Blogs Posted Under Creative Inspiration

I love typography.  That is one of the reasons why I found myself in this industry.  Letterforms are art in and of themselves.  The way they can arrange themselves to form words, to form shapes and compositions within a layout. Done right, they can be used to form complete illustrations.  Which is what makes them such a great visual medium to illustrate with.  Because one can use words as the paint (literally), you can develop another level of concept into the design.  The.. || Continue Reading →

I love sharing with the world when, though I am never the first and probably not the last, I stumble upon creative genius or uber-talent that is floating around. My latest find was in the realm of chalkboards.  We have all been around them.  We were raised in school around them (at least my generation or older was) and we may have even had our share of eraser pounding outside of classrooms. Nowadays we see them in small coffee shops and elusive deli’s here and there. .. || Continue Reading →

I love remakes.  Not so much with film, because hardly ever does the remake do justice or turn out better than the original, but with book covers, that is not the case.  With each re-publication of a book, it usually means a re-dressing of the cover graphics or jacket.  At least in the case of paperback releases. Enter designer and illustrator Jim Tierney.  Not only is this creative-guru talented, but he is ambitious.  He dreams big and delivers on execution. Case in point:.. || Continue Reading →

I was graciously referred by a young friend to check out the design stylings of fellow creative Will Staehle, and for lack of a better term, was wickedly delighted!  Not only was he deemed by PRINT magazine as one of the Top Twenty Under Thirty New Visual Artists, but he has his hands full.  By day, he is a Digital Designer at JibJab here on the West Coast. By night, he is running his own studio called Lonewolfblacksheep. But what really floated my boat, was Will’s side.. || Continue Reading →

Some visual solutions are so simple in their concept and executed with such ease that you are left saying…”Dang!  Why didn’t I think of this one!”. Such is the case with a recent poster design by Swedish graphic designer Viktor Hertz.  His style of design is clean, modern and bold.  The message of this poster is simple, but the method of the message if brilliant.  The colors are mature and appropriate for the audience.  This is a great graphic translation.. || Continue Reading →

If ever you were a kid, or if somehow you simply bypassed childhood altogether, but HAVE kids, than you know the incredible imaginative world that LEGO‘s building blocks can bring. These little colored pieces of plastic have been around for what seems like forever and while the playsets themselves get more complex and unique (there are Star Wars legos, Harry Potter legos, space legos, city legos, and even SpongeBob Squarepants legos).  However, at their core, they spark.. || Continue Reading →

KETCH is an upscale clothing boutique located in the heart of Seattle’s Maritime Ballard district.  Fusing N.Y. and L.A. styles with a vintage-nautical sensibility, the store needed a brand created that would ooze polish, style, and character. That it is where Seattle-based design firm Turnstyle came in.  The design-ninjas up at the top left corner of the nation put their heads together and, in my opinion, hit it out of the park.  From the flourish of Caslon type-foundry.. || Continue Reading →

What makes a truly memorable moving announcement? How about a thick, wonderfully shaped piece of cheap chipboard that has a beautiful splotchy ink illustration that focuses on both raw and textual imagery and typography.  Better yet, a strong concept, as it is the flip-side of the piece that connects the crow and the actual announcement itself. The team over at the Virginia-based design house of Fuszion got this one right.  Brilliantly concepted, masterfully executed.  From.. || Continue Reading →

Fewer clients are printing materials.  Everything is online, web-based, and ready for our mobile devices.  If things are getting printed, we have a sea of quick-print, digital press online vendors to upload our PDFs and have the printing shipped to us within 48 hours. With the digital age of online, web-based graphics, the one sacrifice is a detour from the lost art of exquisite printing.  I am talking about jaw-dropping and expensive techniques like rich, textural papers.. || Continue Reading →

50 Designers 50 Mottos Fifty and Fifty is a curated project which attempts to construct a handsome new way of looking at our country. Fifty designers, one per state, will illustrate their state motto, creating something steeped in history but completely modern and unique: a kind of designer’s atlas. Fifty and Fifty was created by Dan Cassaro, a designer and animator living and working in Brooklyn, New York. More of his work can be seen at YoungJerks.com Here are some samples: Alabama Tennessee Minnesota I.. || Continue Reading →