[what about design?]

on the move

2007-08-22T15:56:00.000-07:00

new blog is:

word spacing

this one is dead dead dead.

an f for originality, sadly

2007-06-18T09:40:00.000-07:00

this is what happens when you use stock photography.

deja vu

spotted at reddit

for the love of...

2007-06-16T12:31:00.001-07:00

drop shadows... check!
faux three-dimensional type... check!
swooshes... check!
overlapping type... check!

i honestly can't say if this product identity is new or not but when i saw it on tv today it nearly knocked me off of my chair. imagine the tranquil beauty of seeing this logo on screen shimmering and glittering like a giant plastic button. i still don't understand why commercial product packaging feels the need to make their logos look like plastic three dimesional buttons that are trapped in space. look, i really doubt you are fooling anyone. i would hope that most people realize that your type is just printed on the bottle like everyone else's so i'm not sure why you feel the need to make it extra-dynamic. either way, this product logo needs to be snuffed out like the weeds it promises to kill. then again i really don't care and it doesn't bother me because i have no interaction with it. just noting, wow, that's really fug. it's pretty sad when you idolize the dq logo so much that you feel the need to rip it off. everyone has to have someone to look up to i guess. maybe it's 409 instead?

dot com love-in

2007-06-15T13:28:00.001-07:00

i've been digging through the 2007 webby awards for the past few days. i've seen a couple of things that have been very impressive, mainly the diesel site for the interactive ability and the german adidas site. poke and prod a bit.

adidas

diesel

webby awards

democracy in action part 3!

2007-06-15T09:20:00.000-07:00

nice move pepsi but you are totally behind the whole amateur-designer movement. glad to see that spec work is still continuing strong. anyways, if you love any of these options you can vote, but only if you enter your email and other fun information. screw you pepsi, you aren't going to know who i am. that is until someone does trackback and figures out where i posted this and they track down my isp which will give specific coordinates to my home and they will figure out that i live on the top floor but that the buzzer doesn't work so they will shimmy up the fire escape and break into my apartment (but if they try the living room window they will find out that it only has one pane of glass because i broke the inside pane in a fit of rage over a pigeon) and then the pepsi people will abduct me and take me to an undisclosed location where they will torture me by dumping my head in carbonated beverages for hours and hours.

design our pepsi

spotted at core77

beastly

2007-06-14T12:47:00.001-07:00

i'm not entirely certain what is going on with the new beastie boys album artwork. i know it's supposed to be some crazy, dada'ish piece but it just sort of falls flat about halfway through. it kind of reminds me of those really weird cut and paste conedison posters in the subway stations (if you've seen them then you will know exactly what i'm talking about). anyways, i think the pictogram lettering might have been enough to sell the point. mousetrap anyone?

the wad has been shot

2007-06-14T06:13:00.001-07:00

so a bit about this bloggy thing. first off, i hate the name of it. it was in a fit of rage with blogger that i registered the name because nothing else was available that i liked. the acronym really bothers me and god knows we live in an acronym-obsessed world. well, in corporate america at least.

i'm planning on ditching this blog and moving elsewhere, hopefully to a new blog-friendly format like moveable-type or something like that. blogger is fine for basic blogging but don't plan on having an attractive blog. enough babbling, i'm renaming the site and taking recommendations. if i decide to go really dirty with the name then my friend dan came up with a brilliant name involving rags and periods. it made me laugh but then made me feel not so fresh.

these are some names i've thought of so far. some puns, of course:

+/- design

... (i'm kind of into !!! these days though i am listening to bye bye bye by n*sync while i review this list)

assimilation

bastardized (can i even access that at work?)

baseline

design demerits

em space (duh, my name is an em/m)

ragged right (really like this but hate the 'pubby connotations that may come from it)

refresh (yep, a bit womanly)

unjustified text

word spacing

sdfiuqwoenrakxh

i still want that damn designified name and site but some bloke in the uk has it.

ghosts and giddy girls

2007-06-14T04:19:00.000-07:00

one of the problems with music videos never being shown commercially is that unless you are obsessed with the artist or the director you never know when something new comes out. hence gondry's video for paul mccartney which was released at the end of may.

it's not nearly as fun as a stack of animated legos but i guess it's ok. kind of cheesy. damn it, the song is kind of catchy and now i'll have sir paul playing in my brain all day. no, it will fade away pretty quickly i'm sure.

exactly at what size would tetris be lifesize?

2007-06-13T08:12:00.000-07:00

a marriage of two of my obsessions (tetris and furniture design), brave space design presents the greatest modular shelving unit ever! despite the fact that the sole purpose of tetris is to mess around and goof off, at $600 per geometric piece, brave space is clearly not messing around. (however, they are generous in offering 2/3 scale version at 1/2 the price).

[via:apartment therapy]

go for the rold

2007-06-10T17:20:00.000-07:00

old

new

ok, thankfully this week i FINALLY saw the new rold gold packaging. they have been teasing me for months with printing on their packaging promising the same great taste with a new look. all i can say is was it worth the \ / \ / ait?

nasty natti'

2007-06-10T15:54:00.001-07:00

city logos are all the rage these days, nasty natti' has gotten in on the trend with a fancy new logo. is it a lollipop? bland candyland game board? uh and is that tagline supposed to make me want to visit your city? sounds a little stalkerish to me. wherever you go there you are.

nyc's new city logo – technically now for the tourism department – was recently designed by wolff-olins. you may know wolff-olins from other famous identity designs such as the london 2012 olympics, the london 2012 olympics, and everyone's favorite, the london 2012 olympics. in all fairness the uk office did the 2012 logo but eh, it's not as much fun to admit that. lv20124lfe.

democracy in action part 2!

