How magazine

I Love Not Camping

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:56:59 GMT

Even though my personal response to this cheerful watercolor illustration by Minneapolis-based Katie Lombardo is "Let's not and say we did," I'm totally drawn to the colorful type.

Posted by Megan

Fun And Functional

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:47:25 GMT

At Something Vs. Something, not only can you cast a vote for the best '80s toy or Worst Ikea Product, you can show your choice buy buying and wearing a fun button. The navigation combines the voting and shopping seamlessly in a novel way that elevates the whole experience. Created by Canadian design collective Totem, Something puts an interesting spin on the idea of a web store.

Posted by Megan

Web Design for Print Designers

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:33:51 GMT

So you're comfortable in the world of ink-on-paper. But your clients need campaigns that cross from print to digital media. How can you translate your print skills to web projects? Easy. Learn from a pro in HOW's next webinar, From Print to Web: Translating Your Skills to New Media and Markets. Join presenter Mark O'Brien in this live, interactive session on Thursday, July 9 at 4 p.m. ET. Register now!

Job Of The Day

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:39:36 GMT

Senior Flash Design Developer
Macys.com, New York City

As the fastest growing part of Macy's Inc. business, macys.com is achieving record sales and broadening our workforce. With offices in New York, San Francisco and Atlanta, macys.com is the best of all worlds. The entrepreneurial thinking of a Web business complements the stability and support of a national brand. Creativity and ingenuity partner with business acumen and tech savvy to build a unique business poised for continued growth. Employees at macys.com have long term opportunities and are encouraged to utilize their Supervisors and training for cross-functional movement to further their careers. For example, Buyers can move to Planning and visa versa, or Online Merchants move to Marketing Analytics. At macys.com we are committed to giving back to the community by partnering with local charitable organizations. By skillfully combining the power of the Internet with the best in retailing, macys.com is reaching new heights. We are an equal opportunity employer committed to providing a diverse and inclusive workplace.

Overview of Position:

Based in New York, the flash design/developer position conceptualizes, animates and designs for the macys.com special events mini-sites and special seasonal/brand shops. Works closely with designers to animate flash home pages and features.

Posted by Megan

Wild It Up

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:36:59 GMT

Design firm Colle + Mcvoy just launched a cool new Facebook application for Caribou Coffee called “Wild It Up!.” Facebook users can “wild up” any photo by adding special icons from a library of nearly 50 images (think tattoos, animals, facial hair, carefully placed fig leaves, etc). The application promotes the new line of Wild Cooler drinks that Caribou launched this summer. As part of the promotion, users can bring a print out of their “wild up” photo to any Caribou Coffee for a free Wild Cooler drink (for a limited time).

I think I accidentally made my dog a member of Village People : )

Posted by Megan

Zombies On NPR

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:46:14 GMT

On NPR this morning, they did a story about zombies in pop culture and mentioned the HOW book Zombie Haiku by Ryan Mecum!

Borders bookstores feature a wall of zombie literature that runs the gamut from The Zombie Survival Guide to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to Zombie Haiku . . .

Zombies meant different things in different eras," says Wright, who co-wrote and directed Shaun of the Dead. "We always said our zombies are a metaphor for apathy. It's kind of like the great plague is laziness, so it was like the zombies represent sloth."
Zombies are also the perfect faceless villain, says undead fan Trent Reid. They're not alive, and they don't have too many fans, so "[whatever] you do to them doesn't really matter — you can kill them in the most ridiculous graphic ways."

Posted by Megan

New Leadership of AIGA

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:10:07 GMT

AIGA today announced a new slate of leaders, including the incoming president, Debbie Millman. (On a personal level, we're thrilled for Debbie.)

In addition, five people begin three-year terms on the board of directors beginning today: Julie Beeler of Second Story Interactive Studios in Portland, OR; Zia Khan of Lucid Partners in Atlanta; James Koval of VSA in Chicago and Angela Shen-Hsieh of Visual i|o in Boston.

Shelley Evenson, Louise Sandhaus and Lynda Weinman will finish incomplete terms of former directors, while Stanley Hainsworth, kenna Kay, Vernon Lockhart, Elva Rubio, Laura Shore, Brad Weed and Pam Williams continue their board membership.

Posted by Bryn

Job Of The Day

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:52:00 GMT

Senior Art Director
AAA Northern California, Nevada & Utah, Walnut Creek CA

We’re looking for additional communication artist to join our 14-person in-house creative group. This position significantly shapes the expression of the AAA brand and the achievement of measurable marketing results.

Candidates will present a portfolio of work that demonstrates an ability to change consumer behavior through innovative strategies, conceptual thinking and fresh design.

