designcrit

My Blog Has Moved

2007-04-17T00:26:00.000-07:00

Click here to go to my new, improved blog, including free downloads, design projects, and more.

All the Whos in Whoville

2006-12-16T07:32:00.000-08:00

Fah who for-aze!
Dah who dor-aze!
Welcome Christmas,
Come this way!

Yesterday I filed my grades. As I clicked “submit” I thought I heard the distant sound of all the little Whos in Whoville singing for joy.

Last night Karen and I celebrated with the chicken fajita quesadillas special and a pitcher of margaritas at our favorite Mexican dive Senor Tacos. Chloe performed interpretive dance and practiced her 4-year-old spanish on the waitress. Stella fussed, but nobody complained. Despite the strangely spring-like weather, we were ready to deck some serious halls.

When we got home Chloe and I wrapped presents. She is learning to tuck the corners of the wrapping paper the way my mom taught me, and she’s getting pretty good at it. This morning I’m working on DIY Christmas gifts. More on this later — I don’t want to tip off anybody who’s on my gift list. But I will say that it involves grocery shopping and dumpster diving. Two things that don’t normal go together.

I’ve mailed my AIGA holiday cards. I’ve helped Chloe email Santa. I’ve listened to the Blue Hawaiians’ Christmas on Big Island. I’ve watched my neighbor Ethan’s DVD of White Christmas with Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney. I’ve read How The Grinch Stole Christmas to Chloe. There’s a a week and a half of shopping days left.

Welcome Christmas, come this way!

New Links

2006-12-11T18:41:00.000-08:00

It’s exam week, and I’m catching up on a few things here…

Threadless MySpace meets T-shirt design. The participants submit, view and vote on designs, then they are screen printed and sold via the same site. I want all these shirts!

The Design EncyclopediaThis would have come in handy for the Typography review last week. Want to know whether Bauhaus is a style, a school, or a magazine? You can find out here. it looks like a work in progress…

Carbonmade Nifty free portfolios in a social online space. Looks good for my students. Cute graphics, DIY interface, tagged by category. Suggests freelance work but probably doesn’t attract that much. Lots of wannabes.

Good is Dead Chip Kidd’s personal website. This is the only place I’ve ever seem web so much like print design, all the way down to crop marks and a CIP page. I’ve got to get Chip Kidd: Book One

Research Studios The studio that Neville Brody founded that has redesigned the legendary London Times, rebranded Macromedia before Adobe bought them, and lots of other nifty projects.

ka-chink. RrrrrrrrrrrrrCHUNK!

2006-12-09T12:25:00.000-08:00

I heard the sound of a Number Four Vandercook proofing press in my car this week during the commute home after teaching. It was recorded as part of the NPR Sound Clips series on All Things Considered. When I was an MFA student at Cranbrook we had a Vandercook in the basement, right next to a MacIntosh loaded with Pagemaker and hooked up to a dot matrix printer. They made a strange pair: an outmoded printing machine and one still coming into its own.

A few years later I was designing books at University of Illinois, where larger letterpresses and linotypes were still in use. A trained operator gave me a tour, setting my name in 18 pt. Futura and tossing me the heavy, hot slug of metal fresh out of the typesetting machine. Ouch. That’s why they call it hot type, kid.

For more on letterpress, check out…

Knoxville’s own Yee Haw Industries
Hatch Show Print in Nashville
and Briar Press, a great online letterpress resource.

George Lois Interview

2006-12-02T15:31:00.000-08:00

I just heard a terrific interview with the creator of this 1968 magazine cover. AIGA Design Legend George Louis depicted controversial boxing legend Muhammad Ali as the arrow-pierced martyr St. Sebastian. Lois had to persuade Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad to allow Ali, a converted Muslim, to appear as a famous Christian martyr. After he managed that and they were shooting the photo, Ali started astutely named each fake arrow after one of his critics, beginning with Lyndon Johnson. Lois has edited a new book on Ali. And speaking of books, Lois’ Ali cover appears in Megg’s History of Graphic Design.

