Balloons and bread
A witty cover using balloons and bread instead of helvetica. I enjoy this very much.
type eh?
Graphic design and typography
Posts Tagged ‘ ideas ’
An inside job
If you have, or know anyone who has defaulted on their mortgage, or if you are out of work or struggling to make ends meet, you are rightly angry.
I just finished watching the film Inside Job. The film catalogs the horror story of how the incredibly wealthy, the incredibly influential or the incredibly wealthy, influential financial people destroyed the global money markets in what amounted to the largest Ponzi scheme ever known. Many things happened to make this possible: Deregulation, financial derivative schemes and a host of other dubious practices, including how the rating agencies such as Standard & Poors, gave totally misleading information to investors. And throughout the film many of the people who were part of these events tap danced their way around some very pointed questions. It’s well worth seeing.
Anyway this blog started when I came across this book cover which covers the same ground … I can’t wait to read it.
I love the typographic concept.
Oh and can someone explain how Wall Street bankers are still earning salaries and bonuses that far exceed numbers I can imagine, despite the fact that many of the financial institutions these people work for, were bailed out with my (and your) taxes?
Financial article takes a typographic approach
This opening page and spreads from Bloomberg Business Week demonstrate how type, and type alone can draw the eye and reinforce message.
It’s playful, eye catching and informative. The playfulness comes with the tease of the first page, as you have to work a little harder than usual to unravel the title of the article.
Did you work it out?
On this third spread I really enjoy how the word “Foreclosure” in the upper left becomes progressively negatively letterspaced until the last word is completely closed. A very subtle typographic pun
Jet lag and how to combat it
AN INTRIGUING COVER DESIGN, I was interested to see how the idea evolved inside the magazine, but was a little disappointed. The two ideas really don’t mesh for me. They are like two different ideas that only loosely combine. The graphic cover with its vortices that merge to suggest time zones blending together is juxtaposed on the inside with a rather literal visual. The treatment of the type is quite different too. I would have liked to see the two visuals a lot more closely related.
However when you consider that both images are from different stock sources, I guess it’s not a bad solution.
What do you think?
When analogy makes sense
There’s a design I saw recently that places typefaces within a periodic table as a way to explain type classification.
This visual comparison make no sense because a periodic table has nothing to do with the classification of typography. It’s simply not helpful in explaining the already complex problem of classifying type.
It’s another example of something that looks clever but really isn’t.
* * * * * *
The spreads below on the other hand, from Fast Company magazine, make complete sense.
Using the periodic table as a visual device for science is clearly appropriate. The design of a feature article about molecular biology and research, provides a lot of potential.
Headline type spelled out from elements in the periodic table concisely tell the reader something about the article with a minimum amount of information. They also function as a visual game. The large initial on the third spread carries the idea onto the sidebar element too.
Graphics that show the chemical structure of elements are inserted as section dividers and even as decorative details, and further reinforce the graphic design of the article.
[ Fast Company February 2012 ]
Fine art and music
I just bought a great CD by Steve Reich that contains two pieces of music: 2×5 and Double Sextet. The latter composition won Reich a Pullitzer Prize in 2009. The cover of the CD is the painting by Jasper Johns entitled 0–9.
I think the choice of this artwork, comprised of very ordered grid-based forms, is particularly apt. Steve Reich’s music is highly organized with complex, repeating musical sequences where counting out the rhythmical patterns is both the point and the challenge of the musical compositions.
Go to Amazon and listen to the short samples of the music and see what I mean. The last track, 6. III. Fast 7:08 (Performed By Bang On A Can), probably conveys the idea the best.
If you’re at all intrigued by the music you might look into Different Trains by Reich. In this composition he takes spoken narrative and combines it with instrumentation in a way that needs to be heard rather than described.
Note: The painting by Johns is a rectangle 35″ x 20″. The white shape seen here is the result of its placement on the CD booklet.
The CD cover uses the same artwork but includes the artist’s name and the compositions.
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type eh? 