[what about design?]

on the move

2007-08-22T15:56:00.000-07:00

new blog is:

word spacing

this one is dead dead dead.

an f for originality, sadly

2007-06-18T09:40:00.000-07:00

this is what happens when you use stock photography.

deja vu

spotted at reddit

for the love of...

2007-06-16T12:31:00.001-07:00

drop shadows... check!
faux three-dimensional type... check!
swooshes... check!
overlapping type... check!

i honestly can't say if this product identity is new or not but when i saw it on tv today it nearly knocked me off of my chair. imagine the tranquil beauty of seeing this logo on screen shimmering and glittering like a giant plastic button. i still don't understand why commercial product packaging feels the need to make their logos look like plastic three dimesional buttons that are trapped in space. look, i really doubt you are fooling anyone. i would hope that most people realize that your type is just printed on the bottle like everyone else's so i'm not sure why you feel the need to make it extra-dynamic. either way, this product logo needs to be snuffed out like the weeds it promises to kill. then again i really don't care and it doesn't bother me because i have no interaction with it. just noting, wow, that's really fug. it's pretty sad when you idolize the dq logo so much that you feel the need to rip it off. everyone has to have someone to look up to i guess. maybe it's 409 instead?

dot com love-in

2007-06-15T13:28:00.001-07:00

i've been digging through the 2007 webby awards for the past few days. i've seen a couple of things that have been very impressive, mainly the diesel site for the interactive ability and the german adidas site. poke and prod a bit.

adidas

diesel

webby awards

democracy in action part 3!

2007-06-15T09:20:00.000-07:00

nice move pepsi but you are totally behind the whole amateur-designer movement. glad to see that spec work is still continuing strong. anyways, if you love any of these options you can vote, but only if you enter your email and other fun information. screw you pepsi, you aren't going to know who i am. that is until someone does trackback and figures out where i posted this and they track down my isp which will give specific coordinates to my home and they will figure out that i live on the top floor but that the buzzer doesn't work so they will shimmy up the fire escape and break into my apartment (but if they try the living room window they will find out that it only has one pane of glass because i broke the inside pane in a fit of rage over a pigeon) and then the pepsi people will abduct me and take me to an undisclosed location where they will torture me by dumping my head in carbonated beverages for hours and hours.

design our pepsi

spotted at core77

beastly

2007-06-14T12:47:00.001-07:00

i'm not entirely certain what is going on with the new beastie boys album artwork. i know it's supposed to be some crazy, dada'ish piece but it just sort of falls flat about halfway through. it kind of reminds me of those really weird cut and paste conedison posters in the subway stations (if you've seen them then you will know exactly what i'm talking about). anyways, i think the pictogram lettering might have been enough to sell the point. mousetrap anyone?

the wad has been shot

2007-06-14T06:13:00.001-07:00

so a bit about this bloggy thing. first off, i hate the name of it. it was in a fit of rage with blogger that i registered the name because nothing else was available that i liked. the acronym really bothers me and god knows we live in an acronym-obsessed world. well, in corporate america at least.

i'm planning on ditching this blog and moving elsewhere, hopefully to a new blog-friendly format like moveable-type or something like that. blogger is fine for basic blogging but don't plan on having an attractive blog. enough babbling, i'm renaming the site and taking recommendations. if i decide to go really dirty with the name then my friend dan came up with a brilliant name involving rags and periods. it made me laugh but then made me feel not so fresh.

these are some names i've thought of so far. some puns, of course:

+/- design

... (i'm kind of into !!! these days though i am listening to bye bye bye by n*sync while i review this list)

assimilation

bastardized (can i even access that at work?)

baseline

design demerits

em space (duh, my name is an em/m)

ragged right (really like this but hate the 'pubby connotations that may come from it)

refresh (yep, a bit womanly)

unjustified text

word spacing

sdfiuqwoenrakxh

i still want that damn designified name and site but some bloke in the uk has it.

ghosts and giddy girls

2007-06-14T04:19:00.000-07:00

one of the problems with music videos never being shown commercially is that unless you are obsessed with the artist or the director you never know when something new comes out. hence gondry's video for paul mccartney which was released at the end of may.

it's not nearly as fun as a stack of animated legos but i guess it's ok. kind of cheesy. damn it, the song is kind of catchy and now i'll have sir paul playing in my brain all day. no, it will fade away pretty quickly i'm sure.

exactly at what size would tetris be lifesize?