Ad Campaign Pitches

2006-11-08T15:07:00.000-08:00

Today my Design II students presented their ad campaign ideas in class. Now that the presentations are over, students and others will choose the three best pitches by clicking on the “comments” below their favorites. Students should use their first name when leaving comments. Winning students will select a team member and complete their campaign, with at least three pieces and two media. The losers will be interviewed to work for the winners, sharing the work and the grade.

Julian Baker: Progressive Auto Insurance

2006-11-08T15:03:00.001-08:00

This campaign will promote how Progressive has lower rates for drivers with a clean record. These ads will have different types of photos like this one, that have the really posed, sort of awkward suburban portraits. The headline may very from “I” to “We” or whatever the photo pertains to.

Congratulations! Julian's pitch was chosen and he is now an art director, creating a campaign based on this ad. Jessica is on his team.

Patrick Killeen: Amnesty International

2006-11-08T15:03:00.000-08:00

Awareness campaign to raise knowledge/profile of AI in the US. Avoiding the divisiveness of the US political landscape by concentrating on AI projects to eliminate child executions and the use of children as soldiers.

Rosie McGee: General Electric

2006-11-08T15:02:00.001-08:00

My company is General Electric. My focus is the new Select Edition series, a WalMart exclusive series that is very stylish and futuristic. My campaign will include direct mail, a news ad, and a magazine ad.

Adam Sullivan: Pottery Barn

2006-11-08T15:02:00.000-08:00

I’m designing for Pottery Barn, and I chose to do print ads for there christmas decor. I also want to make postcards/ christmas cards from Pottery Barn mailed out to certain buyers such as the more sophisticated home decorators. I would also like to make web banners, and mini catalogs for the christmas season. I want to keep it simple with the headline “inspired giving” and “christmas 06” I want the product to speak for itself as they do on pottery barns website and catalog.

Teela Fleeman: Altoids

2006-11-08T15:01:00.001-08:00

With Altoids having such a strong campaign currently I decided to expand within that campaign. I created a mini-campaign with the underlying idea of the many things you can do with the Altoids tin when finished with the mints. The ideas ranging from do-able things to comical uses. My chosen mediums are magazine ads, billboard ads, and direct mailers.

Congratulations! Teela's pitch was chosen and she is now an art director, creating a campaign based on this ad. Adam, Bailey, David and Rosie are on the Altoids team.

Rosalie Hadley: Jet Blue

2006-11-08T15:01:00.000-08:00

Each ad refers to classic songs related to travel destinations that Jet Blue has connections. The Hook: If you go to the Jet Blue website (www.jetblue.com) you can download the song as a ringtone for your phone. Once you go to their website you will see all the fabulous perks of flying Jet Blue.

Congratulations! Rosalie's pitch was chosen and she is now an art director, creating a campaign based on this ad. The Jet Blue includes Elizabeth, Heather, and Mike.

Melissa Parker: American Apparel

2006-11-08T15:00:00.001-08:00

Congratulations! Melissa's pitch was chosen and she is now an art director, creating a campaign based on this ad. The American Apparel team includes Dennis and Patrick.

Ashley Martin: Brewtopia

2006-11-08T15:00:00.000-08:00

The only beer company Built by the People for the People. This campaign will bring attention to the main point in hand…Label your own beer! This company entitles each individual to create their own label to go on the beer they drink. Order on line and in 7–9 days the product arrives at your home or business. This is a perfect idea for businesses that serve alcohol, individual purchase, special events, or even personalized gifts. The media that I intend on utilizing are print ads, billboards, web banners, and possibly direct mail.

Mike Reedy: Candie’s Vintage Clothing

2006-11-08T14:59:00.000-08:00

My campaign targets women from 15 to 55 years old. This is a demographic which Targets women who began wearing Candies apparel in the early 80’s and still like the Fashion styling and young women who are just beginning to appreciate the style of the Vintage look. These ads would work best, in my opinion, on billboards, bus/transportation adverts and Any place where they would be displayed in large format due to the vibrance of the Hot Pink and purple color scheme.

