From the "Let's Mess with an Icon" Dept
…we have this:
Nobody else than [Chairman and CEO] Dr. Martin Winterkorn gave the order for a more appealing logo to reassemble the brand’s finery.
The position of the logo in the grille will stay, but it will grow in size and will look more 3D with the letters V and W more standing out from the ring around them.
Here’s the current, sorta-3D variety used in advertising, etc.:
It’ll be interesting to watch. The Golf VI is due next year in Europe (later here in the US), so don’t hold your breath. And here’s hoping VW doesn’t mess it up.
Posted by Giles, Sunday, July 22, 2007, at 11:34 PM.
Posted to Design | Personal | Type and typography
Chris Bangle
…probably doesn’t need any introduction to the readers of this site, but just in case, he’s the force behind recent designs at BMW, including the much-maligned 7-Series:
Photo from Car Enthusiast.
Back in April, I ran across an interesting video from TED — a fascinating site — with Chris discussing cars as art. Great stuff. Foreword was taking a break, though, so never wound up posting about it.
Initially, I disliked the 7 pretty intensely. However, it’s grown on me in a big way — enough so that I’ll actually defend it in a conversation. Never been able to do so succinctly, though; thankfully, a commenter in a forum on the Car Lounge, where I saw a mention of the video again, can:
Chris Bangle saved BMW.
By 1992, BMW had been essentially penning the same car for thirty years. Every new generation was lower, longer, and wider, but none of them represented anything like a stylistic advance. Furthermore, the end was in sight. The E38 and E39 represented the absolute dead end of BMW styling, in that the new ones couldn’t be any more stereotypically BMW.
When you’ve painted yourself into a design corner, you can do one of two things. You can do the Jaguar thing and simply keep designing the same car, which is why even I have trouble telling the difference between a 1995 X300 and the current XJ at a distance. This will eventually cause you trouble, as it has for Jaguar.
Or you can create an entirely new design language, which Bangle did. And he succeeded beyond his wildest imaginings. Nearly every new car for sale today has a bit of Bangle in it. The new LS460 might as well have been sketched by von Hooydonk. All the new Toyotas have the two-step trunk. Hyundai internalized the Bangle form language so well that the TCL morons are calling the new BMW 1 “Korean” for having an “Elantra” two-step trunk!
Bangle’s tremendous insight was that you could create a tension of concave and convex that went beyond the traditional interplay of the “Coke Bottle”.
I don’t like the look of most “Bangle BMWs”, which is really to say Hooydonk BMWs. But I’m not stupid enough to ignore the fact that the Bangle era needed to happen. [Emphasis in original.] Without Chris, BMW would be where Jaguar is today - furiously attempting to convince its buying public that the car in the showroom isn’t a decade-old used car.
Watch the video. Believe in the Bangle.
Update, 22 July: Corrected a link, provided photo credit. Apologies for not doing the first time.
Posted by Giles, Sunday, July 15, 2007, at 3:43 PM.
Posted to Art | Design | Personal
CEOs Must Be Designers
I now believe that CEOs and managers must know Design Thinking to do their jobs. CEOs must be designers and use their methodologies to actually run companies. Let me be even more precise. Design Thinking is the new Management Methodology.
Interesting talk. “Think Steve Jobs and iPhone,” he says.
“Yes,” I say. How ‘bout you?
Posted by Giles, Saturday, July 14, 2007, at 3:47 AM.
Posted to Design | Technology
Weekend Research: Font Management Applications
We’ve covered ’em before — but not on this level:
Well, it was a long time coming, but I’ve been through the trenches and come up, sucking chest wound and all, with the Ars review of font management programs. I’ve also succeeded in not completely losing my mind while the developers updated the apps, nullifying half my criticisms in the process. Giving a lot of time to these programs in a production setting is crucial to seeing how they perform on a daily basis, and I am confident I’ve thrown enough varied scenarios at each to find out where they succeed and fail.
