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
This Day in Type
Added to the daily-stop list:
This Day in Type. Great.
Posted by Giles, Friday, June 29, 2007, at 2:06 AM.
Posted to Type and typography
Pulp Action Pack
No sooner had I “almost completely caught up” than I was reminded — by more than one person — of other items that I should be doing/working on, such as today’s emphasis on paperwork and taxes for 2006. Joy! Back with more Friday or over the weekend.
It’s always nice when something book-design related shows up in the mailbox. Veer’s catalogs, on the other hand, almost always delight — so when Veer send something that’s book design, it’s gonna be yummy:
Perfect.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, January 31, 2007, at 10:07 AM.
Posted to Site news | Type and typography
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
Ode: Challenging
Latest from Vertical:
Cover design by Chip Kidd. He’d just started work with them when I met him many moons back, and was genuinely excited about it — glad to see the collaboration continues to flourish.
And an interesting cover it is. Two different fonts, so close to one another, yet different. Spacing that doesn’t, at first glance, have alignment. A sliding slipjacket for the title. Like a good deal of Chip’s stuff, it pushes the boundaries — and begs examination.
The Toon Zone had more to say about the book and design. Here’s a highlight:
Vertical would earn kudos simply for bringing such a challenging and uncommercial project to press, but their edition of Ode to Kirihito is exemplary. Vertical presents the work in “flipped” format to allow for a left-to-right reading style more familiar to Western eyes and commissioned an excellent translation by Camellia Nieh. Normally, the binding isn’t something that calls attention to itself in a book, but it proves to be exceptionally noteworthy when the book is 800+ pages and is still easy to open and read. The only criticism of the book’s design comes from designer Chip Kidd’s use of a separate half-sleeve on the cover, similar to the colored bands he used on Vertical’s Buddha hardcovers or the half a dust jacket on DC’s Batman: Year One deluxe hardcover. These design elements may look wonderful on a desk but are often far more trouble than they’re worth in bookstores or on bookshelves. However, the one on Ode to Kirihito isn’t quite as fragile as those on Kidd’s earlier books, and also serves an interesting artistic function as it slides back and forth on the cover.
Someone else is challenged, it would seem…! What do you think? Leave a comment.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, December 7, 2006, at 10:04 AM.
Posted to Art | Book design | Books, design, art | Type and typography
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
FontExplorer X Updated
…to version 1.1. MacInTouch says:
Linotype’s FontExplorer X 1.1 combines font management, font display and information, font activation, and font shopping. It includes plug-ins for Illustrator, InDesign, and QuarkXPress, along with Smart Sets, the ability to clear application font caches, and other features. This release adds activation of single fonts in a suitcase, duplicate import, labels, a QuarkXPress 7 plug-in, customizable columns in the conflict table, improved font import, improved InDesign and Illustrator plug-ins, and more. FontExplorer X is free for Mac OS X 10.3.9 and up (Universal Binary).
Haven’t tried it again — but perhaps soon. These regular updates signal a maturing product worthy of consideration. Well, that and the new Quark 7 plug-in.
Kidding!
Posted by Giles, Thursday, August 10, 2006, at 7:41 PM.
Posted to Computers | Type and typography
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
"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
That Reminds Me....
Many, many moons ago, I posted on a cover that wound up being abandoned in favor of another designer’s work. I promised an update, but, as often happens, life moved on and I forgot.
However, I was at the Online Photographer, reading a satire post — with serious implications, of course — this morning, and it featured an image that triggered that memory.
So, finally, what I presented (again):
And, what the author went with:
One word: Ew.
I’d leave a comment on the Online Photographer, but it suffers the same fate as Joseph’s NYT Covers blog and everything else from Blogger: it doesn’t allow me, using Firefox on a Mac, to enter the necessary letters to approve comments — just keeps asking for ’em over and over. Unfortunately, the Online Photographer doesn’t have a contact form for me to let him know.
Blogger: Enough already. Please Fix That!!
Posted by Giles, Sunday, June 25, 2006, at 1:28 PM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Photography | Type and typography | Whatever
'Nuther Design Observer Must-Read
We get the word “koan” from Zen Buddhism, where in Japanese it translates literally as “a matter for public thought,” sort of an open-source philosophy for ancient times. Koans often demonstrated the inability of logical reasoning to produce enlightened thought, and, as a trained lawyer and insurance clerk throughout his life, no one knew the deadening effects of logic better than Franz Kafka. Writing was his escape, his meditation, and, fittingly, Meditation was the title of his first published work, released in 1913. While all 18 koans inside are very much worth enjoying, it’s the shortest of them all — the penultimate “Die Baüme,” or “The Trees” — that I’d like to read as a meditation on typography.
