Neon Signs

This short feature reminded me of documentaries about letterpress and sign painting. So much skill and craftsmanship being replaced by technology yet holding on anyway just because the craftsmen see value in what they do.

The Graphic Design of The Grand Budapest Hotel

Image: 20th Century Fox

Designer Annie Atkins calls doing the graphic design for The Grand Budapest Hotel her dream job, and I would feel the same way. I love doing the research and creating the look of a specific time or era (this might be why I teach the History of Graphic Design….) This sort of immersive, historical revival is one of my favorite types of graphic design projects. These sorts of projects are sadly are few and far between (see Craig wards article on Why Minimalist  Design Posters Miss the Point for a run down of why these sorts of projects are so rare in the real world.)

Parallax Scrolling is Not Just Cool Scrolling

Everyone knows how important I think using the correct terms for things is. I just ran across an article on parallax scrolling by an author who has the same reaction to those "40 greatest examples of design trend X" when they pertain to parallax scrolling that I do when they pertain to Typography. Basically, "Gaaaah. That's not an example of that!"

With the "40 greatest examples of typography" sites, they are almost always full of lettering and calligraphy with no typography in site. Cool stuff visually, but a huge mislabeling of completely different disciplines as typography.

In the case of Parallax scrolling, the sites shown in those roundups are seldom actually parallax. They are often very cool, but moving planes over one another is not parallax any more than lettering made of hot dogs is typography. Parallax requires a viewpoint and the examples he links in the article make the difference really clear.

I think my favorite is the example from from agency Madwell in New York. The way the buildings move across each other to change the viewpoint in a cityscape is amazing. Another super cool example of cityscapes changing viewpoints is in a site promoting our very own Space Needle!

So, now you won't confuse just regular cool scrolling with parallax scrolling.

There will be a test later.