2007-06-08T10:44:00.000-07:00

wow! everyone is catching on to this vote for your license plate thing! this time it's the great state of south carolina, not to be confused with the backwoods north carolina. at first i thought these options were created by the rude window tellers at the dmv but then i realized that the smart people named the files with people's names. i assume it's the designers. so kudos to matt kamnn, tom crosby, and karen nelson. brilliant job!

my personal choice is number 3 because it is by far the fugliest and it seems to have incorporated a sheet and a tampon string into one stunning visual. karen outdid herself with that gem.

vote now!

spotted at fark

desktop(2)

2007-06-08T07:32:00.000-07:00

core 77 posted a link to a blog that has images of designer's desktops and their desktops. how witty. i wouldn't mind spending a day at sagmeister's desk watching the world go by.

famous desktops

the toast of the ICFF

2007-06-06T20:34:00.001-07:00

inseq design came up with the most practical of inventions: a toaster which toasts pixelated images right onto your wonderbread, adding a dash of delight to your breakfast or your b.l.t. you can set it to burn images at random, select one of their images, or even design your own! i don't know if i can enjoy breakfast until i have one of these in the commune.

picture toast is not a new concept. i know of someone who had a hello kitty toaster:

this belonged, however, to a single middle-aged crazy cat lady, so it wasn't so cool in my book. anyways, pixelated creatures are way cooler than hello kitty.

[via:apartment therapy & moco loco]

panic on the streets of london

2007-06-06T06:20:00.000-07:00

i debated whether or not i should even bother posting about this. i'm sure you've all seen it by now, and i'm sure you've all formulated your own opinion. what can i say about this that hasn't already been said, thought, or written? it reminds me of saved by the bell. an animated sequence was pulled from the olympics website, on the grounds that it triggers epileptic seizures. i think they should just pull the whole thing. it triggers my gag reflex.

i still really love lance wyman's entry for the '68 games in mexico city, including all the pictograms. but, geez. talk about triggering epileptic seizures! his website is fun to poke around in, too. so is this.

is my mind in the gutter or is this sorta phallic looking? or does it look like the olympic rings are giving me the finger? eff you too, georges huel. i must say, however, i'm really digging on all the product that came out of those games. especially those bitchin' fold up sport glasses.

[look at more olympics logos here]

it's like all futuristic

2007-06-06T04:34:00.000-07:00

who does the set design for these presidential debate things? they need to lay off the pipe for a few minutes. dude, it's like all shiny like a spaceship.

pics from cnn

extra squishy

2007-06-04T18:49:00.001-07:00

this just arrived in my hot little inbox... a present from marius and i loves it. especially the cookie.

extra extra

if you aren't familiar with mario's work you should get with the times. i think the extra people ripped him off.

el valdes

keeping up with the (james earl) jones'

2007-06-04T18:14:00.000-07:00

okay, so jej is the voice of cnn and cnn is following msnbc by launching a new redesigned look, but sometimes my corny puns can only go so far.

cnn launched a new beta version of their site today:

this is cnn, beta

of course since msnbc did a redesign in april it is only fitting that cnn followed suit soon after. and of course i'm not crazy about it.

msnbc refresh

you're in good hands, just not with your branding agency

2007-06-03T16:02:00.000-07:00

old

new

allstate has a fancy new 2.0 logo with custom highlights and gradients. thank goodness, i thought a week would go by when i wouldn't see one of those special #4 combos. the new type is decent enough but then again i don't know how you could not improve on the original typography. i just hope when they implement this logo in signage that they include a bubbly backlit sign that will create the same fluid movement.

blech, whatever happened to simple logos that work really well in b/w? will someone chip in with me to bring rand back from the dead to kick some "branding agency" ass. i can't wait to read the bs rationalization behind this one.

filtertastic

2007-06-03T15:54:00.000-07:00

maps, it will find you
director: chris richmond

from antville

and the watercolored girls go "doo doo-doo doo-doo doo-doo-doo..."

2007-06-01T06:06:00.000-07:00

swedish illustrator stina persson uses the same media i love (watercolor, india ink) but executes with such panache that it both makes my mouth water and my heart break. there's something very sultry about the drippy layering, evoking hot and humid summer days. she is particularly clever with masking.

"immacolata and her friends" is persson's solo show, currently at nyc's gallery hanahou, 611 b'way @ houston. it will be up until july 6th. go take a look, and if you have an extra $500-800, think about picking up a piece for my birthday. you know i'd love you forever.

[via:apartment therapy].

"i'm 50! and i can kick... and stretch! and kick!"

2007-05-31T13:13:00.001-07:00

is anyone else tired of hearing about helvetica? i sort of am. it was entertaining for awhile, but now it just won't stop. i guess that's what happens when things turn fifty.

regardless, victrola nachtmuzik has pointed me in the direction of slate.com's slideshow/article tribute to the modernist's quintessential typeface. despite everything i just said about being tired of hearing about it, it was a nice little ode to helvetica, due in large part to the pictures. because i'm not tired of looking at helvetica. just hearing about it.

"It's the tofu of typefaces: bland in itself but ready to absorb whatever flavors you add to it. It's clean, legible, and well-designed, but its real power lies in its uncanny mutability."

modest papercut

2007-05-30T12:49:00.000-07:00

thx to catherine!

"Myself and a couple have friends have entered the above into the Modest Mouse video competition. Using green screen footage provided by the band we cut a simple music video. We then degraded the images and printed out each frame sequentially. (all 4133 of them) We then nailed each "shot" of 50-100 posters to various structures and posts. Then using a digital SLR camera with a long exposure we frame by frame shot each poster. Oh, and theres a little video projection (again, frame by frame on the SLR) just to mix it up. There is no compositing, no shortcuts, just lots of blood, sweat and tears, and a huge Kinkos bill!".... Max

spotted by catherine! somewhere on the internets.

it's hip to be a square

2007-05-29T09:51:00.000-07:00

i am a self-confessed product whore. i don't consider myself a metro per se but i do love a good product, and nothing makes me whip out the plastic faster than interesting industrial design and packaging. so of course when i saw this fun method bodywash at target i knew i had to have it. sure, it's not really convenient to hold a square bottle in the shower. nor is it really possible to squeeze because it's somewhat hard plastic. but come on, it looks cool. so cool in fact that several other products have adopted the square format including jack black (although they opt for a faux-wood block on top which the product flows from). whether it's a blobby teardrop bottle of method soap, a pill air freshener also from method, or really cool designed packaging for sumotech i'm all about it. by god, design might actually matter!

