10 Rules for Writing First Drafts

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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.

Ghost Signs

Photo: Ash Bishop, Brilliant Sign Co

Gorgeous victorian signage discovered under layers of plaster in a newly converted bar would be cool enough, but in a fun coincidence the new signage for the bar, Casa Blue, echoes the type from a hundred years before.

Cool Stuff From Around the Web

Metal Lion by Selçuk Yılmaz

How the Main Titles for the "Black Swan" Became a Work of Art.

Star Wars High School

7 Package Design Trends You Should Know About

The Art of Competitive Aquascaping.
Who knew this was even a thing?

The Hammered Metal Art of Selçuk Yılmaz

B E A U T Y - dir. Rino Stefano Tagliafierro from Rino Stefano Tagliafierro on Vimeo.

Paper 1 for Visual Communications: History and Issues

Explore the idea of the Mechanizied Eccentric* (links to a pdf). How is it a change from traditional forms of entertainment and how does it influence contemporary work. How have the themes explored in the Mechanizied Eccentric essay become part of our combined experience? What themes have been left behind?

Use a live performance (theatre, music concert, etc) that you have attended recently as well as the videos shown in class to support your thesis.

Cellphone's Dead – Beck

Einstein on the Beach

Etienne De Crecy

All papers should be in correct MLA style. Hand written papers will not be accepted. 

*For an introduction to László Moholy-Nagy and point in time in which he is writing this article, read page 17 of Multimedia: From Wagner to Virtual Reality.

You will need to read this, think about it, read it again. It is not a difficult read, but it is very conceptual and you want to make sure you understand what he is saying so you can talk abut it.

Rebirth of The Doves typeface

The original Doves type was crafted by punchcutter Edward Prince from drawings of Nicolas Jenson's 15th-century Venetian typeface. There were a number of recreations of Jenson's type during this time period, William Morris's "Golden" type among them, but Doves is considered to be the most faithful to the original Venetian forms.

Doves was created for The Dove Press in 1899 and the press was very successful, fully selling out printings of its work before they were even produced. Not long after the turn of the century though, the partners in the press, Emery Walker and Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson had a falling out and the press closed. Their terms of contract specified that Walker should have possession of the type should the business dissolve. Cobden-Sanderson could not bear the though of someone else using 'his' type, and over the course of 5 years, starting in 1913, he made hundreds nightime trips to the closed shop, each time taking away more of the type and matrices to dump in the Thames. By January of 1917, the deed was complete. The Doves type was gone, seemingly forever.

A century later, Doves lives again, now in digital form, thanks to the research and painstaking efforts of Robert Green from Typspec.

The 1934 Belchfire Runabout

Cutaway illustration by Claude Lacroix

Everything you need to know about Donald Duck's car.