t important. It’s what’s behind the tool that counts. So, don’t stress about getting a Canon 1Ds Mark III or the latest version of Photoshop. Just create.      

Buddy Carr Skateboards just released L’Esigenza Della Velocità, a new longboard that I designed for them. The board features an innovative flush mount truck system that lowers the deck height, giving the rider better stability and control.

In Italian, “L’Esigenza Della Velocità” means “The Needs for Speed”, and that’s were I pulled most of my inspiration from. I’ve always been inspired by the beautiful graphic design and gorgeous color palettes present on racing cars from the 60’s and 70’s, and I tried to pay tribute to that minimal aesthetic is this design. It represents a time when graphic design was simpler and not bloated like it is today.

For the colors, I’ve been wanting to use a fluorescent Pantone for sometime now and the color Pantone 805 seemed to make sense for this piece. Coupled with a dark gray, I think it created a nice modern touch to the retro design. 805 is stunning in person.

For the layout, I composed the elements using the Golden Ratio. Might seem like overkill for something like this but it presented a pretty interesting composition that felt balanced to me. Here’s a screenshot of the guides in my Illustrator file that I created using the Golden Ratio. Because of the limited space on skateboards, I usually end up cropping elements to create a more interesting visual. I tried layouts where all the elements lived within the space, but that felt too unnatural and claustrophobic. Having elements bleed off the skateboard gives a sense of openness that I prefer. The checkered flag graphic and 805 color are continued onto the wheels to give the package a unified look.

When it came time to think about the typography, I knew that I wanted to design a typeface myself. Taking inspiration from vintage racing graphics, I designed a sans-serif that exhibits contemporary features, but that still retains that vintage feel. At least I think it does. My plan is to create a full typeface out of this, but we’ll see how that goes.

As with the other boards I’ve designed for Buddy, this was blast to do and I’m looking forward to creating some new designs for the lineup. We’re already in early phases of a new deck that continues this retro race aesthetic. Stay tuned!

For more pictures of the Velocita board, and to buy one, head over to the Buddy Carr site.      

When I first saw Todd Richardson’s photos, I was in amazement on how similar his style is to mine. The color tones, subject matter, and composition is eerily close to my work. So it’s not a surprise that I absolutely love his work.        

Not sure if Idealismo is a studio or just one person, but the work is top quality. It doesn’t hurt that the About section of the site contains only a Müller-Brokmann quote.        

This poster by Glasgow studio Graphical House was created to promote Scottish artist Martin Boyce’s installment entitled “No Reflections”, at La Biennale di Venezia in 2009.

The poster is printed on 308gsm Hahnemuhle Photorag paper with Ultra Chrome K3 digital inks. It’s limited to only 20 prints, and you can grab one at Graphical House’s shop.

Also check out the complete identity they did for the project. I love the logotype and the use of Baskerville.        

July 2nd was Swiss designer Karl Gerstner’s 80th birthday. While Josef Müller-Brockman may enjoy status as the most well-known Swiss graphic designer, Gerstner’s impact in design and advertising places him as a pioneer in the field. His work in the 1960’s for companies like Geigy or Citroën established many of the conventions and approaches designers still use today. As a result, Gerstner’s work still looks as contemporary today as it did 50 years ago. Above his ability to output great design, Gerstner developed his own design theories based on the programmatic and systematic approach solving design problems. Whether graphic designers know it or not, Gerstner’s theories are foundational to how they approach design problems.

This birthday milestone should be marked to pay Karl Gerstner respect and gratuity for his trailblazing in design.

Karl Gerstner and Design Programmes

Karl Gerstner was born in Basel, Switzerland in 1930. His life was divided between being a painter and a graphic designer in which he saw success in both pursuits. Gerstner studied design at Allgemeine Gewerbschule in Basel under Emil Ruder. In 1959, he partnered with Markus Kutter, a writer and editor, to form the agency Gerstner+Kutter which then became GGK with the addition of architect Paul Gredinger. GGK became internationally successful as a design agency.

Gerstner’s influence on typography is significant to the history and theories of graphic design. He popularized the use of unjustified ragged-right text in typography. He also proposed what he called Integral Typography which extended Max Bill’s ideas on typography. A message in the form of text can convey a meaning or some information, however, when typography is used in an informed manner, Gerstner felt that it could greatly contribute to the connection between the words and the actual meaning (Left– Advertisement for Endress + Hauser, a company which sold measuring equipment. (Mid-1960s)). Gerstner saw typography as a way to express a whole greater than the sum of the words and the meanings. For example, the large headline of one of his Citroën advertisement stated “Don’t buy this car” which was followed with “if you don’t expect something out of the ordinary in a car” in smaller type. While this may seem commonplace or trite today, Gerstner + Kutter trailblazed the clever use of type to make a point. In other words, Gerstner knew that the aesthetics of typography can aid the communication of ideas and information and that was the foundation of Integral Typography. Gerstner extended this idea beyond typography to the point where it was more important to consider the whole of the organization/company/project instead of the individual design elements or pieces. This is echoed in Gerstner + Kutter’s principles brochure which speaks of the necessary connection between word and illustration in design pieces. His contribution to graphic design may be this holistic pursuit of understanding a design problem within a context to find its solution.

