AisleOne. A visual journal on design, photography, film, music and culture.
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.
Here’s some more great design for Pan Am. These city guides were designed by George Tscherny in the early 70s, who’s also responsible for this stunning menu design.
These beautiful and mysterious Pan Am posters were designed in 1971 by Chermayeff & Geismar. What’s remarkable about these posters — other than the minimal design and the use of Helvetica — is the power of the photography. The simple, sometimes monocromatic, images make a clear statement about the location and inspire the viewer. You can see a few other examples here and here.
DCrit student Frederico Duarte did a little digging and discovered some interesting info about the posters. You can read the story on the Eye Magazine blog and in a feature.
It’s good to be back. Hope everyone had a great week.
While I was away, lifestyle brand Nooka released this super minimal, ridiculously stylish sunglasses. The shades feature a polymer injected frame, blue lenses with silver mirror finish and are available in 6 fancy colors.
I’m a huge fan of Nooka, and with the Mercury they continue their simple approach in both aesthetic and construction. It’s a great addition to their already excellent lineup. Matt and crew are drinking the good stuff over there.
BMW Group DesignworksUSA, in collaboration with Landscape Forms, has designed Metro40, a stunning collection of site furniture for street-scapes and transit environments. The collection includes a shelter, trash receptacle, bench, bike rack, bollard, lights and poster display. The entire collection is brilliantly designed, but the piece that stands out for me is the bench.
The design is streamlined and simple and makes use of some fine materials. I personally love the sweeping curves and how the legs are one continues piece that form a part of the back and seat. I’m sure my butt would appreciate sitting on one of these.
