CategoryGraphic Design

July 29, 2011 — Efforts to keep reggae popular on the world stage have led to a narrow conformist definition of the genre’s visual brand. Dan Mayer goes through the impressions left behind on Jamaica’s album covers to analyze the multitude of contradictions in the postcolonial experience. Read more…

July 13, 2011 — Simon Thomas looks at the development of the Berlin street art scene, from its beginnings as a minor West Berlin movement in the late ’70s to its current status. How does street art shapes the public space? Read more…

June 13, 2011 — This artcile looks for influences and ideas that have evolved into what has been known since the mid-20th century as “Scandinavian design”. Katrín Eyþórsdóttir also offers some thoughts on how to incorporate its principles in your work today. Read more…

October 4, 2010 — Film titles can be great fun. In them we see the bond between the art of filmmaking and graphic design — and perhaps visual culture as a whole. They have always served a greater purpose than themselves: to move the overarching story forward. Whether you are a motion graphic designer, a digital artist or a connoisseur of design, we hope you are inspired by these film titles and the ideas they suggest to your own creative endeavors. At the end of this post, you’ll find a listing of relevant typefaces and Web resources. Read more…

July 23, 2010 — Mark Rothko, an American artist who described himself as an abstract painter, once said that he was not the kind of person interested in the relationship of form, color or similars. He didn’t define himself as an abstractionist, but rather as a person interested only in expressing basic human emotions such as doom, tragedy, ecstasy and so on. This was one person’s vision of art, but what do we mean by art today? Why is defining the concept so difficult? Read more…

July 6, 2010 — Logo design has been a controversial subject in the design press lately. One branding professional recently claimed that logo design is [not that hard to do and another said that logos are dead while others concurred. Why all the fuss? Read more…

June 22, 2010 — The beauty of writing systems is that each has something unique from which to draw inspiration. Two weeks ago, in the first part of this article, we covered Arabic and East-Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese) and a few Indic scripts (Devanagari, Thai and Tibetan). Read more…

June 13, 2010 — Propaganda is most well known in the form of war posters. But at its core, it is a mode of communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position, and that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Although propaganda is often used to manipulate human emotions by displaying facts selectively, it can also be very effective at conveying messages and hence can be used in web design, too. Read more…

May 2, 2010 — Symmetry is the ordering principle in nature that represents the center of balance between two or more opposing sides. As a fundamental design principle, it permeates everything: from man-made architecture to natural crystalline formations. In nature, symmetry exists with such precision and beauty that we can’t help but attribute it to intelligence–such equal proportions and organization would seem to be created only on purpose. Consequently, humans have borrowed this principle for its most iconic creations and symbols. Read more…

March 25, 2010 — Ah, the dreaded cover letter. Boring to write, difficult to get right, and you’re usually preoccupied by other things (such as the portfolio and resume, which are also really important). Unfortunately, your cover letter is a company’s first exposure to you, and it determines whether your application is trashed or fast-tracked to the company’s to-hire list. Read more…