Campsite is a New York based design blog and studio run by visual designer Max Ritt.
Named “Type High” which means the height of the type from the face to the foot. If you feel like your typesetting terminology is at all lacking this is a must watch video. The video is a stop motion made by Lynn Kiang, an M.F.A. student in graphic design at the Rhode Island School of Design.
(via @Issue Journal »)
Similar to their products, when 37 Signals dreams up a holiday gift they really come up with something highly innovative and unique. This year they asked the team at Simple Honest Work to concept, design, and execute a beautifully printed and interestingly assembled holiday gift for their clients and friends. Each one is a different vintage book, which has been hollowed out and turned into a box to hold the perfectly bone folded Map of the World. Every single minute detail was accounted for and carried out so perfectly. Down to something as simple as a wax stamp closures for the envelopes and rustic craft paper wrapping.
(via Surfstation »)
I am sort of a big fan of cards and printed goods in general, but holiday cards for some reason normally fall outside my scope of interest. A set like this however does a lot to revive the genre. Designed by Colle McVoy this All-Set Card Set boasts that it’s contents have got you covered for most if not all occasions. My favorite being the Mistletoe Farmer christmas card. Another point of note is the wholly outstanding, and entirely amazing typographical designs, which grace the faces of the cards.
Bill Hovard recently led his team at Hovard Design in the design of an identity for Eastfield Village. Eastfield is the lifelong project of Don Carpentier, which exists as an 18th Century village in upstate New York. Many buildings and structures on the brink of extinction were transported to Carpentier’s property and recomposed into a looking glass into another time. The identity itself uses raw materials like craft paper and burlap, as well as period printing techniques including letterpress and rubber stamp.
(via Design Work Life »)
The always impressive Studio on Fire created this amazing letterpress poster for ARTCRANK. The process behind the poster, or at least behind the design elements of the poster are the coolest part. Bike parts such as seats and cranks were inked up to make impressions. Once scanned the separate elements were manipulated to create the awesome typography you see here. There are some great process images after the jump so make sure to check them out.
(via Beast Pieces »)
By now anyone and everyone has most likely heard about LetterMpress. It has received almost double it’s goal in funding on Kickstarter, which I think is a good barometer for its high potential. I only wish it was going to be available on iPhones as well.
The app. itself will allow you to create custom letterpress compositions and prints in a user interface and process that parallels the real act of letterpress printing. You will also be able to print directly from the app. or export vector files of your designs for use in other applications such as AI.
At an AIGANY lecture Jason Kernevich and Dustin Summer gave in the spring I caught a glimpse of this self initiated project. They were still unsure where they were going to take it, but had gotten through the making of a personal brand a business card design for each of the amazing characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece The Great Gatsby. These beautifully crafted calling cards have been masterfully laid out into 18 x 24 inch four color letterpress poster. This has definitely been added to my svpply and should also enter the record as one of the coolest self initiated design projects ever. The Heads of State gets a powerful double thumbs up for this one!
These ‘Ahoi’ posters from Small Caps Berlin are rad. I would love to have one near my desk. I love checking in on the Small Caps blog, it is such a nice balance to view work that exists entirely in the physical when so much of mine is trapped in the digital.
Newsies played a serious role in my childhood. It was my favorite movie from the time I was 7 years old until I was a teenager and still remains in my top movies of all time. There are countless child actors who have gone on to have serious careers including the star which was none other than Christian Bale. I always loved this scene, but had never really focused on the printing part, but now that I look closer I am super impressed. Great attention to detail, and personally this song has so much nostalgia attached it gets me all hyped.
(via PRINTERESTING »)
I love the way Ty Mattson approached this personal project of designing a birth announcement for his son Shepard. He talks about putting himself back into a boyhood state of mind and all the things that he was enamored by as a kid. It’s awesome to see how few changes there are from the sketch of a great idea to the finished printed piece. Really what it comes down to is craft and execution.
Art In The Age is currently exhibiting a selection of letter-pressed initial caps from an ongoing project by typographer, illustrator and old studio mate Jessica Hische. I have definitely said this before, but I will say it again. Jessica is so talented and amazing at what she does, and the way she inspires and involves the community in her work and process. This is made even more apparent when you hear her talk about design, printed matter and technology.
(via Jessica Hische »)
Midwestern designers seem to be a trending topic in my posting, and I am not quite sure how to settle it. It may include a new category or a weekly post topic. On that note Allan Peters is a super talented designer based out of Minneapolis. He works as a senior art director at BBDO in addition to creating some beautiful pieces of personal work. The birth announcement featured here is one of my favorites.
Came across these amazing letterpress business cards today, which coincedentally were designed by my old studio-mate Jessica Hische for photographer Kate Murphy. I really love Jessica’s work because she is able to bring a newness to each project.
(via Design Work Life »)
