I started out my career in graphic design as an interface architect so I’ve always had a soft spot for GUI’s and user interaction theory. I happened across this post at Teehan+Lax about the GUI for the iPhone. They’ve posted a PSD with most of the assets from the iPhone interface, all in freely-scalable shape layer and PS effect formats. Technically it’s been posted to provide an easy way to create iPhone mock ups but I think it’s a great reference for anyone trying to learn how to create interface graphics in Photoshop (for web or otherwise). Reverse engineering PSDs like this is a great exercise in working with scalable graphics in Photoshop. You can download the PSD from the Teehan+Lax site.
No matter how tasteful or tasteless you think Lamborghinis are (as if it matters what most of us think of them), you have to admit the idea of writing all over one with Sharpie markers is pretty cool. It took Prestige (Lamborghini Miami) about 2 weeks to ink the artwork and seal it up with a layer of clear coat. See more pictures of the car here.
I know Beamer has a large vinyl collection and Scott here and there has sent me some Cream songs and they should be able to add to series with some depth. So, i thought adding some good old AM Gold in the mix since if you dig deep enough you can find great artwork from singles and 7 inches like this pre-70’s single of The Moody Blues.
If you haven’t noticed by now i’m a huge fan of Benoit Pioulard, he is a Portland based folk musician. He has his next album coming out on Kranky October 14th which will include this brand new single “Brown Bess” for free for us to share. As for other talents he has a few things flying under the radar a very simple but effective website pioulard.com where if you catch him at the right time of year you can buy limited handmade versions of his albums and look thru his polariod pictures.
Benoit Pioulard – Brown Bess (Temper: October 2008)
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Benoit Pioulard – Needle & Thread (Precis: 2006)
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Benoit Pioulard – Kids Are Getting Younger (Enge: 2005)
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Bonnie “Prince” Billy – The Seedling (Benoît Pioulard version)
Some random perfection for a Friday morning; a beautiful poster by Georges Huel for Expo67. Can anyone identify that font in the upper right? Very nice. Enjoy the long weekend!
Here are a few new tracks a little more from the indie rock end. Broken Social Scene’s Brendan Canning whole LP is superb, a great follow up to Kevin Drew’s LP. Also, new tracks grabbed from the B-sides and demos of LCD Soundsystem, a forthcoming Stereolab full length single and the highly anticipated Walkmen album is finally out.
Peter Gabor has posted a Tribute to Herb Lubalin just to remind us all of how inferior our design skills really are. There are 11 pages of Lubalin’s work spanning all the way from his logos and branding up to his more conceptual art and photography. It’s a rather thorough collection and a good starting point if you’re looking for inspiration from one of the original masters of our medium. Link
On a side note, Gabor’s tribute prompted me to brush up on my Herb Lubalin Trivia by going over his Wikipedia entry. I was shocked to find that he passed away at age 63. Maybe seeing another of my design heroes, Wim Crouwel, looking fit and sounding sharp at age 78 in the Helvetica film gave me an unrealistic ideal of longevity, but I always thought of design as the sort of trade you could still be plugging away at and actually producing relevant work well into your 60’s and 70’s (desire permitting, of course). It’s a shame he passed so soon and it’s incredible what he was able to achieve in the relatively short time he had. I wonder what his thoughts on the digital revolution would have been? And perhaps more importantly, how would he have viewed the resurgence and near ubiquity of his famous typeface (Avant Garde) in the past decade of graphic design?