Heather Burson: Nabisco

2006-11-08T14:58:00.001-08:00

Ad Campaign for Nabisco’s Pure White Fudge Covered Oreos (a limited edition for the winter months) Campaign slogan: Nothing this good lasts forever. The campaign will have a nostalgic, winter–inspired feel with limited body copy. It will be presented in the fields of print, web banners and packaging.

David White: Biowillie

2006-11-08T14:58:00.000-08:00

My client for my campaign is Biowillie. Biowillie is Willie Nelson’s own company that sells Biodiesel, a alternitive form of diesel fuel that mixes conventional diesel fuel with a soy bean extract to form a cleaner, more efficient fuel. My campaign will consist of bumper stickers, city bus ads, print ads, and a direct mail piece.

Dennis Burchfield: Rock the Vote

2006-11-08T14:57:00.000-08:00

The campaign should center itself around the web site. It should also directly approach the audience to make a sailing point. It has to be creative, cool, interesting, and Informal but in no way condescending to the viewer. One way is to set up a “Rock the Vote” booth with voter registration cards and information on local political issues. The best way to reach the audience is through things that appeal to them. Music, Art, Internet, and local issues. There could even be an essay contest on “Why Vote”, the Articles could be placed in a popular magazine and the grand prize could be something like a “Stars and Stripes guitar by Gibson Lespaul”.

Matt Lewis: Urban Outfitters

2006-11-08T11:11:00.001-08:00

As I was doing research, I looked at companies similar to Urban Outfitters like banana republic, Hollister and American Eagle I noticed that they never advertised any certain products it was mostly concentrated on brand awarness and getting their name out, I decided to stick with that same idea with my campaign. My campaign is going to consist of print ads and direct mailers to raise brand awarness targeted to both male and females ages 16-25.

Congratulations! Matt's pitch was chosen and he is now an art director, creating a campaign based on this ad. Ashley and Jessica are on the Urban Outfitters Team.

Jessica McLaughlin: NLA's Banned Books Week

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

This campaign is geared to reach a widespread demographic, from the young, to the old. I wanted to do a strong, eye-catching design that would stand out against other poster or billboard designs. The message I wanted to get across is that the censoring of these books is not taking away the problem, it's simply putting a blindfold over a problem that you don't feel comfortable dealing with. This piece will be delivered through public libraries with my poster and bookmark design.

Elizabeth Vanderford: Ikea

2006-11-08T11:06:00.000-08:00

Ikea Home Account is an original product I've developed for this particular account. The home account will be marketed to 20-30 year olds entering their first marriage, and establishing their home for the first time. This product will be marketed through web banners as well as magazine print ads using the slogan "the gift of home."

Bailey Smith: Sonic

2006-11-08T10:43:00.000-08:00

this campaign is targeted at reinventing the look of sonic. points of emphasis are convenience, high quality-low cost, and a fun atmosphere. this will be communicated by using vector graphics and clever slogans. media types include billboard (shown here), direct mailer with coupons, and product packaging.

Voices Poster

2006-11-04T15:50:00.000-08:00

It’s all smoke and mirrors: a blue blur and a bunch of curlicues. My latest design for the annual Voices dance concert just came back from the printer, and I’m happy with it. I’ve always wanted to use the Missionary font in a design, and I think it works here. This wispy, elegant design by Miles Newlyn blew my mind when I saw it in Emigre’s catalog in 1991. The thin, ornate victorian strokes outline implied postmodern letterforms. Here I resort to using London Between by François Bruel to punch up the readability. I got a guilty pleasure out of downloading a free font. Ah, the smell of ink on paper!

Design Imitates Life

2006-10-28T16:14:00.000-07:00

If you’ve driven along I-40 east into downtown Knoxville, you may have seen this billboard and done a doubletake. Baptist Creative Manager Kieth Grubb created this new campaign that imitatesinterstate signage with a clever message. An article in the Knoxville News-Sentinnel suggests Baptist may be breaking the law, and could be asked to remove the sign(s) by the Tennessee Department of Transportation.

Here’s my interview with Kieth:

Student Libri Vox Designs

2006-10-27T19:48:00.000-07:00

This Open Door Design project has been several months in the making, and here are the results. My Design I students at Pellissippi State designed these CD covers as portfolio-quality work to be uploaded and shared with the world online. Some special folks from Canada to New Orleans have been waiting to see these covers, and I hope they enjoy using them as much as we enjoyed creating them.