To people outside of design and typography, I’m sure that the words “font manager” sound like something taking itself way too seriously—like some sort of gilded spice rack—but for those that need to work with fonts on a daily basis, the font manager is serious business. To prepress houses and service bureaus, it is the pit stop: you turn it on, hit Print, and go deal with the real work—the more time you have to spend dealing with the font management/activation process, the less money you are making. For designers that juggle a range of clients and projects, working with fonts is more a nebulous creative ritual of feeling a brand, and it demands a tool worthy of the task.
In simpler times, you pulled open a drawer, chose between the three sets of steel blocks, said “I don’t care who you are, you’re getting Garamond,” and that was that. Nowadays clients are wiser and choosier, fonts are cheaper (not making them out of steel helps), and everyone and their dog is making fonts (the dog fonts are terrible; you really don’t want to use those). The result is a need to handle and navigate the abundant libraries available while not stifling that creative process. Now, years after Suitcase started the ball rolling on System 6, we’re lucky enough to have some very mature font management tools for Mac OS X. The big three reviewed here—Insider FontAgent Pro, Linotype FontExplorer X, and Extensis Suitcase Fusion—are now all Universal Binaries for Intel Macs. After a slow and rocky start for font management on Mac OS X, it’s now good times for font junkies. So with the stage set, let’s see how they fared.
Read on for those results.
…Unless you’d prefer to cut to the chase. They gave Font Agent an 8 (out of 10), and Suitcase and Font Explorer both 7s. All have plusses and minuses, none enough to make working with one application over another anything more than choosing which application works best in your workflow.
P.S. Be sure to check out the cache deletion utility mentioned in the article — good for when those fonts aren’t behaving the way they should!
Posted by Giles, Sunday, January 7, 2007, at 12:04 AM.
Posted to Book design | Computers | Design | Type and typography
Saatchi's Stuart
In May Mr. Saatchi, famed for spotting young unknowns and turning them into art-world superstars, created a section on his Web site for artists of all ages to post their work at no charge. It is called Your Gallery, and now boasts contributions by about 20,700 artists, including 2,000 pieces of video art.
Everything there is for sale, with neither the buyer nor the seller paying a cent to any dealer or other middleman. About 800 new artists have been signing up each week.
And since Stuart (shorthand for “student art”) went online last month, some 1,300 students (including 450 in the United States) have created Web pages there. No one vets the quality or style of the art.
Interesting. Check it out.
From the NYTimes. Might be wise to check in with Stuart once the Times’ traffic has died off a little — it was a slooooow load this morning.
Posted by Giles, Monday, December 18, 2006, at 9:50 AM.
Posted to Art | Books, design, art | Design | Whatever
Cover I Like Today
House of Meetings:
Wonderful indeed — even if it’s not up to the standard set by the absolutely brilliant UK version.
Cribbed from Joseph’s always-smart Book Design Review. Check out the selection of great covers there ASAP!
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, December 12, 2006, at 8:46 AM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book design | Design
Three of Potential Interest
Checking my email online tonight, to discover more than thirty open tabs in the browser; stuff to read later, stuff to blog on, stuff to deal with, etc. Here are three:
— Sports Artist Sued for Mix of Crimson and Tide:
In the solemn cathedral of college football devotion and instruction that is the Paul W. Bryant Museum here, a large painting dominates the main chamber. It is called “The Sack,” and it shows an encounter between a Notre Dame quarterback and a human locomotive in crimson and white.
“I’ve never been hit like that before,” the quarterback, Steve Beuerlein, said after his near-lethal sack by Cornelius Bennett in 1986, in the University of Alabama’s first victory ever over his team.
Daniel A. Moore, who painted “The Sack” and scores of other renditions of signal moments in Alabama football history, said he felt something similar last year, when his fax machine began to spit out a lawsuit from the university.
Downward spiral. Here’s a wish for recovery before impact.
— Droolworthy, and, uh, funny as hell:
MacRumors Apple ad contest winner. See more.
— I’d noticed the font used in the Sony Alpha ads recently, and wondered about it. Lo and behold, in my (astonishingly large stack of) email was an ad for it:
Vista Sans, from Emigre. (Natch. Love their stuff.) Read some of the designer’s notes on Vista and others at FontShop.