vacuum lovin'

2007-05-26T16:53:00.000-07:00

when this dyson commercial comes on it makes me seriously happy.

no, really. a+++, would definitely watch again. i wish all commercials were like you. would definitely recommend.

not so pretty pictures

2007-05-24T09:03:00.000-07:00

if anyone has any advice on stock photography houses that offer decent pictures that don't look like crappy happy cliche snapshots please hit me up. i've tried gettyone, punchstock, media bakery, random googling for stock photo houses and basically it all sux. all.

xoxoxo
depressed designer stuck with using stock photos

don't switch the blade on the guy in shades, oh-no

2007-05-24T06:38:00.000-07:00

i was poking around the tribeca site looking for anything visually compelling that came out of the film fest, besides pictures of faux-indie actors of course. lo and behold i found one interesting movie poster! it's almost as rare as a day without hearing about paris hilton.

"Due out in theaters this August, Charlie Bartlett enjoyed its world premiere this week at the Tribeca Film Festival. Here's a film that carries a heavy message about the mis-use of prescription medication amongst today's teens, but does so in a very clever (and fun) way."

blah blah blah. downey plays a drunk and though i quite like him as an actor how many times can he play that role? it's like a burton film with depp, it's gotta happen.

very lengthy and wordy review can be found here charlie bartlett

good lord, did you know that jason schwartzman has a song out now? it's playing on my itunes and i am pretty sure my ears are gushing blood. annoying as an actor but even more annoying as an emo singer.

ugh, lost another one to redesign

2007-05-23T19:25:00.000-07:00

old

new

well i must say this is quite an improvement. still not amazing, but goodbye dotcom startup designed by logos r'us and hello thingie growing out of the t. then again maybe they are changing their name to dilech?

and just a mini rant, but why did companies ever feel the need to include ".com" in their logos? whomever started that trend should be strung up beside the creator of the original swooshy logo. along with the person who created filters in photoshop. and the creator of comic sans.

back from the dead, to sell shoes

2007-05-23T15:28:00.001-07:00

these images have been floating around for a few days (no pun intended). the new doc martens uk campaign features the dearly departed standing around, sitting, and other exciting stuff like that. i guess the theme is bringing something back from the dead, like doc martens.

spotted at drunken stepfather – not at all sfw.

13 ways of looking at a typeface

2007-05-20T12:39:00.000-07:00

michael beirut very eloquently describes the thought process behind selecting a typeface.

"Liberated from monogamy, I became typographically promiscuous. I have since, I think, learned to modulate my behavior — like any substance abuser, I learned that binges are time-consuming, costly, and ultimately counterproductive — but I've never gone back to five-typeface sobriety."

(this link was sent my way by my good friend victrola nachtmuzik. he's been lurking here for months, but for some reason refuses to make any comments. therefore, i will just keep referring to him here as victrola until he decides to chime in with a username of his own choosing.)

computer nerd alert

2007-05-18T16:19:00.000-07:00

the new dell monitor

from reddit:

At Dell's launch of its "Hybrid Business" strategy today, the company spent a few minutes talking about its history of developing new standards, and forcing them on the industry. One of the standards discussed: Display Port. This new interconnect, according to Dell CTO Kevin Kettler, will redefine what an LCD monitor looks like.

It will support up to 4x the current HDTV resolutions, allow for integrated peripherals around the display, and will let you daisychain multiple monitors, rather than installing them in a star configuration. Everyting, including audio, microphone, panel I/O and more will all go through a single bi-directional cable.

Even better, by eliminating a lot of the electronics used for video conversion, new LCD monitors will be super-thin, and super sleek. The prototype, displayed above, should be available later this year. It's only about a half an inch thick. Display Port also promises to make notebook monitors thinner too, said Kettler.

-Jim Louderback

interesting that sony vaio has a similar model that was publicized in an ad campaign in wallpaper* last month. this model is way shinier, i guess that is the main difference. computer nerd out.

we love to borrow and it shows

2007-05-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

so i didn't report on the new delta identity mainly because i think armin vit's blog does a much more thorough job of reporting on identity than i do. but not to be left out i thought i should maybe post something about it.

so anyways, this is the new logo (created by lippincot mercer).

which looks strangely like this (created by someone famous in 1965).

and is damn near identical to the way their competition is set up (mark by saul bass, updated type and such by pentagram a few years back).

that's all, carry on. go forth and borrow some work and make it your own.

prof. charles goslin, pratt

2007-05-17T13:39:00.000-07:00

professor charles goslin passed away this week and though i really didn't know him i'm sure i would have liked him. from the comments that other faculty have made it seems that he wasn't afraid to speak his mind and tell you if something sucked. i really respect and admire that ability and I feel that my professors doing the same to me made me a much stronger designer in some way... until i cry that is.

for all the cattyness and bitchiness that is sometimes visible in design, what is truly great about it is that there is a feeling of community. sure, everyone is competitive but i think that makes the field interesting. for all of the competition there are still people willing to do anything to help you and it seems as though charles was one of those people.

my only encounter with him was during the fall survey when we met just briefly but i know he will be missed by the faculty and students at pratt.

charles goslin

identity crisis

2007-05-16T20:09:00.000-07:00

not really sure what is going on with this logotype for the new lifetime show "army wives." ok, yeah, i admit i was watching a little lifetime television for women tonight. it happens occasionally and really i can't justify it. but this logotype left me wondering is it really "army wives", or is it "army vives", or maybe "arm vives"?

ps: i have an unnatural amount of hate for grey's anatomy. i really have no rationale except that i think hospital dramas are totally played out. isn't er still on or something? that show has been on for at least 30 years as far as i can remember. no need to add another one to the mix.

milestone of sorts...

