One of the most exciting books on the Gestalten roster for 2010 is Sven Voelker’s “Go Faster: The Graphic Design of Racing Cars,” which pays homage to how cool race cars look. There are plenty of books about the mechanics of the cars, but hardly any on their graphic design. “This book deals with the simple fact that racing cars only really become racing cars when they are covered with colorful livery and decals. After all, who would put a plain white Ferrari on a real racing circuit?”

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Alex Cornell, the design intern over at ISO50, recently posted a class assignment he completed last year. The design challenge was to reinvigorate a dying brand and he chose Playboy, arguably a brand that is anything but dead. But he did a stellar job and it made me think perhaps Playboy’s bunny is just a tad bit dated. In his post he discusses a Playboy children’s line. Yes, a Playboy children’s line.

I adore the logo he created. It is a fox, not a bunny. Though you can see the poor little bunny’s bow tie dangling from the mouth of the fox. Creative, funny, effective. If only most designers had this type of energy and talent.

Graphic design has undergone many incarnations in the last century, but before even Alexey Brodovitch’s name rang any bells in the United States, the so-called New Typography movement was taking hold in countries like Germany, Russia and Czechoslovakia. Modernist designers rejected the traditional two or three column layout for text and instead of working from a grid, they began instead from the blank page. Free from constraints, images moved across the plane, often with little adherence to spatial relationships. But before image and line came into play, typography was at the forefront of the design revolution, and leading the pack was designer and author of the seminal book, “Die Neue Typographie” (1928), Jan Tschichold.

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Brilliant graphic designer and artist Phillip Niemeyer contributes to the pile of end of the decade lists with his unique style. Niemeyer breaks down and distills the past ten years to a graphical chart. It’s interesting how much can be conveyed in just a simple icon or phrase.

Designing Obama from mas / menos on Vimeo.

Barack Obama’s campaign, which led to his election last year, was groundbreaking for many of the obvious reasons. One element that is sometimes overlooked is the visual imagery crafted by the campaign. Obama created a movement among many designers and artists inspired by his message of hope. His Design Director, Scott Thomas, harvested that power and theme. Everything, from the Obama logo to his website to his consistent typeface, reinforced the candidate’s message.

Designing Obama, a new book, will showcase both official and unofficial designs and images from across the country. It also promises to examine how design was used in campaign. The video above has me excited for the release.

Did you know that there’s an entire blog devoted to business-card design? Of course there is. What isn’t there a blog for? But Card Observer is particularly great: It’s a repository for tiny graphic-design masterpieces in a wide range of styles and materials. Business cards have little room for extraneous information, so they’re a perfect delivery system for concise, powerful messaging and design.

Visit Card Observer to see what I mean.

I’ve noticed a trend lately of creatives, designers, and photographers creating imaginative typeface using unique and often surprising objects ranging from beards to food. Oddee compiled twelve of them for your wonderment.