From Toy to King from kreisone on Vimeo.

Really well put together typographic animation about how to become a writer. What is also nice is that each letter is hand drawn and then vectorized.

Mario Hugo, one of my favorite artist / designers, has just updated his portfolio with some great work. I’ve been following this gent for a while, and he’s always made me spring towards my paper & pencil or wacom & mac, i know i’m not alone on this either, Christopher from Change The Thought would definitely agree.

I love trees and anything organic, this Decemberists sleeve is really singing to me. If you’re in NYC today, you might check out his lecture for AIGA

The Grid System, the ground rules for typography and layout. Josef Muller Brockmann, the swiss designer who heavily advocated use of the grid with that lovely orange book above, Grid Systems in Graphic Design, has become synonymous with this set of design guidelines. When i went to school for design, the majority of my studies were based in learning software, thanks to these great resources i’m sharing, i’ve been able to educate myself with these universal processes of design, something i feel is seriously lacking in my generation of designers due to the technology we use today.

I also just discovered this rich online resource for grids, The Grid System, it’s a great compilation of articles, tools, books, and templates.

Above are some amazing album cover concepts for Beck’s latest album, Modern Guilt, which i ran into the other day on Mario Hugo’s website. I, was blown away at how great these are (love the wood block typography!), and i was also even more blown away they used what is shown below instead:

When i first saw the cover i immediately had a slightly negative reaction. Not that it’s horrible design, but it seems like they decided to go with that “cheap” look you find on a lot of all jazz and rock records from the 60’s and 70’s, which can be cool, but i don’t feel it stands up to Mario’s work.

This comes as a surprise after reading in Wired some time ago about how Beck was into creating memorable, unique artwork for his previous release, The Information.

As for the album, it didn’t quite grab me as much as The Information, but it’s still quality Beck, i enjoyed it. Was i influenced a bit by the art work? I’m sure, i think the art certainly has a part in the gestalt of an album, the first thing that hits your senses before you even listen to the music…..branding???

Was getting lost on ffffound as usual, and wanted to share this typography. Didn’t bother to check who did the second image, but the first image file was named Alex T, so i’m assuming it’s Alex Trochut, looks like his work.

Avant Garde, one of the most fancied typefaces among designers. Created by Herb Lubalin in 1970 for Avant Garde Magazine. I found this flickr gallery of Aisle One’s collection of this beautiful publication. Lubalin’s layout and typographical work is genius. So many amazing things came out of the 70’s, including the last image.

Avant Garde, one of the most fancied typefaces among designers. Created by Herb Lubalin in 1970 for Avant Garde Magazine. I found this flickr gallery of Aisle One’s collection of this beautiful publication. Lubalin’s layout and typographical work is genius. So many amazing things came out of the 70’s, including the last image.