The Ideation Phase

I never thought Balloons could be so beautiful. Click here to check out a gallery of Jason Hackenwerth’s Balloon Sculptures.

I’ve always bashed the use of the typeface Comic Sans.  Unless you draw a comic strip, there should really never be any reason to use the font.  The Wall Street Journal had a great article that interviews Vincent Connare, the creator of Comic Sans.  Click here to go to the WSJ article.

In Connare’s defense you can’t judge a design element by its misuse:

Typefaces convey meaning, typographers say. Helvetica is an industry standard, plain and reliable. Times New Roman is classic. Depending on your point of view, Comic Sans is fun, breezy, silly or vulgar and lazy. It can be “analogous to showing up for a black-tie event in a clown costume…”

Connare works for Dalton Maag, an upscale London typeface design group.  He explains in the article that his favorite font creation is the very sophisticated Magpie, click here to view it.

Eleven Inc. is an interesting creative markteing firm to check out.  I especially like their copy writing, I think it does a good job of selling thier laid back small firm while still feeling like a proficient organization.

Peter Funch has established himself as one of Denmark’s most
interesting contemporary art photographers. Ever since he graduated
from the Danish School of Journalism in 2000 his works have been hailed
by both audience and various prize committees. Peter Funch’s latest
feat was winning Diesel New Art’s first prize in the photo category in
2006. He did this with the triptych Xing Xs, which comprised three
pictures taken from the same street corner in New York.

Arnell has some beautiful work, I especially like their packaging work for 1000 Acre Vodka.

Ogilvy, a fantastic creative marketing company has created some interesting white papers on maximizing design during the recession. They are certainly worth a read. Ogilvy is biased to some degree however, he encourages the downsizing or lift-and-shifting of in house design groups in favor or agencies and he, coincidentally enough, runs an agency. While I don’t agree with outsourcing as a strategic solution for a corporation it does offer a short term fix.

The US economy has changed and from the perspective of design, some are saying that it has changed and will never return to the way it was.  The New York Times had a great discussion in their op-ed page about how design must evolve along with these new changes in the way the economy works.

Designdroplets.com had an interesting interview with RitaSue Siegel the design head hunter. Click here to go the the article at Designdroplets.com.

Also, if you are searching for a design job, RitaSue Siegel offers design resume and portfolio advice on her website.