This means we’d like hear about: the response rates you’re most proud of, the creative awards you’ve won, and the insightful marketing tactics that you’ve come up with.

Ideally, you will have developed brand standards/design systems for a major company.

Brand stewardship is also important in this role. You should have experience creating communications that align with brand standards.

Posted by Megan

Job of the Day

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:38:30 GMT

Senior Web Designer
Thornley Fallis, Ottawa

We design the creative, build the innovative, and manage the complicated.

Every member of our firm believes in the power of digital engagement. Everything we do is designed to foster that. We engender mutual respect and trust between our clients and their respective stakeholders and audiences. Our clients are a mix of high-profile corporate brands, bleeding-edge startups, government and associations. For these clients, we go beyond. We don’t leave it at working for and representing them; we believe in them, we brag about them.

Our shop is dynamic, open-minded, eclectic and centrally located. Our style is fresh, friendly, professional and invigorating.

The common thread in all of our efforts is a big idea of what the conversation economy can do for our clients to solve real business challenges and create new business opportunities. If you are part of this fabric, and looking for a great ride as a Senior Web Designer, we want to hear from you.

Posted by Bryn

Top 10 Websites For Designers (July 2009)

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:56:24 GMT

Check out the latest Top 10 websites for designers:

http://www.adapt-studio.com
Adapt-Studio, Inc.
Adapt-Studio, Inc. is an umbrella for the art and design work of Chicago-based creative J. Byrnes.

http://www.campbellhay.com/
Campbell Hay
Campbell Hay is a London based creative design studio working across a range of disciplines.

http://www.danparkstudio.com
Daniel Park
Daniel Park is a New York City-based illustrator who draws children, zombie and dinosaurs (among other things).

http://www.faceoutbooks.com/
FaceOut Books
FaceOut Books features a new book> design project each week. The designers share their creative process, as well as sketches, alternate designs and more.

http://www.fashionphotographyblog.com
Fashion Photography Blog
Melissa Rodwell is a Los Angeles-based fashion photographer who provides inspiration and advice to other photographers on her blog.

http://www.fawnandforest.com/
fawn&forest
The goal of Fawn and Forest is to be the starting point for parents to share the joys of good design with their children.

http://www.gavinpotenza.com
Gavin Potenza
The portfolio of Portland-based designer Gavin Potenza.

http://www.letitreign.com
Reign
Reign is a small ad agency in Kansas City, MO, with a great sense of humor.

http://www.stealourideas.com
Steal Our Ideas
Former creative team posts ideas for people to steal.

http://blog.sub-studio.com
Sub-Studio Design Blog
The Sub-Studio Design Blog is a compilation of products, furniture, jewelry, architecture and artists that float Sub-Studio's boat.

Posted by Megan

Project Backpack

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:57:51 GMT

Here's a great way to keep an artistic kid busy this summer: Office Depot just launched a competition to design a backpack using Sharpie Markers. The winning entry will be produced and sold and there will be $10,000 in prizes.

Customers can enter the contest by creating a design on one of four Office Depot canvas backpacks that can be purchased ($14.99 each; available in blue, pink, olive and green khaki, that will include two free individual Sharpie markers of your choice) from a participating Office Depot store, or by downloading an official contest template from www.myprojectbackpack.com. After designing the backpack using Sharpie markers, participants can upload a photo or scanned image of their backpack to www.myprojectbackpack.com along with their official entry form.

The contest launches June 28th and all entries must be received by September 19, 2009.

Posted by Megan

Logo Motion

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:40:53 GMT

Atlanta-based brand identity firm Matchstic created a video that shows all the iterations of their logo project for the Tabernacle, a super cool music venue that used to be a church.

Matchstic partnered with the Tabernacle to create an identity concept that embraced both the history of the building, a 1920’s Baptist church, and the religion of rock and roll.

By combining these elements, the new logo and web site featured the look and feel of a stained glass church with the unique attributes infused by live music combined.

The Tabernacle Tale from matchstic on Vimeo.

Posted by Megan

Job Of The Day

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:31:09 GMT

Motion Graphics Designer
LPK, Cincinnati

LPK is seeking a Motion Graphics Designer who is passionate about the evolving worlds of 3D design and motion graphics. The ideal candidate will enjoy creating visual design solutions that deliver on business, brand and market needs while working in a collaborative team environment. Our 3D Motion Graphics Designer will enjoy moderate creative freedom while supporting and collaborating with art directors to develop and actualize design concepts into kinetic design expressions.

Posted by Megan

Almost Over

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:25:43 GMT

It's around 3:30 here in Austin and the last breakout session of the day is about to start. But there's plenty to do tonight including the portfolio review sponsored by The Creative Group and the big party sponsored by Neenah Paper.

