Volkswagen Literature 1938 – 2005
September 3rd, 2010Here’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.
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German Matchbox Labels
August 22nd, 2010Fantastic collection of German matchbox labels from the 1960s and 1970s. Simple graphics and beautiful color palettes.
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L’Esigenza Della Velocità
July 20th, 2010Buddy 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.
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Idealismo
July 13th, 2010Not 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.
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Graphical House
July 8th, 2010This 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.
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12IN12 x D&AD Limited Edition
June 28th, 2010This 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.
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The International Office is Back
June 25th, 2010Well, not sure they went anywhere. Their site seemed to be down for a few months and I thought they closed up shop. Glad to see they’re still rockin’ it. They have a new site up with a bunch of great new work.
Be sure to head over to September Industry for some high-res images of their work.
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Alphabet Relief
June 23rd, 2010Alphabet Relief is a lovely limited edition print by Tim Fishlock. The piece features a three-dimensional alphabet folded by hand and then photographed. Litho printed on Munken rough 150gsm paper, hand embossed, numbered and signed. The series is limited to only 300 prints.
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Pan Am City Guides
June 21st, 2010Here’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.
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NEWWORK Magazine Issue #5
June 14th, 2010Issue #5 of the beautifully designed NEWWORK Magazine by Studio NEWWORK is now available. This issue features contributions by Rudolf Hostettler, Jost Hochuli, TGG Hafen Senn Stieger GMBH, Gaston Isoz, Jürgen Bergbauer, Taka Mayumi, and Lillian Bassman.
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Coast Modern Poster by Build
June 3rd, 2010I think it’s pretty clear that I’m a huge fan of Build’s work. Michael always produces top-notch work in an aesthetic that gets me to drool every time. So you can imagine my delight when I first saw this stunner.
It’s a limited edition poster for the documentary film, Coast Modern. Sized at 33 1/8″ x 23 7/16″ and printed on 100lb Topkote stock in Pantone 806, which is an eye-popping fluorescent color. The poster will be available soon from the Coast Modern site and only 100 prints will be made. Gotta grab one of these!
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Cosmic 140 — Web Trend Map
June 1st, 2010I hope all of you US readers out there had a great Memorial Day weekend. I had a great time, and was badly burned by the sun.
To kick off the week, we have this mind-boggling web trend map by Information Architects. The map shows the 140 most influential people on Twitter, sorted by #name #handle #category #influence #activity — plus when each of them first joined Twitter, along with their first tweet. You can download a full size PDF to see all of the details.
The poster is sized at A0 (841mm × 1189mm) and will be printed on high quality paper, with parts of it in PP-Varnish. Only 1,000 copies will be printed but you can pre-order one now.