The public domain audio recordings are available for free online at Libri Vox, a great new all-volunteer open source project creating audio files of public domain texts. PDF files of the designs will be added to their site so teachers, librarians, and other users can download, print, and burn their own free and legal CDs, complete with cover art and playlists. All designs and illustrations are credited and licenced under Creative Commons so they can be distributed for free.

As our small contribution to recovery from Hurricane Katrina, copies of these audiobooks will be donated to the New Orleans Public Library. Special thanks to Jan Barnes for accepting these CDs!

Here's an email from NOLA aquisitions librarian Jan Barnes:

Todd:

I love them! I'm especially taken with the Grimm cover. Way cool. And thanks for linking to the Library's website. That's so cool!

Peace!
Jan

Please leave comments below each image: students crave feedback. Look for PDF links to be added soon, and for uploads to Libri Vox to be created as well.

I Have a Dream

2006-10-27T19:23:00.001-07:00

Design by Charles Jenkins.

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death

2006-10-27T19:23:00.000-07:00

Design by Melissa Dos Santos.

American Indian Fairy Tales

2006-10-27T19:22:00.001-07:00

Design by Jill Buckley.

Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm

2006-10-27T19:22:00.000-07:00

Design by Bailey Smith.

The Communist Manifesto

2006-10-27T19:21:00.000-07:00

Design by Nathan Greenleaf.

Five Children and It

2006-10-26T12:29:00.000-07:00

Design by Satoko Arai.

New Typography Links

2006-10-20T09:11:00.000-07:00

Typography. The bottomless well of practical creativity that keeps us from dying in the desert of design boredom. Remember: you can design without images, but if there ain’t no type (or at least linguistic symbols), it ain’t graphic design. These links include foundries, portfolio inspiration, articles, films, and everyone’s favorite: free resources. Drink up!

Foundries
Linotype The grandaddy gorilla of hot metal type. Alive and kickin’.
Monotype Another hot metal survivor with digital originals.
International Typographic Corporation The industry leader in phototypesetting fonts in the 70s
Emigre The magazine that started the foundry that started the revolution.
Hoefler & Frere-Jones The Batman and Robin of contemporary typography.
Veer Type, Illustrations, Photos, and (drumroll) type geekwear!

Portfolio Inspiration
Si Scott Typography that grows vines, ornaments, and doo-dads. Amazing.
Yee Haw Industries Local heros with a national reputation
Hatch Show Print The grandaddy of Letterpress poster shops
David Carson He breaks five typographic rules before breakfast.
Neville Brody Typographic stylemaker

Reading About Type
MyFonts Musings A typography blog
U&LCThe iconoclastic 70s/80s type magazine is now online. Here a few fave articles:
Headlines
Type Hierarchy
ITC Founder’s Caslon
Breaking the Web
Laurentian Canadian Magazine’s commissioned font by Rod McDonald
What Makes a Good Text Typeface?
Kerning in Quark and InDesign
Visual Alignment Making it crooked to look straight.

Free Resources
DAFont Free Fonts organized by theme
MyFonts The who, what, and when of typography. Ugly but useful.
WhatTheFont Your font identified. Amazing! Stupendous!
Cooper Black short film. The life, loves, and memories of a classic.

Briar Press

2006-10-19T12:36:00.000-07:00

A student of mine turned me on to this great letterpress site. Briar Press has an online glossary, discussion board, online museum, and some great free cuts and caps that are perfect for that letterpress feel. And even better, I now know what the heck a “bodkin” is!

You’re Logo is, Like, So Trendy

2006-09-26T12:11:00.000-07:00

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.

Do it Clean

2006-09-24T16:23:00.000-07:00

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.

Partners in Health Poster Project

2006-09-22T11:28:00.000-07:00

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.

Jill Buckley

Kitty Garland

Jeff Sellers

Charles Jenkins

Bailey Robinson

Tommy Hinshaw

Satoko Arai

Nathan Greenleaf

Melissa Dos Santos

Matt Isbill

Convocation T-Shirt

2006-09-06T13:03:00.000-07:00

Assigning 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

2006-09-06T06:26:00.000-07:00

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.

