Dan Reisinger
March 8th, 2010Dan Reisinger is an Israeli graphic designer who’s work includes posters, calendars, logos, corporate and environmental day. He’s probably most known for his work for EL AL Airlines, which includes a beautiful series of destination posters that were designed from 1968 – 72.
I love his style and his work is probably the only example I’ve ever seen of good design that uses Hebrew letters.
Reisinger also designed this lovely perpetual calendar for MoMA in 1987.
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Shepley Bulfinch Poster by Experimental Jetset
March 5th, 2010Category: Architecture, Design, Grid Systems, International Typographic Style
Comments: 3
I’ve been meaning to post about this for a month now and finally got around to doing it.
Experimental Jetset recently designed this lovely poster, for architecture firm Shepley Bulfinch, announcing their 2010 fellowship. The design is based on the Roman numerals ‘MMX’ represented with geometric forms that relate back architecture. A brilliant piece.
You can read more about the design process on Shepley Bulfinch’s blog and get a peak at an early sketch EJ did for the poster. It’s always interesting to see how a design evolves from a sketch to the final piece.
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10x10 Series by Method
March 1st, 2010In celebration of their 10th anniversary, Method has released the 10x10 series, which will focus on game changing topics that will
fundamentally impact today’s brands and their search for new revenue streams. The series includes essays, salons, and speaking engagements by industry leaders.
The first issue of the series, “Cable’s Lost Generation”, takes a look at the future of television and digital communications. A downloadable PDF of this issue is available on the site.
When my boss dropped a copy of the first issue on my desk a few weeks ago and I was immediately impressed by the stunning design. Well done in my book, but coming from Method, it’s expected.
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Tom Balchin
February 19th, 2010When I first saw Tom Balchin’s work, it blew my mind. This talented designer has a certain style that just seems perfect to me on every level. Tom uses only the minimum amount of elements and colors and organizes them on a solid grid. Perfect.
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Limited Edition 2010 Letterpress Calendar On Sale
February 8th, 2010Category: Design, Grid Systems, International Typographic Style, Merch
Comments: 6
To celebrate the launch of the new site, and my 1000 post which will happen any day now, the Limited Edition 2010 Letterpress Calendar is on sale for only $30. There are only a little over 25 calendars left so grab one before they’re all gone.
The calendar measures 16.5″ x 23.5″ (A2) and is printed on Crane Lettra Fluorescent White 110# (300gsm) paper that is specially developed for letterpress printing.
Each print is numbered and signed.
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Anton Stankowski
February 8th, 2010I love finding gems like this.
Anton Stankowski was a Germany designer and teacher who pioneered constructive graphic design and is probably best known for designing the wonderful Deutsche Bank logo, which makes excellent use of a grid. I also love how he used basic geometric shapes to create the visuals.
David has some hi-res images of Stankowski’s work. Beautiful.
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Josef Albers Album Covers
February 4th, 2010Josef Albers was an American artist and teacher widely known for his paintings and his book on color theory, but I personally love these album covers that he designed in the late 50’s and early 60s for Command Records. The covers were featured in an exhibition at Minus Space in Brooklyn, NY.
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Welcome to The New AisleOne
February 1st, 2010It’s finally here, after months of on and off work I’m proud to present the new AisleOne. Before I jump into some of the new features I want to give a MASSIVE THANK YOU to Emil Olsson for all the development work and for making this possible. Without him this new site wouldn’t exist. Words can not express how grateful I am for all his help. Not only is he ridiculously talented, he’s a super nice guy. So now onto the new features.
This site utilizes keyboard navigation to enhance the viewing experience. Use the up ↑ and down ↓ arrow keys to scroll through the site, which takes advantage of a nifty infinite scrolling feature. The site also has two viewing modes that can be accessed by pressing the (g) key for grid mode and the (l) key for list mode. And finally there’s a dashboard that can be opened and closed by pressing the (d) key. It contains other goodies like Twitter Hastags, inspirational links, featured articles and more.