2007-06-13T08:12:00.000-07:00

a marriage of two of my obsessions (tetris and furniture design), brave space design presents the greatest modular shelving unit ever! despite the fact that the sole purpose of tetris is to mess around and goof off, at $600 per geometric piece, brave space is clearly not messing around. (however, they are generous in offering 2/3 scale version at 1/2 the price).

[via:apartment therapy]

go for the rold

2007-06-10T17:20:00.000-07:00

old

new

ok, thankfully this week i FINALLY saw the new rold gold packaging. they have been teasing me for months with printing on their packaging promising the same great taste with a new look. all i can say is was it worth the \ / \ / ait?

nasty natti'

2007-06-10T15:54:00.001-07:00

city logos are all the rage these days, nasty natti' has gotten in on the trend with a fancy new logo. is it a lollipop? bland candyland game board? uh and is that tagline supposed to make me want to visit your city? sounds a little stalkerish to me. wherever you go there you are.

nyc's new city logo – technically now for the tourism department – was recently designed by wolff-olins. you may know wolff-olins from other famous identity designs such as the london 2012 olympics, the london 2012 olympics, and everyone's favorite, the london 2012 olympics. in all fairness the uk office did the 2012 logo but eh, it's not as much fun to admit that. lv20124lfe.

democracy in action part 2!

2007-06-08T10:44:00.000-07:00

wow! everyone is catching on to this vote for your license plate thing! this time it's the great state of south carolina, not to be confused with the backwoods north carolina. at first i thought these options were created by the rude window tellers at the dmv but then i realized that the smart people named the files with people's names. i assume it's the designers. so kudos to matt kamnn, tom crosby, and karen nelson. brilliant job!

my personal choice is number 3 because it is by far the fugliest and it seems to have incorporated a sheet and a tampon string into one stunning visual. karen outdid herself with that gem.

vote now!

spotted at fark

desktop(2)

2007-06-08T07:32:00.000-07:00

core 77 posted a link to a blog that has images of designer's desktops and their desktops. how witty. i wouldn't mind spending a day at sagmeister's desk watching the world go by.

famous desktops

the toast of the ICFF

2007-06-06T20:34:00.001-07:00

inseq design came up with the most practical of inventions: a toaster which toasts pixelated images right onto your wonderbread, adding a dash of delight to your breakfast or your b.l.t. you can set it to burn images at random, select one of their images, or even design your own! i don't know if i can enjoy breakfast until i have one of these in the commune.

picture toast is not a new concept. i know of someone who had a hello kitty toaster:

this belonged, however, to a single middle-aged crazy cat lady, so it wasn't so cool in my book. anyways, pixelated creatures are way cooler than hello kitty.

[via:apartment therapy & moco loco]

panic on the streets of london

2007-06-06T06:20:00.000-07:00

i debated whether or not i should even bother posting about this. i'm sure you've all seen it by now, and i'm sure you've all formulated your own opinion. what can i say about this that hasn't already been said, thought, or written? it reminds me of saved by the bell. an animated sequence was pulled from the olympics website, on the grounds that it triggers epileptic seizures. i think they should just pull the whole thing. it triggers my gag reflex.

i still really love lance wyman's entry for the '68 games in mexico city, including all the pictograms. but, geez. talk about triggering epileptic seizures! his website is fun to poke around in, too. so is this.

is my mind in the gutter or is this sorta phallic looking? or does it look like the olympic rings are giving me the finger? eff you too, georges huel. i must say, however, i'm really digging on all the product that came out of those games. especially those bitchin' fold up sport glasses.

