Some excellent photography by Greg White. The mood of his pieces reminded me of some of Kim Holtermand’s recent works. I like pictures of deserted places that are normally really busy. You can sense a lingering human presence, but are confronted with the total absence of life. The result of which is captivating images such as these, that are as spooky as they are beautiful.
I have been flying a rather insane amount over the last few weeks. I complain about a lot of things when I’m traveling: the food, babies, people that insist on stuffing overhead luggage when it will NOT fit, etc. The one thing I have never considered is the boarding pass. Tyler Thompson has written an excellent article on why the boarding pass is indeed worthy of scrutiny. Take one look at the old Delta pass above and you’ll see why. As he states, “It was like someone put on a blindfold, drank a fifth of whiskey, spun around 100 times, got kicked in the face by a mule (the person who designed this definitely has a mule living with them inside their house) and then just started puking numbers and letters onto the boarding pass at random”.
Tyler has done Delta a big favor and redesigned their boarding pass, the design of which you see above. I think it’s obvious that aesthetically, these are much more pleasing to the eye. I would want to hold onto these after my flight was over just because they look awesome. Now of course, the design of a boarding pass has to be more than just beautiful. There are a number of criteria and limitations in place that might prevent your boarding pass from becoming a little piece of art. Worth mentioning in this regard is Timoni Grone’s response to Tylers inital designs. She runs through a meticulous process to come up with a redesign of her own, taking into account all the necessary “practicalities and priorities”.
The cool thing about his project is how he opened it up to others to submit reworkings and suggestions, a few of which he’s posted as you scroll down his page. He’s provided the Illustrator file for download and tweaking. Make sure to head over there and submit yours if you’ve got something brewing. And feel free to sound off if you too feel like the boarding pass design is indeed a fail.
I must say my favorite part of any boarding pass is the little scribbles the security guards make when you pass the initial check at the metal detectors. They do it with such purpose and apparent deliberation, that I think the scribbles must mean something. I always wonder what would happen if I augment their scribbles with scribbles of my own (or scribble before they do). Would I get sent to Homeland Security? Maybe two scribbles on your boarding pass = terrorist. Anyway. I feel safe knowing we have such a complicated system in place.
I could write a similar article about the terrible design of movie tickets, which I feel have slid drastically in the past few years. Since when is a movie ticket printed on receipt paper worth saving? I used to love hoarding all of my movie ticket stubs — now, calling it a “stub” would be an absurd misrepresentation. I call my movie tickets trash.
Thanks @rohrsh
I only post one image by itself when I think it’s worth it. This one, advertising the Hvass&Hannibal show at the Kemistry Gallery, is such an image. I like the layout, sure, but the main reason I found this so captivating is the color combinations. Each little circle has a different (and often bizarre but terrific) color combination. Each could easily jump off this poster and onto whatever project you happen to be working on (assuming the word “fun” might describe your client…) Pink and green? Why not. Lime and red? Let’s do this. My favorite is 6th row down, 4th across. Reminds me of a Deth P Sun type palette.
Now I’m inclined to think that H&H had everything to do with the design of this poster, but I cannot find the credit information anywhere. It looks like something they would drum up, but if not, let me know and I’ll be sure to link out. If you’re in London, be sure to check out the exhibit! Here is the invitation.
Yes! League! When I look over my ffffound over the last few weeks, there has been one dominant style I’ve been gravitating towards for its beauty and sophistication. This work by League sums it up perfectly. It’s often imageless, utilizes type in some unusual way, is bold and graphic, and has some crazy asymmetrical balance at work that makes me want to practice graphic design forever and quit it immediately…simultaneously.
I love layouts with many scattered elements, all necessary and unable to be removed, but you’re not sure exactly why. For example, those tiny thick black lines on the CFP AA poster above — wee bits like this are amazing to me.
And by the way their home page might be my favorite single page on the web right now.
Recently I’ve been obsessing over an often overlooked part of web design: the login form. There are few sites that have aggregated examples of login forms for perusal; this one by Design Reviver is pretty good. I’d prefer the list to be more like 500 examples, but it’s easy to go in search of other cool login form designs. The ones above are fun, but I’ve yet to find one that really knocks my socks off. Anyone know of some really superb login forms?
One of my favorite trends is the use of oversized text in the forms. Tumblr was one of the first places I saw it. Scott and I discussed it a long time ago in reference to the Nike login form, pictured above. Still not sure what it is about the giant text field that feels so right — maybe it just seems to reinforce what you’re writing. Like “Yes this IS my email address. BAM.”
I saw Avatar last night (in full 3D IMAX glory) and really enjoyed it. It reminded me of how I used to feel when I would play video games as a kid — not so much because of the graphics or anything like that, more because of how in it I felt. I remember when I used to play Zelda for example, my imagination would just take over and for those couple hours I lived in that universe (I was a nerdy kid). Avatar is like this; it is very easy to forget you are watching a film and think you are actually physically along for the ride, as there are no visual limitations to give you any indication otherwise. There were moments when you could hear the whole theater let out audible gasps as something incredible came on the screen. The first time you see one of the giant mining machines is pretty amazing. Of course the plot follows an extremely predictable trajectory, but seriously who cares. When things look this cool I am willing to make concessions on freshness of plot.
I saw the film with a few friends, one of whom is an interaction designer. He was mesmerized by all the crazy user interfaces the characters were manipulating. The spherical and detachable computer screens were a favorite. Meanwhile I couldn’t get over the choice of typeface for the subtitles; Papyrus (or some variant, essentially the same thing). The rest of my friends thought I was a huge nerd when the first thing I said out of the theater was “What was with that subtitle font!?” It is crazy to think (in my opinion) that $280 million went into this movie and they chose the one font that is at the end of most typography jokes (save maybe for Comic Sans). I know it probably fit better than a super clean sans serif (and I can’t imagine there weren’t hours of discussion over this point), but seriously, Papyrus?
Further: Kottke describes another interesting issue, regarding the realism of the Na’vi’s technological development. I don’t necessarily agree with his point (I think they were as advanced as they wanted/needed to be given the physical and spiritual qualities of their world), but he makes an intriguing argument.
The Museum of Flight displays an impressive collection of vintage airline logos. As I’ve just spent most of my young life traveling between DC and SF over the holiday, airline logos aren’t exactly what I want to be looking at right now — regardless, some of these are too good for me to mind. Lufthansa is still my absolute favorite (I gravitate towards anything with a stylized bird). The images are relatively high quality and they have a ton more over on their site.
The wondrous Gestalten has a terrific selection of videos up on their site Gestalten tv. Anyone familiar with their publications knows that Gestalten is synonymous with extremely high quality production. I wasn’t familiar with many of the subjects listed, but found each one engaging and very well done. The one on Postlerferguson above was especially entertaining. Definitely going to order a paper MP5.
Of course I had to include the recent video on Dieter Rams above. I find interviews with him to be mesmerizing and am nowhere close to tired of seeing new ones pop up (as his exhibition makes waves in London). The book Less and More is available for purchase from Gestalten (in Europe), Vitsoe, and Amazon (though looks like not until January).
Gestalten.tv creates a broad range of documentaries, interviews and features that introduce Gestalten related subjects alongside individuals, projects and companies that are vanguards of visual culture.