Design for Public Service

2006-08-18T09:43:00.000-07:00

Pellissippi's faculty has chosen Mountains Beyond Mountains as our "common book" for this semester, and I'm planning to use it in my Design I course.

This non-fiction book by Pultzer prize winner Tracey Kidder examines the life and challenge of Dr. Paul Farmer, a doctor who has spent his career working with health crises in Third World countries including Peru, Haiti, and Cuba.

My Design I students will design a public service poster to address one of the health issues in the book, present it to the class for critique. Then the posters will appear here on designcrit for comments.

Although the graphic design profession often focuses its magic on feeding our consumer culture, graphic design can be much more. This project will examine the idea of graphic design for the common good, including historic and contemporary examples.

President Edward's convocation on September 8 will address Kidder's book. All students and faculty will gather that Friday at 11:30 a.m. in Goins Auditorium. In the meantime, students should pick up this book from the curriculum office in the Goins Building and begin reading and brainstorming about their poster.

Camp Poetica T-shirts

2006-08-15T11:44:00.000-07:00

Some mornings after my second cup of coffee I think to myself, “I should become a t-shirt designer.” Usually I lie down and the urge passes, but not today. I started out creating a project for my Pellissippi students, and it sort of morphed from there. What can I say? I’m an obsessive. Camp Poetica is the result.

Check out the entire Cafe Press store here, and remember to buy, buy, buy! Most shirts are bigger than this oompa loompa-sized bugger. I wanted the design to show up more here.

My New Favorite Band

2006-08-05T06:12:00.000-07:00

I’m finding lots of great music on NPR’s “Song of the Day" link. My latest is Malajube, an indie/punk/pop group from Montreal, the only foreign city where I’ve danced in the streets. Their sound is fun and listenable, reminding me of 1970s cartoon pop like the Bugaloos and the Banana Splitz. They have lots in common with these bubble gum pop American bands except one thing: Malajube sings only in French. Le Kewl. Download here.

Malajube’s website, designed by design : virginie + julien is a celebration of quirky simplicity with no flash intro or clickable images. Luckily in this case, simple doesn’t mean boring, and clear does not mean obvious. The Max Ernst-style surrealist diagrams are lovely; the cocktail napkin format inspired. While you’re on the band’s page, be sure to check out the line-drawing Påte Filo video. This is the video that inspired the site.

So lace up your roller skates, jack in your Walkman, and rock on wit’cha bad self.

A Little Flag-Waving

2006-07-04T09:13:00.000-07:00

Here is my Independence Day CD design for Michael Scherer of Americana Phonics. I called it Americana Phonics Foundations, and it includes the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Gettysburg Address. This great collection of "Democracy's Greatest Hits" has an insert that folds out into a mini-poster of the flag, and a tray card that forms the blue field and stars on the left. Click on the cover art above to download a PDF that includes an insert, tray card, and CD face label.

You can download Michael's wonderful readings in MP3 format by clicking the links in the first paragraph. Use iTunes to convert them to .wav file format before burning the CD. One more thing: You'll need to print to tabloid size paper (11 x 17 inches) for the Old Glory insert. If you're printer won't do that, there's a smaller version on the last page of the PDF.

By the way, if you'd like to help create more CDs to donate to New Orleans Public Libraries, click on my face at the top of the blog and send me an email.

Black Beauty

2006-06-13T14:14:00.000-07:00

I remember this book from my elementary school library, and the design inspiration is from my childhood too. The full-bleed photography and Cooper Black / Hevetica Neue typography is circa 1975. Put on your bell bottoms and aviator sunglasses to listen to this classic book in audio format. It sort of looks like it could be a John Denver album.

Click on the cover to download a PDF of the entire package design including tray card, insert, and CD face label. The audio files are available for free download here. Have a nice day.

Giddyup and get to burning a free CD for your favorite little horse lover!

