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 »)
In addition to printing a beautiful book of the submissions to the 2011 FPO Awards a beautiful iPad app was made, which is now available in the app store. With the release of their app a strong position was taken as to the sale price of said app. Instead of pricing it at the seemingly standard $.99 to $1.99 range they have chosen to sell it for $19.99. I really appreciate this because we are at a time now where people need to be re-educated in the value of quality content. Without publishers stepping out to the edge and pricing their apps and subscriptions higher than the competition it creates a market place where consumers are trained to pick the cheaper option because it is the norm.
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.
This print to me epitomizes good design, it is a beautiful and precious piece of art, but the thinking behind the simplified forms that capture the motion and essence of a flock of birds elevates it. The print is a hand pulled two color silkscreen, black ink over a grey ink background. Migration East was printed by Kai and Sunny for the Ghosts of Gone Birds exhibition, whose mission is to breathe life back into the bird species we have lost through artistic expression.
(via NOTCOT »)
As far as business card printing techniques go this one is far from the most elaborate, but we can definitely all take some notes from it’s ingenuity. Mikey Burton collaborated with Cranky Pressman to create this custom to go stamp, which allows Burton to turn just about any porous surface into a promotional material. In addition it can hook right onto your keychain, which would definitely help me to avoid those awkward “yes I am a designer, no I don’t have a business card on me moments” we all encounter.
(via The Fox Is Black »)
Why can’t more designers have on outlook and approach like Artefact? Their new printer concept called SWYP, which stands for See What You Print is a completely revolutionary idea in the printing and computing space. We rarely see the modern and most user friendly technologies manifested in home and office printing products, and the SWYP begins to fill that chasm. You should also check out the video on vimeo of the printer in action.
“The ideas of radical simplicity also extend to the box itself. We focused on the utilitarian aspects of the printer: opening the lid for scanning, easy access to the paper tray and easy access to ink cartridges. We made every effort to strip it down to the essentials and resisted the temptation to add extraneous details. In the process we believe we achieve a beauty that only simplicity can deliver.”
(via Minimalissimo »)
There is really only one way to make a guidebook inspired wedding invitation cooler and that is to make it yourself for Under $200. Christine and Ian did just that, with a craft solution that looks a lot more like high cost professionally printed goods.
(via Design Work Life »)
The Stamp Sheet Wall Planner is another beautiful piece from the brains over at Present & Correct. This amazing wall calendar is a beautiful new way to count down the days in a year, and also to be inspired to make something everyday.
From the days when print was God comes this little gem. This amazing World Atlas, scored at a thrift store, was designed by Herbert Bayer, along with Harry Gardines, Martin Rosenzweig, and Masato Nagagawa.
(via Barry Blog »)
I have always admired the work of Ben Barry, especially the super cool stuff he does over there at Facebook. These awesome photos here capture his workspace both at home, and at the Facebook Analog Lab. Theres even the great poster Barry designed for Obama’s Town Hall at Facebook. Despite being a tiny edition of ten Ben was able to get a signed copy for the office with a little help from Zuckerberg himself.
(via from the desk of… »)
Since TeuxDeux went beta I was lucky enough to have a user account and that was more or less the end of my paper todo list writing. I wax nostalgic looking at Desk-It whose design and format makes me miss the feeling of scratching out my tasks on paper. You can pick Desk-It up from Poketo for a reasonable $10.
(via swissmiss »)
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 »)
I rarely make it into a post office living in New York City mainly because the lines are of life threatening length. The past week while I was visiting my parent’s in MA I happened to stop into the local post office and come across these gems. A new stamp set released by the USPS entitled Pioneers of American Industrial Design. Up until a few days ago I had only seen them floating around on blogs. The tactile feel of a sheet a of perforated stamps is just amazing coupled with the beautiful images of design icons. The lineup of designers includes Eliot Noyes, Dave Chapman, Frederick Hurten Rhead, Donald Deskey, Greta von Nessen, and a few others. You can get the stamps in most local post offices or online at the USPS Shop.
I really love the use of old lithographic style flowers in the branding for British jewelry designer Taylor Black. The branding, collateral, and website were all designed by Interbang. Their packaging system is super simple and elegant, which really suits the companies aesthetic.
(via Design Work Life »)
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 »)
Over the past couple years album art seems to have become even less common, as more music is offered solely in digital form. So when someone goes that extra step to press a run of vinyl the album art really needs to match that quality. In this case the album is by Jim Houser, an artist and musician and the beautiful packaging was done by Smyrski Creative. Using images from Houser along with some process shots of his art and daily life it gives a great insight into the background and depth of his expression. Usually I have create a picture of what someones state of mind was when creating a piece of art or music, but in this case the packaging design does a perfect job of telling us the truer story.
(via For Print Only »)
As we all well know one of the most influential and inspiration young designers today is Frank Chimero, and talent at every turn is found in the unique and inspiring ways he gives back to the design community. Many people of credit or attribution in our sphere are merely making things to look at while Chimero is making things to think and talk about. A small yet infinitely useful example is this photo pictured above. After receiving requests for reading recommendations from his students and the world at large Chimero decided to snap a quick photo of the books that have helped to inform and inspire him. The insight we gather from this is most definitely not limited to the titles of the books or the content of their text. It emanates out into the way the books are organized together.
This great collection of stamps was released recently by the Royal Mail to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Royal Shakespeare Company. The designs were executed by hat-trick design. Stamp design really brings me back to one of my earliest memories where I became truly aware of design, and that was selecting and purchasing stamps with my mother.
(via Quipsologies »)
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 »)
