The Mind of a Graphic Designer

MILTON GLASER: TO INFORM & DELIGHT

2012-01-04T09:32:00.000-05:00

For many, Milton Glaser is the personification of American graphic design. Best known for co-founding New York Magazine and creating the enduring I ♥ NY campaign, the full breadth of Glaser’s remarkable artistic output is revealed in this documentary portrait, MILTON GLASER: TO INFORM AND DELIGHT. From newspapers and magazine designs, to interior spaces, logos and brand identities, to his celebrated prints, drawings, posters and paintings, the documentary offers audiences a much richer appreciation for one of the great modern renaissance men.

Mr. Glaser's career paved the way for design and illustration to be intelligent and to serve causes that have a social impact. Take the time to research Milton Glaser. He will inspire you to be a better communicator.

www.miltonglaser.com

FOUND Magazine

2011-12-15T21:33:00.003-05:00

So, what is FOUND Magazine?  FOUND is collected found stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids’ homework, to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, photographs, doodles – anything that gives a glimpse into someone else’s life. There is even a Dirty FOUND! Anything goes.

And how did this all start?
One snowy winter night in Chicago a few years back, Davy went out to his car and found a note on his windshield — a note meant for someone else, a guy named Mario:

If you are looking for some great mental inspiration I say go find/buy a FOUND magazine. I promise it is worth the five bucks and great to have around your work space.
foundmagazine.com/shop/

If you have found something and you want to send to FOUND Magazine visit their web site.
foundmagazine.com/about/

Type Camp - INVEST IN YOURSELF

2011-12-10T22:23:00.000-05:00

At Type Camp, you can strengthen your graphic design career, revive your inspiration, expand your knowledge of typography, and enjoy creative self-discovery.  Expert instructors will help your typographic solutions to be stronger and clearer, which will make your design work even better and your clients even happier.

Type Camp provides a creative, modern, collaborative education in typography and design.

WHY NOT? Looking for a great break with something you LOVE - check this out. It will only make you a stronger communicator.

www.typecamp.org

What is graphic design...

2011-11-27T12:40:00.002-05:00

This is a very good vimeo video by Design Council on the explanation of graphic design. Check it out!

What is graphic design...

Design Council's website is packed with information on graphic design. I particularly like the huge section on "About design and what it can do for you". So much better then carrying around a huge book on design. Very convenient book mark for reading and research.

www.designcouncil.org

FOLDRite - folding compensation

2011-11-24T12:39:00.000-05:00

Paper is dimensional, and if it is to fold into itself to form a brochure, the panels that fold in must be slightly smaller to accommodate for the thickness of the sheet. This mathematical adjustment is called folding compensation.

FOLDRite was developed to make file creation for folded materials easy by providing precise, mathematically adjusted folding templates. It can be installed as a software plug-in for InDesign. Which is why I like it.

I recommend, to any designer, to visit to the FOLDRite web site and at least check out the many resources they offer and the affordable services.

www.foldfactory.com

BookWorks - a place were traditional art stays alive

2011-11-12T13:36:00.001-05:00

Asheville BookWorks began in 2004 as a community resource for print and book in response to the growing number of book artists and printmakers living and working in Western NC. It is a place where classes and workshops are held regularly year-round and studio rental is available.

Check out BookWorks workshops in Binding, Letter press, Paper marking and much more. It is really exciting to see such an amazing Co-op in the traditional arts.

www.ashevillebookworks.com

Jakprints - stickers

2011-10-31T13:02:00.000-04:00

I heart Jakprints. They always come through for me. The quality always exceeds my expectations. This time I needed a small sticker for on-shelf packaging. Jakprints has a vast array of sticker options to meet your project needs. You can choose sticker stock ranging from economic paper to super-durable vinyl, stay with standard shapes, or create a custom sticker die unique to your brand. Get stickers smaller than 1 square inch or bigger than 1 square foot. Custom sticker printing from Jakprints allows you to print just one sticker, or more than 500,000.

