a girl named fred

My February desktop wallpaper is available for download over at a girlnamedfred.com. Enjoy!

You can see this entire little miracle of story-telling (by Maira Kalman) here. Please go read it. It’s divine.

PS – that’s my new motto, right up there… “But now we are taking a short break from questioning. Right now we are opting for naivete.”

Interested in how a designer gets from this….

to this?

So was I. Get the whole story over at Logo Design Love.

Today i’m LOVING the work of Studio on Fire.

Check them out here.

I am confused by this advertisement.

I mean, clearly I understand that Diana Krall is going on a world tour in 2009 with members of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. But I do not understand the choice of typography. Is Diana Krall now some kind of funky, smoky torch singer? Does her style harken back to the heyday of Manhattan in the ’60s, when the men were men and the women were women? (wth? where did that come from?) The last I heard, she was more of a classic jazz standards, smooth type of singer (sorry, my musical critique language clearly needs polishing). 

Because here’s the thing. That typography? It’s classic Saul Bass.

This is the gold standard of the New York School of graphic design. Hugely popular in the late ’50s/ early-to-mid ’60s and currently all the rage (because everything old is new again).

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

And so my question is this: is a Diana Krall concert a dark but humorous morality tale? No. It is not. And the typography should reflect that. I’m not saying it has to be all butterflies and puppies, but people. It would be like setting a book about the Italian renaissance in Helvetica. Ugh.

PS – and marrying Elvis Costello does not make Diana Krall a rock star.

From the portfolio of Petar Pavlov, on the behance network.

Type as Image is a collection of typographic experiments where the words are treated as images that speak about their own meaning.

 

Loathsome Comic Sans’
uneven inky slugtrails.
That vile, hated font

See more here. First seen on swissmiss.

The results of the New York Times’ Superbowl logo re-design challenge have been floating ’round the interweb of late. You can see the slideshow here for yourself.

The design above is a Pentagram creation. As if you couldn’t tell.

The next two products I’m going to discuss really have very little to do with design. But I feel I must bring them to your attention.

Product A: Shu Uemura Cleansing Beauty Oil Premium A/O. Clean your face with oil you say? How shocking! How contradictory! And yet yes, this stuff is the bomb. Apparently oil attracts oil and thus it’s a killer cleanser. Plus it’s moisturizing. Most importantly, after just about a month of using it, my skin is transformed into dewy wonderfulness with nary a stray breakout. I don’t think you read about this product in the fashion mags because Shu Uemura doesn’t advertise (you know that all those “editor’s picks” pages are designed to support advertisers, right? I spent 15 years in the PR biz and believe me, that’s how it works). Anyway, it’s a treasure.

On a side note, the bottle design is a vision of minimalist loveliness.

ps – Do not be put off by the slightly shocking price tag. I’ve been using it for a month and a little goes a very long way.

The second product I hesitate to post about lest you fall about on the floor laughing at me… but I’m going to go for it, anyway. Avon In a Wink Eyeshadow Strips. They are basically rub on eyeshadow for people who need to go to the bookstore and buy the book Eyeshadow for Dummies. My sister gave these to me for Christmas and at first I was all like dude, seriously, Avon eyeshadow strips? Because I do not need to buy the book. But I totally LOVE them.

The colours are quite lovely (do not be deceived by the positively heinous product shot) and when you have approximately 3.5 minutes to get ready to go out and you don’t already have makeup on because you work in your basement and let’s face it, who needs eyeshadow to work in your basement, but all of a sudden you remember you have to meet your friend for dinner in 15 minutes… well, believe me, you’ll be happy you have an eyeshadow strip handy.

PS – I find nothing particularly redeeming about the product or package design.

From Elie Saab we get lots of texture and a great display of design balance…

From Givenchy we get a fresh perspective on using transparency to reveal the inherent integrity of the structure beneath… 

[btw: those are REAL rose petals the model is walking on... apparently a design reference to this famous painting by Laurence Alma-Tadema

The Roses of Heliogabalus...]

And from Valentino we get a master class in the power of  one colour design… 

[ps - when I win the lottery I am buying that coat to wear to all my formal occasions that I will suddenly be going to because I am a high-society philanthropist]

Finally, from Chanel, we learn about pushing yourself as a designer…

Those paper flowers were all hand cut by Japanese hairdresser Kamo and his team… and each model was adorned with her own custom creation. Can you imagine? Clearly, this is not about practicality. I mean, really, the couture has nothing to do with practicality. That’s not the point. As style.com’s Sarah Mower says:

The real genius is in the transformation that takes place in the making, a result of the Chanel workers’ ability to push their craft to points of innovation never quite seen before.

That’s why I love the couture.

Fashion pics from style.com.