Kristin Myers Design

Mobile Makes for a Better Meal

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:50:04 +0000

After getting out to meet locals here in Waltham at a networking lunch a few weeks back, I connected with Joshua Bob (@joshsambob) one of the founders of Texturant. It’s a very cool startup – giving restaurants the ability to tell patrons their table is ready by texting them on their phone. He asked me if I’d be up for designing a whimsical menu-like handout for their “side dish” at the WebInno event last week in Cambridge. Why, yes, I think I would.

In addition to channeling quaint dinner typography, I also had fun translating their text into menu-esque copy. My favorite: “Mobile makes for a Better Meal!” Take a look, and click the images to see them larger!

Can you tell what my new font loves are? I’m such a sucker for block type and a good script!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Fashionable Inspiration

admin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:32:59 +0000

Despite its silence with some sporadic postings, I have been muling over the best way to approach this portfolio blog. Lately I have been fighting the urge to write what other design blogs are writing about. While it would be a good intentioned effort meant to take part in the community dialogue – I have hesitated because I wouldn’t want to fall into a dangerous routine of recycling content. That’s not how I work, and its not what I want this space to be.

So what to write about? Thank goodness I have felt this quandary unravel itself the past few days, and I am finally eager to blog. Not only that, but I realized a better way to approach developing content. Simply put – taking my head out of my RSS feed and looking around the world. What I’ve been drawn to lately surprises me, but I think is worth sharing!

Here we go:
The Devil Wears Prada has been my go-to chick flick of choice for awhile, but watching the past few seasons of the reality show Project Runway has really opened my eyes to better understand the creative process and where these clothes come from. If you haven’t seen this show, it follows a crop of designers through rigorous challenges (design an outfit out of newspaper, candy, burlap, an old wedding dress, etc!). One designer is eliminated each week until the top three showcase their work in Bryant Park in New York City’s Fashion Week. I am hooked – and piling up my netflix que with, Valentino: The Last Emperor, Unzipped, Coco avant Chanel, and The September Issue. Yesterday, in the name of muse, I bought Vogue and InStyle and soaked it in. What is happening to me, a fleece loving northern California girl?

Fascination and inspiration:
While the negatives and unhealthy facets of the industry (of which there are plenty) have largely kept my cynical about the fashion world, it also hid what I’m now relishing in the designers and their processes. Discovering the craftsmanship, muse, sweat and tears are like getting to know a family member I didn’t know I had. I am loving this, and can not get enough! And even better, magazines like Vogue have made translating this industry into print an art form.

And specifically:
I adore the interviews with Creative Director Grace Coddington in The September Issue. Her crazy red hair and comfy sandals dash the Devil Wears Prada vision I had of the Vogue office. Her flat is loaded with photography and books. She points to favorites and reveals meaning and relevance behind each image. She brings everything this wall symbolizes (experience, talent, relationships) with her into her work as a stylist, which Editor Anna Wintour calls genius. She is a self-admitted romantic, with ups and downs as her work is cut, then put back into the magazine. Indeed, dealing in personal creativity for a demanding and ever changing client is exhausting. Yet, I find myself with a new design hero who gracefully works through it and shines. Note taken.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Web design addition to portfolio

admin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:30:59 +0000

Just a quick note to highlight a recent addition to my growing web design tab: Child S.H.A.R.E’s homepage. Working with Portnoy Media Group, I developed a fine tuned front-end homepage for this amazing non-profit based out of Glendale, CA. I am really feeling more and more comfortable branching into front end projects and thinking through intuitive user interfaces. The file prep and details are quite different from print design, but good clean type and use of a grid never seem to go out of date. I have a few more web projects in various stages, and am excited to get them up when they go live!

Child S.H.A.R.E. Child S.H.A.R.E. was in need of a fined tuned homepage...
Web Collages Fuller Theological Seminary is the largest Evangelical Christian seminary in...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Child S.H.A.R.E.

admin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:19:23 +0000

Child S.H.A.R.E. was in need of a fined tuned homepage user interface, and wanted to tie in specific visuals and typographic treatments I had developed for a recent print design collateral. Working with a central java player with rotating images, I reduced clutter by giving links a clear hierarchy and visually intuitive interfaces. With content easier to scan, users are quickly able to find relevant information.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Good news for magazines

admin — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:07:14 +0000

The Magazine Publishers of America put out this video and campaign “The Twenty Tweetable Truths About Magazines” at last week’s Magazine Innovation Summit, encouraging the print based industry with recent good news. Check it out:

I found this on Font Feed where Yves Peters was also encouraged, but pointed out (via Amanda Ernst on FishbowlNY) the reality of the times and that some magazines still aren’t making it. True, but I can’t help but see the glass as half full and celebrate the value of print design remaining intact.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

AIGA Make/Think notes

admin — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 17:41:56 +0000

The AIGA Voice blog gives an update from the recent Make/Think Conference in Memphis with sketches from designer Carolyn Sewell’s notebook. Love it. Here are a few of her pages, and the full entry on the blog.