[look at more olympics logos here]

it's like all futuristic

2007-06-06T04:34:00.000-07:00

who does the set design for these presidential debate things? they need to lay off the pipe for a few minutes. dude, it's like all shiny like a spaceship.

pics from cnn

extra squishy

2007-06-04T18:49:00.001-07:00

this just arrived in my hot little inbox... a present from marius and i loves it. especially the cookie.

extra extra

if you aren't familiar with mario's work you should get with the times. i think the extra people ripped him off.

el valdes

keeping up with the (james earl) jones'

2007-06-04T18:14:00.000-07:00

okay, so jej is the voice of cnn and cnn is following msnbc by launching a new redesigned look, but sometimes my corny puns can only go so far.

cnn launched a new beta version of their site today:

this is cnn, beta

of course since msnbc did a redesign in april it is only fitting that cnn followed suit soon after. and of course i'm not crazy about it.

msnbc refresh

you're in good hands, just not with your branding agency

2007-06-03T16:02:00.000-07:00

old

new

allstate has a fancy new 2.0 logo with custom highlights and gradients. thank goodness, i thought a week would go by when i wouldn't see one of those special #4 combos. the new type is decent enough but then again i don't know how you could not improve on the original typography. i just hope when they implement this logo in signage that they include a bubbly backlit sign that will create the same fluid movement.

blech, whatever happened to simple logos that work really well in b/w? will someone chip in with me to bring rand back from the dead to kick some "branding agency" ass. i can't wait to read the bs rationalization behind this one.

filtertastic

2007-06-03T15:54:00.000-07:00

maps, it will find you
director: chris richmond

from antville

and the watercolored girls go "doo doo-doo doo-doo doo-doo-doo..."

2007-06-01T06:06:00.000-07:00

swedish illustrator stina persson uses the same media i love (watercolor, india ink) but executes with such panache that it both makes my mouth water and my heart break. there's something very sultry about the drippy layering, evoking hot and humid summer days. she is particularly clever with masking.

"immacolata and her friends" is persson's solo show, currently at nyc's gallery hanahou, 611 b'way @ houston. it will be up until july 6th. go take a look, and if you have an extra $500-800, think about picking up a piece for my birthday. you know i'd love you forever.

[via:apartment therapy].

"i'm 50! and i can kick... and stretch! and kick!"

2007-05-31T13:13:00.001-07:00

is anyone else tired of hearing about helvetica? i sort of am. it was entertaining for awhile, but now it just won't stop. i guess that's what happens when things turn fifty.

regardless, victrola nachtmuzik has pointed me in the direction of slate.com's slideshow/article tribute to the modernist's quintessential typeface. despite everything i just said about being tired of hearing about it, it was a nice little ode to helvetica, due in large part to the pictures. because i'm not tired of looking at helvetica. just hearing about it.

"It's the tofu of typefaces: bland in itself but ready to absorb whatever flavors you add to it. It's clean, legible, and well-designed, but its real power lies in its uncanny mutability."

modest papercut

2007-05-30T12:49:00.000-07:00

thx to catherine!

"Myself and a couple have friends have entered the above into the Modest Mouse video competition. Using green screen footage provided by the band we cut a simple music video. We then degraded the images and printed out each frame sequentially. (all 4133 of them) We then nailed each "shot" of 50-100 posters to various structures and posts. Then using a digital SLR camera with a long exposure we frame by frame shot each poster. Oh, and theres a little video projection (again, frame by frame on the SLR) just to mix it up. There is no compositing, no shortcuts, just lots of blood, sweat and tears, and a huge Kinkos bill!".... Max

spotted by catherine! somewhere on the internets.

it's hip to be a square

2007-05-29T09:51:00.000-07:00

i am a self-confessed product whore. i don't consider myself a metro per se but i do love a good product, and nothing makes me whip out the plastic faster than interesting industrial design and packaging. so of course when i saw this fun method bodywash at target i knew i had to have it. sure, it's not really convenient to hold a square bottle in the shower. nor is it really possible to squeeze because it's somewhat hard plastic. but come on, it looks cool. so cool in fact that several other products have adopted the square format including jack black (although they opt for a faux-wood block on top which the product flows from). whether it's a blobby teardrop bottle of method soap, a pill air freshener also from method, or really cool designed packaging for sumotech i'm all about it. by god, design might actually matter!

vacuum lovin'

2007-05-26T16:53:00.000-07:00

when this dyson commercial comes on it makes me seriously happy.

no, really. a+++, would definitely watch again. i wish all commercials were like you. would definitely recommend.