More ASAP.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, November 14, 2006, at 12:00 AM.
Posted to Advertising | Computers | Design | Ethics | Freedoms and rights | Personal | Public domain | Publishing | Technology | Type and typography | Whatever
Polling Place Photo Project
From the AIGA (!):
The Polling Place Photo Project is a nationwide experiment in citizen journalism that seeks to empower citizens to capture, post and share photographs of democracy in action. By documenting their local voting experience on November 7, voters can contribute to an archive of photographs that captures the richness and complexity of voting in America.
Did I mention it’s being spearheaded by the AIGA? Wow. And some friends:
The Polling Place Photo Project is part of Design for Democracy, an initiative of AIGA, the professional association for design. William Drenttel of Design Observer initiated the project, working in collaboration with Jay Rosen, founder of NewAssignment.Net (a project of New York University’s Department of Journalism).
Good for all of them — applause from here. I’ll be doing my part (after I check the rules for photography hereabouts). Please do the same!
Posted by Giles, Friday, November 3, 2006, at 1:55 PM.
Posted to Design | Ethics | Freedoms and rights | Personal | Photography | Public domain
AMC's Magazine Cover of the Year
Okay, sure, it’s not exactly book design, but I enjoying looking at these nonetheless — and the winning cover is just about perfect, IMHO:
The ineptness of the response by FEMA and the U.S. government after Hurricane Katrina was an outrage to everyone who watched it unfold. The images of bodies floating unclaimed in murky waters were clear signs of the lack of care and empathy by those at the top of the government. In his cover, “Deluged,” Barry Blitt turns the tables on the situation. As the Oval Office is slowly submerged, the reader gets a release that goes beyond the first laugh and unleashes the floodgates of the nation’s collective anger.
Funny how it still seems relevant today, huh?
Check out the rest of the selected covers, in several categories — and available in hi-res — here.
I’ll be out of town later today and over the weekend. Please do continue to leave comments, with the understanding that I won’t be able to moderate them until late Sunday night. Thanks!
Posted by Giles, Friday, October 27, 2006, at 9:46 AM.
Posted to Art | Design
Georgia Literary Festival
Until recently, I could honestly say (when speaking with folks in Macon) that I didn’t have any local clients — all done through email and the phone.
No more:
Nuthin’ like making a splash — with a poster (x5000, statewide), a bookmark (x10000, statewide), a program, a bunch of ads, a quick reference guide, and a billboard. Whew. Original plans called for a web site, too, but that never came to pass. (Shame, too, as the current one is, well, lame.)
Many thanks to Dr. Katey Brown of Historic Macon for being such a delight to work with — and the nice people kind enough to lend their likenesses to this great cause.
If you’re in the area, stop by High Street in Macon next Saturday for the Georgia Literary Festival. See you there!
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, October 24, 2006, at 7:22 PM.
Posted to Design | Flickr | Photography
Masters of American Comics
“Masters of American Comics” is a landmark and a pleasure. For many people, I suspect, it will be a revelation too.
[…T]he show shouldn’t be missed. It spotlights artists like Chris Ware and Gary Panter, amazing state-of-the-art talents and endearing in the tradition of all those shy, gifted kids who drew endlessly in their rooms when other kids wouldn’t play with them, dreaming about someday telling the world, “I told you so.”
Ahh, to be in NYC. The Times has more.
Posted by Giles, Saturday, October 14, 2006, at 9:31 PM.
Posted to Art | Books, design, art | Design | Whatever
New Biz for Pantone
Paint. But not just any paint: $133 per gallon paint.
Pantone is known as the standard resource for color choices: virtually every designer keeps the company’s color wheels — which divide the spectrum into 3,039 specific hues — close at hand. (There are roughly 300 shades of blue alone.) Today Pantone is introducing a line of paints based on its comprehensive system in partnership with Fine Paints of Europe, a Vermont company that imports paints from the Netherlands. The main benefit, aside from the Dutch quality, is a broader array of colors than is typically found at paint stores, according to Lisa Herbert, an executive vice president of Pantone. But be prepared to pay a premium. A gallon of Pantone paint costs about $133.
