idsgn (a design blog)

“A diagram is a diagram. Don’t cheat me,” says a heated Massimo Vignelli during an AIGA/NY event earlier this year. It’s been over 30 years since the Italian designer’s New York subway map was axed, but it’s still a passionate issue.

Vignelli’s now-classic New York City subway map was first introduced in 1972, following his work on the signage system in the late 1960s. Inspired by London’s Underground map designed by Harry Beck in 1933—which, in turn, was inspired by electrical circuit diagrams—Vignelli simplified New York’s complex subway system into a clean graphical system. “A different color for each line, a dot for every station. No dot, no station. Very simple. The whole map is designed on a 45/90 degrees grid with geographic distortions to accommodate the lines,” recalls Vignelli in From A to Z.

The 57th annual Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival recently took place in France, showcasing some of the world’s most innovative advertising and design. Following up our highlights from last year, we have selected some of our favorite print-related winners in the relatively new design category.

Them-and-Us, Bronze

The final couple in our Design Love series truly needs no introduction. Ladies and gentlemen, please say hello to Massimo and Lella Vignelli.

Many people know Mr. Vignelli for designing one of the most beloved renditions of the New York City Subway map. However, the Vignellis’ contributions to design have included everthing from book design to furniture design. Whether it's identities for Bloomingdales, United Colors of Benetton, and American Airlines or their environmental and product design, the Vignellis consistently deliver relevant, beautiful, thought provoking solutions to any problem.

SML Office is an up-and-coming design firm in Zurich, Switzerland.

Based in Zurich, Nico Schweizer and Jennifer Wagner founded SML Office in 2009. Since then they have been taking on numerous projects including everything from branding to typeface design. Their work has been recognized by AIGA, The Type Director's Club, ADC, and the Society for Publication Designers. As a part of our Design Love series, we contacted the busy couple about what makes SML office tick.

WORKSHOP is a Brooklyn-based design studio that knows a thing or two about love.

Aiming to better the world through socially responsible design, WORKSHOP was founded in 2005 by three friends: husband-and-wife couple Creighton Mershon and Jessi Arrington, and their best friend Josh Stewart. Working with clients like TED Conferences and the New York Philharmonic, the trio make time for fun—whether it’s their annual Kentucky Derby Party or an all-rainbow birthday.

Design Army is one of best and brightest design firms in the D.C. metropolitan area.

Started in 2003 by Jake and Pum Lefebure, Design Army works with everyone from the Washington Ballet to AIGA to the Washingtonian. Their work has been consistently awarded and praised across the design industry. As part of our Design Love series, we caught up with Jake and Pum to find out why being a husband-and-wife team has helped their small studio flourish.

Triboro Design is a Brooklyn-based design studio run by the husband and wife team of David Heasty and Stefanie Weigler.

Most recently you might recognize Triboro for their one-color New York City Subway map, their branding of Justin Timberlake’s new clothing line William Rast, or their beautiful experimental work entitled ‘Leftovers.’ As part of our Design Love series, we sat down with David and Stefanie to talk more about what it’s like to have a work/life balance when, in reality, they are completely intertwined.

People marry one another for any number of reasons. Love, convenience, money, lifestyle, all are valid circumstances to say ‘I do.’

I was once told, “marriage is three things, a business, a romance, and a partnership, and hell, these days two out of three ain't bad.” But what if your business, romance and partnership are completely intertwined?

Seed packages—designs headed for the realm of the forgettable—make better use of photography and illustration as they circle back to their former visual glory.

Confession: I am a plant murderer. One of my dearest friends, a woman with the ability to coax even the stubbornest patch of bare earth into bloom, used to give me those adorable peat pots with seedlings peeking their baby heads just a few inches above the soil. I watered. I added Miracle-Gro. I put them in direct sun. And… they always turned black and died! A wise gardener, my friend doesn’t even offer them anymore. Nevertheless, I still fantasize about my own lush fields of blossoms and vegetables when brightly colored packs of seeds start popping up on store shelves everywhere at the end of winter, each envelope a tiny poster advertising an abundant future that can be had for just a couple of dollars and some dirt.

Lanny Sommese is a world renowned poster designer and educator. For the past 40 years, he has been a professor and practitioner at the Pennsylvania State University.

His designs and posters have been consistently recognized by design publications and included in numerous permanent collections. He gained notoriety recently when designer, author, and former student Chip Kidd combined Sommese and another professor to create Kidd’s psychotic, viciously critical, design professor Winter Sorbek for his novel The Cheese Monkeys. Sommese’s teaching style and critiques are well known by many of his current and former students.

