51 Design Rules Go On The Firing Squad

The new book Never Use White Type on a Black Background explores 51 "ridiculous design rules". It looks pretty funny, and kind of true. Check it out here.

Graphic Design: The Movie

Over at the excellent Design Observer there is a piece which casts different actors as graphic designers. From Design Observer:

There's a great line in the Oscar-nominated film Juno in which the title character, contemplating the sort of family she'd like for her unborn child, resists the notion of "wholesome," telling her friend, Leah, that she was hoping for something a little edgier — like, say, a graphic designer. Truth be told, we did a little research and discovered that Canadian actress Ellen Page — who plays Juno — is, in fact, the child of a graphic designer. But still, it got us thinking: if graphic design's become so edgy as a profession that we're getting name-dropped in hit movies, maybe it's time to get serious about how we're really being portrayed. Herewith, our initial choices for some friends and likely suspects, appearing soon in Graphic Design: The Movie.

My SX-70 Polaroid Rocks the Party That Rocks the Party

Totally pumped this week to get an old Polaroid SX-70. Very excited to explore the possibilities that this camera has to offer. I traded one of my 600 model Polaroids for it - thank you Andre Whiggins for the trade, I really appreciate it!

PS - Polaroid itself has teamed with the good, good people at the Impossible Project to create a new SX-70 camera kit for 2010. So cool, so, so cool.

Seven Days Does It Again

You have probably seen the great work of Seven Days somewhere online, like FFFound for example. I love this great design for an LP by Marina.

Check it out here - check out the other great stuff too.

Paul Buckley Design For Penguin Books Is Fabulous

Paul Buckley designs for Penguin books, and so you know he knows what he's doing! Enjoy his work here.

Inspiring.

Manhattan Tree House Project Is Superb

Saw this over at the excellent Build site - the Manhattan Tree House Project. From Build:

Constructed in the Armory Building of Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the project is one of the main fixtures for the Microsoft Open House and launch of Windows Mobile 6.5. The 12-foot tall by 32-foot long tube enclosure sits ten feet in the air and rests between (4) 24-foot tall logs.

Built by the indispensible Wes Weaver, super-builder/motivator in conjunction with NYC teamsters. Teaming with Wes on the construction was Kevin Eckert who provided construction management sharp-shooting in addition to elbow grease on the project. Designed by Andrew van Leeuwen, BUILD LLC worked in conjunction with the creative direction of powerhouse Workbench Creative -thanks to Greg, Matt and John Wallis. The concept is the brainchild of Seattle based masterminds Wexley School for Girls. The tricky structural engineering was provided by Swenson Say Faget Structural Engineers -thanks to Paul.

You really have to read it to believe it. So cool, so, so cool.

Anything Art Chantry Related Is Awesome

As I've discussed in the past, Art Chantry is one of my favorite designers ever. Chantry has been speaking at various academic institutions of late, and though I haven't been able to attend any of them, I can watch from a distance with envious eye.

At left is a poster for another of these engagements, proving that when other designers attempt to work in his unique style, they can sometimes get it right (unlike David Carson).

Milton Glaser Talks About Drawing, While Drawing

MILTON GLASER DRAWS & LECTURES from C. Coy on Vimeo.

Spotted this over at Drawn! - stole their blogpost title too.

Bonus Music Video of the Week: Tom Fun Orchestra

Tom Fun Orchestra-Bottom of the River from trunk animation on Vimeo.

Wow, this is awesome. So awesome, I had to add a bonus Music Video of the Week. Enjoy.

Drawn! Totally Rocks the Illustration Blogs

With all the good will surrounding Where the Wild Things Are (which I am dieing to see) alot of emphasis has been placed on illustration in the design/art media. Drawn! is the best blog that I have found concerning illustration. Chock full of great stuff, like this.

Check it out here.

