H&FJ

Hoefler & Frere-Jones (hopefully) won't need much of an introduction.
Their fonts are awesome, and their website is delicious...
One of their new gifts is Gotham Rounded.
"Gotham Rounded is a technical letter that goes from friendly to high-tech to cheeky with ease."


I'm going to get my mits on it asap!

MAGENTA IS A LIE

An reasonably interesting read on how the eye perceives 'colour', and how magenta isn't in the colour spectrum... Magenta Ain't A Colour By Liz Elliott

Liquid cubed

Our friend Olly has recently updated his Leeds based design agency's website

here

fully booked

Fully Booked presents a choice selection of artist books that push the boundaries of conventional book design. Fully Booked also reveals developments in today’s graphic design and is an inspirational resource for creators and book lovers.

buy it at gestalten here

TYPOGRAPHIC MOVIE QUIZ

A pretty simple and fun idea. Guess the film titles.

ginger monkey

A nice site and some really nice work here by ginger monkey

you can also buy prints in the shop

TRENDY

These things seem to be getting more and more popular. I think the first I ever saw was the ever-popular scene from Tarintino's Pulp Fiction... Worth 'youtubing', and having a look.

This is the latest I've come across, found on behance.

The song's from Streetlight Manifesto.

Video from the portfolio of Sean Ryan Cooley.

TOP OF THE POPS

Fancy browsing through 40 awesome web designs...? I know I do!

"...weekly chart system that tracks website designs that been given Design Awards. The charts lists some of the "best of the best" website designs around, based on the traffic "Airplay" received from a list of participating Award Websites..."
As a friend of mine just put it: A pretty cool site in itself, and it links to other cool sites which is even better.
Made by toxicdesign.

NICE LOGO

ARCHIVES

Someone in our design team just send round a rather nice link for the AIGA Design Archives.
You could get lost for hours searching through the seemingly endless catalogue of qaulity design. Handily split into sections (packaging, typography, editorial, etc), beautifully designed, and skillfully built; this website should be a definite bookmark.

SLEEVE

Nice bit of album art from my beloved Ninja Tune's 'Skalpel'.

CUE

Online magazines are pretty cool. This one is very cool.
New music tech, embedded videos, gritty artwork, and interviews and features on the legendary Coldcut, the awesome Amon Tobin, and one of my favourites; Beardyman. Haven't had enough time to look into who designs the whole thing, but it's worth a butchers - even if you're not into dj/music production stuff.

INTRO

There's a common law with films that if there are no boobies within five minutes - then the film is not worth watching... Although.
I'd forgotten how cool the intro to 'Helvetica' was and so thought i'd post it here as it breaks this rule. The clip is only 1m28 (and there is no boobies in the next 3m32 just so you know)

SOFA PARASITES

I'm not really into cushions. I never understand why people have so many - surely two or three is enough? Anyway, I'm never likely to buy any, but if I did they would definitely be from these guys!


"Claire Eglizeaud and Paul Moreau, a designer and a graphic artist from Bordeaux developped 'Bonjour mon coussin' in 2007..." A rather plesant range of cushion designs, and an elegant website. All the covers fit standard Ikea range sizes too, which is pretty cool. Any visitors to www.bonjourmoncoussin.com are welcome to buy me the Alphakids and Numéro.

WALL LETTERS

no need to steal lettering from shops and buildings any longer. buy your very own here urban outfitters found through theserif

Retro VW merchandise

Whilst getting my VW Golf MOT'd a few weeks back i spotted a rather nifty book for the retro collection of VW merchandise. which i promptly stuffed into my bag (with permission of course)

A matt publication with gloss finish over polaroids. The polaroid idea can be a bit overused but this really works well and made me buy a campervan ipod sock and an a2 poster.

Obviously the website isnt as cool as the book but check out the stuff to buy here

ONYX OBSERVATION

Jonny's making some nice headlines using Onyx. I've never really paid it much attention, but he's opened my eyes... Here's an opinion of mine. Lowercase white on black is sweet.

For those that are interested (from fonts.com):
"The Onyx font was cut by American Type Founders in 1937 and by Monotype in 1955. Onyx is one of the many variants on the nineteenth century fat face theme. A highly condensed and highly contrasted design where readability takes second place to style. This in no way detracts from its usefulness in carefully chosen applications, where it can create a feeling of refined and measured elegance. Use Onyx in large sizes where space is at a premium."

GOOGLEPLEX

So, do they have creative and innovative office environments because they're hugely successful.
Or are they hugely successful because their office environments are creative and innovative...???

Images taken from an article on hongkiat.com

HELVETILAYERS

MARK'S FONT OF THE DAY

I'd guess we probably have at least 1000 fonts on the system at work... Out of those, I'd guess I probably use about two dozen on a regular basis. One little gem keeps popping up in my magazine work recently, and that's Melior.

A sturdy frame of strong curves and precise serifs give Melior a 'machine-cut', modern take on the classic, traditional style. Here are a few of it's highlights:

This is what fonts.com had to say:

"...possesses a broad range of uses due to its technical and formal qualities. The overall design is based on the rectangle. Take capital O as a point of departure for appreciating this concept. Used in long texts, the Melior font family gives the page a distinction rarely found in most faces. Likewise, Melior can be used in all sorts of short jobs..."

Nice one Hermann.

WE HEART BEER

Thirty one days ago, I had the (not-so) great idea of giving up beer for a month. It was hard, but I've done it... I never want to see a pint of cider again in my life. This weekened is going to be a binge-drinking beer-bonanza... Not just any beer though, oh no. I intend on sampling the finest beers known to humanity. This got me thinking about an advert I did last year some time for a beer and wine wholesalers. I tried to recreate their logo into a cliche'd beer label. This involved looking around for all the obvious generic-conventions, and typically used styles...

I enjoyed it, and as a homage to all those great little designs (and beer itself), here's some of my favourits.

Heineken takes the lead I think... Just looking at that red star and rotated lowercase e makes me thirsty! If anyone is ever in Amsterdam, take a little bit of time out from doobie-smoking and 'window shopping', and wander down to the Heineken Experience in the old brewery. It's very cool.

JEEP ADVERTISEMENTS

Spotted this on itsnicethat the other day. I think the Camel image is especially clever.

Created by BBDO