Sundance Channel

Best of the web: Graphic design hoarders, beard thieves and how to “make an art”

Blair Pfander — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:37:58 +0000

Beardfolio: In 2009, Texan photographer Matthew Rainwaters shot the strange and wonderful contestants of the World Beard and Moustache Championships in Anchorage, Alaska. Described as "a magnificent showcase of chops, bristles and whiskers," the images were finally compiled into book form. The resulting photobook, "Beard," is now out from Chronicle. For those of us whose boyfriends are embarking on annual facial hair experiments (under the pretense that it's "warmer"), looks like we have at least one Christmas gift taken care of.

Alan Kitching plays with type

Perrin Drumm — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:56:46 +0000

As someone who spent countless hours of her childhood in her mother's letterpress studio - doing odd jobs, scoring paper, organizing boxes of envelopes and playing with the ancient-looking wood and metal type in the old, wooden pull-out drawers, I totally get the overwhelming sensation Alan Kitching felt when he first stepped foot into the commercial typesetter where he apprenticed when he was fifteen. Kitching is now a much older man with a long gray beard and a long-established graphic design and letterpress career, but it was at that moment as a teenager when he walked into the letterpress office that he knew he had found his home.

Discovering Anton Stankowski

Bradford Shellhammer — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 17:43:18 +0000

While working in India last week I was doing research on fonts when I discovered the work of Anton Stankowski. Wow is all I can say. I stumbled on his work after spending hours Googling fonts, graphic design and logo treatments. I studied fashion design in college. I’ve worked in furniture and product design worlds for [...]

The Gap gets a facelift

Bradford Shellhammer — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:56:03 +0000

The Gap used to be so cool! They were the go-to place for basics, staples, those American classics. And now, they’ve been upstaged by forward-thinking brands with a bit more personality, like J. Crew, Club Monaco, Gant, etc. Well, someone at The Gap’s trying real hard to be cool again. But I don’t think a [...]

Where Milton Glaser looks for inspiration

Perrin Drumm — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 21:38:34 +0000

There seems to be a lot of list-making in the air. There are Phaidon's recent Top 100 books. Art Basel in Switzerland is going on right now, a veritable who's who and who's best in the art world. After Cannes a month back we had the Tony Awards which announced Scarlett Johansson as a new best in theatre. Soccer teams are duking it out in the World Cup to see who's best, at Le Mans last weekend we saw who raced the best, fastest and longest and this past Sunday we saw another feat at Wimbledon. The competitions for top rank abound, and let's not forget design. In a recent interview with Print Magazine, Milton Glaser, designer and founder of New York Magazine, gave his own list of designers who have inspired his work over the course of his long career. It's a good list, but alas, no pictures! To amend a case of better seen than heard I offer here a visual list of Milton's Top 5. If you're in need of a bit of midweek inspiration, click forth! 1. Herbert Bayer

Go Faster: The Graphic Design of Racing Cars

Perrin Drumm — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:32:15 +0000

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?"

Rebranding Playboy?

Bradford Shellhammer — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:30:17 +0000

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 [...]

MoMA: The New Typography

Perrin Drumm — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:13:07 +0000

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.

Picturing the past 10 years

Matthew Rodriguez — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:59:11 +0000

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

Bradford Shellhammer — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:47:07 +0000

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. [...]

These business cards are cooler than yours

Andrew Hearst — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:30:28 +0000

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 [...]

Creative typefaces

Matthew Rodriguez — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:30:10 +0000

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.