2007-05-16T06:21:00.000-07:00

it appears i'm taking over this blog. or maybe i've just been finding more things to post than usual, or than anyone else. also, according to blogger, this is the 200th post! if this blog were a sitcom, this would be a retrospective post.

but i digress.

despite the nyc oppressive heat and humidity, i've been looking forward to summer, due in no small part to the fact that mccarren park is pretty much my backyard. this means close proximity to sunday kickball and films and shows at the mccarren park pool. the sunday free pool parties have had great bands like the yeah yeah yeahs and the shins, so i've been anxiously waiting for this summer's line-up and schedule. i bookmarked the pool's webpage, check it everyday and... for the love of god, it is the fugliest website ever!!! maybe mid-90s suburban frat beach party is the look they were going for, but i wish someone in charge would realize that it is not a good look. that curly funfont, the zack-and-kelly-esque stock photography, and that terrible palette really is an assault on my eyes. zima, anyone?

(as an aside: erasure is posted as playing on august 3rd, though not a free show. my inner new-wave 13-year-old is giddy with glee.)

magical bosoms (or some other euphemism for "breasts" which begins with a "b")

2007-05-14T15:56:00.000-07:00

so after having raised a small stink over talk about boners, i will now post about underage boobs. witness hermione granger's magical bustline, which inflates for your harry potter imax viewing experience:

i know this is old, but i'm slow.

[via:i watch stuff!]

my cheatin' heart...

2007-05-14T07:11:00.000-07:00

although i'm pretty much married to mac, these beautiful bamboo pc laptops by asus caught my eye:

rowr! sexy sexy.

[via: apartment therapy]

pretty picture to look at

2007-05-10T14:34:00.000-07:00

the images for this perfume ad, which ran in japanese magazines, are the delicate handiwork of french illustrator marguerite sauvage. i don't have much else to say, except that her work is very dreamy and pretty. but then again, french people seem to often make dreamy, pretty things.

ses belles images sont à son blog.

[via drawn!, illustration blog for and by canadians.]

dirty letters

2007-05-09T17:58:00.000-07:00

and catherine! enters the race with a strong contender for the blog, or blob as i like to refer to it these days.

sexiness!

letters!

voltron

2007-05-06T13:07:00.000-07:00

packaging for björk's volta.

regular edition

limited edition, 5.1 series

found at bjorkvolta.com, vlips from the album also available there. whatever a vlip is.

little battling men

2007-05-06T11:40:00.000-07:00

"concerned citizen" sent me the following image:

which looks strangely like this:

i'm wondering if luba lukova, who is based in long island, actually did the romeo & juliet piece. i really hope so because if not then it's just a little too close for comfort. lukova's peace poster was chosen as the 2001 winner of the grand prix savignac poster competition.

fugly mcfuggleston

2007-05-02T11:43:00.000-07:00

whenever i see a truly awful movie poster i stop and think to myself, "ok self, it can't get any worse than this." well sadly i'm always proven wrong. feast your peepers on this lovely number for angelina jolie's new film based on daniel pearl's life.

in the immortal words of mk, host of dlisted, "that poster looks like it was made with ms paint NOT EVEN photoshop. cheap asses."

spring sweets

2007-04-30T10:18:00.000-07:00

new thingamajigs from kid robot.

Street art and design collective DOMA introduces 15 over-the-top vinyl toys in its new Acid Sweeties collection. The cracked-out characters appear as if they've escaped an acid trip only to find their way into some proper packaging, ready to be purchased for $7.95 each on April 26th at 11am EST at Kidrobot.

source: core77.

classic love

2007-04-27T09:44:00.000-07:00

susan kare, one of the original designers of the apple system icons, has a line of shirts available from cafe press.

meh, i'm still waiting for someone to take the gradients away from the apple icon developers. whatever will they do without drop-shadows and faux 3-dimensionality?

viva susan and your lovely pixelated creations.

susan kare

helvetica, the installation

2007-04-26T12:39:00.000-07:00

50 Years of Helvetica
April 6, 2007 - March 31, 2008
Museum of Modern Art
Architecture and Design Galleries, third floor

remote control pillows

2007-04-26T06:06:00.000-07:00

.

aside from the fun of pillow-fighting over who gets to navigate, i bet these are a lot harder to lose than an old-school remote.

source: didier & nicholas via mocoloco.com.

advertising is finally dead!

2007-04-22T19:06:00.001-07:00

in one city that is.

Clearing The Air
April 20, 2007
In January, South America’s largest city officially banned outdoor advertising. Billboards, neon signs, bus-stop ads, even the Goodyear blimp - all were suddenly illegal.

billboard ban

gooak? gooele?

2007-04-22T16:13:00.000-07:00

: o

2007-04-21T15:04:00.001-07:00

branding and identity (for the girl who has everything)

2007-04-19T12:08:00.000-07:00

kate moss got new branding to go with her clothing line (debuting in a couple of weeks at topshop). design rockstars peter saville and paul barnes collaborated on the identity, drawing inspiration from the vintage typeface brodovitch albro.

i really like this. bastardizing a vintage typeface gives it a nice timeless vintage feel. it's also feminine and classy. i have always thought of kate moss as a bit darker, grittier. this treatment is jaunty and delicate and it clashes with her junky boyfriend. as far as british supermodels famous for being underweight are concerned, i feel as though this identity suits twiggy more than it suits kate moss.

source: creative review blog

democracy in action!

2007-04-17T17:22:00.000-07:00

why settle for what the dmv gives you when you can go to the indiana bureau of motor vehicles' site and help them decide a new plate! each design is more splendidly gradient than the previous! overall i see some great potential entries for the phallic logo competition next year. and though i love my simplicity option 3 is just a bit too depressing. it reminds me of the old california and pennsylvania plates which were visually neutral, but for some reason nothing about this solution says indiana. maybe instead of the torch they could offer a silhouette of michael jackson or a hoosier – the only two things i really know about indiana. well i guess i also know that it takes forever to drive through indiana on your way to ohio from chicago but how does one represent that in a visually appealing manner?