Get samples here
www.jakprints.com

Designers Toolbox

2011-10-20T19:39:00.000-04:00

Bookmark this handy little site! I was making stationary today and found myself using Designers Toolbox. But it not just the illustrator envelope dies that this site is handy for. Check out the great information collected here like postcard sizes, standard foldings, binding styles, conversion charts and a convenient Lorem Ipsum generator. Pretty cool for any designer.

www.designerstoolbox.com

Prezi - cloud-based presentation software

2011-10-16T21:53:00.000-04:00

I was talking with another graphic designer the other day, Maria, and she told me about Prezi. It looks very interesting. I have passed it along to a communications manager and a research marketing analyst. I think it could very useful for them as they present a lot and I will also explore this cool little zoomable interface for possible design presentations.

About Prezi - Prezi is a cloud-based presentation software that opens up a new world between whiteboards and slides. The zoomable canvas makes it fun to explore ideas and the connections between them. The result: visually captivating presentations that lead your audience down a path of discovery.

prezi.com

Fat Cow

2011-10-06T21:53:00.001-04:00

I have now been with Fat Cow for a year and no complaints. I like that I can call them in the middle of the night and still talk to a person and the Cpannel is clear and easy to use. I was hesitant at first because the price is super cheep!!! But do not fear this is a FRICKING AWESOME web hosting at a kick ass deal. And did I say that Fat Cow is green? There data centers are all 100% powered by wind energy. I will be changing over all my web clients by the end of this year.

www.fatcow.com

Book Arts at the John C. Campbell Folk School

2011-09-22T22:05:00.000-04:00

From the coptic binding techniques of 4th-century Ethiopians to present-day formal edition binding skills, you can learn the craft of making books. Explore the varied methods of creating everything from soft- and hard-cover books to boxes at the Folk School. This will only add to your presentation and communications skills for visual arts.

Class Schedule: www.folkschool.org

The SCAR Project - an awareness raising campaign

2011-07-12T21:45:00.000-04:00

Sometimes integrated marketing communications actually work and make you stop and really think deep.

The SCAR Project
Breast Cancer Is Not A Pink Ribbon

The mission is three-fold: Raise public consciousness of early-onset breast cancer, raise funds for breast cancer research/outreach programs and help young survivors see their scars, faces, figures and experiences through a new, honest and ultimately empowering lens.

A series of large-scale portraits of young breast cancer survivors shot by fashion photographer David Jay.

Mission Statement

Image Gallery

Colors Magazine

2011-07-10T11:58:00.000-04:00

Colors magazine is a multilingual quarterly magazine developed in Italy by Fabrica, Benetton's research center. There are three editions published: French/English, Italian/English, and Spanish/English. Each issue has a theme and covers the topic from an international perspective. The magazine is known for its photoessays and features a sardonic point of view.

If you can get your hands on a print issue I promise you will be inspired. Also check out the Colors Lab for a global conspiracy of ideas.

colorsmagazine
colorsmagazine archive
colorsmagazine lab

Business Card Inspiration

2011-06-29T21:43:00.001-04:00

Here is one of my favorite collections of business cards to look through on-line. It is a good bookmark for inspiration and excellent craft work. I hope you drool as much as I do over these little master pieces.

flickr.com/photos/dailypoetics

I love Freeway!

2011-05-24T22:40:00.000-04:00

This program is web design for designers. You can import rich media, work with master pages, make CSS simple, creates 100% W3C-compliant code, supports a huge number of plug-ins that can do anything from CMS integration to adding modern CSS3 functionality and styling. Just get your hands on a trial and make something. I promise you will be pleasantly surprised! I recommend Freeway Pro.

more info: softpress.com

HOW Design Live 2011

2011-05-15T22:10:00.001-04:00

The HOW Design Conference is widely recognized as the most comprehensive educational event in the industry, covering Business, Creativity, Design Disciplines, In-House Issues, Software and Web/Interactive Design. You can choose from 47 sessions and workshops to better your current skills and learn new ones.

more info
howconference.com

The Art Hustle - Artist Trading Cards

2011-04-26T21:07:00.001-04:00

Last year a friend of mine gave me a pack of THE ART HUSTLE cards and I was enamored by them! I am so excited for series 2 to arrive here soon.

