Today’s showcasing is something rather unique in my book.  How do you envision a new, creative way of inviting people to your upcoming wedding.  Usually wedding invites are elegant forms of paper, perhaps embossings, and are fairly minimalistic in their design approach.  You say the date, the time, the location and the RSVP info.

What if you wanted to give full details about the upcoming event, including the dinner menu? What if you wanted to include some bio information on the background of the so-to-be married couple regarding how they met and eventually decided to tie the knot?  What if you are a pair of goof-balls with a great sense of humor and want to do something very untraditional?

Well that is exactly what couple Steve and Jacqs decided to do when they partnered with web designer Stephen Oldham to come up with a fun, and quirky website to promote their wedding.

With a distinct eye for vintage typography and a homage to copy layout of the late 1800′s and some fun jQuery ScrollTo functionality for the website navigation, the couple and Stephen created a fantastically whimsical online communication.  From their back-story, to the directions, the wit and humor and inside jokes (only for family and dear friends to get I assume) the site is as fun to read and explore (be sure to roll over the pair of silhouette heads), the site is such a refreshing way of getting the info out there.  Obviously not for the stranger (They don’t even list their last names anywhere), this site was a fun project for those closest to the couple and who already know them, yet they take an approach that assumes complete strangers like myself (and very soon YOU) will peruse their site and be left wanting to know more about this couple, if not want to crash their wedding, which would, I’m sure, have been just as fun and inventive.

Hats off guys!  I know by now the date has come and gone and I wish you both very many happy years ahead!  Let’s hope they decided to do a website devoted to a baby announcement in the near future!….

Visit the website here:

www.steveandjacqs.com

Rarely is there an opportunity to get really creative or is that spark of brilliance in creativity outputted by in-house design staff working for academic, medical, or legal industries, which are usually very conservative and bland in their approaches to creativity in marketing and design.  I should know.  Been there, done that early on in my career. The reason is that most design rockstars go and work for design firms and creative marketing agencies where they can truly flex their design muscles and have the most creative freedom to do so.

Not is the case with designer Craig Parsons, who is on staff with St. Jude Medical in Plano, Texas in their Creative Department.

To help build awareness for breast cancer, St. Jude’s created a website and poster that creatively pays homage to all of the names that mankind has given to that portion of the female anatomy.  The result is a striking, yet familiar image, but done in a simple and effectively creative way.

Here Craig flexed not only his design skills but his copywriting skills and created a very straight forward, yet smart marketing message and backed up with a great visual that is visually simple, yet typographically rich and complex.

Beautiful job Mr. Parsons!  Keep your day job!

It is hard work. But there is a silent creed that all good parents know, yet we rarely convey to your child.

Which brings me to today’s entry.  Always a lover of great typography and vintage and distressed artwork, coming across California-based freelance graphic designer Joel Felix‘s “A Parent’s Promise” poster made my day.  This unusually formatted poster, a personal design project, has a wonderfully playful way of conveying this message of Parental Love, as your eye dances down the long format, darting in-and-out, right and left, and having visual pauses in all of the right places.

Now I just need to show it to my oldest….

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 “paint” you are using now has context and meaning to it.

That’s why I love the recent offers from the UK designer over at Doaly Design Services.  Now this guy not only does it, but hits it out of the park!  Not only taking icon images, but then utilizing powerful words that have context to what the subject is about.  Yes, every contour and change in hue that your eyes are seeing is due to a gathering of words…

So what do I love more than typography?  Star Wars, comics, and Bruce Lee!  Thanks Doaly for making our visual world just a little bit brighter.

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 that meet beautiful and deep blind embossings.

All the more reason why I almost pee’d in my pants when I came across a self-promotional card by the guys over at 344 Design.

“344 Loves You”

This delicious blend of beautiful typographical script with a deep and detailed blind emboss that allows the text to weave in and out of itself is truly award-winning in my opinion.

Yes, it was expensive.  Yes, it was time consuming (no online print vendor used here).  But, the result is memorable, and not only serves as a functioning piece, but also flexes the muscles of both the designer and the printer.

For more closeups and the full scope on the paper used, the price tag, and the rest of the details of the fine specimen of off-set printing, see the source article.

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 love the vintage silkscreen approach to the graphics and the consistent retro color palette being used throughout the project!

Sure, it would have been easy to fill the whole page, have the different statements be in different fonts, sizes, and angles, but I think it would have ended up a mess.

Instead, Scott leads the viewer down a logic path of reading and I love the connectivity of the pieces.  The muted hues are gorgeous and love the symmetrical and centrality of the piece.

Here’s to the age old question, “What is Design”?

Very inspiring…

I stumbled across this website that basically helps place medical personal into remote areas like Nepal, Namibia, and Tanzania.

For such a humanitarian organization, Gap Medics method they chose to present the information in the form of a website is fresh, inventive, and unique.

With the use of washed out colors, and sort of vintage duo-tone look, and obscure typography throughout, the site has a very innovative approach to its design.

http://www.gapmedics.co.uk/

Rhett Dashwood is one of those individuals.

Rhett recently went to great lengths, to the tune of MONTHS, searching mile by mile on Google Maps throughout Victoria, Australia in search of unique letter forms that would comprise his aerial alphabet.

While you may question the extremity of his determination (and that he may have TOO much time on his hand), you have to marvel at the impressive results…