Re-Thinking the Business Card

Business cards are the one thing that everybody thinks they can design. But creating a good business card is allot more than just slapping your name and number on a rectangular piece of card stock. Designers must think outside of the box when designing business cards in order to create something that is memorable and eye catching

While browsing some of my favorite design inspiration sites I came across this post on DesignInspirationMagazine.com

Below are some of the designs featured that really caught my eye.

Chairigami

 

   Based out of New Haven CT, Zach Rotholz's business is ingeniously called Chairigami. Zach has gone into the business of building furniture out of cardboard. He makes everything from chairs, coffee tables, desks, bookshelves, and much more. What's more is that he has a very inspiring story. I encourage you to check out his website and see the full history if you have a chance. Here's hi site: www.chairigami.com

 

 

   I came across this company when surfing Kisckstarer and found that he is trying to raise funds for a new product he has designed called the standing desk. This design is very inspiring because I have always been fascinated with functional design. 

   I have done a lot of cardboard projects in my day and have thought of this idea a few time but always rejected it because I thought that the end product would not look very pleasing to the eye. Mr Rotholtz has clearly demolished that idea, by coming up with some very aesthetically pleasing ideas. 

   This idea should inspire us all to take action on all those fleeting ideas that we come up with and never do anything about. We should always strive to try and break down boundaries of what is possible, even in design.

 

                    

2014 - The year of hand lettering

    This year I promised myself I would start putting more handwork into all of my projects for class. So far, I have and am happy that I have been! It definitely has been helping my graphic/typography design game grow. 

I say this to introduce one person and his work that help with inspiration: Jon Contino. Recently I watched a presentation given by Jon at a typography conference; he gave great information. His speech basically kept touching on that you should do what you want, not what others think you should do. 

He shared many stories of his employment with design firms and clients and etc and how no matter what it was, he never was enjoying himself. After years of going through that he decided to drop from it all and just go solo doing what he liked and here he is today working with huge clients and, from what I can tell, is extremely happy. 

    Besides having some great knowledge and insight for all, he also has some great work to inspire with. To the left is an image of the front cover of a little pocket book that he hand lettered and illustrated. The biggest thing about his work is that all of it comes out like this. If you look, you can see that although it's beautiful it is super rigid, rugged and raw. Personally, I love this look. It just speaks "Truly Handmade" to me. Although I do love mostly all hand lettering, Jon's just comes with such a personal feel to it. 

This kind of design is stuff I really enjoy. I love stuff that isn't super polished and has a sign of DIY in it. It makes it much more desirable, to me at least I am sure there are those that
will disagree.

    In closing, I definitely encourage everyone to bookmark his site and be on the watch for Jon Contino. Not only a great man, but a great artist and designer as well. He will surely inspire your art and personality. 

Thanks for reading!

Hand-Lettering

I've noticed since the beginning of the semester quite a few dabblings in hand-lettering for various projects and designs from several different classmates in both Type 2 and Graphic Design 2. My interest piqued, I decided to look into hand-lettering and what sort of process it takes to come with a decent, clever design. A quick google search had me stumbling upon Sean McCabe and his website completely devoted to the pursuit of hand-lettering.




Mr. McCabe has a large portfolio of all hand-lettered designs in various styles ranging from modern to traditional and everything in between. It was extremely useful to see his site and the wide variety of design one can be exposed to in the sole medium of hand-lettered type.

 

This is for anyone interested in typography and the application of it outside the computer. McCabe has tutorials on hand lettering for those who would prefer a guided tour of hand-lettering, or you can just take a gander at his portfolio to see the diverse potential of hand-lettered typography. Either way, it's definitely something I'm going to keep a tab on for future design considerations.

 

For those who are interested, here's his website:

seanwes.com

YOU'RE WELCOME

Do you guys enjoy wasting time? Do you enjoy mindless interactivity? Well here, check out patatap, an addicting little site created by Jono Brandel and Lullatone.

Get Inspired! Websites

For this last blog, I’ll briefly talk about three useful websites where you can get inspiration from when you’re creating your projects and designs. Of course there are many others out there, but I feel like these three are ones you should definitely check out.

Number One: Behance

You probably have heard of Behance from your professors or whatnot. For one thing, I think it has a good interface that’s not hard to navigate, so that’s a plus. You can create an account and submit your designs there as well, and if you’re lucky someone browsing through may see your work and ‘appreciate’ it. This ‘appreciate’ thing to me is equivalent of a Facebook ‘like.’ But if you don’t want to create an account you can always just do what most people do and browse through other designers and artists’ works to get inspiration from. It’s not just general graphic design or typography work either, you can find other things like UX stuff too. 

Number Two: DeviantART

This is my favorite website to look through awesome artwork and get inspiration from. DeviantART has a huuuge amount of artwork in their gallery, and they’re distributed into many different categories from photograph, to digital art, traditional art, etc. Although some ‘junk’ or wrongly categorized artwork can be found in there, it doesn’t take from the really amazing ones. You can create an account and share your artwork there as well, and you can also join Groups created by other members; they have groups for almost anything you can imagine so you may find a couple that fit your interests. You can also find tutorials that other deviant members have kindly posted, to help you practice something like ‘lineart,’ shading illustrations, and such. I’m a proud member of this community, and I highly recommend it to others. 

Another cool thing about having an account here is that, if you’re browsing through art and find some great ones, you can ‘favorite’ it and it’ll go into your ‘favorites’ gallery that you can go back to and reference later.

