Great Use of Icons and Color in Motion
Check out this video profile of Japan and notice the great use of icons and color in to distinguish information and categories.
A Celebration of the Letterhead
The other day I received an e-mail with a signature that was longer then the actual message. The font was hideous in a color that was almost illegible. This type of bad design made me long for the days of hand written notes on letterhead! Then I found Letterheady.com, a site devoted to sharing classic, even famous, letterhead designs.
Get Inspired by Sarasota’s School of Architecture
Ralph Twitchell's Lu Andrews House No. 3, built in 1959, is among the "Sarasota School of architecture" homes featured in "Sarasota Modern." COURTESY PHOTOS / RIZZOLI INTERNATIONAL Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
Getting inspiration from our environment is a great way to switch up your layout design. Sarasota’s school of architecture is a collection of mid-century modern creations by the likes of Paul Rudolph, Victor Lundy, and William Zimmerman to name a few. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune offers more information here.
If you would like to tour many of these famous buildings, check out the Sarasota Architectural Foundation here.
MoMA Adds “@” to Collection
The Museum of Modern Art in New York City as added the @ symbol to it’s architecture collection. The most notable use of the the symbol is in e-mail addresses, but it has also been added to the list of popular abbreviations used by text messaging addicts.
The symbol is used by designers to convey a technological edge, but in my opinion seems to cheapen the design. This may be in part due to its over use in clip art collections and very bad PowerPoint presentations.
Find out more here.
Not published? Why not?
I’ve found three services that can help you get your work out to the masses. Good for printing your first novel or portfolio, Blurb will print your masterpiece and mail it to your door step. It’s online platform lets you great your work by simply uploading your design files or choosing a template. This simple and easy service is almost foolproof.
Now, if you’re looking for a content management system (CMS) with a clean design and can handle the last two decades of your work, then Cargo Collective is your answer. This company has created a CMS specifically for the creative community. What set it apart is it’s networking feature, which allows you to follow other artists and explains the “collective” side of this company.
Getting published is great, but where’s the money? Lulu has this part covered. The online publisher will print and deliver your work just like Blurb, but they go a step further. Lulu offers clients an option to register an ISBN and will distribute your book internationally.
Instant Portfolio
Here’s the situation: you’re on board an American Airlines flight to London to Chicago to visit some friends. The passenger next to you opens up SkyMall and mentions the horrific layout and terrible font choices, you agree. This starts a discussion about some simple fixes the magazine could have made. It turns out that the passenger in seat C is actually an art director for a firm in Atlanta. This is it. It’s time to sell yourself, but you didn’t pack your portfolio!
Once solution is a smart little product by Memolio. They make pocket-size photo decks. There are a lot of uses for this product, but for the designer it can be a ticket to their dream job. You can upload any set of images, anywhere and Memolio will send you a deck of photos attached by a steel rivet.
This pocket album is a great way to share your work and comes with “Memolio Mini’s” (business cards) with a url where your images are hosted.
Custom Boardshorts
Here’s another great way to spend your heard earned dollar–custom designed boardshorts. Yes, that’s right. Shortomatic has been printing custom graphics on swimsuits for the last few years. The company will print any image you desire along with custom text and stitching.
Some Facts About the Internet
Check out the typography and color choices in this video.