From today’s NYTimes.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, September 13, 2006, at 9:41 PM.
Posted to Design | Whatever
DO: This is My Process
The Design Observer’s Michael Beirut notes, somewhat tongue-in-cheek:
When I do a design project, I begin by listening carefully to you as you talk about your problem and read whatever background material I can find that relates to the issues you face. If you’re lucky, I have also accidentally acquired some firsthand experience with your situation. Somewhere along the way an idea for the design pops into my head from out of the blue. I can’t really explain that part; it’s like magic. Sometimes it even happens before you have a chance to tell me that much about your problem! Now, if it’s a good idea, I try to figure out some strategic justification for the solution so I can explain it to you without relying on good taste you may or may not have. Along the way, I may add some other ideas, either because you made me agree to do so at the outset, or because I’m not sure of the first idea. At any rate, in the earlier phases hopefully I will have gained your trust so that by this point you’re inclined to take my advice. I don’t have any clue how you’d go about proving that my advice is any good except that other people — at least the ones I’ve told you about — have taken my advice in the past and prospered. In other words, could you just sort of, you know…trust me?
Great article. Check it out.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, September 12, 2006, at 11:36 AM.
Posted to Advertising | Book and design blogs | Business | Design | Jobs | Whatever | Writing
Mina Covers
These fall into the “covers I’d like to like but can’t” category. They succeeded in catching my eye:
…and the older title,
Unfortunately, they don’t seem to hold up under closer examination. Establishing a “look” for an author is an interesting idea — but forcing a white title onto a picture too light for it, for instance, doesn’t work.
Put it this way: I like the photo choices, but think the graphic design could be better.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, July 26, 2006, at 9:25 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Design
Second Part of Paul Buckley Interview Up
…over at Hear, Hear. Tons of great insights and stories behind covers — including some frank talk, mind the youngins — with this wonderful Penguin designer and art director.
Check out his office, too:
Always like to see someone’s office. Neat offices scare me — glad to see one that looks worked in.…
Enjoy!
Special kudos to Hear, Hear for publishing this great interview. Thank you!
Posted by Giles, Friday, July 21, 2006, at 12:41 PM.
Posted to Book design | Books, design, art | Design | Publishing | Type and typography
Interview with Penguin's Paul Buckley
…over at Hear, Hear:
No matter what you’re selling - a product, an idea or a skill - the presentation is just as important as the thing itself. Your customers will only do so much research (if at all) when purchasing your product, and when presented with similar choices, they will choose the one they feel most comfortable with. And that decision is most likely based on the packaging. Nothing illustrates this better than the experience of shopping for new books: before we even bother to read the description on the back of a book we have never heard of, we need to first notice the book and have enough desire to pick it up. And that decision is based on the book’s cover.
In this interview, Hear, Hear chats with an expert in book cover design - Paul Buckley, a veteran art director of one of the largest book publishers in the world, Penguin Group.
The interview will be published in two installments; the first went up yesterday (thanks for letting me know, Shawn!), while the next will be next Friday.
Some great stuff here, too, including a bunch of click-for-larger covers to get in to.… Hear, hear — nicely done!
Posted by Giles, Thursday, July 13, 2006, at 9:39 AM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book design | Book people | Books | Business | Design | Publishing | Type and typography
Artist I Love Tonight
Binder. Maurice Binder.
May be a short work week, but it’s long hours around here — which means that most of my “breaks” are at the computer, just long enough to watch the latest news reports, perhaps an episode of a television series, or even part of a DVD. Finished You Only Live Twice tonight.
Gotta say, Bond wouldn’t be Bond without the titles sequences, pioneered by Maurice Binder. There’s a nice little documentary regarding his work on the “Special Edition” of the DVD. Check it out next time you need a “real” Bond fix. (Ahem. Sorry…;)
For the record, the above image is a photograph of my computer screen. Apple doesn’t allow screen captures during DVD playback.
