Campsite is a New York based design blog and studio run by visual designer Max Ritt.
Simple idea for an alphabet made up of letterforms created by layering images of vintage toys. Illustrator Viktor Koen has a portfolio full of wonderful pieces that feature an awesome collage and color sense. Toyphabet as it is named has to be one of the coolest though.
(via Typeverything »)
The illustration work of Raphael Vicenzi has such an amazing depth of palette and the layer of textures to create form is really intense. Not to mention he has some great line drawing and hand drawn type thrown in for fair measure. You can check out more of his great work on his Behance profile.
Herb Lester has released a set of maps for different cities, and obviously as a New Yorker my personal favorite is Where The Sidewalk Ends: How to find old New York. The awesome illustration work for the New York map was done by the always amazing Jim Datz.
(via Design Work Life »)
Painter Catherine Ryan’s work has so much depth and is charged with some unique social criticism. Despite the extremely 2D collage style of her compositions they achieve great depth and texture. She has a great knack for distilling character’s down into their simplest form. The way she presents people as faceless, but animals as having faces is interesting. I am not quite sure what to make of it, but I like it.
(via The Best Part »)
Jeff Rogers has created a series of five hand drawn fonts for YouWorkForThem that are all beautifully unique and have various widths and characters. Jeff is a Texas native now living in New York City, working as an illustrator and designer, mainly working with custom and hand drawn type.
(via grain edit »)
Spanish illustrator Maria Corte harnesses bright colors and unique shapes to create these compositions that bring up memories of seeing a Picasso piece for the first time. Her eye and methods for visual communication really set her apart.
(via grain edit »)
Lena Corwin, a Brooklyn local and amazing illustrator and designer has created, in collaboration with Other Books, an awesome book of travel maps. Somewhat in the spirit of Saul Steinberg’s famous New Yorker cover, these maps depict the cities with areas and landmarks completely out of scale dwarfing the streets and intersections that in the real world confine them. These maps are super fun, I hope sometime in the future Lena makes some prints. Little beauties like these deserve to be displayed not shelved away somewhere. To see the maps from all the cities you can pick the book up here.
(via Design*Sponge »)
If you are in the greater London area between now and the 17th of next month you definitely need to check out this show. Bass Notes, a play on the pronunciation of Saul Bass’ last name, is an exhibition entirely composed of Bass’ film posters. Often exalted as his best works.
(via Quipsologies »)
Here is a little roundup of my favorite quotes from today’s Creative Mornings, with design legend and all around inspirational thinker Milton Glaser. Check out more photos from the event in the Creative Morning’s Flickr Pool. If you have any other quotes that resonated with you please leave them in the comments section and I would love to add them to the post.
“Certainty is a closing of the mind. To create something new you must have doubt.”
“Fail more often in order to find out what you’re capable of learning.”
“Color is one of those subjects you never fully learn.”
“Failure and ambiguity are hard concepts to sell to a client who just wants to sell more cans of tomatoes.”
“The act of making things that move the mind is our deepest aspiration in seeking the miraculous.”
- Milton Glaser
I posted about Lisa Congdon and this amazing project, ‘A Collection a Day, 2010′, back in May and now as she has posted what is presumably going to be the final post. I thought some congratulations were in order. Pictured above is the 365th collection along with another personal favorite, which happens to be yesterday’s, number 364. This project similarly to Daily Drop Cap, is a massive project covering a long period of time, but with a beautiful and varied result. Lisa has also been lucky enough to have placed the book with UPPERCASE and is available for pre-order now and will release sometime in the spring.
Christoph Neimann has a knack for communicating great ideas with simple means and materials. His new piece for his New York Times Blog: Abstract City reminds me of his earlier project turned book, I Lego NY. Which illustrated areas geography, objects, landmarks and an array of other things that define New York City to New Yorkers.
Let It Dough! takes on some fun mildly holiday oriented ideals through cookie dough. Pretty genius right?My two favorites have to be the West Village one and the Eternity one both below. Hilarious truisms.
(via Frank Chimero »)
A nice simple interview with Milton Glaser talking about the concepts behind a few of the many pieces he has designed for SVA over the past fifty years. It’s really empowering to hear someone so great speak about how sometimes in his finished work the concept is lost or doesn’t communicate the way it was intended. This is nicely humbling idea that I think we, as designers, can all relate to.
(via Container List »)
Coicidentaly my friend Jessica Hische was contributor on Friends of Type back in October and I just came across the pieces she posted again this morning on her blog and wanted to share them. Some fun stuff there I think we can all relate to and agree upon. Especially that Sriracha should make up a measurable portion of any balanced diet.
The super talented design duo The Heads of State, comprised of Jason Kernevich and Dustin Summers have launched a new portfolio site and store. It showcases a much larger portion of their work including some rad new stuff I haven’t seen. Also their store has some great pickups. I had the good fortune to see these gents give a talk at MAD here in New York this past year and they some of the funniest most humble guys designing today.
Digesting all my rss feeds after a ten day vacation is a pretty hearty task. When I came across this little gem though it was a breath of fresh air. Super minimal and a great solution for people who are sick of painting their apartment. You can pick some up for yourself or as a gift here.
(via swissmiss »)
This collaborative workspace entitled OPEN Studio looks to be a fun blend of young creative talent in the east end of London. They also have a silkscreen set up in there, which makes me super jealous. A nice balance of talent combining illustrators, a screen printer and a publisher all under one roof. I can’t wait for them to launch a website to learn more about there space.
(via Pitch Design Union »)
The illustrations on these vintage matchbox labels from Czechoslovakia are so beautiful. The bold graphic nature and colors are really amazing, and the slight fading only makes them better. This piece is part of an awesome album over on flickr.
(via Quipsologies »)
Fun little pattern with the word yes in a ton of different languages and lettering styles. Christopher and Robert, the duo behind UK based Telegramme Studio keep catching my eye with their new works.
(via OK Great »)
This set of typographic illustrations by Bruce Mackay is a really fun collection of imagery surrounding and letterforms. I for one wish I had Neighbourhood as an alphabet poster when I was a kid. Of course the half-pipes making the letter U are my favorite, but all the illustrations are awesome.
(via Design Work Life »)
This is a cool project by illustrator and designer Adam Sidwell, which is an ongoing set of portraits of fictional bad guys. The collection of portraits, called 52 BAD DUDES, shows such a fun range of stylistic approaches. This diptych of characters Tyler Durden and the narrator (Edward Norton) from Fight Club is definitely my favorite, to me it really expresses all that good stuff from their relationship in the movie.
(via Subtraction »)
