Producing a lot of generally well done typography and hand lettering, I found out about Letman after seeing the series of lettering he produced (above) for a fashion event called the Modefabriek. It’s stunning imagery; bold and compelling, with photography by Philippe Vogelenzang. Definitely a fantastic demonstration of photography and design in harmony. Just wish I knew about it back in January when it made it’s debut!

I highly recommended reading Michael Beirut’s new article, Lella Vignelli on Design Observer. A reflection of what Beirut learned while working at Vignelli Associates—more specifically, what he learned from the ‘brakes’ of the duo, Lella Vignelli.

Excerpt:
Lella taught me about the value of design, literally. “Don’t either of you start talking about money,” she would often joke as Massimo and I would go into a first-time client meeting. She knew that we would tend to give the work away for free just for a chance to see it realized. Once all three of us were in a meeting with a client who wanted Vignelli Associates to design a shoebox. At the end of the meeting, the client asked how much we would charge. Lella looked quickly at the two of us: leave this to me. I did the math in my head. Five sides, not counting the bottom, say $1,500 apiece, that makes $7,500 in fees. Then Lella spoke: “Thirty thousand dollars.” “That sounds about right,” said the client. After the meeting, Lella asked me what I would have charged, and I told her. “See?” she said triumphantly. “You just made $22,500 just by keeping your mouth shut!”

It’s just the right motivation for the start of the week!

Anyone who knows me, also knows I’m a huge fan of Marian Bantjes’ work. She just lets herself go with every project, and seems to never let a new idea go un-tried—a consistent quality that’s taken her career a long way.

I love these hand-assembled number illustrations she prepared for Men’s Health. I’m feeling compelled to hop off the computer and bring the physical object back into my design. It’s been a while. Also, the pattern design for Wallpaper/Laser Sailboat is TOO cool. What an amazing project to take on!

Check it outtttt.

My first time seeing the work of San Francisco-based Scott Barry, aka Sacred Mtn., and I’m pleased to see a lot of really hip work that isn’t… too hip (because it comes reallllly close). Barry’s body of work is pretty consistently-toned, blending some pretty specific working styles into one. But there are some pretty wild bits that some might find a little too bold… and some a little NSFW (dude wieners).

But for the most part, I love where his work is heading—super cool and simple.

Link via It’s Nice That.

Paper art, or craft/tactile design, or the DIY movement, or whatever you want to call it was no doubt huge around three years ago, but seems to have exhausted it’s fifteen minutes as of recent. With the recent resurgence of hand-drawn or clumsy-but-cute campaigns, I have a feeling craft design is making it’s official comeback. And when I come across such inventive work from artists like Owen Gildersleeve, I’m only more and more positive.

Owen turned it up a notch with a number of his recent pieces, and its really stoking my curiosities of the craftier side of design.

Just look at that beast.

Later this September, the fifth installment of Die Gestalten’s popular Los Logos series will be released in North America, and I am delighted to say that as a loyal reader and owner of Los Logos, Dos Logos, Tres Logos, and Los Logos 4, my work has been selected to be published in Los Logos: Compass! If this book is anything like it’s predecessors, it’s going to be the absolute must-have branding book for all graphic designers this Fall. I submitted over fifteen logos from the past year, and happen to know—based on the thumbnail views—a logo I produced for NYC fashion designer, Nuria Frances did make the cut! Now for the other sixteen pieces. Feelin’ itchy…

Thanks Gestalten! You’ve always ranked top three on my Christmas lists.

This is the best thing I’ve seen all day long. It’s called Smoke Rings and it was created by my one of my new favorite artist/designers, Mike Ward. Check out more of his awesome work as soon as you can!

Link via @nopattern.

I walk pretty much the same route to and from work each day in downtown Chicago, so I get the privilege of seeing all the new on-the-ground advertising campaigns as they debut. Usually a number of instances per campaign, in fact—instantly fell in love with the newest installment of Ray-Ban’s Never Hide ads for their new Rare Prints, for example.

Last week, the Art Institute of Chicago released a bus shelter ad promoting The Lunch with the Masters Visit, which sounds like a good time! The graphic presence of the poster, however… well, it left much to be desired. My first impression a block away was one part curiosity and one part skepticism. I saw a LOT of white space, a strange backward-S contour, and it felt straight out of the year 2000.

The subtext reads, Now with 100% of your daily recommended culture. Follow the path of photos. Is it a narrative; a sort of ‘day in the life’ setup? Maybe. There is a lunch scene in the middle of the sequence, after all. But my biggest hang up was the very specific look of the piece; a formation of haphazardly-placed rectangular photographs that seem to exist to mimic the Art Institute of Chicago logomark.




Fast forward a few evenings. I’m walking through the local Metra Rail train station, and I am stopped in my tracks (pun!) before a series of ads for Advocate Health Care.

HUH?

Feeling like I’ve seen this ad somewhere before, I think back to that Lunch with the Masters poster. I don’t know about you, but I was blown away by the similarities. And just so you have a point of geographical reference, this train station is ONE BLOCK from that bus shelter displaying the AIC poster. Close enough so, that I briskly marched back to it for suspicion confirmation.




This Advocate Health Care poster series won’t be collecting any awards, but what matters is that same graphic approach of this ‘school of fish’ formation of non-gridded photographs. In addition to the formation, the white background and the border-free imagery take on the same minimalist approach that many turn of the century designers applied to their work.

Wether this is a style worth bringing back, I don’t know. Although it sort of works for the AIC Lunch with the Masters poster, it seems to lend nothing to Advocate Health Care. But the fact that both of these campaigns are live at the same time is a design coincidence that definitely caught my eye.

So I work with these two guys who are both from Norway, right? Well they’re nowhere NEAR as cool as the dudes better known as Grandpeople (they’re from Norway, too). These site updates made me real jealous this afternoon.

You too?

The guys over at Firebelly Design put a lot of work into this piece, and now the TYPEFORCE book is printed and being distributed! It’s the perfect catalogue to accompany the exhibition. It features all the work in close detail, with written excerpts from every artist, and many photographs from the evening. I was blown away by the quality of the book, but with donated supplies from Graphic Arts Studio, and Unisource Paper, and backing support from AIGA Chicago, I couldn’t expect anything less!

I’m proud to have been part of such a great design effort in the artist community, and thrilled to have exhibited among such talent. Below are three spreads from the book. Each artist chapter was given an individual custom title spread, and I gotta say—I love mine!

Interested in a copy? Contact Firebelly Design, and ask nicely!