[ which plate do i choose? ]

r2 really should exercise more

2007-04-15T20:46:00.000-07:00

On March 16, 400 R2-D2 mailboxes were dispatched by the U.S. Postal Service across the country as a promotional stunt. In honor of Star Wars' 30th anniversary, Lucas Films has collaborated with the U.S. Postal Service to create 15 commemorative stamps of different characters and scenes from the movies. For only the second time in history, the U.S. Postal Service is allowing fans to vote and decide on which stamp they will issue on May 25.

personally i would be happier if they would just hire an extra person at my post office so i don't have to wait 40 minutes to pick up my package. i think you should be able to go online and put in your package info and then pick it up immediately when you walk into the post office, but that's obviously in my perfect world that doesn't exist.

babies on board

2007-04-15T18:01:00.000-07:00

i really don't know what a car full of driving babies has to do with bp but i'm not afraid to admit that the commercial makes me kind of happy. really it's just the whistling gas pump that makes me happy but i'll take it.

[ babies ]

and then they inserted dancing kitchen sinks

2007-04-14T09:11:00.000-07:00

has anyone else seen the opening for the riches and just felt really confused? for reference here is the opening and some screen grabs from the fx site. i can't find out anything about it but maybe someone out there knows more about why there is all of that stuff floating around everywhere.

'lection 08 part 2

2007-04-13T15:33:00.000-07:00

saw this on youtube yesterday. i don't even know what to say.

i scream, you scream

2007-04-12T18:55:00.000-07:00

old

new

but what does this mean for basky???? think of the baskies!!!

still moving forward?

2007-04-09T18:36:00.000-07:00

this week is the auto show in nyc. i probably won't be going because i'm sure it costs money or something crazy like that. but plenty of people on the train today seemed to have gone as they were sporting red toyota bags. of course the toyota trucks logo caught my eye and i spent countless seconds trying to figure out what it is. is it an electrical socket for deformed plugs? a nut and bolt in some strange perspective? an angry storm trooper? and how exactly does it go with the toyota logo, which to me has always looked like an angry bull. maybe the trucks logo is the matador in full head gear and the bull is running after him? i guess really it is supposed to be an embossed "T". thank goodness they made a version in faux metal just to sell the idea even more.

i'm kind of sorry that i pondered this for a good 15 seconds while my ipod wasn't working.

not so subliminal advertising

2007-04-07T12:44:00.000-07:00

April 2, 2007 -- PARIS Hilton is slammed in Manhattan Mini Storage ads that recently appeared on phone kiosks showing a Chihuahua who looks a lot like Tinkerbell with the slogan: "Your closet's so shallow, it makes Paris look deep." We brought this to the attention of Hilton publicist Elliot Mintz, who alerted her lawyer, Howard Weitzman, who fired off a "cease-and-desist" letter to the storage company - which is also getting blowback from Republicans for such ads as, "Your closet's scarier than Bush's agenda."-- Page Six

paris hilton is slammed? interesting choice of words. personally i think she should be more offended by the awful photoshopped tiara on the dog and the outlined type.

spring into redesign part 2

2007-04-06T09:17:00.000-07:00

old

new

the internets are alive with refreshed looks these days. i noticed that msnbc redesigned their masthead and their logotype which really looks much nicer these days. for all i know they did this redesign 6 months ago and i just noticed it today. i'm still a cnn kind of guy because frankly i think msnbc generally is information overload on the front door. i like my news boiled down and filled with typo's and i know that cnn will always deliver that to me. they also try to write witty headlines that consistently bomb and so i enjoy laughing at them, not with them. msnbc tends to actually care about their news reporting and there is absolutely no need for that.

was this the scandal?

2007-04-05T18:36:00.000-07:00

2002

2007

i certainly would expect this out of cate blanchett, but dame judi? you are a dame! almodovar is not happy.

frapptastic

2007-04-01T15:20:00.000-07:00

love goldfrapp and kind of love this video.

not the gondry

2007-04-01T07:21:00.000-07:00

no, michel did not direct this video but could someone try to copy him any more? wow, designers aren't the only people to get ripped off.

faux-swiss

2007-03-29T15:48:00.000-07:00

if good charlotte weren't such posers i could possibly say that i kind of sort of maybe just a little bit like this cover.

but they are so i don't have to say any of that.

thank goodness.

new album, new look?

2007-03-29T14:59:00.000-07:00

i always look forward to a new bjork album because swan dress or no swan dress she always delivers something crazy. i guess this is the new artwork for her album (reminds me of the director's label dvds for some reason). i'm excited to see the videos as that's where i think bjork really excels. i wonder if this album will have her tracks with timbaland? i'm interested to hear what that sounds like but i'm not sure where those tracks are going to end up.

UPDATE:

i stand corrected, this is the new album artwork according to POWKANG!

"All I wanted to do for this album was just to have fun and do something that was full-bodied and really up," Björk told Stosuy in the first part of their chat. The album cover is meant to evoke pagan femininity and, to some degree, feminism, which is a running theme throughout the music of Volta. "It's not necessarily about me as a woman, but just women," Björk told Stosuy. "Kind of that long leap of 10,000 years back, when they [were] in harmony with nature, and just little things like the fact that there are 13 full moons in a year and most women have certain things happening to them 13 times a year, but Christianity wanted to have 12 months, just to try to put that off."

read more here:

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/home

any pr is good pr

2007-03-21T15:56:00.000-07:00

i have been thinking about the latest controversy caused by the film posters for captivity over the past few hours. i know i tend to pick on h'wood posters but come on, they are an easy target. just look at the kerning for the poster for the abandoned if you need a good cry this evening [ ABAN DON E D ]. but really living in a major city you are so bombarded by movie posters and you have to pass your commuting time doing something and so critiquing the visuals are much more interesting than critiquing what the people around you are doing.

so by now you've probably read an article or two about how the captivity posters were deemed too offensive to be seen in public, and no doubt you've read the standard studio response that they didn't approve the artwork and they don't know how it got out there. right, someone decided to send the artwork to be produced in runs into the thousands in several cities without the studio knowing. anyways, i don't know where to side with it. though i find it is interesting that all of these horror films are now adopting some sort of bastard child of vaughan oliver's typography manipulation of the 90s, otherwise there is nothing else visually compelling about the posters in general. pretty formulaic – a feature shot, preferably made to look dirty with added bonus points for being disturbing, grunge type and credits on the bottom, and voila. but here is a little article on the posters in question and the offensive materials as well.

