LESS IS LESS

Design agency Antrepo has a website which is definitely worth checking out. They've produced some refreshing and sometimes challenging work, which I'm sure some of you will recognise. Their latest project is about 'simplicity'. As a design exercise to push minimalism in big brand packaging, the guys at Antrepo have stripped down the graphics on some well known products.

Which variant do you prefer? Head over to their site and let them know.

PHOTOSHOP RAP

When I first saw this link on geeks are sexy, it didn't fill me with much hope, but it's actually pretty pretty pretty good.

MAKE AN IMPRESSION

I heart letterpress. Everything about it. The sounds and smells of a print room, the tactile hands-on nature of composing movable type, the texture and warmth you get from a print compared to an offset digital print. Lovely... This guy seems to like it too. What a rewarding work process, I shall have to keep an eye out for Studio on Fire's work.

Video found on one of my favourite website, Gestalten. Their videos are available free from itunes, or watch them all here.

POWERPOINT SUCKS

Sweet little presentation made with google docs. Thought it was worth sharing. Slideshows don't have to be boring.

SPOILERS

A series of postcards I've been working on. These are the first batch. Hand-drawn from 19th century woodcut type specimens. The next ones will be tweaked and improved, and silk-screen printed for a nicer finish... I may also produce a letterpress set, to get a slight debossing.

[click for hi-res]

DANGEROUS CURVES

I realise it's been an eternity since I last posted, but I stumbled across this image recently, which led me to a book which I think would appeal to JAM Blog subscribers.The logotype below looks (i think) amazing and has been the inspiration for some of my preliminary stationary design for my wedding.

The designs come from a book called Dangerous Curves:Mastering Logotype DesignThe spreads look detailed and informative and are the brain child of Donald Young. Buy the book, see his fonts and other work here

DOT

The worlds smallest stop motion animation. Follow Dot through her teeny tiny troubled world. Shot using CellScope technology and a Nokia N8, with its 12 megapixel camera and Carl Zeiss optics.



This was simply a joy to watch.

REFRESHING

Anyone else getting fed up with the amound of, simplY, horrible website around? Poorly designed, poorly made, buggy, useless, and confusing. I don't like the way anyone can download a hot copy of dreamweaver - and then assume they're a webdesigner. It's amazing that we live in a world where more or less anyone with access to a computer can have their own little piece of the web - but please leave the design to people who know what they're doing.

Was just having my usual look through H&FJ's website, and found this masterpiece. I've been on there for ten minutes now, and haven't even begun to read any of the content, it's that visually pleasing. I'm not even going to tell you what it's about - just go look.

This has to be one of the nicest websites I've ever had the pleasure to browse.
"a typographic tour-de-force in Knockout (and a little Archer) that really repays scrolling in all directions" - Jonathan Hoefler

LET THERE BE LIGHT

I've been on a bit of an animation kick recently. Stop motion and time lapse in particular. Just found these video from Kim Pimmel, a self proclaimed designer, photographer, dj, and tinkerer... I like them already!

Light Drive from Kim Pimmel on Vimeo.

DIRTY DIANA

Just scanned a couple of negs from my Diana camera. If anyone hasn't had the pleasure of using a lomo camera, go grab yourself one at the lomography shop. I very much advocate the use of film cameras, especially 120.

Digital is all well and good - no one can argue with the cost effective practicality - but it's made people lazy. Everyone has a compact digital camera nowadays; social networking sites are flooded with poorly compositioned, incorrectly exposed snapshots... Everybody seems to love taking photos, but do any of these people actually like photography? Why take 500 snapshots, review and delete half, then store them on your laptop for the rest of eternity, only to be uploaded, downsampled, and compressed to a folder named 'random' on facebook... If you like taking photos so much, go buy a real camera, learn the basics, and discover how soulful photography can be. Don't buy that Canon 450D. Save yourself four hundred pounds and get a Pentax K100. Buy some out of date film. Cross process. Have some fun. Experiment.

Anyway, rant over. Back to Diana. There's a huge following for these plastic toy cameras these days. People have embraced and learnt to love the unpredictable outcomes, the imperfections and unrealistic results. I love it so much, I wrote an essay on it for my degree course. For some nice examples - head over to the Diana Flickr group. Here's a couple of mine.

Viva la revolucion!