Monday Fun: Graphic Design Emergency, Part II

Last week, I posted my Graphic Design PSA about Graphic Design Emergencies. This week, part 2...

Graphic design is a profession filled with deadlines. Many of them arrive too quickly, no matter how much time we as designers are given on a project. But I've always said, "there's no such thing as a graphic design emergency." And in my decade plus of experience, I've never seen a reason or project that warranted "emergency" status.

However, a bibe of cookies always seems to work wonders...

If you like it, you can pick up one at my Zazzle shop.

Monday Fun: Graphic Design Emergency.

Graphic design is a profession filled with deadlines. Many of them arrive too quickly, no matter how much time we as designers are given on a project. But I've always said, "there's no such thing as a graphic design emergency." And in my decade plus of experience, I've never seen a reason or project that warranted "emergency" status. As a service to my fellow professionals, I finally decided to make this reminder poster  for those times of frantic client calls so that you can make sure your frantic client gets the help they need!

If you like it, you can pick up one at my Zazzle shop.

Designer Math

I was flipping through my Pantone book the other day when I had this epiphany: designers don't "do" regular math, but they do have to do a different kind of math. Working with color is very challenging and getting consistent color whether it is in print or on the web is one of the most demanding parts of my job as a designer. Sometimes I get it right, sometimes I don't. Thankfully, there are tools that make it easier, but let's face it: there will always be that rogue printer or monitor out there that, no matter how much you try, it won't show you the right color.

So I thought it would be fun to do some posters showing the visual math that designers perform every day...enjoy!

Free Fonts

I was talking to a friend the other about design related things. Somehow the conversation turned to type and I remarked to her that "free fonts are like a $20 hooker. You never know what you're going to get." She laughed and said, "that would be a great t-shirt." So I made it into a t-shirt and a poster for your enjoyment!


Like this? You can buy it as a poster and/or a t-shirt at my Zazzle shop.

Designers do it in Helvetica.

Designers fell in love with Helvetica when it was first introduced, and that love has not subsided over the years. A clean and elegant font, it works well under a variety of conditions. It only seemed natural to pay tribute to one of the all-time favorite fonts in the world with a tongue-in-cheek verison of a the classic style Helvetica poster.


Like this? You can buy the poster and/or t-shirt at my Zazzle shop.


*Helvetica is a registered trademark of notype Imaging. Used with permission. Helvetica is available for purchase at fonts.com: www.fonts.com/font/linotype/helvetica

Say Something Poster Project

I was invited to participate in the Say Something Poster Project. Jason, one of the project founders, liked my work on the Haiti Poster Project and asked me to join in this new endeavor. This poster project gives designers the chance to "say something to inspire, motivate, and educate teenage kids." Phase one would include public voting to narrow the field down to 100 posters, which would then be narrowed down by judges to 25 semi-finalists then to 10 finalists whose work would hang in this year's charity of choice.

How could I resist? So naturally, I accepted. Then I realized that a) the project was due during the height of the holiday season b) I had a ton of other projects at the time and c) it was a short timeframe to work with!

My initial thoughts were centered around a "revolution" style poster, but with a hand holding an light bulb. Within the bulb, the filament would be illuminated and spread out sparks or stars that would illuminate the world. Somehow, though, it just wasn't coming along like I envisioned. I think the idea is solid, I unfortunately did not have time to explore that option more at the time. Perhaps I will revisit it later this year as a personal project.

I put aside the project for awhile and worked on my other priority at the time. After some thought, I remember a phrase I had made up based on an article I read: "Encourage change, be more revolting." It's a bit snarky and I thought an interesting play on words. I figured it would be best to keep a type only solution because of the limited timeframe I had left and because I wanted the kids to actually read the words and think about them, not be distracted by imagery.

Anyway, my thought was that kids should be encouraged to be rebels in that they should ask questions and push boundaries to shake up the status quo for the good of the world. I created a textured background that was cracked and broken as the base. I took the type and distorted it to give it a bit of energy and to keep it from being anything but boring and normal. I kept to a warm color palette to keep the poster vibrant, interesting, and energetic.

I just learned that I did not make it through the first round of voting, Looking back, I'm honestly not quite sure my true intent came through on the final design. However, I'm fond of it personally so it's hard for be to be objective. What do you think?

Holiday Card 2010

Sorry about the lack of blog posts lately. I've been quite busy this past holiday season with personal and freelance projects. Some I can show ya now, some I can't... ;)

So I know this one is a bit late in coming, but I just had to show off my holiday card for 2010:

Usually I show sketches of the process I used to arrive at any given design solution. And I wish I could show you snapshots from my head, but this year's card was really simple and came about very organically. It was November and I was in the midst of several projects and realized I needed to prepare my holiday card. I looked at my previous year's cards and sketches to see what I had (and hadn't done).

I put everything aside and got caught up in the holiday buzz and rush and just kept the notion of "gotta get my card done" in the back of my head. Then I saw a great piece of type driven design and it struck me that was what I had yet to do for my holiday cards! I had be using the wish of peace, love, and hope in my cards from almost the very beginning, so I knew what it would say. And I knew the doves would play a role somehow, it wast a matter of tying them all together. I wish I could tell you exactly how I arrived at the bracket turned sideways as the solution, but I honestly don't remember, it just flowed from the few very simple sketches I did do.

I chose green as the color because it is calming and conveyed the sense of the holiday season without being too "Christmasy" Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, but not everyone who's getting a card celebrates, so I wanted to be respectful. The final touch was a fantastic texture by my buddy Von, author of Crumble. Crackle. Burn. (Shameless plug: it's a fantastic texture resource for any designer. I might be biased since I know Von, but this book has been a boon to my design projects since I picked it up. End shameless plug...).