Captivity Billboard Banned

by Peter Sciretta

Tuesday our Google traffic was through the roof. What caused the big stir? The Captivity Poster. It turns out that Lionsgate and the MPAA received a lot of phone calls objecting to the gratuitous depiction of torture and murder.

The billboard, pictured above, shows four pictures with captions. “Abduction” features Elisha Cuthbert with a gloved hand over her face; “Confinement” features Cuthbert behind a chain link fence with a bloody finger; “Torture” shows Cuthbert, covered in white gauze, with tubes shoved up her nose; and “Termination” shows the actress with her head thrown back.

The producers claim the billboards went up by mistake, and are paying for the removal of the ads. After Dark CEO Courtney Solomon says the wrong files were sent to the printer, who then passed them on to the billboard company without approval from any executives.

The billboards, which were first posted March 13, appeared on 30 LA-area billboards and 1,400 New York taxi tops. The movie studios had no idea that advertisements went up until they returned from the ShoWest convention in Las Vegas.

I don’t think the images are that much scarier than some of the images used in The Hills Have Eyes billboards last year. But I’m probably in the minority. So what do you guys think? Are these ads going too far?

royale flush

2007-03-17T15:27:00.000-07:00

is the opening good? is it bad? or is it ugly? i think my vote is for the latter, though i was doing some googling and found that people are very split on it with some declaring it better than anything by saul bass or kyle cooper. me, well, i kind of hated it. i thought there were interesting parts, i thought the background textures were enough without jagged vector art men fighting it out. and then you have craig taking a fantastic green-screen voyage and that just lost all kinds of points for me.

overall, i have to say that i was extremely disappointed that for such a huge production budget they ended up with this solution. oh, and chris cornell is fine and all but his voice does not work with that song. at any moment i expected the music to change over to black hole sun. i give the sequence a very inflated c- for just adding everything plus the kitchen sink. typeface is kind of nice though.

and one last thing, bond is all about action so why does that thing move so slow? now i'm getting agitated. ugh, go watch some bass instead.

[ saul bass ]

so fresh and so clean

2007-03-16T13:06:00.000-07:00

old

new

and a music endorsement from a tooth whitening product? oh, crazy cross-marketing. of course i'm running out to buy his album along with the wonderful rembrandt. you have sold me with your stamp of approval. everyone thinks they are american idol now.

what can brown do for you?

2007-03-13T12:55:00.000-07:00

maybe you've encountered the snicker buses around your town? i saw one today and it reminded me of the mafia tour buses in chicago. thank goodness for the ones with the windows cut-out or else people would feel like they are stuck inside a giant... brown thing. you can make the brown thing whatever you would like to imagine. unfortunately the one i saw had no window cut-outs, it was but a sheet of brown and it made me feel like i needed some hand sanitizer.

a new angle on univers

2007-03-11T20:00:00.000-07:00

[ univers revolved ]

thanks to jessica for two links in one week. i guess i shouldn't have been listening to fantasia and reading the help wanted ads.

new visual trend of 07!

2007-03-07T19:35:00.000-08:00

it's only march and already we have a trend in our hot little hands. pulp film posters! who knows what april will bring. a revival of comic sans with drop shadows? oooooooh, i can only hope!

thank you

2007-03-07T19:31:00.000-08:00

i would like to send a shout-out to dewar's for no longer running those damn dewarism ads. seriously they were almost as annoying as stretched type. almost.

i see tree people

2007-03-07T19:26:00.000-08:00

well that's kind of pretty. the type is nothing special – actually it's quite distracting – but the image has an air-esque quality which is nice and all. i think with some faint pinks and blues the image could look quite nice. just do what i do, cover the top and the bottom of the poster with your hands and voila, instant art.

zero calories, 100% gradients

2007-03-06T15:31:00.000-08:00

old

new

thanks to jessica.

spring into redesign

2007-03-02T16:10:00.000-08:00

ah yes, that little dab of snow will soon be melting – well unless you live in a national disaster area like iowa and then you will have to wait a bit longer. but soon we will be filled with so many fresh, revived visual things that we will go into visual arrest. i can't wait.

the aiga has decided to welcome spring a bit early with a fresh new look for their site. i like it, though it did take me a few minutes to find the job board since it has a new name of "careers". i'm still waiting for someone to adopt my infinite scrolling idea of a website though. think of how fun that could be! just keep adding things to the right side of the page forever.

and not to be left out, pratt also unveiled a new site a few weeks back. it was designed by those world-famous image moguls at pentagram. overall it is much easier to use than the last thing that was called a website, however two complaints that i have are: 1) it's really really difficult to read pratt on quite a few of the pictures as it blends into the background, and 2) where is the library page??? I could never find the library page on the old site and i still can't find it on this one. resources? nope, not there. i guess overall it doesn't really matter because once you find the library page and actually go to the library you will discover that the book you are looking for doesn't exist. that library is a maze and i swear that every time i go there looking for something it has been "lost" and replaced with a bunch of books pre-1960.

the new pornographers

2007-02-28T15:21:00.000-08:00

cmalven thinks this link might be a little too crude but i don't know if there is such a thing.

