Wal-mart to Walmart

I am sure the Walmart logo redesign is old news to many of you out there, but this is a design blog and its practically mandatory to discuss something so significant. A big thanks to the Wall Street Journal for leaking the story early by publishing some of the initial renderings of the logo placement. The new design is completely over due in my opinion. Wal-Mart, now unhyphenated to Walmart, has been attempting to reposition themselves in the market place for years; while simultaneously covering up their constant negative press.

AMEN to the new san serif font and color palette, but I am throwing out a huge question mark for the starburt? Is it a sun? Does this replace those obnoxious smiley face people?
See the Wal-mart/Walmart logo history below. Courtsey of Brand New . Look at the brown logo used in the 80s. Nauseating.••••

Designing For a Good Cause

50 designers were asked to share their current favorite typefaces in this hand-held booklet. 100% of the proceeds go to UNICEF's Myanmar (Burma) Cyclone Children's Appeal in the wake of Cyclone Nargis that hit Myanmar on 2nd May 2008. You can purchase the book here. ••••

Behold! Photoshop Skins for your Keyboard

Whether you consider yourself a Photoshop guru or just a beginner, you have to admit the photoshop skin keyboard is an amazing idea. Quick command shortcuts literally right at your fingertips. I have to admit, I forget the shortcuts from time to time, but no more! Go to photojojo.com for more information on this skin or the skins for Aperture, Final Cut Pro, Pro Tools, After Effects, or Logic Pro. (Oh my gosh, I am such a dork!) ••••

Found In the USA: Umatilla, FL

I recently went back to my hometown of Umatilla, FL and aside from enjoying the sticky weather, I was able to fiddle around with my new camera and take some pictures of the funny little town I grew up in. When I was younger, Umatilla was just a farm town that was far away from all my friends houses, but as I grow older, I can see why my parents chose to live in the middle of nowhere. I have grown to love the hand painted typography, the run-down orange juice factory in all its Sheeler-like glory, the patterns that presented themselves on my dad's boat, and the overall simplicity that is Umatilla. I am calling this "part 1" because I don't feel like I have done the town justice just yet (I was pressed for time) so stay tuned for part two in the future. Welcome to Umatilla.

Country Logos from Around the World

I love this compilation of the city logos from around the world. Once all of them are put together, it almost looks like the same designer created each one. Similar brush strokes, palettes, symbols. I have always loved the Bahamas logo, which I see frequently in advertisements. Big fan of Italy's and Vietnam's as well.

Click Here to see more. ••••

The Braille Tattoo

A student at the University of the Arts Berlin, Kiera Jirkova, has designed a "braille tattoo." Although visible as well as tactile, they were conceived as a a way for the blind to communicate via body art. "Tattoo" in this case is perhaps a misnomer— these are subdermal implants that can be placed anywhere on the body, although Jirkova specifically mentions that if placed in the divet between the thumb and forefinger they could easily be read via a simple handshake. The idea of an implant is a bit frightening to me, but at the same time I think this a very interesting idea (really not much stranger than injecting your body with needles and permanant ink, I suppose!) ••••

Blooming Wallpaper

This heat sensitive wallpaper, created by Shi Yuan, explores a new definition of decoration by bringing design to life. When the radiator heats up the wallpaper surrounding it, the flowers will appear. Kind of like Hypercolor shirts back in the 80s but prettier. ••••

The Pink Elephant in The Room

Art is controversial. Think Damien Hirst, Marcel Duchamp, Andres Serrano, and now Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan.

In part of the 16th Biennale of Sydney, seven venues have been filled with art from more than 180 contemporary artists from around the world.

"This year's theme, Revolutions - Forms That Turn, urges artists to rebel. The stuffed horse is a 1999 work by the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. Christov-Bakargiev sees the stiff horse as a metaphor for thwarted revolution. 'At certain historical periods there is always a moment of social despair where people are no longer able to tolerate the pain and hardship of their times," she said. "I think we are at a stage where the world has to invent new political systems to protect the weak in society due to the great inequalities that globalisation has caused.' "

More thought provoking work for the shows below:••••

Sam Winston

I came across the work of Sam Winston via DesignBloom, where they featured a few photos of his folded dictionaries which simply blew me away. His work with typography and printed material is meticulous, innovative, and amazingly beautiful. Says Winston in his artist's statement: "I was always going to be a writer but it was when I discovered other alphabets— of colour shape and form— that's when things really began to get interesting."