Sorry about not live blogging the event, but I was too interested in listening to what the speakers were saying. Everything I've seen has been great!

Posted by Megan

Twitter Feedback

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:57:02 GMT

There's so much great feedback about the Conference on Twitter. Here are a few gems:

amyhawk This has been one of my favorite HOW Conferences to date. And two more days left! Such an amazing group of people all in one place. #howconf
victorglenn @JerriConrad my brain has exploded more than once today. great sessions, can't wait to share w/the olsenites. #howconf
sethlilly AUSome day at the #HOWConf! Great sessions, new friends and cool social gatherings. Looking forward to tomorrow!

Posted by Megan

Easy iPhone Apps

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:07:24 GMT

I stopped by the HOW Conference Resource Center this morning to check out the ansca booth. This small tech company just announced their first product called Corona, which enables designers to "quickly develop and distribute highly optimized native iPhone Applications."

The company founders are Adobe vets who worked on Flash Lite and Flash Mobile so they know all about developing software for mobile devices. Now you can, too.

Posted by Megan

Neenah iPhone Contest

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:12:35 GMT

Neenah Paper is giving away three iPhone upgrades to people who submit color palettes using Neenah's Think Ink: Color Unleashed iPhone app. Once created, designers can send their best palettes to fine.paper@neenahpaper.com and Neenah Paper judges will pick the top three winners, who will each receive a $199 Apple iPhone gift card good toward upgrading their iPhone to the new iPhone 3G S 16GB. The contest ends at midnight on Friday, June 26.
For more information, click here.

Posted by Sarah

Conference Surprise

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:20:06 GMT

The craziest thing I've seen so far is the line for posters that snaked away from the French Paper booth. It was significantly longer than the line for the bar!

Posted by Megan

Up Early In Austin

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:57:54 GMT

Dang it, I can't sleep. So I've been cruising the #HOWConf tag at Twitter and it seems like everyone is having a great time already. For example:

NeenahPaper What a great key note speaker....we are inspired now! #HOWconf 2009 is ready to rock!

sethlilly @HOWmag Congrats on a great first day. My first HOW Conference was Vegas 2006 and this is just as AUSome. #HOWConf

Jtrounce Awesome first day at #HOWconf. Got to meet and get a photo with Debbie Millman! One of the most inspirational and wonderfully nice people.

Posted by Megan

A Hot Austin Night

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:08:59 GMT

The HOW staff got to explore a bit of Austin's beloved South Congress Ave. last night. We asked the cabbie to drop us off at Uncommon Objects, pretty much my favorite junktique store in the world. I found a great pair of horseshoe cuff links to go with the pink tuxedo shirt I brought to wear to the Keep Austin Weird closing party.

A couple of doors down at Maya Star, I found a pair of funky but totally functional sunglasses. My dog ate my last pair. I'll have to keep these safe.

After drooling over boots that none of us can afford, we found our way to dinner at Enoteca, a fantastic Italian bistro. Their arabbiata sauce is to die for. After, we walked down the street a bit and ended up sitting in the beer garden behind Botticelli's, another cute Italian place. The cocktails were cold and the live music was soothing (just a guy with a guitar and a great voice).

The pre-conference studio tours and workshops began this morning and the conference kicks off tonight with a keynote from Rob Walker, who writes the Consumed column for The New York Times Magazine, and a party in the Resource Center (sponsored by Mohawk).

Hope I'll see you there!

Posted by Megan

Eye-Catching Pillows

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:11:50 GMT

I got my yearly eye exam today, and while I was sitting in the chair I thought of these cool eye-chart pillows from Heather Lins Home, which we're featuring in our October issue. There's even a 3D version, complete with 3D glasses!

Posted by Sarah

Paper Specs

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:24:28 GMT

Just another reason to high tale it down to Austin this week for the HOW Conference: French Paper is giving away funky paper specs at their booth.

Every day we're dropping more fresh lines for designers than Kanye and our colors are richer than Fitty. Stop by the French booth and pick up your specs, they'll keep you cool in the hot Austin sun (and maybe help you catch some z's on the DL, if those slide shows go long!) Can't make it to the HOW Conference? Order French products, paper, and envelopes on-line at http://frenchpaper.com and we'll be throwing a pair of Paper Specs in with each order.

Posted by Megan

Logo Lust

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:46:00 GMT

This rad logo for a fictional design organization is the product of a hearty layer tennis match between Aaron Draplin and Chris Glass.

via NotCot

Posted by Megan

The Dangers Of Stock And Photoshop

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:24:35 GMT

Uh, yeah, your Photoshoppery isn't obvious at all. (Not!)

