American culture is in a do-it yourself craze. There are quick and easy guides to everything under the sun, from sewing on a button to remodeling your house. Ideapaint fits right in with this entrepreneual scene. Essentially, IdeaPaint can create a whiteboard environment wherever your ideas might take form (walls, columns, doors, refrigerators, bathrooms, etc.)—but [...]
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
The premiere issue of emDash is a collaboration between students in my design writing and editorial design classes at George Mason University. Much of the content developed out of this class, and some of the shorter pieces appeared here, though most in slightly different form. Hats off to Jamielyn Smith and Teodora Blindu, the editorial/design [...]
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Giambattistas Bodoni grew up in Italy quite some time ago. He is relavent because he is highly revered in the typographic world for his contribution to the trade. He was born with the advantage of being raised within a family that was lead by a father and grandfather who were prominant printers of that time. [...]
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Allan McCollum has designed a system to create a unique two-dimensional shape for every person on the planet. Using Adobe Illustrator, McCollum creates small shapes, which he cuts and pastes into larger and larger shapes, keeping track of each assembly to guard against duplication. His system could potentially be used to create 31 billion shapes, [...]
Saturday, January 31, 2009
We have all seen the image, a black and white, cut-out rendition of former wrestler Andre the Giant’s face, with the word OBEY printed below. That is if you have walked down a few city streets across America, and some other countries. The sticker, wheat poster, stencil, screen-printed or spray-painted image has been popping up [...]
I wanted to share a post card design by U.S. Marines Corps. When I got this 4”x 6” post card in the mail, I was directly drawn to its photo. For a good few seconds I wanted to figure out how this marine is located in the picture and how this photo is taken. Is [...]
It’s late at night, and there’s nothing good on TV. You find yourself skimming though the channels in aggravation. Suddenly, you come across a commercial that advertises IHOP’s special triple-deck pancakes with four eggs and sausages meal. You watch intently as the cook flips each pancake onto the dinner plate. So delicious. Your mouth starts [...]
McCain Lies The campaign race is finally over, but the words from the paid advertisement from each party that was broadcasted over the radio are still regurgitating in my mind. McCain was called out for campaign ads with half-truths and many reports have proven his claims to be completely false and misleading in many [...]
I recently read an interesting article on Print magazine’s website. In the article, several typeface designers discuss how they feel when they see their work used poorly. I would think that if an artist took the time to design a typeface, to have thought long and hard about the proportions and weights, that they [...]
I’ve added a link to a collection of the New York Times Magazine’s wonderful “Consumed” column which gets into product design, marketing, and quite often where those topics intersect with graphic design. It’s suggested reading for all GD students. For a taste, see today’s piece on brands and personal performance.