“Past examples of structured grid design and typography by Swiss masters such as Josef Müller-Brockmann continue to influence both print and interactive design to this day. However, after realizing there is no shortage of Müller-Brockmann fan clubs, I wanted to explore some of the other, maybe lesser-known founders of the International Typographic Style. My search led me to a typographer and designer by the name of Emil Ruder (1914-1970), who played a key part in the development and dissemination of the Swiss Style.”
Sizes May Vary: A Workbook for Graphic Design
“This book references the varying standardized formats and systems used within graphic design. Part sketchbook, part reference book and part notebook — it is a space for composing and visualizing layouts, sketching and developing ideas, taking reference and making note.” (Thanks Coudal Partners!)
The Art Directors Club Hall of Fame
“Since 1971, the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame has recognized and honored those innovators who have made significant contributions to art direction and visual communications, and whose lifetime achievements represent the highest standards of creative excellence. An essay from the Board of Directors in the 51st Art Directors Annual reads, ‘This year we inaugurate the Hall of Fame. The nomination and election each year of these people will help to educate and inform not only the young people entering our business, but we hope will serve as an inspiration to all of us. In their hands, advertising and graphic communication [becomes] an art form.’”
Scrnshots
“Scrnshots.com is a community for designers to share screenshots of interesting and beautiful design.” (Thanks Jon!)
How a page gets created
“Matt Willey recently recorded his decision-making on a feature design for the Royal Academy magazine. It provides a very useful insight into how page designs get arrived at, one that anyone who’s ever designed a magazine will recognize.”
Daily Heller by Steven Heller
The “new-improved, re-designed, wordier, picture-ier Daily Heller” now in blog format.
Studio Lettering at House Industries
“The first 200 Studio Lettering buyers will receive a free 64-page hardbound book! Add a refreshing dash of hand lettered flavor to your design with the Studio Lettering fonts, a collection of three charming script faces and a useful ornament font. These genuinely ‘smart’ fonts feature sophisticated OpenType engineering, robust character sets and extensive language support!”
Note from Ben Kiel, a former XPLANE intern currently clicking away at House:
Each of the fonts has thirteen different character sets based on the different ways cultures write (or on the different ways a lettering artist would write in a country). Easiest example is Europeans crossing the downstroke on a seven.
Thanks Ben!
Brilliant, Engaging, But Modest It’s Not
Rick Poynor: “Stefan Sagmeister’s latest book may reveal as much about the state of graphic design as it does about its compelling author.”
Inside the Herb Lubalin Study Center
“Yesterday, while the humidity in New York grew to more than an inch thick, Bryony and I had the pleasure of spending the day inside the Herb Lubalin Study Center (HLSC) in famed Cooper Union. Founded in 1985 — and first curated by Ellen Lupton until 1992, and now headed by Mike Essl and Emily Roz — the HLSC houses one of the most impressive (and one of the few accessible) collections of graphic design work from the twentieth century.”
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Richard Saul Wurman interview
“With the publication of his first book in 1962 at the age of 26, RSW began the singular passion of his life: making information understandable. He chaired the International Design in Aspen in 1972, the first Federal Design Assembly in 1973, followed by the National AIA Convention in 1976, before creating and chairing TED (Technology/Entertainment/Design) conferences from 1984-2002. He is the current Chair of the TEDMED Conferences. A B.Arch and M.Arch 1959 graduate with highest honors from the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Wurman’s nearly half-century of achievements includes the publication of his best-selling book Information Anxiety and his award winning ACCESS Travel Guides. Each of his 81 books focus on some subject or idea that he personally had difficulty understanding.”
