ART 159 GRAPHIC DESIGN - LAYOUT Southwestern Community College, Fall 2008 Instructor: Naomi Spellman
Contemporary Vector Design, still and moving
John Maeda began working with computer graphics before graphic software titles existed. He continues to write his own software to create dynamic graphic forms, and to question the visual expression of information.
Ryan McGinness uses the visual language of design in large scale, inventive installations
Brand New School is an LA based motion design and graphics firm
Hello Logan Design, also in LA
Tomorrow's Brightest Minds in LA
Isometric art uses the aesthetic of gaming to generate visual environments
Wari Textiles from ancient Peru were isometric narratives made over 2 thousand years ago.
eboy builds cityscapes one pixel at a time.
MiniPops are full-body portaits of well-known figures - all about 30 pixels high!
Habbo Hotel, a japanese cellphone character environment
Web Design from Around the World
From the Design Museum in London, U.K., the Web Wizards page, with some awesome designers showcased, including Amit Pitaru, Shinya Yamamoto, Joshua Davis, Draga, and Han Hoogerbrugge
Shift magazine from Japan, features lots of phenomenal web designers and illustrators. Look at the back issues archived up top.
Amy Franseschini of Future Farmers
Design Blogs and Archives
Design Observer offers visual and written examinations related to typography. Contributors are heavy hitters in the East Coast design crowd. Don't miss the slide shows (scroll down for this list)
University of British Columbia Design Resources - phenomenal compilation of design resources.
University of British Columbia has a superb page of Design links. Great for Design history and Contemporary Design
The Smithsonian Institute's Design Resource This page has many excellent links to american design, one of which goes to American Poster design, with a couple hundred examples oragnized by historic theme.
Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum
St Bride Library, The world’s foremost printing and graphic arts library
A great resource for Individual Designers Chrysler Design Awards, the Chrysler brand is celebrating the achievements of individuals who have consistently championed seminal works of architecture and design, and significantly influenced modern American culture.
Chris McMullen's VISUAL TELLING OF STORIES archive of signs, language, and communication symbols through the ages.
Typography History
The history of typography starts with the human hand pressing a pointed stylus into clay over 3,000 years ago. The sumerians used these abstract symbols to record recipes, accounts, etc.
Trajan column inscription. Written when Trajan held tribunican power for the seventeenth time, which was assumed on December 10, AD 112 and ended a year later, the column, itself, was dedicated in May AD 113, more than sixteen months after the forum, presumably just before Trajan's departure for Parthia. Enlargement of type on Trajans' Column.
The letters on Trajan's column are thought to have been executed first by hand with brush. See video of Classic Roman letterforms done by calligrapher John Stevens.
From Typeculture's Little Films on typography: Douglas Coffin is one of a handful of people in the United States who carve letters in stone with the same methods that were used in the Roman Empire. Two thousand years later, the most compelling results are still achieved through the design and carving skills of a passionate artist-craftsman.
Also by the hand of John Stevens, a Blackletter demonstration. Blackletter, also referred to as Fraktura or Gothic, was used by monk scribes to make copies of religious texts throughout the middle ages.
The 2 type classifications described sofar - Old Roman and Gothic - were the first two printing fonts widely used in Europe. Printers adapted these hand-written styles for the earliest printing presses. See the breadth of type categories here.
From Typeculture: Typomania by typographer Erik Spiekermann, this amusing introduction to the world of type delves into the myriad personalities of typefaces and explains how typographic form influences our lives every day.
Where does the pica come from? Pica is Latin for magpie. The black and white striped bird has inspired a host of meanings for this one word. Read this fascinating discussion on the etymology of pica on Typophile.
How are fonts measured? A clear, concise explanation from V letter, along with some history.
Did you know that letters have arms, beaks, and ears? Learn the anatomy of letterforms in this animated page by Only a Boy.
Moveable type was first developed in Greece, China or Korea - depending on your definition of the term. It is essential to streamlining the printing process. Wikipedia examines the early evolution of printing and moveable type.
Type Foundries
Type foundries create and sell fonts, but these studios offer much more. TypeCulture has wonderful films on Typographic history. It includes footage of a variety of printing technologies, including stone carving, Letterpress Printing, the Linotype machine from the Industrial Age, and more.
Emigre Magazine's Rudy van der lans and Susanna Licko, along with a roster of renegade typographers, made a major contribution to the font revolution of the 1980's instigated by the Macintosh Computer.
Hoeffler and Frere-Jones display a deep knowledge of type history in their revisionist designs. They also provide fantastic educational tools for type design on their website.
Want free fonts for your mac or pc? Dafont.com has lots of bad copies of good fonts, but also some fun if kitschy stuff.
Print Design from Around the World
Post Typography in Baltimore employs hand drawn type, drawings, and graphics with conceptual whimsy and elegance.
Contemporary Dutch Design is exemplified by book designer Irma Boom.
Polish Poster Gallery - vintage and contemporary
IDN - International Design Network features artists from hong kong, australia, and elsewhere in the Eastern Hemisphere, including stylebroadcaster Manila, Philippines.
Films on designers and artists by Hillman Curtis feature inspiring interviews and great editing.
American Signage
NO RELEVANCE visual junk journal and online archives. Go to: Hand–Painted and Hand–Crafted Signs.
The American Sign Museum was founded to inform and educate the general public as well as business and special interest groups of the history of the sign industry and its significant contribution to commerce and the American landscape.
1800's EPHEMERA , including Advertising, banking, baseball, billheads, blotters, broadside, firefighting, insurance, letters, photographs, police, political, railroad, theatre, xyz-misc, surnames
Print and Design glossaries
From Endi Poskovic's website at Whitter College,Glossary of Printing Terms.
Remember: Form Follows Function