With heros like Steven Sagmister and Jim Sherraden from Hatch Show Print that were at this conference, I kick myself for not being there. I would have been in heaven. I’ve been to a few AIGA events when I was in California, which were mostly very inspirational and worth the effort. This year I went to another CIVA conference where, again, I felt design was the poor step-sibling to fine art that filled the context, schedule, and discussions. Great for them, but I think it might be time for me return to the AIGA mothership of graphic design to find more practical and relevant fodder. Just seeing notes like these is quite a dose of inspiration, no?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Where the Wild [hand drawn fonts] Are

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:58:53 +0000

I simply can not wait to see Where the Wild Things Are. The trailer looks amazing, perhaps even more amazing than that beautiful type hand drawn by Geoff Mcfetridge (ht PicoCool for the source!) that succeeds in capturing the mood.

I love this movie poster too – the use of scale here is fantastic.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Graphic Design and the Missional Church: An Unlikey Partnership

admin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:43:08 +0000

This paper was written for a class at Fuller Theological Seminary, and will be published in the September issue of the Pro Rege, a quarterly publication of Dordt College in Iowa. Below is an excerpt that summarizes its content and goals:

Focus
This paper will reflect on the missional church and the practice of graphic design in order to build a bridge between them. While this connection exists within my own personal context, I have begun to notice similarities between the two that extend into the larger transition from modern to postmodern society, and the grey in-between.

The design field obviously cannot offer salvation or a faith of any kind. However, it can offer its practice of clear thinking and visual communication to engage with such realities. By doing so, the practice of design becomes missional and brings ethical and faith
sentiments tangibly into the environment where we live our lives. This client/designer relationship with the Church (as with any other organization or business) is not new, and is usually accepted by both church leaders and designers. However, limiting the role of
design as an outsourced vendor is cutting short the innate capabilities of visual communication. Granted, a partnership is an unconventional arrangement. Yet as both church leaders and designers are grappling to live out meaningful lives in a culture becoming more and more visual, they could both benefit from an innovative change in their traditional roles. As it is, the missional church and the design field have several striking similarities that put them on the parallel paths of negotiating these cultural shifts.

In this paper, I will address the basic background and perspectives of the missional church and the design profession respectively, and then highlight the parallels I see between them: (1) both have a strong ethic of service in the messages they steward, (2) both have a prophetic voice by filtering information to provide meaning for an audience, (3) both are peacemakers in diverse groups, and (4) both engage with power structures with the intent of transformation. In addition, I will give examples of how design and the church are already working together in the Christendom mode and how they could be more effective working together in a missional context partnership.

Download full PDF of article here.

Design in the Dance This article was commissioned for the August 2008 issue of...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Web Collages

admin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:39:26 +0000

Fuller Theological Seminary is the largest Evangelical Christian seminary in the world, and is known for its cutting edge theological thought and cultural engagement. Because of my experience with photography, I was asked to create web collages from a database of existing photos for their website’s homepage and subpages. These layered Photoshop collages, then animated in flash, give a dynamic encounter with the Fuller brand at www.fuller.edu.

Web design addition to portfolio Just a quick note to highlight a recent addition...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Design in the Dance

admin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:59:58 +0000

This article was commissioned for the August 2008 issue of Bill Dahl’s online Magazine Porpoise Diving Life. Guest edited by Sonja Andrews and Patrick Oden, these articles focus on pneumatology, or the study of the Holy Spirit, in honor of Oden’s book Shall We Dance?

In “Design in the Dance” I look at the role of collaboration, as highlighted by Bruce Mau’s Massive Change, in the ever-expanding field of design. Several creative talents working together rather than isolated individually, solves complex design issues not only faster, but more creatively and effectively. I parallel Mau’s observation within the design field to faith communities:

The design of faith communities is no different. In fact, it should be a crucial part of this conversation of rethinking and reimagining the most basic needs and facets of society. The quest for spirituality and deeper meaning is one of the most fundamental motivations we will ever address.

Full article online here.

Graphic Design and the Missional Church: An Unlikey Partnership This paper was written for a class at Fuller Theological...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.