From The National Post:

The smiling, ethnically diverse family featured on the cover of Toronto’s latest edition of its summer Fun Guide was digitally altered to make the photo more "inclusive," which city officials say is in keeping with a policy to reflect diversity.

A spokesman for the department that publishes the guide listing recreation activities confirmed the publication was doctored to insert the face of a different father.

"He superimposed the African-Canadian person onto the family cluster in the original photo. It was two photographs and one head was superimposed over the original family photo," said John Gosgnach, communications director for the social development division.

"The goal was to depict the diversity of Toronto and its residents."

The cover shot caught the eye of a National Post graphics editor, who ran it through a program called TinEye that detects visual enhancements to standard art.

via Neatorama

Job Of The Day

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:25:12 GMT

Graphic Designer
Canon Communications, Los Angeles

Canon Communications LLC, a business-to-business media and trade show company has an immediate need for a graphic designer to produce promotional material for b2b publications and web products for a busy in-house design department.

The ideal candidate has 5+ years designing HTML web and print promotional material. A majority of the workload consists of creating HTML emails, web banners, animated gif tile ads and PDF flyers. You will also be designing ads, promotional mailers and media kit brochures. Responsibilities range from conceptualization and design, the ability to make focused design solutions, handle multiple jobs and prepare reliable files on time. Candidate must have strong sense of responsibility and be a team player.

Posted by Megan

Just My Type

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:30:04 GMT

Just My Type is a side project of designer Jakob Nylund. There are currently 7 vector Illustrator fonts available to download.

All typefaces are free to download and free to use without any restrictions. Most of them are only available in Illustrator AI format and the capital letters A-Z are the only characters that exist if nothing else is stated, and some letters may be inconsistent or pretty much bad looking in general, but hey! Fix them the way you want it to look. If you decide to use one of the fonts in your work, please send me a photo/screenshot of your finished work and I will put it up on the site.

via The Donut Project

Posted by Megan

Designing the News

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:48:29 GMT

Slate has an interesting article about why reading printed newspapers is still better than reading a digital version on a Kindle. It all comes down to design.

But both versions of the Kindle are missing what makes print newspapers such a perfect delivery vehicle for news: graphic design. The Kindle presents news as a list—you're given a list of sections (international, national, etc.) and, in each section, a list of headlines and a one-sentence capsule of each story. It's your job to guess, from the list, which pieces to read. This turns out to be a terrible way to navigate the news.

Posted by Megan

Heading to the HOW Conference?

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:00:28 GMT

We're just two working days away from heading to Austin for this year's big HOW Design Conference, so I wanted to share some last-minute info and advice for anyone who's planning to join us (and I hope YOU are!):

• Beat the crowd at the registration desk and pick up your conference badge and materials starting at 1 p.m. Tuesday, June 23, on the first floor of the Austin Convention Center. Registration is open throughout the event.
• Expect it to be blazin' hot outside and pretty cool inside the meeting space. Dress code ranges from business casual to T-shirts and jeans.
• We'll be tweeting and blogging live during the conference, so stay tuned here for scoop, and follow us on Twitter: @HOWmag. Join the HOW Conference Twibe, and tag your tweets #HOWConf.
• Looking for places to eat and things to do in Austin? There's no shortage of either, so start here.

What's more, there are lots of extra activities on the agenda (official and otherwise) next week, including:
• A lunch group for designers who work for churches and other religious organizations on Thursday
• A lunch group for designers who work in-house on Friday
• A gay bar crawl following the Friday night reception
• A bar crawl on Sixth Street on Tuesday night
• Fun stuff for folks who aren't into bar crawls
• The Designers Marketplace on Thursday evening
• Design History and Practice: Mano a Mano, a bracket-style tournament hosted by Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio on Thursday night

See y'all in Austin. I'll have my boots on!

Posted by Bryn

Job Of The Day

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:30:53 GMT

Interactive Art Director
Eveo Inc., San Francisco, CA

Eveo is a leading provider of rich media communication solutions focused on the Pharmaceutical, Biotech, and Medical Equipment industries. Much of our work is a combination of video, motion graphics, and 3D animation resulting in elegant, high-end programs that deliver on our clients’ key messages to both physicians and patients.

We are looking for an exceptionally talented Interactive Art Director with extensive interactive and GUI design experience.
All potential candidates must:

• Be available to work in-house in the San Francisco Bay area, no relocation
• Provide a working link to their portfolio

The Interactive Art Director’s role is to collaborate with the Creative Director and Brand team to conceptualize engaging interactive programs. The Art Director will then work with the production and development staff to execute those ideas as the program moves through the development pipeline. The Art Director will also be responsible for keeping a close eye on visual consistency and brand adherence thought the programs life span.

Posted by Megan