Retired Baseball Logo Showcase
10 Beautiful Antique Toy Ads
3 Fresh Web Design Ideas
INTERVIEW - The Flatstock Whisperer

Archive for the ‘Design’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Demystifying the Use of Service Agreements

One of the most popular questions designers ask are concerning payment and client relations pertaining to that subject. A few popular scenarios that may sound familiar:

  • “I completed 75% of the project but my client hasn’t paid the down payment yet!”
  • “My clients changed their minds and refuses to pay until the project has been completed!”
  • “The client claims the project was unsuccessful and refuses to pay!”
  • “My client is converting my print brochure into a website and other collateral!”

The Way To Great Client Relations
(more…)

Read the rest of this entry »

20 Astonishingly Intricate International Metro Maps

Born and raised in Brooklyn, I grew up on the orange lines of the NYC MTA. I used to stare deeply into the huge maps at each station waiting for my train to show up and have always been in awe of how much detail is in each square inch. Here are some of the most beautiful metro/transit maps from around the world.

(I tried to focus on the most simplified “quick-view” versions meant for scanning on stations rather than intricate street combo versions. These versions have their own unique challenges like — readability, that I felt made them especially designerly.)

Japan

Japan Metro MapClick to Enlarge
(more…)

Read the rest of this entry »

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – The Cover Art

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs have a new record out and I thought to myself as I picked up the new album (it’s Blitz!) what a great cover art they have. As I listened to the album, I thought what great matches they turned out to be for the actual music of their respective albums…

Yeah Yeah Yeahs album covers
(more…)

Read the rest of this entry »

Salty! — Morton Salt’s Umbrella Girls

Beautiful Illustration + Mod Feel = I’m in Love.


Morton Salt Girl - Preset Day Close Up
One of the most famous examples of a brand’s identity being forever tied with a illustration is Morton Salt’s Umbrella Girl. They adopted it originally in 1914 because of their tag line; “When it Rains, It Pours“. For those of you who don’t know, the table salt we use today has a chemical in it that keeps it from clumping. Back in the day before they pioneered that solution, salt used to clump up all the time. That’s where Morton Salt came in with this innovative idea and clever marketing scheme.
(more…)

Read the rest of this entry »

Type Showcase: Garamond

In art school, we had to paint this typeface in the “Introduction to Typography” course. Looking back, I appreciate the focus we put on it because of how elegant and useful it is. It has a lot of personality to it but remains functional at the same time. No surprise that Apple has used it in their award winning ad campaigns including “Think Different” and Dr. Seuss and J.K Rowling have used it to typeset their books (according to Wikipedia).

Garamond Semibold
Garamond Semibold
Semibold is very useful, it’s a great weight for this font.
(more…)

Read the rest of this entry »

3 Beautiful Retro Photographic Manuals

When I used to live in NYC, I used to visit the Strands near Union Square all the time just to flip through old books. They just have a certain easy flair to them that just makes sense no matter what the subject matter is. From the old-school science fiction illustrations to the out-of-date typography, they all have a certain flavor that the computer age pretty much ended. Here are some old photographic manuals I came across that I took some photos of. The covers feature some great examples of sans-serif typography and wonderful textbook-like interior diagrams:

Build Your Own Home Darkroom
Wonderful, beautiful Helvetica… My precious…
(more…)

Read the rest of this entry »

Comparing Product Colors

What is the color of stuff these days? What do companies do with color offerings when in competition with each other? Do they strive for uniqueness or is it better to not stray too far from the pack? Let’s take a informal look at some popular consumer products and see if we can learn anything from how they approach color. At the very least, it’s fun to pull the palette colors into a set and view it in a disassociated way (like Adidas for example).

iPod Nano vs. Microsoft Zune

Ipod Color Swatches
Zune Color Swatches
(more…)

Read the rest of this entry »

En Fuego! Best & Worst NBA Websites

NBA teams have a license to ill when it comes to their websites because they want to keep you excited, informed and motivated to go see the games either in person or on TV. However, only some are En Fuego, most are either a satisfactory Aight or worse of all complete Scrubs. The Miami Heat website is the worse of all. I suspect they hired one of their cheerleaders to moonlight on it.

En Fuego

These teams have the best blend of creativity, visual excitement and uniqueness that make them stand above the rest. The NY Knicks for example just give off a “Heart of NY” feel to it that I think all the other cities should try to capture.

The New York Knicks
Knicks Website Screen Shot
(more…)

Read the rest of this entry »

SEO Checklist – 10 Simple Steps

Spiders, the economic crisis, an angry Chris Brown and a woman scorned are all things you should be scared of. Thankfully for web developers, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not on that list. We’re going to go over some simple SEO techniques that are easy to incorporate into your web development production routine. These are the things you should be doing before doing the more advanced stuff which we will cover at a later date.
Search Engine Optimization Checklist Scroll
(more…)

Read the rest of this entry »

30 Awesome Designerly Band T-Shirts

*UPDATE* The author of the 25th comment gets the shirt of their choice in this post. Including comments. Yay!

Get your lighters ready! Today, we’re looking at designs commissioned by bands/labels – usually meaning they are some of the most creative, expressive and innovative illustrations, layout and techniques. Most often they are applied to cover art and gig posters but some of the most memorable era of a band can often be summarized by “that” t-shirt. For Weezer, I think it might have been the Adrian Tomine ladies tee. Nirvana had that weird looking Daniel Johnston alien looking line drawing thing that they were known for before they blew up.

We have a selection of Illustrative, typographical and just plain ol’ interesting categories for you to peruse from (surprise treat at the end):

ILLUSTRATIVE

Sub Pop representin’ the other white meat…
Sub Pop Tee
(more…)

Read the rest of this entry »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

 

"Recent Gems"

Sponsor

Sponsors