swissmiss

Aesthetic Apparatus Studio Tour

The Post Family visits Aesthetic Apparatus. Read the interview.

The Vignelli Canon

Massimo Vignelli has published an amazing 96 page book on better understanding typography in graphic design. Wonderful! The book is available for free online in PDF format. Thank you Massimo!

(via aisleone)

Little Fury | NYC design studio

This morning I attended the AIGA Breakfast Club and had the pleasure to meet Tina Chan and Esther Mun, the unbelievably talented and much admired forces behind LittleFury. So wonderful to meet the designers behind the pieces you hold in such high regard. Hat tip and bow!

AIGA SmallTalk: Lars Müller

What a treat to have fellow swiss, Lars Müller, speak at one of the wonderful AIGA Small Talks here in NYC. Lars Müller is a well respected figure in the graphic design, architecture and photography publishing world. You might know or own the infamous Helvetica: Homage to a Typeface Book, which is definitely one of my favorites.

Michael Bierut introduced Lars Müller, pointing out how impressed he is by the fact that even though Müller is mostly his own client, he doesn't become self-indulgent but manages to stay focused and maintain a very straight-forward, objective design sense. Bierut admires how Müller's layouts always look precise, engaging and guide the reader right to the content.

In his presentation Lars Müller went through his impressive roster of architecture, design and photography books he's published. He started off his presentation with the question: Why the hell do all designers want to design books? Müller tells us about his realization and fascination about a book being a graphic design medium which is meant to last. His first publishing experiment was Die gute Form, by the schweizer werkbund, a post bauhaus movement. It was his first book publishing experience and his first experience for this full responsibility for a product. "When you are your own client you really have to do this odd self-dialogue with yourself. You always have to try to anticipate the expectations of your audience."

What became clear from his talk was that Müller always builds up a close relationship to the subject, author or the artist of the book. And that relationship is what has kept him independent so far. He explains that he does books with friends or that authors become friends. "This is the privilege of a one-man business".

Müller points out how gathering the actual content of a book is such a huge process and part of the design of a book. And he admits that every book he publishes has a little biographical annotation or relationship to something that plays a role in his life.

Müller explained how he sees the designer as a 'political being'. "Designers tend to escape into the niche of beauty. We give a value to what we do but somehow the political awareness disapears." Müller started thinking about the possibilities and capacities he had to bring 'a message across' with his work. It's this thinking that led him to create The Face of Human Rights.

He points out how everything we do in our life is somewhat connected to human rights. The visual idea of this book was to express normality, as the best expression of human rights is normality, every day life, freedom, normal behavior.

Another comment that I thought was interesting was his thought on 'a rhythm of reading': "When you look through a visual book you get into rhythm and you start to breath in a certain rhythm, and reading shouldn't stop that rhythm. That's why in some of his books the copy is short enough to guide you on this path of 'visual reading'.

Müller points out how editing images for a book is design work. "Never expect an editor to hand the images over to you. Involve yourself in editing process. Celebrate images you like!"

One of the guests asked what the Human Rights book means for Lars Müller Publishers going forward as it seems to have been a turning point in his career. His answer: "I made one step out of the niche but still stay there! I now simply have an expanded playground. Its not a reaction against something I've done before, I just expanded my territory. I still believe the aesthetic culture is a very strong engine in driving and teaching our society functions and how we relate to other societies."

random poster

Poster by Sissi Edholm and Lisa Ullenius

(thank you hazel)

super minimal coin bank

I believe this is the first coin bank ever that had me look. It was designed by swiss Bruno Limberger (1934-1994) who was a devoted architect, artist, and host. (I can't stand those cheesy coin banks that seem to accumulate in every kid's room. I know, I know, I am such a design snob.)

Culture Bus: Best.Logo.Ever.

The brilliant Culture Bus logo brings together the letters C and B in a form that resembles a route. Best.Logo.Ever. Hat tip to Kit Hinrichs, Pentagram.

(via subtraction)

pantime

Pantime is a student project by James Beattie of Bedford College, UK

(thank you Jeffrey Tribe)

circles

Design by Andy Gilmore.

(via iso50)

Hugo & Marie

Amazing work by Hugo & Marie, a collaborative creative agency in New York.

(via uppercase)

Cooper-Hewitt People's Design Award. Cast your vote!

Here's who I've just voted for at the Cooper-Hewitt People's Design Award. Who did you vote for? If you haven't yet, hurry up!

1 HB Pencil (shavings)

1 HB Pencil (shavings) by Sam Winston. I would *loooove* this print on the wall in my office. Oh my, what a beauty!

(via withassociates)

Kino Babylon Berlin Poster

Kino Babylon Berlin Poster, by Luca Bogoni, D Berlin

Globo Logos

Globo Logos, by Julien Vallée, was created for the Earth Day. A ode to the work of Jacques Languirand. The piece aims to bring purity and dignity back to the ideation process by creating a space where ideas can live and evolve, independent of those who would use them for political or commercial ends.

NNSS

Made me look. Designed by NNSS.

'flowerpots' by rafael sommerhalder

Flowerpots from Crictor on Vimeo.

Flowerpots was one of my personal highlights when judging the Adobe Design Achievement Awards this year. I had the pleasure to meet the creator, Rafael Sommerhalder at the awards ceremony a few weeks ago. Both being swiss, we enjoyed a brief swiss-german chat in the big apple. Always nice!

