New Work – Big Time Waste Reduction
We just completed a set of wall clings for Georgia-Pacific Professional and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Together, they’re doing their part to reduce the amount of waste created by the millions of travelers that go through Atlanta each year. So we did our part by making these cool clings. Look for them in the H-J washrooms next time you’re passing through.
Video from Burning Man May 2011
This video shows the art and culture of Burning Man which is an annual art event and temporary community based on radical self expression and self-reliance in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.
Judging by the Cover
I’ve always loved book cover designs. Browsing bookstores as if they were art galleries. From a business perspective, an arresting cover is just as important as an interesting title. It can make or break a new author, reinforcing the importance of good design as a business tool. The book cover acts as an advertisement for the book, a visual interpretation of the title and story. Simple, unique executions stand out. When done right, they can be works of art.
That’s why I love this site: The Book Cover Archive. Self-described as “An archive of book cover designs and designers, for the purpose of appreciation and categorization.” The site features both the excellent designs and designers behind them. You can browse by title, author, art director, designer, photographer, illustrator, genre, publication date, publisher and even typeface. In addition, the site features books on book cover design, a blog, and links to designer portfolios. And there’s usually a link to Amazon, so you can purchase the book if you fall in love with its cover.
Best of all, there’s an amazing number of great looking books. With fewer and fewer actual bookstores to browse (I miss the Borders that was next door), this is a great resource. Enjoy.
VisArt is Shutting its Doors
VisArt Video, a mainstay in downtown Carrboro, is closing its doors after more than 20 years of renting independent and art films to the public. It’s a shame for many reasons. For us here at HM&P, they were especially near and dear since they were actually a client back in 1998. We did a small direct mail and poster campaign to help them build awareness and create traffic. Here are a few pieces we found in the vault. Au revoir VisArt.
How's this for a homepage?
I love this. Who else would have the courage to strip out all their products, all their everything from their home page for an announcement? Of course, who else has the Beatles representing their brand as an announcement? Makes me happy.
What is an Art Director?
When people ask me what I do, it’s often difficult to describe. I found this interesting article that does a really good job of breaking down exactly what an Art Director does.
In particular, it introduces readers to the principles and techniques of the Art Director, and how those techniques can influence the overall effectiveness of a website. Read article.
Stefan Sagmeister shares happy design
Stefan Sagmeister is one of my favorite designers of all-time.
Wordle.net – Make Images From Keywords
Wordle is a great service which will take an RSS feed from your site (or anybody else’s site) and convert it to an image. Larger words are found more often, smaller words are found less.
Here are a couple of examples.
From our very own blog (http://www.merrellgroup.com/blog/feed/):
And from my personal site (http://www.joshuarcraig.net/feed/):
Go try it out for yourself!
Reflections on Layer Tennis
Jason Santa Maria’s notes on last week’s Layer Tennis match.
Design can make you happy
This guy is my favorite all time Designer/Artist