Gerstner defines design as picking out determining elements and combining them. Much of his design theory hinges on the designer’s ability to make informed choices based on understanding of the problem and the combinations of elements. To come to a problem’s solution, the designer must be able to describe and understand the problem. By then developing a set of intellectual criteria, the designer is able to make ‘creative decisions’ which are based on a systematic approach instead of instinct.

The set of “intellectual criteria” that Gerstner speaks about can also be seen as a set of consciously derived parameters which directly address the problem the designer has identified. For Gerstner, these criteria took the form of
a systematic set of rules or parameters which he referred to as a programme. In 1964, Gerstner wrote Designing Programmes which outlined his theories. A programme is a systematic approach to solving a problem which comes from an understanding of a problem. It is important to note that the approach is responsive and often unique to the specific problem. With Gerstner’s pursuits as a graphic designer and a painter, we can see his programmatic approach manifest itself in two different, but equally systematic ways.

Gerstner’s Morphological Typogram System

The development of logos or wordmarks is a common task for the graphic designer. Invariably, it involves experimentation and generation of many variations to find the best solution for the logo. Gerstner’s (1968) morphological typogram programme was intended as a way for designers to systematically produce a number of variations of a wordmark. It lists a number of parameters of type on the left column and then each one is broken into how that particular parameter can be modified or treated. For example, typeface is broken down into san-serif, roman, german, some other or a combination of typefaces.

By generating variations with this programme, the designer does not have to rely on randomly creating variations, but can systematically create variations. From these, the designer can quickly determine a good approach to the wordmark and then develop a solution.

With Gerstner’s the Intermöbel wordmark, his final solution was derived from the combination: a-11, 21, 33; b-14, 22; c-12, 22, 33, 41; d-11, 22, 31, 43.

The strength of this programme is that it allows the designer to develop a number of wordmarks through the systematic combinations of a list of defined parameters. This keeps the designer from having to randomly think of type variations for developing iterations of a wordmark. The programme is not a replacement for creativity, however. Once designer generates a version that has something interesting about it or addresses the design problem, they can then focus on refining that idea. The programme allows the designer to expend their creative energy on the refinement of a good idea instead of a large number of ideas which may not address the problem.

Grid for the Capital

The use of grids was popularized and refined by Swiss designers like Josef Müller-Brockmann and is one of the signature characteristics of Swiss style of graphic design. Grids are a programme that sets a number of parameters through columns, gutters and margins which allow designers to generate creative layouts quickly but also maintains a consistency in between elements on a page or between pages of a document. Karl Gerstner was the first to truly exploit grids and create them with unmatched complexity which yielded incredible flexibility.

In 1962, Gerstner was commissioned to design a quarterly magazine called Capital. It was a magazine intended to put the ideas of economics into a human perspective and so it needed to be clear, aesthetically pleasing, and engaging. He considered grids to be a “…reliable regulating tool for layout, tables, pictures, etc., a formal program, a priori, for a give quantity of unknown content”. The grid provides a set of guidelines to consistently lay out unpredictable content.

Grids can turn design into a simple act of placement of elements into a series of column. While this can provide the consistency, grids can be a trap for designers; creating uninspired, homogenous layouts. This is especially the case with simple grids. For Capital, Gerstner developed an complex grid which was flexible and allowed rapid, creative and consistent layouts. As a grid grows in complexity, it provides “a maximum number of constants with the greatest
possible variability”.

The grid looks incredibly complex at first, but upon examination, shows itself as a number of grids overlaid upon each other. While each grid overlay was often used separate, they were designed so if columns were mixed together, they would still maintain a harmony between each other. This way the magazine’s layout is consistent from page to page and between the different grid versions, separate or combined.

Why are Gerstner’s concepts of programmes important to designers? Programmes are a way to introduce economy into a design process. Gerstner asserted that programmes are a means of developing a structure to be creative in. While a structure can be seen as limiting, it can also be seen as establishing the parameters of a design problem which can keep a designer focused. By integrating a systematic approach to ideation, iteration or composition, a designer can reduce the time spent on randomly arriving at solutions. This time saved in the early stages can then be used later on to refine and improve concepts. For example, Gerstner’s typogram programme allows for rapid and systematic generation of a number of possibilities for a wordmark. The programme itself, does not offer the answer or anything new, but it clears the designer’s mind of needing to conceive iterations so they can focus on the design problem and its needs.

Programmes allow designers to keep from starting from scratch every time. A grid provides the designer with something that they can use from layout to layout for a magazine or document as a starting point. The success in any programme relies on its adequacy and robustness in addressing the design problem. As a grid is developed, it is important that its design is informed by the design problem it is addressing. The grid allows the designer to rapidly lay out pages in an informed manner. In the case of Capital magazine, the grid was also complex enough that it was flexible and provided ample opportunity for the designer to be creative in their explorations laying out the pages. This complexity liberates the designer from the constraints of the simple grid by offering incredible possibilities and variations for layouts while maintaining consistency between elements, pages and issues. The creativity that the Capital grid affords is proof in itself that rules can provide a framework to solving a design problem without determining the final result. The grid is never the answer to the design problem, it is just provides informed guidelines to arrive at the answer.

Bryan Kulba is a designer in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He is currently working on his Bachelor of Design degree at the University of Alberta and operates Kobot Industries, a web development company.        

This limited edition version of 12IN12 by Craig Oldham is printed on yellow newsprint, and will be available exclusively for £1 at D&AD New Blood from June 24 – July 02. All proceeds will go to the D&AD Education charity. A great booklet for a great cause.