[ phallic logo awards ]

and just a little note: i was taking a walk yesterday and discovered that i live five blocks from the steve madden distribution center. imagine the shock and horror on my face when i saw the giant donut sign displayed on the outside of the building AND a fleet of trucks proudly displaying those wretched little illustrations.

video bonanza

2007-02-26T15:25:00.000-08:00

caught up on some videos this week, i know they are old but so am i.

ok go, do what you want

dir: olivier gondry

ok go, do what you want

dir. damian kkulash w/ james frost

cold war kids, hair down

dir: josh forbes

peter, bjorn & john, objects of my affection

the knife, we share our mothers health

malajube, montreal -40°c

malajube, pate filo

ed harcourt, visit from the dead dog

i forget who this is, not that important.
http://stream.qtv.apple.com/qtv/video_c/http/trac002/trac002_http_300_ref.mov

so different, so refreshing!

2007-02-26T05:13:00.000-08:00

Coca-Cola Japan Co has redesigned its cans and bottles as part of its "The Coke Side of Life" marketing campaign. The beverage maker said Monday that the new look can will hit the Japanese market on Jan 29 before its introduction to the world market in March. "We live in a world where we make choices every day and 'The Coke Side of Life' encourages people to make those choices positive ones," said Marc Mathieu, senior vice president for carbonated soft drink core brands, marketing, srategy and innovation. "This new campaign invites people to create their own positive reality, to be spontaneous, listen to their hearts and live in full color."

excuse me, i will be over here producing vomiting sounds in response to that quote. that says absolutely nothing about why they decided to take the little water droplets off. well i guess in marketing mumbo jumbo it says everything clearly. one quick thought though, if you wanted people to make positive choices wouldn't one of those be not consuming your beverage? hmmmm....

personally, i like this idea much better.

thanks fark.

'Lection '08 Logo Showdown

2007-02-22T20:59:00.000-08:00

I know it may seem a little early for this, but we might as well get it out there before the candidates start dropping like flies. As usual, a pretty pathetic crop.

I declare Obama the winner of the Dems and McCain the winner of the Rupublicans (although the baseline of his little c bugs me).

Democrats

Republicans

mmmmm... grainy

2007-02-20T18:31:00.000-08:00

old

new

fashionistas in training

2007-02-20T18:19:00.000-08:00

thanks to grace POWkang for pointing out these fine garments. i wonder if you pay $69 for the "kern" sweatshirt, available from veer, if it will teach you how to properly kern? for that much i should at least get a free copy of the adobe type library or something. not to be picky or anything but i really wouldn't have much use of the veer type library so i vote for practicality with adobe instead. but please note how happy it will make you when you wear it! forget uppers, i just need a sweatshirt to wear every day. i don't know what i would wear in summer though.

and who doesn't love a good drop shadow?

[ drop da shadow ]

face-off

2007-02-11T13:15:00.000-08:00

with a title like the number 23 i'm surprised they didn't rip off michael jordan instead.

sagmeister's artwork for lou reed from 96

interestingly enough hbo this fall also produced posters for rome that looked strangely similar to sagmeister's work. the new thing must be to scour the design annuals for work that is 10+ years old and reintroduce it to society. i'm off to see what was hot in 97.

she's so punk

2007-02-03T18:41:00.001-08:00

farewell to the stars and stripes

2007-02-03T18:38:00.000-08:00

old

new

the new logo says utility company to me. and i don't get the tagline at all. is it saying that being old is so bad that you just can't take it?

insert rolling eyes icon

2007-02-02T07:33:00.000-08:00

this poster is potentially the worst warhol rip-off ever. potentially. i'm sure there has been worse.

i just don't get the entire rationale of making one poster that is decent, bordering on creative (see below) and one that is awful (above). it seems to be a requirement though.

dear mr. madden

2007-01-30T09:58:00.000-08:00

hello steve, how are you? i thought we should have a little chat. now you and i both know that you are pulling in a few bucks. dare i say you probably had a bit of a better year than i did. so do you think that maybe you could invest some of that revenue into creating an identity that doesn't look like it was made in 1980? i understand that there is an interest in keeping your roots, not deserting where you have come from... but at some point you have to take a bit of a leap. and it's not that the 80s are that bad, it's just that this isn't a good 80s thing.

it's not that i don't enjoy your logo. the centered serif type above and below is quite fetching. certainly far different than actually doing something with the type. however, i'm not sure what exactly the type seems to be perched on. at first i assumed it was a donut. afterall shoes and donuts go together like pb&j, but i'm not sure if a donut was the intended visual outcome. and what about the two holes? one could say they are sprinkles, if so obviously someone was not feeling generous at the donut factory. or perhaps they indicate where you are supposed to punch holes after you cut the donut-shape out with a pair of scissors? you then feed a piece of string through the two holes and wind it up. as it unwinds your name is freed from the donut and then trapped again. it really is a brilliant optical illussion.

well whatever your rationale steve, i hope you choose to address your identity soon so that i will have something equally negative to say about the new version.

ps: i'm all for minimalism, love black and white, but there is something about your stark white box with your sad, sad logo that makes me want to beat your box with a bat. so to be generous i showed a variation of your logo... white on black. crazy, but it actually looks better like that.

pss: i really really do not like your ads with those bratz like scary little girls. could you change those too? actually they really really bother me.

josef mueller brockman called

2007-01-30T09:51:00.000-08:00

and he's pissed off that you stole his bethoven poster to hawk your reality tv show.

like a really expensive design 1 project

2007-01-28T12:40:00.000-08:00

but really well executed. i saw the commercials repeatedly on tlc last night. very nice.

trendy stuff

2007-01-16T12:51:00.000-08:00

found this site the other day while looking for some designer-friendly presents. if you are cool you might even find info on your city. of course i have a complaint though… it is really difficult to read the clunky sans on the map and the icons are a little annoying. i think part of it is that there are so many damn colors too. vignelli would be happy to offer some suggestions. but overall i like the idea and the resource.

[ superfuture ]

branding is trashy

2007-01-05T15:31:00.000-08:00

someone on fark posted a link to this analysis of the 40 tons of confetti used in times square on new years eve. is that considered littering target?

