Advertising is a field that constantly changes to gain your attention. It has evolved over hundreds of years as approaches change with the times and technology. Getting the attention of target markets, especially younger people, is becoming more and more difficult as we are more and more aware of advertising tactics and marketing plans.
Monocle Magazine with an ad for Blackberry on the left and an article on the right Continue reading →
A great grassroots campaign for an awesome cause. I think the video does an amazing job at getting your attention and holding your interest. Check out their great site: www.girleffect.org
A little late in terms of the Superbowl, but I think this was a lackluster year for TV ads during the big game. This is usually where the big guns pull it all out to amaze us. I think the best ad I saw was for Google. It was such a simple idea and was executed very well. I especially love how the ad only relied on showing their own product and how it changes and influences everyone’s life. Continue reading →
To celebrate Little&Company’s 30th anniversary they decided to collect the thoughts and ideas from 30 inspired creators prompting them with two questions about design.
1. What single example of design inspires you most?
2. What problem should design solve next?
The answers are great and somewhat unexpected. Although it has been up for a little while, I never came across it, maybe you didn’t either.
Image via Roman and Williams
Inspiration can come from so many different places and I am always interested in hearing about inspirations for projects graphic design related or not. I get inspired from many different places, but I have always been heavily fueled by architecture and interior design. I first heard about Roman & Williams when they started to redo the Ace Hotel in New York a few years ago, their work is incredible and I find them very inspiring. They are so focused on the subconscious reactions people are having to their work and how people feel when they are in a space, which definitely shows in their work. I also love their constant adherence to authenticity, everything they do feels very real, honest and authentic.
Two shots of Roman and Williams’ office in New York from Roman and Williams
This is a fantastic documentary short on them and their philosophies about design, I especially love the short part where they talk about the world we live in today and real value vs. perceived value. These ideals carry over to their own space which is awesome, look at those bookshelves! The documentary comes from The Scout who has been working on a brilliant series about craftsmanship.
+81 is a great art and design oriented magazine from Japan. Thankfully, every issue is printed in both English and Japanese. I first got into the magazine because of their experimental design style and interesting global design coverage. They print quarterly, but sometimes skip a quarter here or there. Every issue is themed around a subject like Photography, Visual Concepts, or Typography and then explored deeply mostly though interviewing experts and then printing their interviews with imagery. Even more infrequently they do special issues titled Voyage that explore a certain place in a travel+art+design type way.
The most recent issue of Voyage is the best by far in my opinion, titled Tokyo Graphics Passport the team went through high profile design cities like Amsterdam, London and New York exploring their magazine scene. The issue highlights each city showing interviews with creators or editors of magazines that are unique to that city. It is a great way to see what is happening around the world in magazine design and they do a good job of highlighting magazines that are not well known on a global scale, but are very interesting and well designed.
In addition to the indepth look at a few magazines per city they also highlighted the great art and design bookstores of each city with brief reviews of their vibe and the type of clientele they serve. I wish they had done this for every city, but nonetheless it is spectacular, being a bibliophile I really love having that info on hand just in case I decide to travel the globe sometime soon. I usually purchase issues of +81 at Kinokuniya bookshops, but some other Japanese bookstores will carry them as well.
Understanding and being trained to use typography is something unique to the graphic design discipline. In many ways understanding the rules and functionality of typography is one of the few things that distinguishes graphic designers from fine artists. We are taught to use the written word; learning the nuts and bolts of fonts and spacing that are important to using typography effectively.
Beyond the rules and guidelines we also are taught about choosing typefaces and how these affect the messages we send and the ways we convey information. Selecting typefaces or fonts for projects is one aspect of typography that cannot be taught, there are few rules, but it involves intuition and in many ways comes with experience. Although selecting typefaces can be objective there are some general ground rules that we all follow, but even these are broken.
So how do you know how to choose 1 of thousands of fonts to use on any given project and know that it is the right one for your brand or message? Practice of course, but also intuition. Typefaces are like people they each have personalities and quirks, they all have something different to say and when your message and typeface’s voice align a very powerful association is made. In many ways the world a graphic design is their stage and typefaces are the actors who we direct as we see fit. For example you would never cast Kate Winslet to play Rambo or more subtly you wouldn’t want to cast Cameron Diaz to play Eleanor Roosevelt. With the plethora of fonts available today it is not quite as black and white, there are many typefaces featuring similar personalities that can be used interchangeably, but the ability to distinguish their subtle differences allows the user to harness even more of typography’s power. When using type it is important to think about this and always consider the message you are sending with the type you select or the voice you are giving to your words. Here are some movie quote examples:
This doesnt seem quite right….
But this is better, the words and style of type are better aligned.
Of course there are many other reasons to choose typefaces from their history, previous uses and type theories, but this at least illustrates the power of typography and its importance to bring your words to life. Remember not all fonts are created equal, there are always better choices to represent yourself and your brand or project, choose wisely.
J.L. Frazier said it best “Faces of type are like men’s faces. They have their own expression; their complexion and peculiar twists and turns of line identify them immediately to friends, to whom each is full of identity.”
Just for fun, here are dogs as type see what you think did they capture the personality and looks of these dogs with a typeface?
Dogs and Typefaces. Via SwissMiss
It’s no secret, everyone at Parallax knows I am a TV addict. One of my favorite shows from last year was HBO’s Bored to Death, created by Jonathan Ames, a hilarious show about a writer who decides to moonlight as a unlicensed private investigator on the side. The opening to the show is also fantastic and I love the way they use type in conjunction with illustration, using actual words rather than letters that fall and move with the images (they are the actual words from Ames’ original book). The opening also does a great job at capturing the tone, humor and style of the show. Brilliant execution and production by Curious Pictures. The show was picked up for a second season and look for the DVD’s of season 1 this summer.
