Onedreamrush / Zhestkov.com from Maxim Zhestkov on Vimeo.

I have to say this video gave me the strongest visceral reaction i’ve had in a long time. Maxim’s other videos are also amazing, i’m loving his strong throw back to retro psychedelia, and the MC Escher undertones, this guy has a great handle on black, white, and minimalism.

Maxim Zhestov is a 24 year old designer from Russia.

UP THERE from Jon on Vimeo.

An amazing short documentary on NYC sign painters called Up There, produced by the forward thinking ad agency, Mother. Between jumbo screens and vinyl; a dying trade within advertising. Personally i love and pay more attention to hand painted advertising, an aged craft that has human sweat and blood behind it, and i feel less like the ad is cheaply being jammed down my throat by the now mechanical / digital world that advertising has become.

It’s also wonderful when you see an old, faded, hand painted ad on a building, it’s the only advertising that i feel adds to the city’s character.

Found via: World’s Best Ever

C215, one of the most prolific and talented street artists i’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing, almost daily in NYC, that’s how many ups he has. He is from Paris, but he spreads his beautiful work, all over world, from Brazil to India. This shot was taken in Brooklyn, in the DUMBO neighborhood where i used to work, sadly it’s been buffed (painted over). Take a peek at his flickr, it’s cool to see how complex is work has gotten over the years.

So i was doing a little spring cleaning on my computer this evening and I found this little poster i did back at my old agency. It was a belated secret santa gift for my good friend, and office manager, Brian Kerr. This last christmas i made an exodus to arizona and totally ditched the office festivities, and soon after my return, i was showered in well deserving guilt. Thankfully i was able to mend the friendship with a little extra time at work, i don’t think i’d be able to endure the holidays every year with the secret santa shame.

Brian also runs a great indie music label called Two Syllable Records, i recommend checking them out. They’ve got some great bands like New Villager on their roster.

Found these gorgeous old promotional materials for some ancient type foundries and print shops. They are so detailed and ornate, to think it was all hand made back then is amazing! The designers back then did have some analog assistance though, the machine illustrated in the last image is a curving machine, used to make brass rules to get those perfect curves, and this was before Si Scott!

Also, the H. Berthold card is legendary! The foundry established by Hermann Berthold in Berlin. Responsable for Helvetica’s forefather, Akzidenz-Grotesk. They were also responsable for reviving such heavy weights (and i don’t mean bold / oblique ) as Garamond, Caslon, Baskerville, and Bodoni.

Found via: sheaff-ephemera.com

I know this blog has been super quiet lately, but it certainly hasn’t been out of laziness. I’ve been ultra busy with my new position at the almighty R/GA in NYC (responsible for the genius Nike + campaign). I’ve been hired to work on their Nike account, which has been very fun. Tons of great talent here, very inspiring, i’m going to make some posts introducing some of the talent soon. A few of the designers I work with here have been contributing to Typcut, which has been on fire lately, the pieces above I did recently.

After 15 years since his last release, a wicked new video and song By the legendary Gil Scott-Heron, off his new album I’m New Here.

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.

Some late night scribbling with my roommate. More on Flickr.

The work of David Ope, found via Kervin Brissaeux’s blog.