I even got brave this year and turned my card into a print, a greeting card, and an ornament over at my Zazzle shop so that others could send wishes of Peace, Hope, and Love too.

That's it for now, more to come soon, hope your 2011 is off to a great start!

Stimulate the Economy!

Well, my personal economy....shameless self promo: I just added 2 new shirts to my Zazzle store that poke fun at the economic situation. Stimulate the economy in style with these t-shirts! Both designs are available in men's and women's styles. If you like what ya see, you can buy 'em here.

Type on Your Products

Some fun eyecandy for you today from Designer Daily: 15 Great Typography based objects/products. Great stuff here, LOVE that coffee table! 

Cool Design Links

Here are a few great design inspiration links:

Archive of Postage Stamps by Type Designers

Great Book Covers from 2008

Smithsonian's Flickr Page

Lee Sutton's Flickr Page

Time Life Photo Archive (hosted by Google)

Enjoy!

Friday Fun: Kleenex Typo

So as I ripped open my latest box of Kleenex® tissues the other day, I noticed that the strip with the tissue count said "180". I was a bit confused because I recently started buying the larger packages that I thought came 280 in a box. So I went and got another box. And sure enough, it said 280. 

So I put the boxes next to each other, and as you can see, it is a tad bit shorter, but that doesn't look 100 tissues shorter to me. 

Looks like somebody goofed. Oh well, at least they made me smile and got a mention here on Friday Fun.

What The…

I was headed to another store in the shopping center and noticed this store sign:



Vacuum and Gifts?! Yeah, those are two things I always thought should go together, kinda like peanut butter and chocolate, er, wait, bad example… Since I didn't go in (I was pressed for time), I'm curious if all of the gifts are vacuum related?

Confused Packaging

I've been buying the Uncle Ben's instant microwave rice for years. It is a wonderful product for an ADD creative like me: tear the top of the package open, pop it into the microwave and 90 seconds later, you have steaming hot rice. For whatever reason, I ended up actually reading the back of the package the other day. It's made in the US, wait, maybe it's from Canada...does this mean I just pick where I'd like it to be from?

Hatch Show Print

I recently had the privilege of traveling to Nashville (a mere 5 hour drive from me) to meetup with some friend from the HOW Design Forum and tour Hatch Show Print. Hatch is one of the oldest Letterpress shops in the US, and they still do things the old-fashioned way. No computers, no layout programs. Every poster is set meticulously by HAND. And when they need a piece of art and don't have it, they CARVE it.

It was amazing to be reminding of the craftsmanship and dedication that used to go into every single print job, no matter how big or small. It was also great to see my HOW design friends again.

A huge thank you to the staff of Hatch and to our tour guide, Jim Sherraden, who spend his Saturday with us before leaving for a family event that evening. And to Dafi, who rocks the letterpress. Be sure to check out my photos of Nashville and Hatch. And of course, I came back home with some Hatch swag, check the last few pics to see my haul. Enjoy!

Cool Type!

Thanks for the folks at HOW for the heads up on Axel Peemoeller, who created these very cool perspective type wayfinding graphics.

I Love My Job!

Being an in-house designer, I get a huge variety of design related tasks: everything from boring forms to photography to design, to a bit of Flash and everything in between. Some days, the job just rocks, though, and today was one of those days!

I was tasked with developing food allergen icons for our redesigned website. There are eight major food allergens are: milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, nuts, peanuts, soy, and wheat.

I wanted something simple that would read well super small (we'd use them in print too), but would convey the meaning quickly. I wanted to use the letters if possible, as I felt that would give me the result I desired. But just doing the letters by themselves didn't seem like it would be the answer. So I did a bit of research and soon it struck me that I could use the asterisk in the icon! Asterisks are commonly associated with notes, warnings or other info.

I originally wanted to put the letter inside the icon, but that just didn't read well at all, so I ended up put them side by side. And as soon as I did that, I just knew it was the answer. My face lit up and I was giddy as little kid again. This is what design is about: finding that one simple yet elegant solution that does its job and looks awesome. Today was a perfect day for design and this is what I live for!

Feel free to share why you love your job and/or the great projects/jobs you've had where you really felt in the at the top of your game.

Here's how the icons turned out (click to view the entire image):

Font Conference

For designers, typographers, or anyone else who loves/works with type, you will love this video...it's a great use of fonts...

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Unfortanate Packaging

Or at least price label placement. I was recently out purchasing Mario Kart for the Nintendo Wii and noticed this other game...



...either the employee at the game store was being very clever or the package designer needs to take a minute to think about how the final package will appear on store shelves. Either way, I was amused!

That's Unfortunate...

We had several severe storms roll through our area this past week. My favorite local news channel was bumped off the air at one point, so I switched to another station. I think the folks in the graphics department need to talk with the people who post the severe weather notices because as you can see, there was a little unfornatune placement of a severe weather notice…

Hidden Type

I was driving to see my parents the other day and I noticed that the old copy shop near their house went out of business. I also noticed that they had taken down the sign and clearly someone had painted around the sign. Where the sign used to be there was some type painted on the building itself.

While I didn't have my camera with me that day (bad Nick!), I made a mental note and went back a few days later and snapped some great pics of the hand painted type. Not sure what "Warrior" was there before the copy shop, but it was neat to find this gem of hidden design. Sadly, the building is scheduled to be torn down soon. I'm glad I was able to capture these images before they are gone forever.

I wonder what other kinds of great design lies underneath our current signs?