The Art Hustle is a boutique series of artist and art-based trading cards. The set is a collaborative effort with the participating artists, working in a variety of disciplines including street art, toy art, kaiju, illustration, painting, sculpture, aerosol art, tattoo art, digital art, film, photography and more.

Included in the classic wax packs are Artist Profile Cards and Art Cards; all with interesting facts on the backs that you don’t want to miss. Artist-customized cards have been randomly inserted into packs, so you have the chance to pull an actual original piece of artwork!

more info
TheArtHustle.com

MagCloud - Magazine Publishing Reinvented

2011-04-22T07:40:00.000-04:00

MagCloud is a revolutionary new self-publishing web service from HP. We are talking Magazines on Demand. Whether you are a novice or experienced publisher, MagCloud offers you a way to create a commercial quality magazine. This is print on demand service with no upfront costs or minimum print runs. So if you ever wanted to make a magazine, now's your chance, DIG IN!!!

how it works
magcloud.com/help

more info on MagCloud
magcloud.com/about

US Postage Rates Going Up Sunday April 17th

2011-04-15T22:13:00.001-04:00

First class letter rates are not going up, but nearly everything else is.

The typical one-ounce letter that has one or two pages or a check in an envelope will stay at 44 cents. However, if the weight goes beyond one ounce, the second ounce goes to 20 cents from 17 currently. The same for the third ounce.

Other formulas and increases will be applied as well. The postcard goes to 29 cents, from 28. An increase of 1 penny

Letters from the US to Canada or Mexico will go to 80 cents each - an increase of 5 cents for Canada and 1 penny for Mexico.

CMYK Tintbook

2011-04-15T07:19:00.001-04:00

Tintbook gives you the color management tools you need to get accurate results for CMYK print projects. A perfect companion to all graphic design software. CMYK color formulas are easy to use just select a color, then enter the component values for that CMYK formula. Predict color with confidence at the design concept stage with over 25,000 CMYK screen tint colors. Create 2-color, 3-color and 4-color combinations. Tintbook come in coated paper and uncoated paper. Brilliant!

tintbooks.com

One Day For Design

2011-04-06T22:03:00.001-04:00

How much do you care about design? Is the first question in this little website. I really like how the site scrolls on the left and leaving the right hand side stable. This is the real hook to the site - the twitter feed link. Have a look around and on April 13th there is going to be a open digital dialogue on design. What AIGA wants from this will be interesting. I am fascinated, just a bit.

onedayfordesign.org

Fontcase - elegant font management

2011-04-03T10:52:00.002-04:00

Fontcase is pretty fracking cool. It is a font management application that is basically iTunes for your fonts! Fontcase has a tagging, rating, and library system which is designed to let you organize your fonts like you control your music. The preview options are also just as impressive. I have been waiting for a font management system this visual for a long time. You will not regret this purchase.

FONTCASE.COM

UniKeep

2011-03-31T21:34:00.001-04:00

Just received samples of UniKeep 3 ring binders today. I have to say pretty cool because the whole design is made out of plastic so this whole binder is recyclable. YES RECYCLABLE! UniKeep also has CD/DVD Wallets, Case View Binders, Clear Mailer Envelopes and even Perfed Wafer Tabs. Check out the wide variety of customizable, cost effective packaging and storage options they have. Could be very handy for a clean low budget in-house project.

UniKeep.com

Color Scheme Designer

2011-03-27T11:54:00.002-04:00

This is a very useful on-line program. Right now I am designing a landscape designer's business card and eventually a web page. The owner would like a earthy warm color pallet and this on-line program really lets me test out color schemes. Try it out for yourself!

ColorSchemeDesigner.com

From Sappi’s Ideas That Matter: Project H

2011-03-23T19:19:00.001-04:00

See how the Design Revolution Roadshow from Project H, Emily Pilloton, has inspired the next generation of designers.

Watch Video Here
youtube.com/watch

Project H Design
projecthdesign.org

Publishing startup Blurb enters global marketplace using HP Indigo digital presses

2011-03-14T07:23:00.001-04:00

Eileen Gittins’ story is a page-turner. In 2003, she set out to publish her own photo essay book. She needed only 40 copies, but she wanted them to look as if they belonged on a bookstore shelf. To her disappointment, Gittins soon realized there was no cost-effective way to produce a small number of professional-quality books.