(thank you rafael, it was lovely meeting you!)

Ed Rondthaler | Trailer

Houseind spent a day filming Ed Rondthaler, the founder of Photo-Lettering, Inc., former president of the American Literacy Council and author of The Dictionary of Simplified American Spelling. They are in the process of editing down all of the film they shot. Click here for the “trailer” he put together so far.

Paul Sahre regrets...

So here's something I have *never* seen in someone's portfolio: A small link to a 'regrets' section of a project. Spotted over on Paul Sahre's site. The regrets paragraph reads:

Please note the ridiculous typo on the front cover, which in effect, re-titles one of the most important books of 20th century. I just noticed this today May 15, 2007, more than 4 years after this redesigned cover first hit the bookshelves. The correct title is “A History of Western Philosophy.” I wonder if Lord Russell would have been ‘philosophical’ about this? “Mr. Russell, the graphic designer thinks the title works better on the cover this way: ‘A’ would hurt the rag, ‘The’ works much better.” I am now sitting in my office, with my chin resting on my fist, thinking about the thousands of philosophy students who have read this book and NOT noticed this.

Oh, and by the way, here's where you can get yourself a copy of A History of Western Philosophy.

UPDATE: I've actually just spent some more time on Paul's site and discovered and entire REGRETS section. How much do I respect and admire Paul's honesty?! Wouldn't we all have tons of material to fill such a section of our site with?

you must....

Beautiful design by Alex Bec! Poster, please?

(via my latest addiction: monster munch)

shredding is all about...

An experimental typographic piece exploring ways of creating three-dimensional letterforms from two-dimensional materials. The work is made from a large sheet of paper which was manually shredded. Each strip was then folded outwards on a pre designed map to create the sentence ‘Shredding is all about the details’. By David Aspinall

(thank you amy)

oh, I heart calligraphy!

Wonderful Calligraphy styles that you can 'buy' for your wedding or birth announcement envelopes. Service provided by minted.

(via disdressed)

3-D Business Cards

3-D Business Cards by graphic-design student Emerson Taymor. Fabulous. Totally made me smile.

(via bblinks)

guillermo brotons | graphic designer

Here’s some Friday smiles from last years London College of Communication MA graduate Guillermo Brotons. ‘48 students, 24 nationalities, 28 languages spoken. All the students in my course were asked to finished the sentence My circle is in their mother language to create a collaborative project that is also a language guide of the class. The cover (pictured) of the book is also a poster, with all the students’ mouths on the front and their names and the languages they can speak on the back.’

(via always fabulous it'snicethat)

.... typography is everywhere.

Bucks New University | WORKSHOP POSTER // MARCH 2008, by Craig Ward.

(thank you kate)

mini tag books...

Made me look: Mini Tag Books, by Erin Zamrzla.

If you are feeling down....

Look Up by Alex Ostrowski

Silhouettes By Frank Chimero

Frank Chimero thought it'd be fun to make a small book comparing his silhouette to a bunch of other famous ones. Once he had chosen some famous silhouettes, he realized, "Oh geez, all these guys are geniuses. I'm just an idiot." So that's what the book became about. It puts him in bouts against Dylan, Duchamp and Hitchcock, and contrasts their profiles through diagrams. He thinks he never really stood a chance, did he? Silhouettes.

Does it have heart?

Inspirational design posters from designer/illustrator Frank Chimero.

(via anamorphosis)

The Happiest Book in the world

In one way or another we are all looking for happiness. Some people even say that man's sole purpose for existence is to hunt down and capture this intangible and elusive treasure. In 2006 researchers at The University of Leicester concluded that Denmark is the happiest country in the world - this was good enough for me. In March 2008 I made the decision to visit happiness, and embarked upon a pilgrimage to find it. My experiences are presented in this book.

The Happiest Book in the world. Only one copy exists. Boohooo!

(thank you kate)

Conversations with Paul Rand

Kelly Blair | Designer

Kelly Blair's Portfolio just had my jaw drop. What a talent! Hat tip!

Johannes Itten: Die Farbe

Johannes Itten: Die Farbe, designed by Max Bill, 1944

Alfred Roth, The New Architecture

Alfred Roth, The New Architecture

(thank you nate)

parking garage typography goodness

Check out this amazing way-finding-system for the Eureka Tower Carpark in Melbourne. The distored letters on the wall can be read perfectly when standing at the right position. This project won several international design awards and is the brainchild of Axel Peemoeller. Brilliant!

(thank you adam)

Logo animation by Trollbäck

Trollbäck + Company has created a logo animation for the amazing World Science Festival, taking place right now in New York City. Love it.

AIGA small talk summer special: Si Scott

In his first-ever New York appearance, Si Scot, will reveal his obsession with pen and ink and the passion for illustrated typography that drives his UK-based Si Scott Studio. Seats will go fast in the intimate Bumble and bumble space so reserve now!

posters by lark

"Apolitical Statements" by Lark

shape typeset

Love this shape typeset by Tim Fishlock.

(via onpaperwings)

Julia Hoffmann on Designing Minds

Very proud of you, Julia!

woof woof!

One of the animals Heather Moore cut from paper to illustrate the chinese horoscopes in the Vide e Caffe in-store magazine, Obrigado. Also, check her etsy store.

(via blumen falten)