Our friends at The Dieline recently held their first worldwide package design competition, The Dieline Awards. Winners were revealed at last week’s FUSE conference in Chicago.

Judged by a panel of industry leaders, headed by AIGA President Debbie Millman, winners were chosen in 10 categories from over 800 entries around the world. Here are some of our personal favorites…

Waitrose Breadsticks, Third Place (Food B)

Sometimes it just drops off the radar.

Designers can easily get caught up in the business of designing. As a graphic designer, busy with everyday client-driven design, I must admit my occasional blindness to the great art and design of our age.

In the days following the Haiti earthquake crisis, I found myself struggling to find a way to contribute in the aftermath. Beyond texting a $10 contribution, what could I do? Frustrated I found myself lamenting the loss of public design. While the AIGA had considerately vetted ways to give back, it was not the creative outlet I was hoping for.

Box Bottle Bag is a new book that showcases the best in modern packaging design from The Dieline.

Since 2007, The Dieline has collected the most unique and recent packaging designs from around the world. Originally created by designer Andrew Gibbs as a weekend project to stay current in the industry, the blog has since become an authority in the field.

A study from the University of California suggests that an average American consumes 34 gigabytes of data each day. That’s a lot to sift through. Fortunately, the idsgn Monthly Review highlights the most important happenings over the past month so you don’t miss a thing…

There is a common misbelief that Helvetica is the signage typeface of the New York City subway system. In this ‘Design discussions’, we talk to the author who has uncovered the truth (maybe) behind the story.

Trained as a historian, Paul Shaw has spent the past thirty years as a graphic designer specializing in letterforms. His work has been recognized with awards from the Type Directors Club, Art Directors Club, and AIGA (among others), while his research in design history has garnered numerous grants and achievements.

Creating a design portfolio can be a daunting task. What is the best way to put it all together? What do companies look for? Where to begin?

Thankfully, the folks at Under Consideration have published Flaunt: Designing Effective, Compelling and Memorable Portfolios of Creative Work, a new book which aims to ease the anxiety around putting together and presenting your creative work. Written by Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit, Flaunt provides an inspiring showcase of portfolios from many up-and-coming designers—but it’s more than just pretty pictures. The authors turn to industry leaders like Michael Bierut, Carin Goldberg, and Stefan Sagmeister to offer their best advice and share common mistakes.

As we enter a new decade, we have taken the opportunity to look back over our most memorable features of 2009.

Forget lords a-leaping. From axes to Lego, this is what we really want this holiday season.

Past ADC Young Guns honoree Chris Rubino continues his discussion with some of the talented young designers who recently joined the ranks in 2009.

Will Staehle, Venice, USA

CHRIS RUBINO: Your book covers are fantastic, have you seen any in recent memories that gave you that “damn, why didn’t I think of that?” moment.

WILL STAEHLE: Yes. I've always had those moments. Back when I was living in New York and doing book covers full-time, I actually had a difficult time walking into a Borders or a Barnes & Noble. Partially, it was for the fact that I could “see” the back stories of various covers and often knew of the painful, ulcer-inducing tales behind their making…

The newest class of ADC Young Guns has just been announced, and as a previous honoree I’m, of course, inclined to scope out the competition.

About every other year since the mid-’90s, the New York-based Art Director’s Club has been selecting a group of designers, photographers, illustrators, etc., all under 30 who are excelling beyond their years in the world of image making. Looking through the latest winners (YG7) I am truly impressed with what I’ve found, a group of incredibly talented, fresh, innovative and unusually modest designers. I’ve contacted a few of my personal favorites from the group to ask some questions in the hopes to get a sense of where they are coming from, where they are going and possibly find out how to make a lamp out of soba noodles.

Looking back, many designers fondly remember a particular class project that helped build their first portfolio. Design School Confidential is a new book that attempts to showcase these ‘extraordinary’ class projects, compiled from design schools around the world.

Curated by Steven Heller and Lita Talarico, over fifty international art and design teachers were asked to present their most interesting or challenging class projects. The result is 200 pages of fresh ideas—some inspiring, some forgettable, but all lending to an accurate overview of the work coming out of top design schools from Chicago to Seoul.

Thirty Conversations on Design is a collection of thoughts from 30 inspired designers, authors, and creative professionals.