Number Three: Abduzeedo

I’m still exploring this website, but from what I’ve already seen it’s a great website to view artwork. Abduzeedo offers a collection of different art styles, just as the other two do, from photographs to illustrations, logos and so on and you can also create an account if you’d like. They also have tutorials and tips for photoshop, illustrator and some other softwares you might be interested in checking out. If you don’t have anything in particular that you’re looking for as inspiration, I suggest a shortcut: hover your cursor on the ‘collections’ and go to the daily inspiration section; you’ll see the works and designs that the writers and users from the website have chosen.

 

These are just 3 of many that I find to be very solid websites to go to if you’re in need of some inspiration or motivation, especially when you feel stuck or have that ‘artist/designer block’ that I’m sure all of us get from time to time. So if you have time check these websites, and you know just do a quick browse of what they have, I’m sure you’ll find something that catches your eye. Hope you found this blog useful!

A Win-Win Solution

by: Joshua Tallas

 

Since we are doing a packaging project I think ill post something about it. 

OK, what if we bought a product and that item's packaging could be used for something else useful other than a package? This will definitely give landfills a break. I have been looking up numerous of products that serve as an afterlife. Here are a some products I found online!

 Steve Haslip's Hangerpak

This product won first place at the D&AD students awards in 2007.

   Cava wine bottle packaging by Spanish design firm Ciclus.

Slick packaging for Newton running shoes. Molded recycled cardboard. Most shoes aren't perfectly square.

This package turns into a lampshade

This package turns into a T.V stand!

I think as designers this is a very important thing we should consider. It helps the environment and reduces landfill waste. Its a Win-win!

http://www.treehugger.com/slideshows/sustainable-product-design/packaging-design-at-its-best/#slide-top 

Mark Bird (Illustrator)

Self Portrait by Mark Bird

 



I chose to share the work of a really cool illustrator/graphic designer that I found a few days ago. Mark Bird is an extraordinary illustrator who create awesome illustrations with what appears to be vector shapes and multiple textures.







I just really enjoy his character designs and use of such clean shapes and textures. A majority of designs that I do are simply vector, but now I would like to try to use similar techniques that he uses to add more dimension and detail to the simple colors.

Secret Treasure by Mark Bird

The Space Gardener by Mark Bird

Just a really cool Illustrator with awesome artwork, I hope this post is appealing and offers some possible inspiration and what not.

Link to his website: http://birdinhanddesign.com/

Low Poly Lamps

Low poly has really caught our imagination is recent weeks-- well at least mine has. Through some internet digging of my own I stumbled upon these amazing low poly lamp fixtures by Corneel Cannaerts, a Belgium based designer and programmer. These 3D-printed pieces are very vivid and instantly stand out due to their geometric shape. Cannaerts has developed his own way of printing these lamps and also his own software for developing his pieces. I love the way color is used in these pieces (below) and with light coming through from the other side can make for dynamic moods and interesting light patterns.

These lights are outfitted with LEDs to provide a bright light without all the heat of a traditional lightbulb.

His software can even take regular 2D images and interpret that into a colored mesh ready to print.

If you want to see more of by Corneel Cannaerts check out his website

http://introspector.be

https://twitter.com/introspect0r

https://www.facebook.com/corneel.cannaerts

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Enjoy.

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Kurt Wenner

Street Artist, Illustrator, Painter, 

Bad Mamajamma

By Jackson Richardson

About the Artist:

Kurt Wenner is an American artist who specializes in neo-classical

traditions--melding them with modern mediums and ideals. Wenn-

er first began his artistic career at the Rhode Island School of Desi-

gn and Art Center. After obtaining his degree Wenner began work-

ing for NASA as an advanced scientific space illustrator. After los-

ing interest for space illustrations, Wenner left NASA to pursue his

love of classical art in Italy. Wenner spent many years in Italy stud-

ying classical art, drawing sculptures, and mastering a classical ha-

nd. Wenner said, "My interest in Renaissance classicism started w-

ith the simple desire to draw well. I was stuck by the vast difference

between how students and teachers drew in the 20th century and t-

he way artists drew 500 years ago. It seemed to me that artists of t-

he past had abilities far beyond those of today. My curiosity about

this discrepancy took me to Rome in order to seek out and master

drawing and painting within the "language" of western classicism.

During this time I isolated myself from 20th century art in order to 

explore the ideals and concepts practiced in earlier centuries. It h-

as since become an ongoing mission to rediscover classical tradi-

tions and communicate them to a contemporary audience." 

Street Art:

Wenner was the main innovator behind anamorphic, perspective

art that revealed itself through his works of mastery. Wenner's w-

orks have been showcased in over 30 countries and he continues 

to receive commissions from international clients. Wenner has a 

book entitled Asphalt Pavement--and it talks of his ideals and re-

asons behind his pieces. Here are only a few examples of his 3D

street art illusions. Wenner has produced hundreds throughout h-

is career:

Drawings and Illustrations:

 

 

 

 

Paintings and Fine Art:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, I guess you could say that Wenner is truly a Renaissance Man.

His works have gained international success, he has been active f-

or over 40 years in the artistic world and continues turning our pav-

ement into something beautifully rediscovered. I hope you enjoyed 

the post and that if you as well enjoy street art--to get out there and

create something...the world is a free canvas:) I do chalk art as we-

ll and I am nowhere near the mastery talent of Wenner--and I may

never be--but hey we can try!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peace McGarvins:D