For the design I wanted to keep it very simple, pushing site interface in the background and making the content the focus. I didn’t want to over do it with design elements that distracted you from the content. Based on the site stats over 85% of A1 viewers have screens larger than 1024 × 768 and 96% have a window width of 968px. Armed with that data, I decided to move beyond a 960px width to 1202px. Having an extra 242px to play with makes a big difference. The grid is made up of 10 columns, each 96px wide with 22px gutters between them. I usually build my grids based on the rule of thirds but this time I didn’t follow it. Mainly because I wanted to work with an image width of 450px since the previous design made use of that size.
You’ll also notice that AisleOne is now part of the Thinking for a Living Network, which will be launching a new site very soon. The Network is an alliance of like-minded individuals who are experimenting with publishing and education through a series of topic specific sites, conferences, workshops and publications. The Network includes Thinking for a Living, The Grid System, AisleOne, The Design Manifesto, Design Facts, More Substance, and Thought & Theory and is organized by Shane Bzdok, Antonio Carusone, Frank Chimero, Ian Coyle, J. Ellis and Duane King.
So that’s the new site. Please look around and let me know if you see any issues or if there’s anything you don’t like about the site or you want to see improved. This site is for you so I want to make it the best it can be.
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Pre-Postmodern Swiss Posters Exhibit
January 21st, 2010Category: Design, Events, Grid Systems, International Typographic Style
Comments: 2
Designer Morgan Smail sent me an email about an exhibit called Pre-Postmodern Swiss Posters that was held at San Jose State University from November 17-December 18, 2009. The posters are from the private collection of designer Aaron Marcus and feature some real gems. Morgan was kind enough to snap some photos of this wonderful exhibit, which I’ve uploaded to my Flickr page.
While doing some research for the exhibit I found this blog post by Aaron Marcus that goes into the history of how he assembled this wonderful poster collection. There’s also a PDF of Aaron’s presentation at the exhibit opening.
The students that attend San Jose State are sure fortunate! This was the same school that held the Spiele: Otl Aicher’s Olympic Graphic Design exhibit two years ago.
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League
January 12th, 2010Category: Design, Grid Systems, International Typographic Style, Typography
Comments: 1
League is a Geneva-based design studio with an exceptional portfolio. Each piece is an exercise in simplicity. The poster shown here reminds me of this excellent poster by Robert Büchler.
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Roger Willems
January 6th, 2010Category: Design, Grid Systems, International Typographic Style, Typography
Comments: 0
Here’s some lovely work by Dutch designer Roger Willems. I’m particularly fond of these covers for the architectural publication, OverHolland. The bold colors, obvious grid and solid typography give these covers a classic feel as if they’re right out of the 60s era.
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Buddy Carr 39 Longboard
December 22nd, 2009I’ve been a busy bee lately.
I’m pleased to announce that the 39 longboard I designed for Buddy Carr is now a reality.
When Buddy contacted me almost a year ago, I knew right away that our collaboration would produce work that would make us both happy. Designing the Hello skateboard and the 39 Longboard have both been the most satisfying projects I’ve ever worked on and I’m pretty happy with the results. Working with Buddy has been an absolute honor and pleasure.
When we began thinking about the 39, Buddy told me that he wanted it to be a mix of classic surf graphics with a modern touch. I did some research and I was really inspired by the simple, two-tone surf designs from the 50’s and 60’s. The shape of the board also takes its queue from the same era, featuring a classic pintail shape. For the type, I wanted to use a typeface that had a mix of both classic and modern, so I decided on Modern No. 20, which I think works perfectly. Also, believe it or not, I used a grid system for this design. Worked like a charm, even on a shape like this. Overall, I think it’s a nice package, but most important, it rides like a dream.
You can grab one over at the Buddy Carr site. Enjoy, the ride.