The Waste Land

2006-06-11T06:30:00.000-07:00

Here’s my design for T.S. Elliott’s The Waste Land. It’s clean and simple in black and white. Click on the graphic to download a printable PDF of the entire package. The images are from Baltar at stock.chng, who allows his work to be used without permission. All credits are in the small print on the back of the tray card.

The typeface is Trajan, designed by Carol Twombly. Patterned after the text on Trajan’s Column in Rome, the classical Roman letterforms are a nice counterpoint to the rough, heavy black shape.

The format includes the CD insert, tray card, CD face label, and printing instructions in a single PDF file. Leave a comment about the design — especially the printability. If this formaty works well I’ll use is at the template for other LibriVox designs.

Download the audio files to burn your own CD here.

Five Children and It

2006-06-09T18:10:00.000-07:00

Design by Satoko Arai.

CD designs for LibriVox

2006-06-04T07:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I stumbled upon LibriVox — a rich online community of volunteers recording and distributing audiobooks from texts in the public domain. After a few postings on their forums it looks like they are willing to post CD package designs for free downloading. Some of the LibriVoxers took a look at the draft design I posted here for a Whitman audiobook and seem to like it.

Among the positive responses to the idea was a from Anita in Fan Francisco: “This CD cover / iTunes graphics idea is . . . phenomenal! . . . to be precise about it.”

They have a nice healthy list of completed projects, it’s a friendly group of folks, and LibriVox is less than a year old, so they are pretty flexible. I’m going to donate a few package designs over the summer, and assign them as a project to my students in the fall.

I’m still looking for a home for my students’ book designs. Think I need to post the folks at Project Gutenberg…

A little summer grass

2006-06-03T13:05:00.000-07:00

With 400 poems, there’s a lot of grass here, actually.

Here’s the final version of my CD cover for Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass recorded by LibriVox. Click on the graphic to download a complete PDF to print and assemble your own free CD package. The audio files are available from LibriVox here.

I got nice comments from LibriVoxers on this cover, which uses 1916 botany photos from the Library of Congress that have been tinted blue or green. The feeling is a bit mysterious and organic. I love Whitman’s poetry, and I tend to think it doesn’t get as much attention as it should. His words were really revolutionary and gave us a uniquely American voice.

It’s fun designing these CD packages. They’re free, you’ve probably got a printer and CD burner, so why not make your own summer poetry CD right now?

So Long Richard Eckersley

2006-06-02T07:32:00.000-07:00

Recently my editor friend Scot Danforth told me that Richard Eckersley died on April 17 of this year.

Eckersley was one of the old men of book design that I much admired when I first entered the field in the mid-90s. His prolific work for the University of Nebraska Press combined the kind disciplined typography and attention to detail that makes the difference between a beautifully-designed book and the rest of the herd.

In 1999 I had the chance to take a book design workshop at McGill University in Montreal. Two fond memories stick out from that trip: dancing in the rain with my wife at the Montreal Jazz Festival, and listening to Eckersley's british accent as he discussed the minutia of book design.

Another hero of mine, Rich Hendel, said of Eckersley's work during an exchange program in in 1971:"I returned to find a body of work that looked nothing like scholarly books had ever looked: bold [book] covers done even in those primitive pre-Mac times, interior designs that showed such intelligence."

His design pictured here for Jaques Derrida's Glas received praise in 1986, and he was included in the AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers juried show in 1999, 2001, and 2003.

According to an obituary in the Guardian, Richard is survived by two other book designers: his wife Dika, and their son Sam, as well as daughters Camilla and Nell. His influence on a generation of book designers is unmistakable, and he will be missed.

It’s only rock and roll… but I like it

2006-05-31T04:36:00.000-07:00

I recently got my first tattoo (see the story in one of my other blogs) and ran into an honest-to-goodness graphic designer.

Johnny Hicks was our “concierge” at Saint Tattoo — the guy who answered all our questions and set us up with the tattoo artists. Turns out Johnny has designed some killer posters for bands playing local venues. He does a mean Elvis impersonation as well. His dramatic display type and surreal images really grab the eyeballs.