Read the rest. Nice article, Rob Giampietro.
(Check out Coudal’s Field-tested books, too, courtesy of DO’s Observed column. What a great idea!)
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, June 21, 2006, at 11:49 AM.
Posted to Book people | Books | Type and typography | Writing
More Trends
Since we’re already on the subject of trends, let’s talk about another: handwriting fonts. MyFonts is promoting their Casual Hands, one of which I particularly like:
Alas, it’s their #4 seller right now — which means tons of other people like it, too, and we’ll soon see it everywhere. I’ll pass.
As it happens, I had an email conversation this morning with Ethan Dunham, who runs FontHead Design, and there’s no way I can put up a post about handwriting and casual fonts without pointing to some of his:
Which I’ve used extensively on children’s titles, and,
Which I haven’t used, but hope to soon. (I’m a few volumes behind — a lame excuse at his pricing.) Check out his entire collection of great, great fonts — all incredibly priced — here.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, May 31, 2006, at 12:09 PM.
Posted to Type and typography
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
More on Richard Eckersley
…at the Design Observer:
That legacy is enormous. His books and jackets have been annually included as selections in the annual Association of American University Press competition, as well as frequently included in the AIGA “50 Books” competition, and among them are many that were instantly hailed as masterpieces of the publishing arts: Karl Bodmer’s America and The Journals of Lewis and Clark, of course, but also Jacques Derrida’s Glas and Cinders, Avital Ronell’s The Telephone Book: Technology, Schizophrenia, Electric Speech, Warren Motte’s Small Worlds, a steady stream of translations of contemporary French writers (including books by Marcel Benabou, Marguerite Duras, Jean Echenoz, Maurice Blanchot and Gérard Genette), and many, many more.
The article includes links, but in case you’re busy and need to get back to it, here’s a taste — also called out by Joseph in response to the original post — of Glas:
Thank you for the link, William. Been too behind the curve to surf and am sure folks appreciate the follow-up.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, April 25, 2006, at 6:37 PM.
Posted to Art | Book design | Book people | Computers | Type and typography
Bush: Okay. Not Great.
Well, finally:
My feelings could best be summarized as “a shrug.”
Continue reading "Bush: Okay. Not Great."
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, April 25, 2006, at 4:14 PM.
Posted to Book design | Flickr | Jobs | Personal | Type and typography
Crash Into This
The serializing technique known as ‘crash numbering’ has been in use since well before computers started roaming the earth: some say possibly as far back as the days of phrenology and five cent sasparillas. If you’ve ever bought a raffle ticket or been handed a claim check you’ve likely experienced crash numbering first hand. Our digital simulacrum, which we are happy to present here and now, includes Serif and Gothic styles; three variants of each numeral per font; and a smattering of numerical symbols. It’s ideal for numbering invoices, gift certificates, undergarments… anything that’ll hold still long enough to run through your inkjet printer.
Beautiful. Best description I’ve read in a while, too. Bonus — it’s free.
Check out the rest of PsyOps font collection, too, including the lovely (and new to my wish-list) Aquamarine Titling.
Posted by Giles, Monday, April 24, 2006, at 7:03 AM.
Posted to Type and typography
RIP, Richard Eckersley
UnBeige notes:
Eckersley was born into a family of graphic designers in England and worked as a junior at Lund Humphries, which published the now-cult-classic Typographica magazine. He was in the US only one year before he took a job at the University of Nebraska, where he had lived since 1981. He focused on innovative book design, and was most famous for his typographic tricks in The Telephone Book, the first book he designed on a computer.
Stephen Heller wrote a nice piece for the NYTimes that also includes a wonderful cover. Here’s a larger version:
Rest in peace, sir. Your work will continue to be treasured.
Posted by Giles, Friday, April 21, 2006, at 12:00 PM.
Posted to Art | Book design | Book people | Computers | Technology | Type and typography
FontShop: Legibility
No sooner do I put up a post about Veer’s fonts than an email pulls in from FontShop:
FontShop’s acclaimed magazine of typography and design continues its run with /Font 005: Legibility/. This issue’s cover story takes on the historical and cultural impressions left by letterforms that are very different from those of digital type: graffiti. Writer Ian Lynam finds that despite their disparity, graffiti and graphic design continue to influence each other and mix blood as they evolve.
Heavy stuff, indeed. There’s less serious fare in this issue, too. Marian Bantjes returns to write and illustrate in hilarious fashion a long overdue critique of the alphabet. And in the Foundry Spotlight, type designers chime in with their (sometimes acerbic) takes on the topic of legibility.
