An educator bloogging about graphic design.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

You’re Logo is, Like, So Trendy

In the post-modern world of graphics design, influences and trends are all over the map. There are as many substyles and influences as there are major movements. Edgy, award-winning designs can be as eclectic as fashion or music. It isn’t enough anymore to have a logo that is simple and clean. Identity design can now be springy, wiry, droppy or poppy. This Graphic Design USA article examines 15 current trends in identity design with examples and short discussions of each.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Do it Clean

Think “more type, less image.” Think of a German guy with wire-rimmed spectacles. Think of a great sans serif font with an open-counter two-story g. Think of designing things so well that you take them for granted. They don’t look created at all, but as if they have always been.

Design with authority, function, and clarity is what Erik Speakerman’s company MetaDesign is all about. If you’re doing identity design, as my Design I class is right now, you’ve gotta give MetaDesign its due. Check out their work before finishing your thumbnails.

Friday, September 22, 2006

Partners in Health Poster Project

This assignment in this Design I project is to design a poster to raise awareness of Partners in Health, the Haitian healthcare organization created by Dr. Paul Farmer. This is part of Pellissippi's Common Book Experience, in which first year students are reading, discussing and creating work based on Mountans Beyond Mountains by Tracey Kidder. Students created original images or used stock photos with permission. Click on the comments link at the bottom of this posting to leave a comment about which are successful and which could be improved.

PIHposter
Jill Buckley


kitty_garland_poster
Kitty Garland


Russian
Jeff Sellers


Haiti - Nobody Wants to See
Charles Jenkins


poster rough 5
Bailey Robinson


ProjectFinal
Tommy Hinshaw


_copy
Satoko Arai


Untitled-4
Nathan Greenleaf


Poster 4 curves [Converted]
Melissa Dos Santos


Haiti Poster
Matt Isbill

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Convocation T-Shirt

NationAssigning this project on short deadline with high visibility worried me, but my Design II students have risen to the ocasion. After reviewing lots of solid designs using slogans from Mountains Beyond Mountains and original imagery the students created themselves, the class chose this design by Julian Baker to print and wear to convocation on Friday morning.

The slogan is from Kidder’s book: “The only real nation is humanity.” The typographic treatment in Julian’s design emphasizes “Nation” with an oversized Helvetica headline that identifies the wearer as a member of this “nation.”

The T-shirt design would be part of an awareness campaign to Promote Partners in Health, using musicians as unpaid spokesmodels at rock festivals and in music videos. Jubilee USA used a similar campaign with Bono of U2 as spokesmodel in 2000.

Check out the online store Rosalie Hadley created in one day to sell these T-shirts. All profits will go to Partners in Health.

Jennifer Maki T-Shirt Design

haiti swirls 4[1]The assignment: Create an awareness campaign for Partners in Health targeting 18–25 year-old Americans. Begin with a T-shirt design to be marketed on the web using celebrity spokesmodels. Here are Jennifer’s comments:

“I chose the outside of the design to be box-shaped because Haiti seems to be in its own little box, but there are openings in the sides to allow Haiti to “escape” so to speak. I tried to make the design look rough by using different brushes to convey the feeling of everything being hectic yet kept the design symmetrical to “give stability in an unstable world.” Of course, I chose the color maroon/dark red for blood. The “H’s” are lined underneath each other to create the illusion of a ladder “climbing up out of poverty” and the words “Help. Heal. Hope.” can also be read as “Help heal hope.” I tried to give the design a vintage feel since the audience is in my age-group and kept it a two-color process.