Artist I'd Like to Work with Soon
Meet Els Overkleeft, a photographer and graphic designer from my old stomping grounds of Maine:
In addition to wonderful photos like the one above, Els uses a combination of photos and overlays on some of her work that’s just beautiful — check out many more examples at her web site. Check out the book she’s put together, too.
I especially enjoyed seeing some of the places I’ve known well in the past — it’s been too long since I’ve been back to Maine. Thank you, Els, for the mini-vacation down memory lane.
Posted by Giles, Monday, July 3, 2006, at 12:18 PM.
Posted to Art | Book cover photography | Book design | Book people | Books | Design | Photography
"Better Than Suicide"
ArsTechnica has posted a comprehensive review of Quark 7 — from an InDesign user’s perspective:
With a new face, you would hope that there would come a new heart for Quark, one capable of stopping the flow of customers it once so confidently thought it would never lose. The new text engine is a welcome, but long overdue change, and it’s hard to call things like full Opentype support and decent onscreen rendering “features” in this day and age. The addition of powerful transparency options are a boon but otherwise, the main new features in XPress 7—Collaboration Setup and Job Jackets—are not going to appeal to every user and the latter feature even misses the mark as a substitute for a preflighting tool. This while Quark still avoids basic features like drag-and-drop that people have been waiting on for years. It’s not encouraging and doesn’t say “we’ve clued in to your needs” to me.
[…] In the end, XPress 7 is good for QuarkXPress but not great compared to the competition and while I enjoy using it much more than previous versions, it doesn’t have me excited or itching to leave InDesign.
See the rest, including screen captures, specific features, and a good comparison of Quark 7 and InDesign CS2, here.
Posted by Giles, Sunday, June 25, 2006, at 8:50 PM.
Posted to Advertising | Book design | Computers | Design | Publishing | Technology | Type and typography
Stairstep Resize Myth Debunked
For years now, ever since a Photoshop World conference back in my juice-label days, whenever I’ve had to resize an image up — make larger file from a small original, I mean — I’ve used the “stairstep” method. I’m pretty sure it was Scott Kelby whose presentation started the trend for me, followed by another Photoshop “guru” afterwards cementing the method; others have been heard to say the same thing.
By “stairstepping,” I’m referring to the practice of sizing up an image in 10% jumps. I’ve even added actions to Photoshop to do this, so it’s just a matter of a few clicks to get an image to a size I might need. By and large, it’s worked pretty well.
Well, no longer — it’s been proven the less effective method:
Stairstep upsampling on the left; bicubic (with smoothing) on the right.
[I]t’s pretty easy to see that this method doesn’t hold a candle to the bicubic smoother method. Look at the differences in test patches 0/4, 0/5, 0/6. They’re no longer clearly resolved, because the aliasing that I feared has messed them up. The same aliasing has the effect of ‘enlarging’ each of the dark areas, so that the Stair Interpolation version seems to ‘bloom’ slightly compared to the bicubic version.
Read the rest, including some nifty mouseover comparisons, here. (And check out some of Paul’s portfolio — nice.)
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, June 21, 2006, at 11:11 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Computers | Design | Photography | Technology
An Approach to RGB-CMYK Conversion
A very interesting article on one approach to CMYK conversion has been posted over at The Luminous Landscape:
I have for many years worked in the CMYK colour space for press and printer image production. In doing to I discovered the most important area for me to consider when using Photoshop for RGB to CMYK conversion for printer or press printing, was the colour space conversion set-up to ensure the correct gamut on printers and printing presses is realised. As photographers are now encompassing Photoshop as their photo manipulation software of choice to process images, there is and will continue to be a service for printer and printing press ready CMYK files to be supplied. An understanding of the printing process and its relationship with Photoshop, will greatly assist in any a users abiltiy to ensure the maintenance of image quality and gamut control throughout the printing process.
It’s aimed at pro photographers getting stuff right for print, but it’s a great tutorial for those who need a refresher and contains some excellent tidbits for all so inclined on how the “color settings” palette in Photoshop can be a very big deal indeed.