All this, plus a slew of new font showings and typographic eye candy. With design from Punchcut and editorial help from Amos Klausner and Tamye Riggs, /Font 005/ is another trove of design inspiration and edification.
Can’t wait to see this in print. Meanwhile, check it out online.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, April 18, 2006, at 12:35 PM.
Posted to Type and typography
Veer: Distressed Type
I have a ton of distressed typefaces, but can never seem to get enough. Here are a few that Veer has highlighted this month. Their Flont™ tool is pretty darned cool, too — enter the text you’d like, see all of the characters, or both.
Think Veer’s my favorite creative catalog. (Of those I currently receive, not a definitve statement.) It’s such a pleasure to receive a catalog so well put-together that I almost always look through before I get back from the mailbox.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, April 18, 2006, at 11:37 AM.
Posted to Type and typography
Covered Forever: Germano Facetti
From the UK’s Guardian:
Germano Facetti - who died, aged 77, at the weekend - probably wouldn’t have liked the idea much, but he was the master of branding long before the word entered the popular consciousness. Facetti’s book covers for Penguin, where he was art director from 1961 to 1972, gave an extraordinary unity and unmatched visual impact to a publisher already regarded by readers as a vital part of British cultural life.
One of Mr. Facetti’s covers caught my eye (pun intended…;) early in my book design career:
Thoughtfully included in their extensive gallery of book he’d designed. Definitely worth a moment’s tribute.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, April 13, 2006, at 5:01 PM.
Posted to Art | Book design | Book people | Personal | Publishing | Type and typography
Kool-Aid Never Had It So Good
Another week, another major hat tip to Joseph. This time for some Kool-Aid:
I haven’t seen it in person, But electronically — whew. That’s a 10 in my book. (Well, on my blog…;) Oh, and there’s this:
[Y]ou have to check out Toure’s Web site. How long has it been since you’ve seen the Web site-as-city metaphor? Yeah, me too. 1998.
Bonus: Hardcover (left) and paperback versions of the author’s previous title.
There’s some (soul) food for thought!
Posted by Giles, Monday, April 10, 2006, at 7:09 AM.
Posted to Art | Book and design blogs | Book design | Publishing | Type and typography
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
Reordering Needed, Please
Bumped into this today:
From last year, it’s a collection of her poetry. And an absolutely wonderful photo — the angles, her look, and she’s so inviting you to occupy the empty chair, sit for a spell, and just listen. The photo literally jumped out of the crowd and pulled me over.
But. But oh, that crop; but, the title treatment is, well, boring; but, that box just sinks it (the price of a tie to an earlier title, apparently); but, but, but.
So, let’s assume that the original designer’s hands were tied. Imagine the possibilities this title could offer. Now — anyone have a minute to redesign this?
Please. Madeleine would appreciate it.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, April 4, 2006, at 7:44 PM.
Posted to Book design | Personal | Type and typography
NYTimes Covers
It’s Monday, which means a trip by Book Covers from the NYTimes Book Review around here. Missed last week, so double the fun today!
Including this gem:
J’adore. Spacing, aging, colors, amazing photo arrangement, all of it. Joseph is exactly right about the noose, too.
Update: Crown kindly let me know that David Tran did the cover for Our Town. Nicely done, David!
Great conversation going about A Changed Man, as well — check it out. (Like the Saunders and Disposable American, too. Thanks, Joseph!)
Posted by Giles, Monday, April 3, 2006, at 6:22 PM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book cover photography | Book design | Books | Type and typography
Another New Logo: Volvo
Slightly off topic, but hopefully interesting nonetheless. A “Sunday design diversion,” if you will…:
When the decision was taken to start producing Volvo cars in August 1926, financial backer Svenska Kullagerfabriken – SKF – reactivated a company that had been idle since 1920 for the purpose. The name of that company was VOLVO and it had been formed in 1915 for the manufacture and marketing of bearings for the automotive industry.
Not only was the name ingeniously simple, it was also easy to pronounce in most places around the world and with a minimal risk of spelling errors. And best of it all was its immensely strong symbolic connection to the company’s entire operations.
“Volvere” is the infinitive form of the verb “roll” in Latin. In its first person singular form, the verb “volvere” becomes “volvo”, i.e. “I roll”.
At the same time as VOLVO was reactivated, the ancient chemical symbol for iron, a circle with an arrow pointing diagonally upwards to the right, was adopted as a logotype.
My fave, actually, is this flavor from a 1937 prototype — just lovely:
Meanwhile, fast forward to 2006.
Almost 80 years old, it now makes a grand comeback as an updated logotype – the Volvo iron symbol.
Read the rest of this article and tons of other Volvo news, tuning information, and stuff for Swedish car fans at SwedeSpeed.
