After years of digging around for interesting posters it’s easy to foolishly assume I’ve seen everything good there is to see. Then I come across work like that of Italian designer Mimmo Castellano and am once again reminded that you’ve never really seen it all. The images are from this GrainEdit post where, unfortunately, they do not mention the source. I would love to find which book they got these scans from, or better yet, where I can get my hands on some full size prints. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.
Fellow Academy of Art graduate student Johnny Selman has taken on a rather daunting project: design a poster a day for one year, using content based on a headline from the BBC news website. His project is meant to raise awareness of global current events using the immediately more accessible visual language of posters. Ideally the poster for the day intrigues you to read a story you might have otherwise ignored. He doesn’t make it very easy on himself either, as he only allows the use of 10 flat colors and no photography, all within the one day time limit per poster.
If you live in San Francisco, you can come check out the project in person tonight (12/16). Johnny will be celebrating his 100th day out on Valencia Street (between 17th and 22nd) with the first 100 posters displayed in storefront windows.
Experimental Jetset are without a doubt one of the most talented and consistent design studios working today. Every time I visit their site I am awestruck by some project or another that I missed the last time around. 104 / Le Cent Quatre is one such project. As with much of their work, there’s something so familiar about the typography and layout yet it remains fresh and engaging. These guys are the masters of subtle perfection.
I spent a good chunk of my youth destroying my knees in the name of skateboarding; first during the 80’s as a kid and later in college. The contrast between these two distinct stylistic periods was stark to say the least. Decks went from the curvy whale-tail style with garish neon graphics to the simplified, unidirectional kind you see more often today. The graphics changed a lot with the shape, but each era had a huge influence on my visual tastes. The stickers, the shirts, the decks; I was obsessed with the imagery. I guess it was one of the few instances where a suburban kid could be exposed to non-traditional art and design created by outsiders.
While digging around for some interesting graphics I came across this article at Unodos covering a few books that feature some classic skateboarding designs. There are some old favorites in there (the Powell branding is still about as good as it gets), but I missed Hook-Ups (which you’ll catch a brief glimpse of on the Skateboard Stickers cover) and Alien Workshop (two of my 90’s era favorites). Most of the images are from The Disposable Skateboard Bible which definitely looks worth picking up. The publishers have an online gallery featuring decks from various designers and artists featured in the book.
Robert Murdock is CCO at Method here in San Francisco. His design moniker is Post-Mammal, which in his words is “based on the notion that humans are always evolving, and are always looking for what’s next — essentially what’s beyond human.”
Robert’s work is incredible. I could easily post every image from each of his projects but I wanted to show the variety of the work he does so you could get a sense of how multifaceted he is. One of those choice designers who combines rock-solid formal design chops with an extremely creative and exciting visual style. Never boring.
Barcelona based Folch Studio kicks off the second half of this week with some wonderfully restrained graphics. They also provide a few studio shots — something I wish every studio was required to do (to satisfy my own curiosity). I’m painting my ceiling charcoal as soon as I find my paintbrush.
Bernard Barry is one of the principal visual designers at Facebook. A pretty sweet job I’d say. Imagine having a guarantee that your work would always reach millions of people. Barry handles the pressure nicely; his work is exceptional. If you just briefly glance at his site, you might not notice the absurd amount of detail that goes into each of his projects. The scale of each is often staggering. Barry also has cataloged his entire collection of books and movies. Absolutely worth checking out if you’re on the search for some new books.
Before Facebook, Barry worked at the Decoder Ring and I am imensly curious is he had a hand in creating my favorite logo of all time.