Inspired, Gittins founded Blurb, a creative publishing platform that lets anyone design any kind of book—complete with a dust jacket, library bindery and superior image quality—using simple drag-and-drop software.

For her start-up to succeed, Gittins needed a cost-effective way to produce books that would impress even professional photographers. After evaluating different options, she chose the print-on-demand capabilities—and consistent offset and photo quality—of the HP Indigo press 5500, the HP Indigo 7000 Digital Press and the HP Indigo W7200 Digital Press.

HP.com
Blurb.com

Village is a type co-op

2011-03-13T22:16:00.000-04:00

Village is a union of eleven young type foundries who have decided to go it alone, together. www.vllg.com is the information channel and boutique storefront for this group of equals. Such a good site!

TYPEFACE by Justine Nagan

2011-03-08T16:09:00.001-05:00

TYPEFACE is a 63 minuet documentary film that takes you to Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. It is here that you can actually view a 145-foot wall that displays the worlds largest collection of wood type. More then 1,000 different styles and patterns! Thank you Justine for bringing us this history.

typeface.kartemquin.com

woodtype.org/museum

Foil & Emboss

2011-02-17T16:12:00.000-05:00

If you get a chance to watch your press operator work on your foil and emboss job I highly recommend it. I just wish I had a better camera with me. It's amazing how everything must be lined up by hand and all the pins that hold everything into place. I would love to run this machine.

ArtBistro's 25 Best Cities for Designers & Artists

2011-02-06T12:51:00.001-05:00

Artbistro has looked at cities’ growth rates, average salaries and costs of living. They looked not only at unemployment figures, but also at the rate that unemployment has actually increased since February 2008.

Thinking of relocating for better or new job prospects? Need to compare two top contenders? Just curious to see where your city ranks? Artbistro has done there research.

Read Article Here

Inside of a Digital iGen

2011-01-31T20:15:00.007-05:00

There is nothing more exciting then seeing the inside of a digital press and then understanding how it works. Visiting Wolverine Solutions Group in Michigan I was lucky to snap the inside of a iGen. What a treat!

WolverineMail.com

Communicating The Truth About Print

2011-01-22T17:13:00.001-05:00

Print is often criticized for its loss of value and importance in the market, as well as its impact on the environment. It is essential to convey the message that print is important to brand recognition and the sales process, and that we are an environmentally and socially responsible industry.

The following tools and resources have been developed to help printers convey these messages to the media, your customers, the government and other industries.

Tools and Resources Here

LAMA Displays 2011

2011-01-16T12:22:00.007-05:00

Have been making easel back display boards for POS work and would like to try the LAMA Displays this year to see how it works out.

LAMA, cost effective displays for marketing, unfolds instantly and installs itself automatically. Made of cardboard and elastic bands, LAMA is lightweight yet strong, photo-realistic, low-cost and it packs compact. Some models are for displaying products while others are for visual advertising.

LAMA is unique and comes in envelop sized pack, hence transports at a very low-cost and takes extremely low storage space. Folded size: Maxi - 38 x 60cm, Big - 40 x 50mm. Erected size: Maxi - 190cm x 60cm, Big - 154 x 50cms.

It takes less than five seconds without any tools to install an instantly attractive 6 foot LAMA and takes the similar time to re-pack.

Die Cutting Hanging System

2011-01-12T17:53:00.010-05:00

I am just enamored by the way Belk Print House hangs there die's. Usually you see dies stacked on top of one another or leaning against a wall but this is just genius. Not only does it show off the beauty of the die boards but it mimics there quality of top notch organization.

BelkPrinting.com

Sappi Paper is Fabulous!

2011-01-11T15:40:00.009-05:00

I have to say that after two years of printing on Sappi Paper I can easily say that I am impressed. Flow is such an amazing work horse that even my press operators stand back and say "now that's good paper" and I say with a smile on my face "YES IT IS!". I have recently used McCoy in a large mail piece and I am looking forward to printing a lot more on this sheet. It was just fabulous how it took a strike through.
http://www.na.sappi.com/products