So, why’s this logo here? I was on “heightened logo awareness,” to coin a phrase, after visiting with Quark’s new effort — and seeing Volvo’s invited the comparison. I believe it an appropriate comparison, too: both are large corporate efforts aimed at the “above-average” consumer; both are round symbols (more or less) that use text as part of the overall piece (Quark’s requires the word “Quark,” remember); both logos will feature prominently in the companies’ marketing; and, both logos are three-dimensional.
Volvo uses a custom flavor (as far as I can tell) of Egyptian for its typeface, original to the logo (1920/6). Quark’s on #2 in six months. Volvo’s icon is tastefully shadowed, conveys strength, taste, and modernism, and portrays the brand with dignity and honor. Quark’s is flashy, feels amateurish, and, let’s say, might appropriately reflect that company’s dignity and honor, too…;)
In short: The old Swede on some new vitamins knocks out the former heavyweight from Denver in a few short rounds. No TKO here — Quark’s deservedly bruised.
By the way, some of you may note that Volvo’s car operations were purchased by Ford in 1999:
The brand name was consequently put into a holding company, Volvo Trademark Holding AB, which is co-owned fifty-fifty by Volvo and Ford, and whose management decides on how the name can be used and in what contexts. Currently, the holding company’s management group consists of Leif Johansson, President & CEO of AB Volvo and Bill Ford Jr, Chairman & CEO of Ford Motor Company.
Smart. Bet those conversations are fun!
Waaay off-topic: I hope Volvo produces the C30. Would be on my shopping list, if so; a European hatchback would be cool and I think I’m getting too old for a GTI — even if it is fast. Heh.
Posted by Giles, Sunday, April 2, 2006, at 1:38 PM.
Posted to Business | Computers | Personal | Technology | Type and typography | Whatever
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
Graphic Style
The always-interesting (and astonishingly prolific) Steven Heller teams with Seymour Chwast for 2001’s new edition of Graphic Style, a cover that has worn very well:
Currently on sale at Labyrinth for $11. A nice (and long-overdue) addition to the bookcases.
Big thumbs up to my mother for bumping into and getting this. Sweet Mom.
Update: Amazon has the older version listed, but only a puny little illustration of the cover. Would be nice to do a side-by-side — will keep looking.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, March 30, 2006, at 9:40 PM.
Posted to Book design | Book sellers | Books | Type and typography
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
Anybody in Vancouver?
Here’s an event if you are:
Glenn Goluska trains three decades of experience on his upcoming lecture Lead, Wood, and Laser: 30 Years of the Book, Design & Typography. Cosponsored by the Alcuin Society and host venue the Vancouver Museum, this 7 p.m. event next Thursday (March 30) should touch on Goluska’s stints at groundbreaking Toronto publisher Coach House Press, at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, where he designed exhibition catalogues and posters, and at Imprimerie Dromadaire, which Goluska has run off and on since 1975. As if that weren’t enough, The Elements of Typographic Style guru Robert Bringhurst introduces. To reserve, call 604-734-7368.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, March 23, 2006, at 4:28 PM.
Posted to Book design | Book people | Books, design, art | Publishing | Type and typography
Posted for Comment
Dan writes:
I’ve attached a couple of covers I’m working on for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, if you’d like to post one or both for comment. The photos are pretty much set at this point, but I’m still refining the typography. Would love to know what people think. Thanks!
I’ll take both, thank you:
and:
I like the photo choices, and generally agree that it’s down to typography. More in the comments — please join in.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, March 22, 2006, at 1:53 PM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Type and typography
Question of the Month
…award definitely belongs to Guy Kelly:
I’m an occasional commenter, and I had a question I wanted to put before some fellow book designers.
I’m fairly new to book design, and the type of books I design use lots of lists in the body copy (numbered and bulleted). I got into the habit of indenting those lists (where the bullet was flush with the left edge of the page, and the text was indented a pica or so), and I am now trying to
correct myself.
The odd thing is that most people where I work don’t hang their bullets, and I’m finding that the lists look kinda weird (maybe just because I’m not used to it). When I’ve asked people on message boards, I’ve mostly had responses from advertising people, and that’s really a very different way of handling
type.
So, the question is, do you always hang bullets in body text, even when there are multiple columns? If so, what is a good way to treat them? I currently have a 1p0 gutter between 2 columns, and I just set things up so bullets/numbers hang 5 points into that gutter. If there is any better practice or resources that I could find to help me improve my work, I’d appreciate the help.
Thanks for the great blog!
Thank you for the great question! Have at it in the comments.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, March 22, 2006, at 1:29 PM.
Posted to Book design | 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