Recently in Coolness Category
(image from Good magazine)
If you're a magazine junkie like moi, the last thing you want to see in your mailbox are renewal requests. I swear, they arrive earlier and earlier these days. If I’m only three months into a subscription, give me a chance to truly sample your goods before you pester me with snail mail spam.
My current roster of magazine subs, sadly, is out of control. I know for certain that I have a problem because I’ve run out of places to pile my magazines. Besides organizational woes, I haven't the time to read them all, let alone skim to scam design inspiration.
So when my third renewal request arrived this week from Good, it was with a heavy heart that I tossed the final notice into the recycle bin. I love their mission, like most of each issue's stories, find the pages' design to be fab, but I haven’t connected 100% to the content. It’s good, but not good enough to pony up again this year. Maybe next year?
Today, though, I feel a little bit better about this decision after making a wonderful discovery via Quipsologies. My favorite part of each issue—their brilliant infographics by OfficeOfCC—are archived on the Good web site.
Score!
(image from DesigningMagazines.com)
If I had more time and talent, I would have loved to have started a blog just like Designing Magazines—the latest brilliant work by Jandos Rothstein, one of the magazine industry’s biggest (and most selfless) talents whom you might know from his engaging essays at AIGA.org or popular panel cover critiques (“Face Up”) for Folio.
Rothstein, an art director and educator, eloquently and humorously journals his insights regarding magazine design trends as a thoughtful compliment to the upcoming release of his highly anticipated (by me, at least!) tome by the same name. If every magazine art director made his site part of their regular reading, the aesthetics of pubs across the globe would be the better for it.
I know what you're thinking -- why is she posting about quilts? The truth is that even though I'm not a quiltin' queenie, I do find so much inspiration in the creations -- both old and new.
I must admit, however, that as much as I fancy the artistry of traditional quilts -- especially those masterfully created by Amish women -- I find it's the new breed of quilt-making takes this craft to a whole new world. Unrestrained by fabric choices and rigid patterns, the new generation of square-sewers combine bold fabrics (like Denyse Schmidt's Flea Market Fancy line) into modern classics. (Schmidt's link via the always awesome WhipUp)
For your admiration and potential inspiration:
- Funquilt's American Pie -- despite the name's implications, it does not reveal jason biggs' portrait created from fabric scraps.
- Freespirit Fabric's Temple Flowers Quilt -- Doesn't that name sound so new-agey? But in a good way...
- Kmel's Paletas Quilt -- Could this be made with a better, brighter color palette? I think not!
- Lori Mason's Eclipse and Ronny's Ties -- My absolute favorites! So, um, anybody got a spare $3,500 they wanna spend to buy the former for me?
The Good.
There's been some rewiring redesigning around the art department at Wired, and it looks good! The switch to a more traditional size seems to be all the rave among my favorite magazines. Spin did it a while back, and now Wired has too!
But let's go back to what's really good about this new issue of Wired -- it's cover. Created by the talented folks at I Love Dust, the cover is split down the middle (including the banner) with the left side revealing a colorful rendering of Keanu Reeves face and the right side showing an actual photograph. Simple yet effective. Couldn't be more perfect. On the other hand...
The Bad.
The first A Scanner Darkly themed cover popped up on newsstands in January. Admittedly, my annoyance with most things Winona Ryder may be creating some bias here, I just wasn't impressed when RES magazine featured her illustrated portrait from the film on their cover. People would freak if a magazine threw a generic movie-released still on their cover and called it a day. While admittedly more interesting than your average press still, in reality this portrait is basically an artfully chosen movie still from A Scanner Darkly. At least the positioning (off-center) gives the cover some interest, although I have a feeling that placement was done more to accommodate the cover story heds than for artistic reasons. But maybe I'm assuming too negatively.
At least there really haven't been any ugly A Scanner Darkly covers. Yet.
(link to RES magazine and art for Wired's new cover via PhilipKDickFans.com)
Beyond being an awesome way to organize your images online, Flickr is also gosh darn fun through its many hacks for other purposes. Here are some links to my favorites.
- RetrievR -- Draw something. Find Flickr pix to match. Not always on target but usually your results will pass the squint test.
- FindR -- Search FlickR by tags and find fun stuff.
- Spell with FlickR -- this one is pretty self explanatory, but for a visual explanation see the top of this post. (link via Specfuckingtacular)
While trolling Houtlust tonight, I found a fascinating post about a new, award-winning German ad campaign about landmines.
The sharply designed posters -- graphically but not graphically -- illustrate how landmines are truly "constructed to destroy." Using the look and feel of a blueprint or CAD illustration to frame the simple diagram, the posters succeed through their simiplicity and directness. The message isn't couched in rhetoric. The art speaks for itself, making the viewer aware of the terrifying horrors of landmines without screaming with images of blood and gore.
See a sample below or view larger images at Houtlust's site.
For more about demining, visit any of these recommended links:
Emotions -- especially love -- are like Miracle-Gro for creativity. I don't care what all the nay-sayers think about Valentine's Day being another "Hallmark Holiday." Even if it's become a bit of that, the world needs more love and if folks have to be prodded and guilted into showing a little more compassion every February 14, I say hurrah! I suppose my only negative feelings about the day relate to the blandness of valentine postcards and greeting cards that are created these days. What happened to the delicate illustrations and tenderly diecut lace borders on cards? The delightful rhymes and fun-filled verses? Fortunately I can sate this longing with a few clicks and if you're feeling the same you should hop on over to these sites too:
- West Virginia University's Valentines Collection
- The Stock Solution's Vintage Valentines Art Collection
- About.com's Valentine Cards Collection
- HGTV's Antique Valentines
- St. Louis University's Samuel Cupples House Vintage Valentine Collection
- Tokens of Love: Lace Valentines Collection
- Indiana University's A Flowering of Affection: Victorian Valentine Cards at the Lilly Library
- A Victorian Treasury
And for good measure, brush up on your cupid day trivia over at The History Channel's History of Valentine's Day
I love paper. I love all of their different textures, colors, and finishes. I love specialty papers with chips of sparkling mica embedded in the pulp and even your neon-flavored run-of-the-mill astrobrite copy papers most frequently used for homemade bakesale flyers and the like.
Whenever possible, though, I like to find and spec environmentally friendly papers. The amount of recycled content can vary from line to line. Some mills are more upfront about just how much of the pulp is from recycled (post and pre consumer) sources and others are a little more "creative" with their marketing of their recycled papers. This short primer at paperspecs.com provides a nice list of tips and this transcript from an AIGA presentation, reprinted in Metropolis, is also worth a look for my socially conscious friends and readers.
As graphic designers, we have the power to make small changes everyday. Spec recycled when you can. Could their be an easier way to save a few trees? Or an easier way to put your soul at ease when you have to spec unrecycled for special jobs?
