graphic design spot

fair wages

2011-10-05T06:24:00.000-07:00

Jessica Hische posted a great blog about fair pricing for freelance projects (especially illustration, lettering and logos) that will be good to come back to from time to time. It is so hard to get information about how people price their work in the creative realm and there is so much downward pressure on prices in the field that it is always helpful to hear how successful designers are pricing their work.

cut paper

2011-06-22T09:47:00.000-07:00

I'm totally loving the work of Sabrina Transiskus. Makes me want to pick up paper and scissors! For her commercial portfolio, click here.

julia rothman

2010-11-16T16:25:00.000-08:00

Came across this grain edit interview w/ Julia Rothman the other day. I love Julia's style and patterns!
She also just recently co-authored The Exquisite Book, a new take based off of the exquisite corpse game.

There's also a link to a pattern making tutorial that was on Design*Sponge. Give it a try!
or
Check out the interview!

in love with letterpress

2010-09-16T10:57:00.001-07:00

Also in love with this necklace!

Buy here

si scott

2010-06-16T22:33:00.000-07:00

Tonight I went to UCLA campus to hear Si Scott talk about his hand-drawn type and distinctive design style. For two plus hours we were treated to his back story and descriptions of his process and works. Amazing! Go to his website and get lost in the incredible curvaceous details. Handmade flourishes at their finest.

inspiration: summer

2010-06-07T10:39:00.000-07:00

inspiration: flora fauna

2010-05-20T10:31:00.000-07:00

little font

2010-03-24T10:08:00.000-07:00

Dear Sarah font via FontShop

lovely hand-drawn type

2010-03-11T09:54:00.000-08:00

If you haven't already seen Jessica Hirsh's portfolio of typography, it could change your life. Jessica is the woman behind the daily drop cap and her other work is equally inspirational. I just love it all!

what type are you?

2010-03-03T10:41:00.000-08:00

Turns out I'm Marina Script.
And you?

Fun interactive quiz to find out what type you are:
Here
password: character

affordable art roundup

2010-01-27T10:09:00.000-08:00

I stumbled upon this online gallery with some really great and affordable prints.
All around $20.
The site is really well designed and built as well (Flash-o-rama!). Check it out!

Charmingwall

Prints by Devon Kelley-Yurdin, Eric Otto, Evan B. Harris & APAK

the lost art of letterheads

2010-01-14T12:46:00.000-08:00

A friend sent this website to me the other day - very cool blog all about letterheads.
Some really great vintage designs, personal as well as business.
*love the Henson Associates letterhead!

letterheady

one more time, with flourish

2009-11-10T19:11:00.000-08:00

So I'm sitting home alone. Watching Iron Chef America on my dvr (Battle Almond!). And an overwhelming urge just hit me. The urge to conduct a Google search using the search term "flourishes". This is perfectly normal, right? Right??

Anyway, I found a cool blog post from Andrew at www.myinkblog.com in which he gives detailed, step-by-step instructions for creating your own swirls and flourishes in Illustrator. Way to bring The Awesome to my Tuesday night, Andrew!

typographic blues remedy

2009-10-23T10:58:00.000-07:00

Serious type inspiration.

Feeling a little blue? Type got you down?
No need to fret! Brand new blog, Friends of Type are here to save the day.
I came across FoT browsing on GrainEdit this morning, and I'm swooning.
They've only been posting for a short time and already their blog is full of inspiring type and sketches.
I love the 'yes.stay' and I'm really feeling like hand drawing some type this weekend.

poster roundup

2009-10-07T11:08:00.000-07:00

add a little color to your home - art prints that you can afford

pretty

2009-08-04T10:15:00.000-07:00

Design Sponge is celebrating their 5 year anniversary with pretty wallpaper giveaways. It's the gift that keeps on giving, because they will also be doing a wallpaper giveaway each month featuring different artists and designers. So keep checking back!

I always love getting a nice wallpaper every now and then to spruce up my background and rejuvenate my computers appearance.

5 year anniversary

analog!

2009-07-20T17:19:00.000-07:00

There's a cute little stationary site based out of San Francisco called Yellow Owl Workshop that is offering up odes to all things analog in this crazy digital age. Love this postcard set and all the Polaroid kitsch!

reverse graffiti

2009-07-10T18:47:00.000-07:00

The idea of cleaning grime to create street art is a new one for me, and I have to say I like it.

fonts, free fonts

2009-06-23T16:11:00.000-07:00

Hello there :)
Everybody likes free fonts right?

So I've been following Fontfabric for awhile. And I'm always waiting, watching and anticipating their next font, and quite often it's a free one. Even the fonts that aren't free are decently priced.
The free ones are always a little funky, not 'exactly' legible, but definitely fun.
It's worth checking out and their designs for promoting the fonts are nice eye candy as well :)

Free fonts!

letterpress workshops?

2009-05-27T01:04:00.000-07:00

I want to letterpress. I want to create a design, typeset it and see the actual letterpressed goodness after a run through the 'ole printing press. I want to spend a weekend geeking out with other graphic design nerds about typefaces and ink combinations. I want to get my hands dirty.

So periodically I sit down alone with my MacBook Pro and I type in search queries designed to elicit the ultimately cool letterpress workshop taking place next weekend at some yet-to-be-located letterpress studio (which, in my crazy fantasies, is located just down the street from my little apartment). I have not had success in this quest to date. As you might have guessed, either by noting that question mark in the title of this post or by observing the whiny tone to this blog entry.

Anyway, enough about me. The point here is to mention that while conducting a sad and lonely letterpress workshop google search tonight I stumbled across a website that includes classified ads for all things letterpress. No LA workshops on there at the moment, but maybe I'll find that elusive perfect weekend workshop someday. It must be out there somewhere!

new addition to the color library

2009-05-19T10:46:00.000-07:00

Really interesting color site that was sent to me yesterday, Colorate.org.
You can learn about color, put together color palettes, work with colors 3 dimensionally and see how they relate to each other. Pretty cool!

http://www.colorotate.org/

compost modern

2009-05-14T09:12:00.000-07:00

What an adorable ad was created for AIGA's Maine edition of Compost Modern Conference! For more information about the clever people behind the clip, see the Design Sponge item that introduced me to it.

book cover

2009-05-06T12:27:00.000-07:00

Found this site the other day, The Book Cover Archive, it's full of nicely designed book covers.
Great inspiration!

10 Things

2009-05-04T15:51:00.000-07:00

A really really great article from Milton Glaser.

10 Things I Have Learned.

Read it! :)

more type, more design - more!

2009-05-04T12:48:00.000-07:00

You are cordially invited to check these out!
Type and designs by Keetra Dean Dixon

block type

2009-05-04T11:14:00.000-07:00

I came across this menu design for a French bistro awhile ago on Oh Joy!, and thought about it recently with a potential menu project coming up and also because Leila is abroad in France at the moment. :)

I love the block lettering wrapped in the cardboard type paper. It has a very rustic earthy feel.
I really want to try something like this some time!
The designs were by a French design firm, my beautiful. They have a nice website and interesting designs in a variety of fields. Check them out! Hopefully inspiration will follow.

my beautiful - l'epicerie

my beautiful

be still my heart...

2009-04-24T10:27:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-23T12:53:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-22T09:45:00.001-07:00

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

need inspiration?

2009-04-15T16:29:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-14T14:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-07T22:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-07T11:30:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-07T10:07:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-06T10:49:00.000-07:00

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!