Above are Winston's folded dictionaries, and below are a few of his "Dictionary Story Prints." They remind me of type exercises I did back in design school, but wow does he take it to another level. He has also done similar pieces for the New York Times Magazine.

Winston also uses a process of cutting out type to create depth of field. He writes, "Obviously, the piece is no longer about the actual words. Instead, I was implying that the space between words is where thoughts take shape."

I also noticed that among his list of solo shows is one at the Scuola Internazionale di Graphica in Venice, where three of the Crew members studied abroad together (sorry Colvin). I love that his work was shown at a school so focused on the art of bookmaking— very appropriate. ••••

Jewish Contemporary Museum in San Francisco

The Jewish Contemporary Museum recently unveiled their new home in San Francisco. Originally established in 1984, the museum is well-known for housing engaging exhibits and influential art. The new building (just around the corner from where I work) is beautiful and appropriately connects old and new architectural elements. Architect Daniel Libeskind was chosen in 1998 to design the new space. The design was unveiled in 2005 and the museum became open to the public just a few short weeks ago. Unfortunately, I have yet to see the inside, but the exterior is most impressive. Large in scale and complex in design, the building's forms weave in and out of one another and create a puzzle like connection. Just one more reason to visit San Francisco (*hint hint* fellow Crew bloggers). ••••

Office Space

"The Virgin Media Group brought in Headline Design to re-brand over 1000 buildings from Head Office to call centers throughout the UK – 150 of which had active employees. Because the average age of the Virgin Call Center employee was 23, the design team named the new work environment ‘Our Neighborhood’ in attempt to shift workers’ thinking from ‘them’ to ‘us.'


Primary consideration was directed at the staff’s behavior in the space. No longer can it be acceptable to just pick a color or a theme and apply it haphazardly into a space, which is why the Virgin Call Centers are not overly branded with oversized Vs and bright red walls. That’s not to say the spaces are boring – on the contrary, Household strived to integrate humor into the design – and they focused on underused areas of the former office – communal spaces including reception, canteen, break rooms, meeting rooms and spaces in between such as elevators, hallways and stairs. All these spaces were designed with the intention of maximizing the staff’s life at work and to encourage workers to feel comfortable interacting with one another through the use of animal silhouette wallpaper, chalkboards, ‘dating car park spaces’ and more."-via thecolorhunter.net



I am green with envy of the Car Park Dating concept. Not to mention the pigion graphic above the door frames. Fantastic.••••

Andrio Abero

Andrio Abero is a designer widely known for his amazing print work. He develops strong concepts and carries them through with gorgeous execution. Although his work is not limited to print design, I am primarily drawn to his posters which emphasize his artistic sensibility and impressive illustrations. ••••

The Goggle Favicon Debate

Before I begin this post, I should define what a "favicon" is. Wikipedia tells us that favicon is short for “Favorites icon” meaning that the original purpose of this icon is to represent the site in the Favorites of your browser. The new google favicon is displayed below.

It goes without saying that this icon looks nothing like Google's logo or brand identity. Not only is the "g" a different hue than the actual Google Logo, but it is set on somewhat gray background, and is it just me or does that look a little pixelated?

The audacity of the favicon design led 4 designers, from TurboMilk.com, to take a shot at redesigning the icon themselves. Behold the results below:
Denis Kortunov thought the favicon should be some kind of classy and simple symbol. "I will base it on the capital ‘G’ and I cannot really escape using the corporate colors: two at minimum but better all four. I will not use the font – I do not really like it and in the small icon size it will be hardly recognizable.

Yegor Gilyov wanted to design a more abstract symbol. "A sphere may be a metaphor for the Globe or a ball. It seems to entice you: “come play with me” which suits the Google’s image as a young and joyful company which oftentimes defies the generally accepted corporate rules."

Valera Namazov considered, Google's "mix of various technologies and services, and that the name Google comes from googol — the decimal number represented by one followed by 100 zeroes. Clearly, we have no other way but to create a round favicon with a hole."

Finally, Dmitry Joukov wanted to emphasis the search engine aspect of Google; specifically the ooooos. Joukov simple cut and pasted the double O's from the logo into the favicon.

