A few rejected book covers by Klas Ernflo. Beautiful typography at work here — I especially can’t get over how amazing the uppercase G is in the top image (looks like Didot, but I’m not positive). Surprising (and not at the same time) that these were rejected by the publisher. I would have bought them on the spot, regardless of their contents!
Recently I’ve been trying to determine my favorite occurrence of each letter of the alphabet. I’ve picked a few, like the “G” seen above, but most letters remain up in the air. The eventual goal will be to have a list of 52 shapes; representing my absolute favorite renderings of each letterform, upper and lowercase. After that I guess I’ll move onto symbols and numbers (I already know my favorite “7” — Clarendon). A few other examples might be the “W” from the Westinghouse logo, the lowercase Avant Garde “a”, and maybe the “H” from Scott’s recent post.
Would love to hear everyone else’s favorites! It’s hard I know, to narrow it down outside of the context of application, but I’m sure there are some standout letters for each of you. Let us know!
As much as I love my Google Reader, I still prefer to get my design fix in printed form. In addition to providing the necessary dose of inspiration, magazines usually include insightful commentary and design criticism. I love this sort of writing on design and it seems like the best place to find it is still in the “unplugged” land of printed media. Additionally, with each one you get an actual piece of design to hold in your hand. It’s easy to forget how cool this is if you’re used to bouncing from blog to blog. After the jump, I’ve put together an overview of a the major players in the design magazine realm. Check out the list!
I’ve got a few projects coming up so I’ve been browsing through some of my old design books for inspiration. These two posters by Max Huber kick-started my mind into creative gear. I really like the color palette at work in both; really unusual and effective. The second one is all about the type for me. Didot Bold in all caps always does a good job. I was recently in Switzerland and am really bummed I missed out on the Max Huber Museum. Next time I guess.
Update: If you’re looking to purchase the print it is now available here: studio.iso50.com
Ghostly International (the label I record for as Tycho) asked me to design a commemorative poster for their 10th anniversary concert series. This is the first print in a series I created for the events. The others will be released over the coming week with the flyer hopefully coming tomorrow. This print will be available soon as a limited edition large-format Giclee; pricing and availability will be announced next week. If you would like to reserve a print please contact studio [at] iso50 [dot] com.
The next poster will be the individual design for the upcoming Chicago 10 Year show where I’ll be playing a Tycho set along with Solvent, Kill Memory Crash, and Dark Party. More information is here.
This first poster lists all the Ghostly 10 year show cities: San Francisco
Los Angeles
Detroit
Toronto
New York
Barcelona
Moscow
Berlin Chicago
London
A few beautiful pieces by Buchanan-Smith, a New York City based design firm. I love their type sensibility, especially on the first image, and I find their image style very effective in its simplicity and subtleness. Much more work can be found on their site.
I had seen Cristina Couceiro’s work here and there before but this most recent series really blew me away. What classic style; I really like how she employs found imagery without crossing that fine line into kitsch that so many others seem to stumble over. The typography is spot on as well. You can see more of her design and photography here.
I’ve been buried down in the studio working on this new album for so long I almost forgot how much I love design. But when I see work like this I can’t help but be reminded; Tavis Coburn’s style is very inspiring to say the least. It’s always nice to see an illustrator who has a good design sense, the combination can be quite powerful. And loving the way he uses that moire pattern effect.
