Thinking For A Living

"Well done is better than well said." - Benjamin Franklin

The new Thinking For A Living 3.0 has launched by some good friends of mine.

Well done, boys.

Feltron 2009 Annual Report

Even though pretty much every blog has posted this, I must re-post because it is always so good:

Every year, the master of data visualization, Nicholas Felton, creates an annual report for himself. This year he has raised the bar yet again (with letterpress!).

The Intricate Art of the Banknote

Combining two things that I can't seem to get enough of: printing and foreign currency - The Intricate Art of the Banknote.

via Coudal.

All-American Space Fleet

Skelly Gas company put out a set of cards in the 1950's about the soon-to-true
All-American Space Fleet. I love the imagination of this set and also the "helpful advice" telling children to be safe and never run with sharp objects from the trustworthy oil company...

via Coudal.

Grafica Fidalga

Grafica Fidalga, a printing press in São Paulo, Brazil, makes posters on a 1929 German letterpress using hand-carved wooden letters. Seriously awesome!

via CoolHunting.

Book Colophon Imprints

Aaron again links up a great set of imprint logos from the colophons of old paperback books.

Love is Sweet...

Wow. I wish I had the patience and skill to do something similar to this amazing piece by Julene Harrison.

RIT Design Collections

Rochester Institute of Technology has an amazing collection of design work from the 1950's to the 1980's. I would LOVE to spend a day perusing through it all!

Airline Logos

Aaron tipped me off to a great collection of airline logos. I especially love the old Air France logo that is above.

Venn Diagrams

Good buddy Frank Chimero has started a new series of Venn diagrams that you simply must check out.

Wood Type Web Museum

Unicorn Graphics has a very nice web museum of wood type and specimen books. See H&FJ review their favorites here.

TypeCuts - Andrea Tinnes

I came across Andrea Tinnes type designs today via WeLoveTypography and I cannot contain my enthusiasm for her work! Her custom work for the Eastern Columbia building is most certainly my favorite as well as her design for a Optima replacement, Viceroy.

All of her work is brilliant and makes me so very jealous!

We Love Typography

From the creator of one of the best type sites on the internet, ILoveTypography, comes another great site: WeLoveTypography.

Contributed to by some of the best type people on the net, think of it as FFFFound for all things type, typography, lettering, & signage.

A new daily source of typographic inspiration!

Keep Calm and Parody

Everyone seems to be making parodies of the classic British WWII poster "Keep Calm and Carry On" these days.

Honestly, it is getting a bit silly - as good friend Frank Chimero points out with his poster above.

Skylab Letterpress

Check out this great video of a Heidelberg Windmill in action at Skylab Letterpress in Kansas City, Missouri.

Japanese Gas Attack Posters

Amazing and a little scary: Japanese Gas Attack Posters.

StrongBad on Logos

Practically with every new logo that comes out, I am reminded of this StrongBad Email that sums up the new web 2.0 crappy, shiny, 3-D logo trends.

Grain Edit Interviews Frank!

My great friend just got interviewed by a great website..

Congrats Frank!

Harry Potter Book Cover Redesign

I'm not a fan of fantasy books, but these fictional book covers for Harry Potter might just make me want to read them!

El Al Playing Cards

The always good Grain Edit has a great feature on playing cards designed for El Al Airlines.

Everything Old Is New Again

The giant cereal company, General Mills, has released a set of vintage designs for some of their popular cereals. The above Kix box has insanely awesome type! The DieLine has more information.

The Great War Book Jackets

Book jackets from World War One.

Dan Funderburgh

Dan Funderburgh makes very interesting art pieces and prints and other things. His work is difficult to describe, so just check it out!

The Inauguration. At Last.

Maira Kalman (of whom I have posted before) went to the recent Presidential Inauguration and painted her way through the event. Wonderful!

Graphic Design for Olivetti

Giovanni Pintori made spectacular design for Olivetti Typewriters. So good it hurts!