[ bullseye trash ]

nice cards

2007-01-05T15:19:00.000-08:00

finally after months of searching i have found the solution to my stationEry problems in nyc. my friend jessica had told me about greenwich letterpress which carries nice cards by some big names in the stationery world. small store, decent selection of quality goods. i had also traveled to farfetched which had a slightly larger selection but less originality and overall design-goodness. today i ventured to 18th street which seems to be the mecca of paper.

first stop was printicon. they have a letterpress running in the front of the store and offer a lot of unusual designs as far as cards go. they also have a wide variety of giftwrap, clear envelopes, and other good stuff. i ventured down the street a few doors more where i found paper presentation which is a sea of paper. their card selection isn't that great but they carry all of the cargo boxes you could ever want, as well as envelopes in every color and shape you can imagine, and every little paper-related thing you could ever ask for. it makes dick blick and pearl's selection cower in fear.

so if you are looking for nice, individual cards i would still opt for greenwich (greenwichletterpress.com). for unique boxed cards go to printicon (service is kind of slow though, printicon.com). for everything else paper go to paper presentation (kind of pricey though, paperpresentation.com). whatever you do, avoid kate's paperie (pretentious crowd, extremely overpriced). online you can also search greer chicago (jessica's favorite, greerchicago.com).

too slow

2007-01-05T15:05:00.000-08:00

i decided to play detective and i thought i had solved the design crime of a century. unfortunately someone else beat me to the punch. i was watching the hp commercials that motion theory did, the ones with the hands starring jay-z, shaun white, and others. i really don't like them, there is something about them that really bothers me. i guess that is neither here nor there. but while flipping through the aiga design archives i stumbled upon a match to the treatment that hp used for the campaign. upon searching for a sample of the hp hand for verification i found that someone else had already solved the crime.

funny because the hands that gray318 (nice name) created for the foer book reminded me of the lemony snickets posters, which of course i'm sure are derived or lifted from hand-lettered french posters. the hand campaign for hp was created by goodby, silverstein and partners and motion theory developed the motion graphics for the commercials. i wonder how all of the parties feel about blatantly ripping off another designers work? i'm sure that they don't care at all and would make up some sort of smart, advertising-related banter to clear their names. interesting that they were named creativity magazines agency of the year. creativity obviously does not mean originality.

does this kerning make my album title look fat?

2007-01-05T15:02:00.000-08:00

i think the album should be called kerning ( a disaster). couldn't someone at least catch the extra space before "a"? sorry for the crappy quality, it's the sucktastic razr.

an inconvenient truth?

2006-12-28T16:31:00.000-08:00

i watched al gore's little "slideshow" (as he likes to call it) a couple of weeks ago and it has really been bugging me. i know about global warming, i'm not denying it exists and it will probably off most of us if other diseases don't first. the one thing that really stood out was how the director made it seem like he created the "slideshow". the director would have you believe that al is crafting his presentation in keynote by himself, painstakingly creating interesting flow charts and splicing in video clips by matt groening. in fact i did a bit of research and found this article on apple about the creation of the graphics, and yep, they are making it look like he did the work there too:

[ keynote and an inconvenient truth ]

at first i thought that al was quite a crafty guy. politician, advocate, graphic designer. i believed that maybe someone had developed some templates for him or something and so he was able to use those to build his presentation. but then it hit me like a ton of bricks when i saw his use of hanging punctuation. how could gore know about hanging punctuation when most designers don't even use them? from that point on i became more and more agitated. every time they showed a shot of him dragging little frames around it made me hostile, to the point i could no longer enjoy the movie. in the credits buck in la is listed as doing the presentation for the film, and there are many resources on these internets that talk about their contribution to the film.

[ buck la ]
(they also did those cingular commercials that to me look like the walmart smiley face ads).

i can't understand why this was basically hidden, or disguised in the film. maybe i'm over-analyzing, and the majority of the viewing public probably didn't give two shits about who created the visuals. they probably didn't know that mr. gore did not, but i did. damn it. i guess he also created the poster while he was at it.

an inconvenient truth you say? yes, clearly.

i am moderately obsessed with goldfrapp

2006-12-28T16:27:00.000-08:00

and this common video is nice too.

the salaries took all of the budget

2006-12-28T16:21:00.000-08:00

i always liked the poster for the remake of oceans 11, even though the type is a bit too heavy and distracting. i thought it was a nice, simple solution and black/white/red always look fancy. don't know what happened to the one for 13 though. must have been budget and creative constraints that limited any taste.

i blame the death of clooney's beloved pot-belly pig.

what's that?

2006-12-08T06:10:00.000-08:00

hold on just one minute. is this a major movie poster that i actually like? i never expected such a thing to happen.

thanks to brandon for pointing this out…

[ poster fun ]

for once, i don't blame brit brit

2006-12-02T19:25:00.000-08:00

the girl might copy her style, songs, and performances off of other single-name divas, but for some reason i highly doubt she is the one that came up with the idea of this packaging.

from sociallitelife.com:

Britney's new fragrance "Midnight Fantasy" is a dead ringer for the Worth perfume "Dans La Nuit." It made it's market debut three years after "Chanel No. 5" in 1924. The perfume didn't have the staying power that No. 5 has, but it will bring home about $2,000 for an empty bottle. Ms. Spears has created an identical bottle filled with what I am guessing is the sent of flowers, Cheetohs, and desperation.

letter/figure substitution fun!

2006-11-30T19:26:00.000-08:00

i don't really have anything to say, just wanted to note this.

oh yeah, i am into hour one of the superman returns bonus features and yeah, it is still da' bomb.

a beautiful statement

2006-11-30T11:53:00.000-08:00

i saw these seats at the 7 station and i thought it was some sort of prolific, artistic statement. after a while i decided that the statement was that the mta is too lazy to unwrap the seats. either that or they copied a page out of grannies guide and like to keep the plastic on to keep it looking nice. they really were quite interesting as cardboard wrapped, stapled, and wire bound forms. i know, who cares.

city sounds

2006-11-30T11:49:00.000-08:00

i'm pretty sure i posted this before but it's worth a gander.

[ giant steps ]

asking for donations at the end of it is pretty lame. i have to remember to get a paypal function on all of my sites.