Releasing the conversations in groups of 10, the project’s initial offering features insight from Erik Spiekermann, Ellen Lupton, Massimo Vignelli, Paula Scher, among others. The project, created by Minneapolis-based design firm Little & Company, asks participants two simple questions: “What single example of design inspires you most?” and “What problem should design solve next?”

A new book entitled Designing Obama will showcase works from artists who contributed to the historic 2008 presidential campaign (…but only if you are interested).

The Obama ’08 campaign was groundbreaking in many ways, but particularly in its use of art and design. Focusing on this aspect, Scott Thomas, Design Director of the campaign, has collaborated with dozens of artists and designers for Designing Obama. The 360-page book is full of artwork created (both officially and unofficially) during the campaign, along with forewords written by Steven Heller and Michael Bierut.

Book cover designer Charles Brock ‘breaks’ it down for us during the first day of AIGA’s Make/Think conference in Memphis.

Uppercase Magazine is a new quarterly publication for the ‘creative and curious.’

In an industry where popular magazines are dying or fighting to stay alive, it's exciting to see a fresh new independent magazine aimed at fellow designers and the crafty-alike (with every issue selling out so far). I'm currently enjoying a copy of issue 2, which is 100 colorful pages full of articles ranging from the world of Pantone color to scissor collecting, along with a creative postcard project that encourages you to get involved in the process.

As part of the House of Cards campaign, 53 leading artists and designers have come together to create a limited-edition deck of cards for UK’s housing charity Shelter.

Shelter provides advice and practical assistance for families in the UK faced with homelessness and bad housing. Not to be confused with the classic House of Cards designed by Charles and Ray Eames in 1952, the playing cards feature designs from Alexander McQueen, Damien Hirst, Marc Quinn, Kyle Cooper, M/M Paris, among others. The cards come in a slipcase designed by Pentagram London, who’s own Domenic Lippa is also featured in the deck.

This article completes a two-part discussion with the prolific trans-media artist, April Greiman.

In part one April discussed how she acquired the newly released Macintosh computer in 1984 and introduced it to a reluctant design community. She shed light on the limitations of this early technology and the continuing transition within our industry.

idsgn is proud to present an in-depth, exclusive interview with the prolific trans-media artist, April Greiman.

April Greiman is regarded as one of the most influential designers of the digital age. She has been called a pioneer in this regard, making it acceptable for a graphic designer to explore their craft using a computer. In 1984, computers were seen by much of the public as science fiction props, specialized industry tools, or subverted novelties. The design community regarded them as an embarrassment to the long history and craft of an art form.

Inspired by the numerous dollar stores in its area, Design 99 is a retail design storefront—offering architectural design services for 99 cents per minute.

Created by husband and wife duo Gina Reichert and Mitch Cope, the Michigan-based concept store was created with the purpose of showcasing goods from local artists and designers. Part retail store, exhibition space, and architectural design firm, the company seeks to make contemporary design available to a wider public through the over-the-counter approach.

Launched in 1995, Craigslist remains one of the world’s most popular websites… but why does it still feel like the ’90s?

Craigslist has built a cult-like following, changing the way people find jobs, apartments, and romance. But unlike most websites, its design has gone mostly unchanged over the years. In a recent article called “Why Craigslist Is Such a Mess”, Wired magazine exposes why (and tries to help).

On a recent visit to Brooklyn’s popular Buttermilk Channel, I was struck not just by the eatery’s food or prices but by the design.

Gabriele Wilson, who designed the restaurant’s identity and print material, took inspiration from early 19th century typography, color and nautical maps. “The main thing was to stay true to the original story of the Buttermilk Channel which has the legend here as to where the name came from,” says Wilson.

Who drew the first italic typeface? Who designed the original Penguin Books logo? What does LMNV mean? 

Last Friday we posted a contest asking readers to answer five design-related questions chosen by the authors of the new book Graphic Design, Referenced. The results are now in and we have a winner! In total we received 76 entries, of which 33 had everything answered correctly (nice work!). Congratulations to Chris Marotta from Maryland, who was randomly selected from the correct entries to win a signed copy of the book courtesy of Under Consideration. Here are the answers to our burning questions:

Branding, packaging, motion graphics, grid systems, letterpress, Saul Bass, Barack Obama, Coca-Cola, and (yes) even Comic Sans. Graphic Design, Referenced is an ambitious new book exploring nearly everything relating to graphic design.

Subtitled “a visual guide to the language, applications, and history of graphic design”, the book was written, compiled, and designed by Under Consideration’s Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio. People who require no introduction for the majority of us that have been reading their blogs like Brand New and (the recently departed) Speak Up for years.

