be still my heart...

Marian Bantjes is without a doubt one of my favorite typographers. Her type is beautiful, stunning and makes me jealous. Which I think good design does one of two things, makes you empathetic to how good it is or incredibly jealous that you didn't do it first. Which leaves me here, jealous.

I consider myself incredibly lucky to have stumbled upon Marian Bantjes one fateful day on a tour of a huge print shop in El Segundo. The tour itself was pretty worthless. Being in the back of the group, unable to hear anything the tour guide was saying since the printers were going full steam, unable to even see what he was referencing, I thought the tour was a bust. But at the end of the tour the guide took us to a room full of samples and let us take home anything we wanted - fools! My group cleaned them out. We left with bags upon bags stuffed with paper goods. They had magazines, paper samples, art guides and one small booklet full of Marian's work. A small portfolio packed with her lovely type.

From that day on, I've been admiring her work. Her typography is not merely just type, it's ridiculously good and innovative design. She's the female Stefan Sagemeister and just writing this I'm increasingly getting jealous. :)

Marian Bantjes

lauren dicioccio prints

Thanks to 20x200's feature on the artwork of Lauren DiCioccio -- you can also see Lauren's website at www.laurendicioccio.com for more of her colorful interpretations of magazine layouts (and some really intricate work with thread) -- I will soon be the proud owner of a $20 print of her take on Vogue JUL07, page 145 (Ripeness is All). I love the idea of 20x200 and if you haven't yet spent some time exploring the site, which offers limited edition photography and other artwork for reasonable prices, stop by and check it out.

happy earth day!

This poster and others designed to celebrate Earth Day found here. 

need inspiration?

I have found that flickr is a awesome resource for inspiration. I found this business card set awhile ago and just stumbled across it again. There are some amazing designs in here! Great inspiration and eye candy. I especially like the wet paper bag card, so creative!

Flickr Business Cards

typography iphone and desktop wallpapers

Typenuts have developed fun and free typography-inspired wallpapers and background apps for mobile devices. I'm digging on the Arepo version (featured above). 

house industries + andrew girard

May be a bit of old news, but still definitely note worthy.

House Industries, the unique font foundry, has created a stunning product line to celebrate Andrew Girard and his designs through the years. I love the simple, bold and vintage styled designs of the products. Blocks, puzzles, dolls - a great blast from the past, and extremely well done.
Instead of creating just a font line inspired by Girard, they created a product line in addition to the font, as a tribute.

Enjoy!

House & Girard

Interview w/ House on the Girard designs here

layer tennis

For the last couple of years, Coudal Partners of Chicago have been filling design geeks' Friday afternoons with fun and whimsy via Layer Tennis matches. The concept is simple -- two designers volley back and forth a series of computer designs (created with Adobe products, natch) at 15 minute intervals and the designer who comes up with the most clever, interesting, cohesive or otherwise creative overall design package wins. Oh, also there is a commentator watching and adding snarky, dorky (know thy audience) and often witty play-by-play of the action. And the audience picks the winner.

If you haven't done so before, go on over and check out the archive. Then come play along on Fridays! Before you know it, you'll be so hooked that when the off-season comes around you'll be unable to imagine your Fridays without it. Believe me, it will happen.

120 crayons

The Color Schemer Blog recently put up its own version of codes for Crayola's current 120 box of crayons.  Includes both hex and RGB codes! Now I just need an online coloring book. I'm not sure that they'll ever be able to replace the feeling of colored wax under your fingernails though.

the periodic table of typefaces

Props to the creators of this interesting and clever arrangement of the 100 most popular typefaces. There is a wonderful post detailing the decisionmaking process behind the design at The Behance Network. Each element's square contains the typeface family and style, along with the name of the typeface designer. No promises that I'll be able to memorize all of these "elements" any better than I did in 8th grade science class with that other periodic table, but I'm looking forward to holding on to this handy reference piece for inspiration.

the obligatory welcome post

Welcome to graphic design spot!  Stop by when you can for links to useful graphic design blogs and other websites, along with content dedicated to new and interesting design topics.  With pictures and commentary about design that this particular designer likes thrown in for good measure.  Bienvenidos!