Something to chew on if it’s a slow Monday for you…;)
Posted by Giles, Monday, May 8, 2006, at 1:41 PM.
Posted to Advertising | Book design | Book printers | Computers | Design | Photography | Printing | Publishing | Technology
Not Exactly Book Design, But
…wanted to show a catalog spread I finished up yesterday:
Custom photography makes all the difference here. The client had originally asked for a Fotosearch image, but I really wanted something to use large and put text on — and wound up going with a custom photo.
Helps with exclusivity, too — nothing like using a stock image for a big spread like this, then seeing it in an ad selling something else tomorrow.
The catalog’s a few days out from completion, making the above still a draft. Comments — and suggestions — welcome. Thanks.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, May 2, 2006, at 6:39 PM.
Posted to Advertising | Design | Flickr | Photography | Type and typography
What Not To Do
Now if this ain’t the truth:
Found through a commenter, Tuesday Gutz, who listed a very nice blog with her comment. Thanks, Tuesday!
Posted by Giles, Thursday, April 13, 2006, at 4:54 PM.
Posted to Art | Book design | Business | Design | Personal | Whatever
Preserved for Posterity
Found myself downright barking at a professional photographer tonight who had argued that restricting access to her work online was better than dealing with a few people out to cause trouble. I felt kinda bad afterwards; I was perhaps a little harsh. (Who? Me?)
I’m not a professional photographer, in the sense that I earn a living exclusively selling photographs, but I do sell photos, deal with photographers’ rights, and sell a creative, copyrighted or work-for-hire product/service that, while not as easily “stolen for use elsewhere,” is subject to a good deal of competition. Above-board, honest people and grab-your-ideas-and-undersell-you-later types alike.
Pushing your work farther and farther out into the world instead of walling it off clearly works. Foreword is my evidence.
Click through to Flickr and look at all the little notes by moving your mouse over the boxes on the photo. They’ll run you through all the stuff in the picture, including the icons, menu items, etc. (Warning: geek alert…;)
Sure, there are hassles. (Looking at new web servers [hosts] this week, for instance, so we can rebuild pages in the middle of the day without timeouts. You wondered why so few mid-day posts…?) It’s definitely a challenge to post regularly with the quality we’d all like to see — and that keeps traffic growing. Oh, and have I mentioned there’s still the rest of the web site to finish?
But it’s so worth it. Glad we can be here together, learning about book design. Whether it’s your first visit or your thousandth, thanks for coming by.
Posted by Giles, Monday, April 10, 2006, at 5:51 AM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book cover photography | Book design | Books, design, art | Business | Computers | Design | Ethics | Flickr | Freedoms and rights | Jobs | Love | Personal | Photography | Public domain | Publishing | Site news | Technology | Type and typography | Whatever | Writing
Another New Quark Logo
Home sick this weekend, surfing back design news instead of enjoying the 70-degree closing evening of Macon’s Cherry Blossom Festival. Had to complain…;)
Missed this, from the 16th:
The new Quark corporate logo, in “preferred colors” and, well, “flat.”
I’ll say this: it’s better than the last one. Designed in-house this time, it more appropriately resembles a “Q.” That’s about it for positives from here.
Oh, one more thing: I prefer the “flat.” Forgive my saying so, but it’s as if someone came up with the flat and then was instructed to “take it to 11” — hence the “preferred” — by someone who doesn’t understand why going to 11 can be funny instead of better or more.
Others are more enthusiastic. Designorati thinks they got it right:
If Quark desires to connote forward motion, expectation, and excitement, they seem to have hit the target here. Even the typography has been seen to […].
QuarkvsInDesign.com feels similarly:
A potent emblem, the 2006 logo both reminisces as a target and communicates action. It’s circular, three-dimensional relief in green is evocative of a button, implying a call to action — click here to go.
Want to click somewhere? Try the comments link — with your take.
Posted by Giles, Saturday, April 1, 2006, at 10:29 PM.
