A few months ago I was handed about a million photos and was told to make a photography book encapsulating the city of Clay, N.Y. I had to sift through all these photos (taken by photo students over the course of a weekend) and use my magical editing powers to try and make a story. I decided to keep it simple and break the day into morning, afternoon and evening. Design-wise, I wanted to make it all about the images and use an autumnal color scheme (rich browns & oranges) because the photos were taken in the fall.
The cool thing is that we had to upload our books to Blurb.com, which is an on-demand printing site. GO HERE!!!! It’s the grand unveiling of my book! So click and check out a preview of the book (and maybe even pick up a copy, eh?).
Of course they came out with software to easily upload your PDFs AFTER I spent a few hours individually saving each page as a jpeg. Thanks, guys. That was nice of you.
I just graduated Summa Cum Laude, I’m back at home for an undetermined amount of time, and I’m dead set on getting hired by the end of July. Watch out…big things are going to happen. Here’s a preview of some of the work I’ve been doing these past few months:
The former from a catalogue for a bakery, the latter from a photography book.
I don’t know who made this, and I don’t know anything about this other than you can buy it here for 15,000w (no idea how much that is)…but I love it. I want one!!
On a side note: Raising the price of the subway to $2.50? Not cool MTA, not cool.
So, it’s been a reaaaally long time. I know. I’ve been bad. As a second semester senior, I’m personally offended that I have this much work! I’ve been doing a lot of graphics-related things, though. Over spring break, the senior graphics majors went to New York City for our capstone trip. We got to go behind the scenes at Rolling Stone, Print Magazine (where i got a ton of free copies!!), Bloomingdales, NHL headquarters, thehappycorp., and some photo studios. It was hectic, but lots of fun!
Okay, so I found something WAY cooler than the Ne-Yo video. In my Flash animation class, we’ve started a new project on motion typography, and a fellow graphics major introduced me to this video. It’s Jay-Z featuring Santogold (I LOVE her) and the song is called “Brooklyn (Go Hard).” The song, off the Notorious soundtrack, is ooookay…but the video is AWESOME!! The word ‘Brooklyn’ gets spelled out over and over again, each individual letter stacking itself on top of the last. The great part? It eventually starts to draw out Jay-Z’s face in type. I’m talking about reeeeally detailed stuff here. Halfway through the video, it gets erased and Biggie’s face gets its own illustration (complete with the crown, of course). You’ll get it when you see it:
Apparently, director Evan Roth has been turning down requests for Typographic Illustration for five years in hopes that Jay-Z would one day call–and he did! If you want the source code, you can find it here.
Remember that time when I said I was going to be posting more regularly…and then I didn’t? Yeah, my bad. In my defense, it’s been a pretty exciting time in my life. My new nephew/godson was born last Monday, so I took an impromptu trip down to Brooklyn to meet him!! Unfortunately, that left me playing catch-up with schoolwork and so I didn’t really have to time blog. But we’ll try this again…
The other day I was watching a commercial for a Grammy nominees album, and they showed a few seconds of R&B artist Ne-Yo’s video for “Closer.” Now, I used to LOVE this song (still do, I guess)…but one of my favorite parts has always been the music video. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a video doing such exciting things with typography. Watch it! Watch it!!
I love everything about this video. It’s so simple, yet so slick and effective. They took the concept of subtitles/a singalong video and made it modern and fun. My favorite part happens around 1:37, when they mix together words and visuals (also check out :53, 1:19, and 3:12 for more of the same). I just don’t think there’s any way they could’ve possibly captured this song any better in a visual format.
I just can’t stop watching it. Okay, I tried not to make that bad joke (refer to song lyrics)…but I couldn’t help myself.
I heard about this little gem from the great Steven Heller’s blog:
GARDEN & GUN MAGAZINE????
This bimonthly magazine focuses on the “soul of the New South,” which apparently…is all about guns and gardens (?). No judging here, just wondering where I can get a gigantic turtle like the one on the cover.
So, I know I’ve been slacking lately with the posting, but school was keeping me busy last week. Yeah, uh…school. Sure. Well, regardless of how much I’ve been socializing this week, school is actually already a pain. At Newhouse, the Communications Law (com law from now on) is a right of passage. I just had the great fortune to place in the second half of the alphabet, therefore forcing me to take com law my last semester of college. Now, it’s not that I don’t like lugging my 1,000+ page book across campus, but…
Anyway, on to the real reason for this post! I’m going to get back on track with my 101 series (when I say weekly posts, I mean weekly). More importantly, though, there’ll be changes to this site. I was never really happy with the finished product, so I’m planning a complete overhaul! I’m taking a Flash course, so hopefully I’ll be able to incorporate some of what I learn here. Also, I’ve got 23029482939283 (no, really) projects assigned for my graphics class this semester, so I’ll be updating my portfolio nearly on a weekly basis. I’m really excited about some of the projects I’ll be doing this semester. I’ll keep you posted as things develop. And if you need to find me, I’ll probably be at the graphics lab. Stay tuned!
Now that I put it on the internet, I have to do it.
BONUS! In honor of MLK Jr day today/inauguration tomorrow, Obama t-shirts:
Ah, it never gets old. Check out a bunch of other Obama shirts here. I promise it’s worth a look!
Without knowing it, you’ve been exposed to Paul Rand’s designs your entire life. A true graphic legend, Rand (born Peretz Rosenbaum) is the mastermind behind well-known corporate logos for companies like ABC, IBM, and UPS.
Rand was born in Brooklyn (!!) in 1914 and studied at the Pratt Institute and the Art Students League. This self-taught designer gained international attention at a young age for his page designs, though corporate identities are what he is most remembered for. By age 23, Rand was in charge of designing the fashion pages over at Esquire! Rand is also one of the founders of the Swiss Style of graphic design (read about Swiss Style here). Starting in 1956, Rand taught at Yale University, and was inducted into the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1972. He continued to work right until late 1996, when he died of cancer.
Random Fact: Rand consciously decided to shorten his overtly Jewish name to the more friendly-sounding Paul Rand. Some say that the “Paul Rand” persona was the very first identity he ever came up with.
Though the UPS logo was recently redone, Rand’s original lasted 40 years. Personally, I think the new logo relies too heavily on current trends. It may fit in perfectly in the design landscape of 2009, but will it be as relevant in 2015? I’m skeptical. Here’s a comparison of the two versions:
Yes, Paul Rand’s logos are simple. But they’re also timeless. Rand himself said that a logo “cannot survive unless it is designed with the utmost simplicity and restraint.” The 1962 ABC logo is just a black circle with ‘abc.’ Pretty simple, right? But think about all that this logo has come to be associated with and what it represents. Anyone with a TV can look at those three letters and have their own ideas about what ABC means to them. “A logo does not sell (directly), it identifies,” said Rand. True dat, Rand. True dat.
