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Archive for the ‘Design’ Category

Dieter Rams: Less and More Interview

October 4th, 2010

Dieter Rams is someone that I consider a godfather of modern usable design. His contributions to Braun were huge. They helped forge an understanding of design’s function. Part of my reasoning for posting this video isn’t just to showcase work that I feel needs to be spread around to help educate. It’s also to show you who Dieter Rams is and what his personality is like. I’ve come to find that even though I may not care for certain works of certain artists, seeing them talk about design can really change my mind.

The first time I watched a video of Dieter Rams talking was in the Objectified Documentary. If I were to pull one great thing from Dieter Rams in that movie it would be his personality—truly respectful. He is seemingly a man who takes design seriously. Every piece of his design has this weird reflection of the personality that is seen in these brief interviews. As I finish up posting this, I’ve turned on Objectified to watch once again for Dieter Rams’ wise contributions.

Video via Gesthalten

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Collectable Vintage Design

October 1st, 2010

1960s Braun T520 Radio by Dieter Rams » See more images

1960s Braun SK6 Record Player by Dieter Rams » See more images

1970s Calendar clock origins unknown » See more images

Vintage design? Don’t mind if I do. These three pieces are collectables that were for sale on eBay not long ago. I actually think the clock and Braun T520 Radio (which I’d love to have) are still available. Check out the knobs and dials on them. The Braun radio and record player are definitely the must haves.

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Studio Brave

September 17th, 2010

These two projects by Studio Brave are without a doubt my favorites from their portfolio. Everything about each of these projects seem right on. I’d like to tip my hat particularly to the Long Photography branding. One of the things I’ve been asked about quite a bit recently is on how to brand photographers. What steps to take and whether to create very personalized icons or marks versus focusing on keeping the logo typographically driven. I attempted to answer some of those in my Ian Matteson branding process post, but if not I’d be happy to answer.

Going back to these pieces, what both do really well is handle consistency without being literally repetitive. I feel like I’ve seen a lot of cases here over consistency takes place. At some times it becomes hard to find the middle ground between inconsistent and overly consistent. I know I’ve done branding projects where I’ve gone overboard with consistency and then had to pull it back.

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Star Wars Nostalgia

September 13th, 2010

While searching through images for interior design inspiration, I stumbled upon these Star Wars gems. So many memories were brought back when I saw these. I can’t believe it’s been that long since I watched my first Star Wars. I’m guessing at least 10 years.

It’s been a long time, but I think I was always sort of torn between what side to root for because I liked the look of the storm troopers so much. Hopefully someone can vouch for me here. On top of thinking Darth Vader and the Stormtroopers looking cool, I used to want a lightsaber. Admittedly I’m pretty sure I still do want one.

Images via Jovisala47

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The Branding of GAP

September 3rd, 2010

Gap is one of those brands that I’ve just never bought into. Why? I’m not sure. But if asked what brands are doing it right with their branding, I would say these guys are.

Earlier this year I started noticing some of the really nicely designed outdoor displays and really felt like their typographic decisions in combination with photography were really appealing. I’m not sure how long GAP has been using Helvetica as their brand’s type but all of their current promotional materials have it. To me it seems like a perfect fit, especially with the number set ’1969′. Gap’s 1969 Stream collection website is another great example of where I feel that they’ve done right.

What are your thoughts on Gap’s branding?

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New Project: Marcus Eaton Album Artwork

August 31st, 2010

It’s been a long time since this project for Marcus Eaton was first started, but its finally done. I actually just received hard copies and hope to get those up in the portfolio soon. I’m really excited to finally be able to post some of my recent work so post your thoughts in the comments.

Marcus and I have done several projects in the past and it is always a pleasure. When first talking with him about this album art titled As if you had wings, the goal was that this album needed to do something different than the previous had. The music of the album was this great, new, updated sound that would really speak for itself. We both agreed that we had a chance to do something really interesting. We did just that by bringing in a lot of different elements at first and then removing them, revision after revision until it the artwork felt where it needed to be.

A large chunk of my time early on in this project was spent on trying to come up with the perfect concept. Needless to say, I didn’t arrive at it in round 1 or round 2 or 3. I came onto the final concept by trial and error mixed with experimentation. Perhaps if the earlier concepts would have been killed much sooner, the progress would have happened in a timely manner. The first concepts were far different from what the final art looked like. It also had a completely narrowed vision to it. Sometimes I wish my bad concept detector was higher for such open ended projects like this one.

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Less and More: Dieter Rams

August 30th, 2010

Bibliotheque designed this beautiful retrospective exhibition dedicated to Dieter Rams, one of the 20th century’s most influential industrial designers. At the head of design at Braun, he defined an elegant and consistently designed products that we’ve come to know and love. Dieter Rams’ work continually blows me away; his seemingly geometric designs are ever so simple, yet so great.

The exhibition featured 244 objects, spanning six decades of his life and work. Planned across five sections (Dieter Rams solo projects, Braun team projects under Dieter’s leadership, Vitsœ and Typology and Legacy), the design of the exhibition utilized an array of graphic expressions—each appropriate to specific areas of content. The entrance featured an internal facade with Rams’ Vitsoe 606 compression system spanning the width of the upper gallery. In the middle of the exhibit they recreated part of Ram’s house using the same tiled grid he had in his living room. The back wall of the exhibit featured a seven meter wide mural of the Audio 300 stereo with a superimposed grid demonstrating Braun’s rational approach to product layout.

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Design Film Festival Tickets

August 27th, 2010

Silnt is a design studio based in Singapore. They’ve designed this series of admission tickets for A Design Film Festival in Singapore. The tickets are silkscreened using a custom, mixed metallic ink on 150gsm black stock. The festival logo is blind embossed to help audiences focus on the screening information rather than the umbrella event.

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Retrofuturs / Stephane Massa-Bidal

August 24th, 2010

Retrofuturs is the moniker of Stephane Massa-Bidal. Stephane is a French illustrator that aims to combine the past, present and future into each piece. This particular series uses Helvetica majorly masked by objects that have been removed from photographs. The series’ aesthetic is similar to Mark Weaver’s while at the same time carrying its own.

I’d really like to know where the images came from. I would guess that they were used from a public domain archive or creative commons. The quality and compositions are these images are quite amazing.

Update: AC via the comments, has provided this link to images similar to the ones used in Stephane’s work.

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Star Trek Posters

August 20th, 2010

Stumbled across these really clean Star Trek posters by Mondo that I really enjoyed. The type is nicely set and the colors sing. The posters were available for a while in 18×24″ screen prints but I don’t believe they are anymore.

Click the images to view them larger.

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Geigy Exhibition

August 17th, 2010

J.R. Geigy was a Swiss chemical company in the 50’s and 60’s that was highly influential on the international style movement. These photos were from the Geigy exhibition held at the Design Museum Zurich where all of the work was on display. Check out more photos of the exhibit on Flickr, as well as an gallery slideshow.

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GYAR Studio Interior

August 16th, 2010

Gyár is a post production studio in Budapest, Hungary. The studio has a team of over 30 people who clearly have a liking for new visual trends/flavors. The interior of the Gyár studio clearly reflects that.