Posted to Business | Computers | Design | Technology | Type and typography
My Fonts: In Your Face
MyFonts.com’s quarterly (virtual) newsletter is out, with news that they’re now selling Bethold, fourteen new foundries, and the usual goodness. My favorite section, though, has always been the new stuff from existing foundries, near the bottom:
These little panels can be real visual treats, and seeing them en masse like this is great. Couple of cool items in this section, too — Petronella especially. Been on the hunt for a font similar to that for a while.…
Posted by Giles, Friday, March 31, 2006, at 2:47 PM.
Posted to Advertising | Design | Type and typography
Bookmarkable: BibioOdyssey
Via BoingBoing comes this fascinating look at books, illustrations, science and history — including lots and lots of historic photos and illustrations, great reading, and tidbits like this:
A History of Color Systems. The above illustration is by Philipp Otto Runge, from 1810, for instance; the text includes ten other historical illustrations and several other reference sources. Very cool.
Check it out.
Posted by Giles, Friday, March 31, 2006, at 2:04 PM.
Posted to Art | Book and design blogs | Books | Books, design, art | Design | Printing | Publishing | Type and typography | Whatever
CS3: 2Q 2007
Rob Galbraith notes a Forbes interview with Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen. The money section:
Acrobat is coming in the fourth quarter of 2006. [Design software package] Creative Suite 3 will be introduced in the second quarter of 2007. Acrobat will take advantage of the Macromedia assets. And you’ll see a lot of activity in the CS3 launch. There will be a lot of integration between [Macromedia] products and [Adobe] products as part of those offerings.
As Rob comments, Universal Binary (read: MacIntel) versions won’t be available until CS3. Kind of a long wait, IMHO — but gives us time to budget for a new machine.…
Posted by Giles, Monday, March 27, 2006, at 7:16 PM.
Posted to Book design | Business | Computers | Design | Technology | Type and typography
56 Steves
Kuo Design has put together an online collection of every magazine and periodicial cover (that they’re aware of, that is) starring Steve Jobs:
Interestingly, there’s an index page where you can see all of the covers in thumbnail — and most of them stand out for being unremarkable.
When you have a few minutes to go down Mac memory lane, check it out. Many of the articles are online, and the graphic design of all those covers together is worth a moment’s stare by itself. Enjoy.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, March 21, 2006, at 10:13 AM.
Posted to Computers | Design | Technology | Type and typography | Whatever
Foreword: Three Years of Book Design Blogging
Many, many moons ago, it seems now, Amanda and I starting putting HTML “blog” posts regarding books and book design up on the ospreydesign.com site. By the end of 2002, we’d decided that we wanted to do it often, if not daily, as a way to expand our knowledge of book design and set me up for leaving Tropicana and go back to doing freelance design — and try to do book design — full-time.
Back then, the header was based on a photo of Haunting Sunshine, a title that’s aged well, and was 550 pixels wide (here scaled to fit):
Then, three years ago this weekend, March 17-21, 2003, Foreword became “offical.” We purchased Movable Type, got it working, enabled comments, and even had rotating headers. The same 550 pixels wide (and again scaled to fit), the site lost the ospreydesign tie-in (and gained a subdomain) in favor of an emphasis on community. This one was my fave:
The photo on the right was to have been a cover for a book Amanda was working on; she spent a good deal of time wandering about Florida gathing information and photos only to abandon it later. (Unfortunately, IMO.) The books on the left were photographed and Photoshopped in-house.
This one got the most questions — and was another Amanda thing:
Nope, I ain’t answering…;)
Readership that first “offical” month averaged 50/day, at least ten of which were family and friends. But it was a start. The plan from there was yearly redesigns, tons of great book design and publishing news and blurbs, and to build that community. I left the juice company in July, and ospreydesign was full-time again. Readership went over 500/day.
In March of ’04, the site gained the so-called “velvet” look:
Reflecting growing average screen sizes, the site grew to first 600, then 650 pixels wide, so we could better accomodate larger cover pictures. Readership climbed over 1000/day, Foreword started flirting with the top-10 returns in Google for “book design,” and life seemed good — for a while.
By October 2004, it was a different site, really, because things were strained to breaking between the two principle bloggers. Yet despite a change in flavor from lighter, quicker “look what I found” items to more thoughts and feelings and design, readership continued to climb.