In a follow-up to yesterday’s post on award-winning identities at the 56th annual Cannes Lions festival, we have selected some of the most interesting print-related winners in the design category.

Never Forget a Face, Bronze

In response to declining advertising and circulation, 76-year-old Newsweek recently launched a redesign of their weekly magazine. But in a time where news is instantly available online, can anything help a magazine which sells last week’s news?

With advertising down 23 percent this year and circulation down from 2.6 to 1.5 million, Newsweek is hoping that the refresh will help make the dying magazine relevant again. “As the number of news outlets expands, it is said, attention spans shrink; only the fast and the pithy will survive,” says Jon Meacham the editor at Newsweek. 

Why do we keep recreating the same thing over and over?

It's what I began asking myself after attending the premiere of Gary Hustwit's new film Objectified. The film features several heavyweights in the design industry, among many others: Jonathan Ive, Paola Antonelli and Karim Rashid, who was present for a discussion and Q&A after the film.

I was struck by an opinion shared by Karim Rashid that shed some light on his own work, an opinion which has lingered in my creative process ever since

Earlier this week, Dustin Curtis (a user interface designer) wrote an open letter to American Airlines addressing the poor user experience at its website, aa.com.

Card Observer is a great new resource for inspiration that aims to showcase the best in business card design.

As stated on the website, "We do this for a couple of reasons: to shine the spotlight on the talented designers who create these beautiful cards, and to inspire you."

Below are a few handpicked favorites

From Pentagram comes an unusual concept to create a series of "gateways" for the city of Newark, New Jersey. The designers were asked to mark the points of arrival in Newark and to address the history and culture of the city in the urban landscape. The proposed idea places a series of symbols on the Newark streetscape that would be visible from Google Earth, as well as the ground.

Mickey Mouse is jumping on designer toy bandwagon. On a recent trip to Disney World, I came across Vinylmation, a new series of 3" vinyl "designer" toys (which stood out among the typical Disney souvenirs). The toys which appear to be inspired by Kid Robot's infamous Dunny, feature the iconic Mickey Mouse silhouette with unique designs from the artists at Disney Design Group and Imagineering.

Vinylmation was first introduced in 2008 as a series of pins, featuring a few of the same designs from the first series. The toys are now available in 5 series—Parks 1 & 2, Urban 1 & 2, and a Holiday series—each featuring 12 collectible designs in blind packages. Inside each box, you'll find a small collectors card along with the vinyl which is stamped with the artist's signature. A few additional designs are also available in 9" form, along with a blank version for DIYers. 

The United States Business Card Company hand-prints business cards on a variety of unique material. Since today is Earth Day, we are going to focus on one of the most unique of them all: recycled breakfast cereal boxes.

Photo from Flickr by Chris Toumanian

Richard Meneely, the man behind the USBCC, has been operating a hand letterpress since 1986 using metal type and photopolymer plates.

Last night was the most recent installment of SVA's DOT DOT DOT lecture series in New York City. The topic this month was "The Influencers" and I had the opportunity to hear from web designer Jason Santa Maria on being influenced by print design.

I started out in school as a print designer and I only came to web design afterwards. But, print design and all the stuff that I learned when I was at school had a gigantic influence on me. Especially things like traditional typography and especially editorial design, book design, newspaper design... And when I came to the web, I didn't really see any of that really happening.

Print design vs. web design

Jason showed some great examples using Wired magazine, comparing their print edition to their online edition. He pointed out how the visual design in the print edition gave the articles a tone and feeling, just from glancing at it. The web edition, being mostly a dump of text, lacked this. While these examples were from several years ago, not much has changed since then.

If you haven't seen the cover art for Merriweather Post Pavilion yet—the new album from the Baltimore-based psych-folk band, Animal Collective—you might want to grab a barf bag and check it out here. For the rest of you, I'll save you the headache (for now).

The cover features a repeating pattern of "leaves" that appear to move in waving motion. I have to admit, when I first saw the cover in iTunes, I thought I was looking at an animation. But, of course, I came to the realization that it's actually an optical illusion, which is based the works from Japanese psychologist Akiyoshi Kitaoka. Whoever said science has no place in rock 'n' roll?

Akiyoshi Kitaoka (born 1961) is a Professor of Psychology in Kyoto, Japan. After receiving his PhD in 1991, he specialized in visual perception and visual illusions of geometrical shape, brightness, color, in motion illusions and other visual phenomena. He became renowned through his "Rotating snakes" illusion in 2003. 

So, how does it work?