I believe all of these are an improvement over the pixelated lowercase g, however I don't think any of them really nailed it. How about just using the uppercase G? Thoughts? ••••

Found in San Francisco: Hayes Valley

Many neighborhoods in San Francisco gain their interest and character from their historical relevance, however, Hayes Valley is one area that has only recently gained prominence in the past 15 years. Once a troubled area located next to the Van Ness performing-arts district, Hayes Valley is now home to numerous art galleries, restaurants and trendy boutiques. Each store is rich in character and individuality. Whether or not you can afford the high-end merchandise, entering the interior space of each store or gallery is worth the visit. Each space is more interesting than the next with the use of unusual materials and diversity of colors and textures.

This collection of photos aims to capture the artistic edge to the stores and galleries in Hayes Valley. ••••

Is nothing sacred?

The New York Times recently ran an article in which it unveiled American Greetings Properties' redesign of Strawberry Shortcake. I, for one, am horrified— the revamped Strawberry Shortcake bears absolutely no resemblance to the 80s character I grew up with. She looks more like a Bratz doll than the lovable version in bloomers I remember from my youth. I understand the need for making the character accessible to children today, but to me this is extreme. In fact, I stumbled across this amusing article in which a plastic surgeon outlines that costs that would have been incurred if the makeover were real, likening it to an episode of The Swan. The hypothetical total? $23,675.19.

Much like a classic logo design revamped for the worse (think Rand's UPS or Bass's AT&T), in American Greetings Properties' haste to modernize the character they have sacrificed the straightforward charm of the original. In my opinion, this trend toward making everything from logos to cartoons sleeker and sexier is yielding increasingly generic results. Below, take a look at what has become of poor Angelina Ballerina. Next on deck? The Care Bears are returning with a "fresh look" this fall, this time with "less belly fat, longer eyelashes." I'm scared. ••••

Cock a Doodle What?!

As a frequent blog reader, I sometimes come across a popular, reoccurring article or blog post online that I just don't agree with or see the mass appeal. Feel free to disagree, but I am not sure where I stand with the Animals on the Underground series I have seen now on more than one occasion. For example:

This Flamingo isn't half bad. But...
...the bat. Really?! Kind of a stretch.
The roster is OK. Neither here nor there.
What do you think? ••••

Fleeting, Freezing Type

Beautiful photography by Kotama Bouabane, a Canadian based artist. The real question is: Did she buy those letter shaped ice trays or create them herself?! ••••

Phillip Toledano

I first saw Phillip Toledano's work via his "video gamers" project. In his words: "I wanted to take portraits of people that would reveal a hidden part of their character. So I had them play video games." They are truly original. A coworker of mine turned my attention to him again, this time to his "Bankrupt" series. The project of photographing deserted offices of bankrupt companies turned out to be more insightful than I could have imagined. The seemingly empty spaces tell a stories of places that once were bustling with life. Check them out here. ••••

Dear Apple,

I love you, but when I saw this new logo for Mobile Me...I mistakenly thought it was for Window's software. What gives? Designer on vacation?
Love,
A very loyal customer ••••

Classics in Lego

I was never much of a lego fan growing up (guess i was more of a Barbie person), but these lego creations are un-freakin'-believable. Thank you to Gizmodo for sharing this flikr set of classic photographs recreated in legos. Here is the link once again so that you don't miss the entire collection. The idea is brilliant and the execution is even better. Bravo! ••••

Three Bears Design

I was recently introduced to the very impressive portfolio of Three Bears Design, a creative collective with "caves" in both Pittsburgh and Northeast, Ohio. Three Bears does it all— from CD album covers, to logos, to t-shirts, to web design (and everything in between)— and to each job they bring a wonderful spark of originality. I especially liked the playful work they have done for bands (directly below, a t-shirt design for Arrah and the Ferns, and a poster for the singer/songwriter Jennie Devoe— some really exceptional illustration and hand-drawn typography!)
I was also enjoying their logo design and branding for Hope Runs, a non-profit group working to assist AIDs orphans in Africa.
And from my perspective, Three Bears' design sensibility seems especially suited to the making of CD covers— especially loved the distressed bar code on the 'Sospiri' CD for the Winston Jazz Routine above.

Oh, and be sure to check out their blog as well! ••••