By March 2005, Amanda and I had seperated, I’d moved to Georgia, and the site got … wider. I flat out didn’t have time to redo it completely, and knew that part of me wanted to do something more radical (read: a new logo), so in the end, I postponed. And you, dear readers, kept coming — over 3000/day, from all corners of the world. Foreword now flirted with the #1 Google return for “book design,” trading spots with Robin Williams and Amazon.
This year, March 2006, posts are sometimes sporadic, Amanda and I are lawyered up — damned shame, if you ask me — but, thanks to the support of my friends, your support, and with the help of a few talented fellow bloggers, the postings continue. The site even got partially redesigned, but ran aground when I realized I didn’t know how to do what I wanted for the main portion and have been too busy to learn — so it hangs. Maybe in a week or two. Might play with a few details here, too; some of the dingbats on the left haven’t worn too well for my taste, the comments still aren’t clear, and a couple of other little things. (As always, suggestions welcome.)
Meanwhile, Foreword’s now solidly #1 in the Google “book design” rank (out of, when searched without quotes, 512 million), readership is over 5000/day, and we’re going to keep posting on book design, books, photography, writing, design, and probably even too much personal stuff. For another three years — or, hopefully, thirty.
Thank you for stopping by. Thank you for commenting. Most of all, thank you being part of the community.
Posted by Giles, Friday, March 17, 2006, at 2:15 PM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book design | Books | Business | Design | Personal | Photography | Site news
The Vagina Monologues
Poster for two performances of this amazing play:
I’m glad to have been able to use a model (it’s an original photo) that isn’t a supermodel, because it just feels more appropriate for the material. The jeans and black shirt are the “costume” for the play; the purple is from the folders the actors will be holding. I’ll be up front and say that I would have gone for something a little more racy (unbuttoned jeans, for instance), but erred on the side of conservative — Mercer is a Baptist school.
Major kudos to the director, student Calvin McCullar, for making it happen on campus in the first place. (For the second year in a row.) Happy to donate a few hours to this one, even at the last minute.
Heads off to press in the morning. Any suggestions before it does?
Apologies, once again, for the lag in posting. Been mired in what’s become an all-consuming project. Realized I had to break that into pieces and will keep working on; the above was a “break.” More posts tomorrow and over the weekend, however, in celebreation of Foreword’s third birthday.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, March 15, 2006, at 12:05 PM.
Posted to Art | Design | Flickr | Freedoms and rights | Personal | Photography | Type and typography | Whatever
Artist I Love Tonight
Local painter Eric Wakefield:
Nice graphic design, too.
Thank you, Eric, for the tour of Macon Arts, the great conversation, and for the introductions. Not to mention the paintings I want everywhere…;)
Macon’s community of artists, photographers, and genuinely interesting people continues to impress.
Posted by Giles, Friday, March 3, 2006, at 10:30 PM.
Posted to Art | Design | Personal | Type and typography
Center of Winter
We’re actually edging towards spring here in Georgia, with birds and flowers everywhere, but these are very much worth thinking about winter for a few minutes:
The hardcover, which has been around — and something I’ve liked quite a bit — for a while. Now, the new paperback:
I like it very much. It’s balanced, poised, and nicely done. (Callout aside. Gotta love what you have to put on there.) But why are the trees green? Doesn’t look much like Minnesota.…
Harper didn’t list a designer on the cover; anyone know who did it?
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, March 1, 2006, at 8:20 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Design
You Want to do What!? Cool.
[Yale]: What are your plans following graduation in May?
Ashley Linnenbank: I want to work in graphic design, but I didn’t major in Art, so I’m going back to school for that. Starting in early July, I’ll be attending The Creative Circus in Atlanta. I’d really love to go into book design or maybe fuse my love for music with that of art and design for bands and such. So two more years of school and then I’ll be prepared to conquer the world.
Wow. I’d really love to go into book design. We’re on students’ radar…! Is book design becoming more than a niche?
Good luck, Ashley!