He also told me his work has been included in The Art of Modern Rock, a serious tome of coffee table coolness that I’ve seen in the window at Yee Haw downtown. He may be included in another upcoming book as well. So check out Johnny’s work at the Saint portfolio page or at another spot here. And if you want to be a Johnny Hicks groupie, shoot him an adoring email.

Rock on!

Student Book Designs

2006-05-23T17:27:00.004-07:00

I’ve finally found the time and resources to begin posting my students’ book designs from the Digital Graphic Design I course at Pellissippi State Technical Community College. Each design is a PDF file that can be easily downloaded and read onscreen printed. Click here for Free File Hosting

These designs are from my most recent course this past spring. Each of these students downloaded a basic text file from Project Gutenberg, edited it to fix spacing and punctuation problems, and created an original design for the text and cover that includes a cover, title page, and typeset chapters. These beautifully-designed books include:

The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux. Design by Heather Burson.
Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein. Design by Roaslie Hadley.
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume. Design by Elizabeth Vanderford.
Dream Psychology by Sigmund Freud. Design by Jessica McLaughlin.

A Big Slice of Pi

2006-05-23T15:36:00.000-07:00

OK, I’ve gone off the deep end by laboriously designing a book nobody will ever read. Actually, that may be no different than my usual book designs, but in this case the book is composed of one million digits of pi, the irrational, never-ending number from high school geometry.

In the era of the microchip and the supercomputer, a million decimals of pi is no big deal, but having it in a book kind of is. I assumed there was no other book like this out there, but The Joy of Pi by David Blatner has a million digits crammed into the margins, accompanied by jokes, history, and a lot of other math-geeky stuff.

I think my version is more arty-looking than the Blatner book, though that one does use Emigre’s Tall Matrix — a very hip font. I used the bar code font OCRA for the numbers, a surprisingly cool-looking early digital font that is almost never used for text. The ubiquitous Monotype Times New Roman is used for the short introduction and back cover text. Oh, and there’s monotype Symbol, the greek alphabet that is designed to coordinate with Times. The curves are my favorite part of the design though, since they imply the meaning of the text. Pi is a ratio describing the relationship of circles to squares, it seems perfect to set the digits in curved columns (although technically they are not columns since they read across, not down.)

So download this ebook for the engineers, and math whizzes (eew!) among us, but forward a copy to the design geeks too. As always, comment away.

Thinking with Type

2006-05-22T04:52:00.000-07:00

I’ve been reading the new typography book we’ve adopted, and I really like its approach. It’s Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton, authour of several other books, and design professor at Maryland Institute College of Art.

I suggested we adopt the book because it is clear and well-written, balancing history, theory, and practice in a succinct and well-written book. Lupton writes from a contemporary perspective without ignoring previous styles and theories. The rich assortment of illustrations range from a 1456 bible page by Johan Gutenberg to a 1990 book design by my grad school’s design professor Katherine McCoy. The author also has a website with additional resources.

Here’s a couple of interesting projects from Lupton’s book:
Letter Exercise Using graph paper or Illustrator, create a grid a certain number of squares high by a certain number wide. Design an alphabet within that rectangle.
Word Exercise Using Futura Bold in black only, design each of the following words on an 8 inch square to convey its meaning: transition, disruption, compression, expansion, migration, elimination, repetition. Letters may be shifted or repositioned but not distorted.

New Classic Book Designs

2006-05-17T10:04:00.001-07:00

I’m enjoying my summer so far, and have been indulging my addiction to book design. Here are cover images for my latest projects. The first I did a few weeks ago while I was teaching my students book design. Hamlet is the first play I’ve designed, and the page layout was a challenge with hanging indents, tabs, and poetry line breaks throughout. My approach was very cool and calculated, a clean sans serif design with a little ornamented script as icing on the cake.

The second image is my cover for Jane Austin’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice. This one is a more traditional design set in Adobe Jenson Pro. I managed to get all 254 pages to bottom out correctly with run-in chapter heads since there are 61 of the things. Karen and I watched the latest film version last night, starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen. I worked on the design on my Mac laptop while we watched it, and it still made an impression. It is a costume drama that surpasses the genre, and is full of great acting.