Vintage German Illustration

The title says it all: Vintage German Illustration

Faux Mid-Century Disney Posters

Greg Maletic made some faux Disney mid-century posters for fun and Disney ended up hiring him - who says personal work doesn't pay?!

Westvaco Inspirations

Bradbury Thompson's work for Westvaco in the 1950's was seriously great.

But Does It Float?

Ambiguity lives! But does it float?

Vintage Posters

I am always a sucker for vintage posters and this French blog always has a choice selection.

Roy Doty Holiday Cards

Yes, I know Christmas has come and gone, but I had to share this. Roy Doty, a freelance cartoonist and illustrator since 1946, has created a custom Christmas greeting card each year - and they are fantastic!

Book Cover Design Blog

Have you ever wondered what goes into a book cover? Henry Sene Yee shows his process (as well as his good results) in his book cover design blog.

English School Children Make Their Own Paths

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and this week I received an email that certainly proved just that:

Dear Sir,

I am a primary school teacher in the UK, I teach at James Watt Primary School in Handsworth, Birmingham. Just before Christmas, my Year 5 class (Age 9/10) spent the day working on a special art project based on your work.

My father had been given a "Make Your Own Path" print as a retirement gift and using that as our inspiration we set about creating prints on old maps. The children chose different motivational messages and made their print blocks out of cardboard. We then rollered paint onto the print blocks and printed it. We watched the video on your website about how you had carried out your printing and compared the differences.

I would like to thank you for the inspiration with which the children were able to create their own artwork and hope you enjoy looking at their homage to your work.

Many thanks, with best wishes,

Oliver Wilson
Year 5 Teacher
James Watt Primary School
Birmingham
UK

Seriously, the biggest compliment my work has ever received! I am SO excited that these children were inspired by my work and I hope they all grow up to be artists, designers, and printers!

Saul Steinberg

Famous New Yorker illustrator Saul Steinberg is simply fantastic. His pen and ink work is especially inspiring still to this day. This post at Johnson Banks shows some of his great work.

30 Ways to Die of Electrocution

Bre Pettis has an amazing/morbid Flickr set of images from the book "Elektroschutz in 132 Bildern" (Electrocution in 132 Pictures).

Seriously interesting and it makes me thankful we have more insulated appliances now!

Penguin Classic Horror Book Covers

The Penguin Blog (which is always good) has a post about their recent super-awesome covers for their classic horror books. It shows work in progress as well as a video interview with the designer. Really stunning work.

Feltron 2008

Nicholas Felton has done it again. His 2008 annual report is a celebration of all things obsessive and typographical.

The Vignelli Canon

Massimo Vignelli has published a 96 page book on understanding typography and graphic design, according to him.

It is available as a free, downloadable PDF and I am super excited about it!

via AsileOne.

The Year in Review

U.K. design agency Johnson Banks has a great Year in Review post.

Coles Phillips

1920's American illustrator Coles Phillips is a personal favourite. His "fade-away girls" are both interesting and unique.

Here is another biography as well.

Helen Dardik

Helen Dardik is an amazing and whimsical illustrator! Enough said.

via GrainEdit.

Student Field Notes 2008

For the second year in a row, I gave each of my Advanced Typography students a Field Notes to fill with whatever their hearts desired.

Here are the (sometimes surprising) results!

The New New Deal

ReadyMade Magazine asked five artists to reimagine the populist poster art of the first Great Depression. Here are the results.

Jailbirds

Good friend, Frank Chimero, has just worked with GOOD Magazine for a short film about jails in America. He did all of the illustration and worked with an animator to make this awesome.

Well done, Frank!

Questionable Characters

Good friend Frank Chimero and designer Ben Barry have launched Questionable Characters - a site developed after students kept asking the same questions.

You have questions, they have puppies!

Arts & Architecture Magazine Archives

The archives of Arts & Architecture Magazine from 1945 to 1967 are
available online! Love the mid-century design and architecture!

via Coudal.

The End

"The End" - a nice collection of the final shots of films.

via former student James Mulvenon.