Musikinstrumente
October 27th, 2011To the left is the paste up of a 1962 poster titled “Musikinstrumente”, by Richard Paul Lohse. Below is the final poster design. It’s incredible what designers had to do to layout a design back in those days when computers weren’t standard. Definitely a certain level of craft was involved that is probably now lost.
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IL Magazine
October 18th, 2011IL Magazine, the monthly news magazine of Italian financial newspaper, Il Sole 24 ORE, sports a fresh new design and layout by Francesco Franchi. Really nice work, and I love the cover.
The new ‘IL’ lettering was created by Christian Schwartz and all the typefaces used in the magazine are designed by Kris Sowersby.
Francesco also informed me that the grid that he used for the redesign was designed by Karl Gerstner. Very sweet.
You can see a Flickr set of the some of the spreads. Great work.
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Walter Ballmer
October 17th, 2011Walter Ballmer was a Swiss graphic designer who is best known for designing the Olivetti logo. He recently passed away, so it’s only fitting that I mention him here. He amassed an incredible body of work. There’s a great post on Thinking Form featuring some of his great work.
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The NeXT Logo
October 12th, 2011When Paul Rand designed the NeXT logo in 1986 he developed a proposal book for Steve Jobs, that explained the process that led him to the final design. I’m not a fan of the logo, but reading about Rand’s thinking and thought process, and what influenced his decisions, is pretty damn interesting. Damn smart designer, he was.
You can see and read scans of the booklet on Imprint. You can also find some better photos of the book on Paul Rand’s site under “Identity presentations”. Thanks Andrea for the heads-up!
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1976 Montréal Olympics Graphics Manual
October 7th, 2011I’ve been very lucky to finally find a copy of the Graphics Manual for the 1976 Montréal Olympics, which is my personal favorite Olympic identity. I’m a little obsessed with collection pieces from these games. I particularly fond of graphics manuals like this because they provide a window into the the thinking and process behind the identity system. It’s the closest you get to having the designer explain the system, in this case Georges Huel and Pierre-Yves Pelletier.
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Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011
October 5th, 2011We have lost a brilliant mind and a creative genius. Steve Jobs changed the way I think about design. I will always be grateful.
Rest in peace, Steve. You will be missed.
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Fruita Blanch
October 4th, 2011Beautiful packaging and identity design by Atipus for Fruita Blanch. Great color and typography give the identity a certain character.
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Das Programm
September 30th, 2011This is a great idea. Das Programm is an shop that only sells objects designed by Dieter Rams that were issued between 1955 and 1995, the time when Rams was Braun’s Director of Design. It also acts as a museum of sorts, with relevant historical product details available when possible.
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Karel Martens
September 28th, 2011Inspiring work from designer Karel Martens. He is also the designer of the super-rare, ultra-expensive Wim Crouwel monograph, Mode En Module.
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1882 LTD
September 26th, 2011The folks at Pentagram have created this beautiful identity and packaging for ceramics company, 1882 LTD. The identity pieces are business cards, compliment slips, cylindrical packaging, labels and a website.
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Tent London Directory
September 23rd, 2011A lovely directory designed by Marc&Anna for the London Design Festival’s Tent London show. The typeface used is F37 Bella by Rick Banks. I also love the use of the pink/salmon paper.