Click on the book covers to download the PDF, or click on my photo to go to my profile and send me an email. They can be read onscreen or printed to an office printer. I’m using Files.bz for free file hosting.

Our Latest Project

2006-04-09T12:31:00.000-07:00

Stella Marie Duren was born Wednesday, April 5, at 8:02 am. She weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz. Both Karen and Stella are healthy and happy, mostly. There are times at 4 am when things aren’t always so clear.

Besides being supportive enough to wear a goofy blue shower cap for the delivery, I passed the time at the hospital with my laptop and iPod creating a music compilation CD and designing the package. The songs all have “baby” in the title — mostly jazz and cocktail ballads. I’ll have it done in done in time to show my Intro to Mac students.

It's Springtime, and Creative Brains are Blooming

2006-04-09T09:35:00.000-07:00

Spring has sprung here in East Tennessee. Our home is on the Dogwood Trail, and the cars are creeping past as occupants stare. You'd think it would be cool to have your abode admired this way, but it's weird.

Design students are in the home stretch of spring semester, prepping their portfolios and projects. My Design I students are working on their book designs, while Typography is working on the American First Aid Kit and Intro to Mac is designing their CD package.

There are two upcoming events downtown worth doing for designers. So get out there in this great spring weather and do 'em.

Knoxville Museum of Art
Design Lab: TWO (in Minneapolis)
Feb 10-May 21 $5 admission
The design studio TWO, co-run by Deborah Littlejohn and Santiago Piedrafita, displays graphic design's multiple applications, methods and strategies, with focus on the artists' work with font and typeface design.

AIGA Third Thursday Happy Hour
Downtown Grill & Brewery
April 20th, 6-8 pm
Topic: Best and Worst Typefaces

2006 Adobe Design Achievement Awards

2006-01-21T10:37:00.000-08:00

Hey Kids! Here’s another competition worth entering. Adobe’s site calls this “the world’s premier higher education design and film competition.” It requires use of Adobe software in the creation process, so most of our student projects will qualify.

It’s for students only, and the deadline is Submit by April 28, 2006. My suggestion: print two of everything and enter this one and the Dallas one at the same time.

Student Design Competition

2006-01-19T19:32:00.000-08:00

Here's a great student art and design competition that Deb Schmerler at UT told me about. The prospectus is nicely designed in a neo-swiss style, the fees are reasonable ($20 per entry) and the 22 categories include design, multimedia, interactive, photography, illustration and more.

The deadline is February 15, so get on the stick! This is for students only.

Reality Fiction

2006-01-10T16:48:00.000-08:00

Last night while surfing the net, I ran across the Smoking Gun story on James Frey’s book A Million Little Pieces. In it William Bastone claims that Frey exaggerated his own life in creating the book. Today I caught the tail end of an interview with him on All Things Considered.

Speaking as a reader of the book, I could care less whether the book is fact or fiction. The only detail in which I think that is important really is the fact that the book makes a case against the twelve step program. It’s a time-tested program that should not be dismissed by addicts the way it is by the character in the book.

But having said that, I rush to point out that I love this book. It speaks to me in a way that no other addiction or recovery book, or any recent novel for that matter, has. The tight structure of the book, the bluntly stylized writing (no quotation marks or clear paragraph breaks, and an idiosyncratic set of capitalization rules) and the beat-down-but-not-beaten protagonist make this a great book. I picked it up because I know an addict, but I’m writing now because it’s a great book.

Anyone reading Smoking Gun’s slam should check out the book for themselves. It will shatter Bastone’s critique into a million little pieces. Click here to here the author talk about his book and read from it.

Scribbling

2006-01-01T20:04:00.000-08:00

I’m reading A Million Little Peices over Christmas break. This memoir of addiction by James Frey is powerful stuff. It gets me as close to being a self-destructive, booze-swilling, glue-and-gas-huffing crackhead as I want to be, thanks.

The book has has an amazing cover. There are tons of colored cupcake sprinkles stuck all over a man’s hand on an aqua background with contemporary sans serif type. The interior design is nice as well, with part division pages that are scribbles — no text at all. I love the idea of just making marks to break the spell of empty space. Here’s my scribble to “break in” this new blog.