McKenna Makes Detroit Look Like It Does In My Mind

I've often looked at myself and my relationship with Michigan like James Joyce and Dublin. Joyce, having left Ireland for good, idealized Ireland, attaching romantic qualities to the dirty, soot covered backstreets and smoky, dive-bar-type pubs. And I guess I do the same thing - I find the grimy, rusting, post-industrial landscape poetic, apocalyptic, hopeful, beautiful, and kind of dreamy. The longer I stay away it seems, the more I feel like royalty in exile - Napoleon in Elba, staring out to sea, endlessly dreaming of home.

Michael McKenna it seems, shoots Detroit not as it actually appears, rather how it appears in my mind. McKenna makes River Rouge - a post-apocalyptic nightmare or smoke and fire and ominous, gargantuan iron landscapes - look heavenly. Take a look at his work here, it is fabulous.

I love to look at his work here, on this Sunday morning, as I recover from yet another illness, dreaming of home.

Happy 400th Post To Speak A&D

This is my 400th post here at Speak A&D. Thanks to all the readers who support this blog - I truly appreciate it.

A couple of updates for you all. The comments are turned on, so please respond to anything that you might wish to. Also, I've reformatted the images for posts - horizontal, rectangular or square images fill the column space, while vertical images will remain the same size.

Thanks again to anyone who has read this blog over the past year.

Music Video of the Week: The National

This week's Music Video of the Week is from The National. The National are one of my favorite young bands, if not my very favorite. This video is for the song Fake Empire, which is in contention for the best song of the decade.

Enjoy.

Polaroid of the Week: The Spirit Room

Hey, nice signage!

Old School + Digital = Awesome

I love the marriage of digital and old school technologies when brought together. Here is a great example. All the red type is overprinted in linocut, the black and white is digital. Awesome.

Check out the process here.

Print Breaks Down Eno's Album Covers

Brian Eno rocks. Print Magazine rocks. Put the two together? Totally awesome - check it out here.

Radiator Heaven Blog Is Awesome

Radiator Heaven is a fantastic blog dedicated to film reviews. Always spot on, this is a superb blog that will soak up hours of you time. So many of the featured reviews are for films that I love. Try this post about one of the most underrated films of the 1980's, Rumble Fish.

Nothing but good stuff here.

New Paintings In Progress

Here is a couple of new paintings, still in the process of being worked . More to come...

The Worst of Etsy Is Funny, Sad

Etsy is a treacherous place, full of rip offs, forgery, and plagiarism. But it is also a realm of horrible, terrible art. Take a look at these - ugh. There is another entire site devoted to the bad work found there - regretsy.com. Too funny.

Boondock Saints II: Really? Why Not

One of the best B movies of the 2000's is Boondock Saints. Violent, funny, ridiculous, touching - it really is everything a B movie should be.

So here it is, the oft-discussed, never seen sequal, Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day. OK, why not?

TED Sagmeister Talk Is Inspiring

TED is a great little thinktank for genius people to discuss their views and ideas. In the above video, genius Stefan Sagmeister talks about the importance of being idle. Inspiring.

Buy My Viva Hate T Shirt

The Viva Hate Tee. Offset 3-D type style, set in good ole Helvetica.

Buy one at my Skreened store here.

New Penguin Series Is Incredible

I LOVE these...new Penguin series...awesome....check them all out here.

Christian Faur's Crayon Art Is Amazing

Wow...this is good stuff. Christian Faur is amazing. Check his site out too here.

From designboom:

american artist christian faur uses hand-cast wax crayons as pixels to create vivid images. faur arrived at the series through pushing the boundries of material limitations. rather than using the crayons to draw with, he uses the object itself as small points of colour like a pointillist painting. each work is composed of a small box filled with rows and rows of crayons. when viewed from up close the works appear to be a random collection of colours, but as the viewer distances themselves form the piece, the image depicted reveals itself more clearly. faur has also developed a method of representing the english alphabet through colours, which can be seen intermittently on some of the works.

Helvetica + Elvis = Helvistica

This is stupid...and kind of funny too.