You gotta give it to Steven Heller. Aside from being the most prolific design writer out there, he really does have a knack for mining history and coming up with some seriously mind-fucking artifacts.

We sometimes forget that a lot of the conventions in contemporary graphic design has roots in Modernist thinking which, despite a seemingly positive rationale of making the world a better place, can also be attributed to some of the worst things about our world. Granted, the Nazis simply used apparatuses already in place; The Germans, after all, were at the forefront of early modernist design. But, consider how well they employed their graphic identity. That taken with Goebbels propaganda machine and you might say The Nazis are looking a lot like, say, Apple, Inc. This isn’t to draw comparison to the two but to point out that both Apple and The Nazi’s are utilizing the same techniques of persuasion and communication devised in the early twentieth century. I guess what it points to is the fact that graphic design history, unlike world history or even art history, is relatively tidy and linear. Also, that the efficacy of graphic identity systems can be used for evil.

I’m wondering if there’s a link between the kind of thinking that brought about Third Reich style eugenics and the kind of thinking that brought about The Bauhaus. The Jedi and The Dark Side were essentially using the same magic, no?

http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=24358

“Like a cop, a designer is on duty 24/7/365. Only instead of eating donuts we like croissants and other fancy crap.” -Angry Paul Rand

Paul Rand Retrospective from Jeremy Cox on Vimeo.

via Swiss Miss

This one is from the vaults. It was my last day of work at my first job out of school. My co-worker and I had always talked about throwing down together, so we had a little friendly battle. No worries, that’s one of my bosses there in the foreground. You really have to appreciate his holding it down on the beats.

Good times.

Also, some of you guys may know that I’m almost as much a bike dork as I am a design dork. Well, my two worlds came careening into one another this week, not once, but twice! First, Transportation Alternatives, the cycling dorkdum enclave of which I am a member (in spirit cause I still haven’t sent in this year’s donation), unveiled a new logo and website.

click here for larger pic

Developed by Doyle Partners, the new logo is a natural progression for Transportation Alternatives. It takes the old TA logo and makes it into a singular, identifiable, and hopefully memorable mark. While the old logo wasn’t necessarily bad, it suffered from an I-need-to-tell-you-everything-now design, which I think may have been necessary for TA when it was a more obscure organization. Granted, TA has been around since 1973, but there’s no denying that the recent cycling explosion, and the aggressive initiatives of the current NYC DOT (Dept. of Transportation) has given TA much more publicity. In that respect, the new branding is quite appropriate.

In other cycling/designer news, Bike Snob NYC did a thorough critique of 2009 Tour de France winner, Alberto Contador’s new logo.

The logo itself is an abstraction of Contador’s old logo which was an illustration of what Snob coined The Fingerbang, after Contador’s victory salute.

Contador with some other guy. Notice Contador’s hat bares the original Fingerbang logo.

I have to admit, I liked the old logo. Not because it was particularly good, but because it was campy. Think Bruce Campbell in Army of Darkness. Still, Snob hit the nail on the head with this assessment, “It could almost be the insignia of a bank or securities firm–albeit one with a disconcerting tendency to try to screw you with an index finger. (Actually, Contador should really consider selling his new logo to Goldman Sachs.)”

“What you want to do is keep working until you die.”

Read that sentence again. Does it make you cringe?

It sure made me cringe the first time I read it. I don’t know if this came about during the 90s, or what, but I always thought the idea was to till and toil in your twenties, so you could bank your way into an early retirement.

Not so, according to Milton Glaser’s response in a recent interview on Success Secrets of the Graphic Design Superstars. When asked what work he’s most gratified to have done, he answered, “I can’t say I am most gratified by anything. I think the issue for old-time professionals is sustaining. Right?” He then goes on to paraphrase T.S. Eliot(?): “The greatest blessing in life would be to die in the midst of work.”

I’m going to go out on a limb and say most people of my generation would vehemently disagree. We’re of the mind that the greatest blessing in life would be to die of heart failure while water skiing, on our third senior citizen’s Carnival Cruise to the Bahamas. We don’t want to work for the rest of our lives. We want to work while we’re young and spend our grey years basking in the spoils of our labor.

So what’s up with Milton Glaser? Is he just a bastion of the old guard who refuses to hang his hat? My theory is that Glaser represents a rare breed – the individual fortunate enough to absolutely and justly enjoy what it is he does for a living.

Sure, being a graphic designer can be fun but make no mistake about it, it’s a lot of work. It’s not all pretty colors and “cool” ideas. A lot of it is business. Actually, the more that I think about it, MOST of it is business. It’s the few hours in between the business when you get to do something fun and exciting, or you get to be a part of building someone’s brand, or you get to inspire people to take action that make it worthwhile.

As with any art, the joy is in the creation. That being said, would I want my withered and pixelbeaten dead body found hunched over my then-antique Ikea work desk? Probably not. But hey, I’m no Milton Glaser.

Read the interview:
Success Secrets of the Graphic Design Superstars: Milton Glaser

Meta-packaging. I’m into it.

Also, could this package have worked if the type wasn’t set in Helvetica? Hmm, something to think about.

My answer is no, it could not have. Any other typeface would have given it too much personality for the humour to come across. The viewer would have to either consciously or subconsciously digest not only the message but why it was set in that particular typeface. Also, it kind of just works.

via Holy Kaw

“A capable designer needs [to] command a pencil and sketch out their ideas. These ideas, however, have to come from somewhere. Hence, training in ideation and conceptual development is necessary for any designer. This is how one moves past the belief that any random act is somehow “creative.”

read the rest of The Licensed Designer

I had almost given up hope when, just yesterday, as I was making the rounds I came across Brand New’s Best and Worst Identities of 2009. It’s a beacon of light in an otherwise bleak pre-post-apocalyptic year end. As usual, Armin and the folks at Brand New have put together a wonderful collection of some of the year’s best (and worst) branding. While I’d probably move a few from the best to worst list, and vice versa, there are some selections that are definitely filed away in my inspiring work folder.

Easily my favorite, and number 2 on Brand New’s list is Landor’s work for the city of Melbourne. So much has already been said about this logo, and to be completely honest, I’m feeling a little lazy, so here’s a link to the original post on Brand New.

Second on my list (#6 on Brand New’s) would have to be Underware’s rebranding of MyFonts. How can you not love the little wavy hand in there? I thought we designers had all but abandoned visual puns and witty hidden messages in logos. Nope, and for good reason. Think about the first time you discovered the hidden arrow in that certain mail carriers logo, or the feeling you get every time a certain “a-to-z” online bookseller ships you a box with their smiling logo on the side. It makes a you feel good inside — and not because it’s laced with brandy.