stocking is the new planking

I have never been more jealous of an idea. www.stockingisthenewplanking.tumblr.com••••

We like you, why don't you like us?

If you are like many members of the Crew, you might follow many of your favorite blogs on facebook. Why not follow us too? Click here to "like" us.

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Horrible Logos

Craigslist Ad: $100 to design our company's logo!

I believe it's safe to say that all designers all appalled by the minimal prices that company's try to pay for a decent logo. Do people really not understand how long a logo takes to design or do they not see the value in a well designed logo?

That being said, I love the idea of Horrible Logos. The company's tagline says it all: Drawing bad logos for beer money since 2010. This is a craigslist company's dream come true! For only $5, you will receive the worst possible logo imaginable. Bonus features include no color and misspellings. Payment is simple...hello Pay Pal. Delivery even better...3-4 business days. You can't beat that!


The moral of story: You get what you pay for. ••••

Fonts In Use

Fonts In Use is an amazing reference website for type geeks. If you are interested in current type trends and reading other's opinions on type, this is the place for you. You can organize posts by type, industry or format. It's hard not being a millionaire because I can't buy every typeface I want, but this way I can at least make a well-informed list. The authors have a very sharp eye for kerning, you can't get anything past them! Didoni might be my new favorite. Samples below. ••••

Comic Sans - An Education

Click here to continue. ••••

Mashed Up Type

Just doing a little online shopping and came across some sassy typography at Madewell. I know it is the cardinal rule to limit your type to 1 or 2 faces...but I love this mixed up treatment! ••••

Facts I know about designer Nick Feltron:

In 2005, Nick rocked out to 16,862 songs on iTunes. He killed 4 plants during 2006. In 2007, he ran 190.5 miles, but only watched one sporting event—the Superbowl. In 2008, Nick drank 408 beers, 9% if which were Sierra Nevada. And last year, he estimates his focused to distracted ration was 9:2.

Nick sounds like a cool guy, but unfortunately we've never actually met! I know all this information because he chronicles it meticulously in the Feltron Annual Reports. Since 2005, Nick has produced these letterpressed reports yearly, and they track every possible detail you might want to know about his life—and I do mean every possible detail. Spend some time with them and you'll see. From maps that follow his every movement across the globe, to the milligrams of caffeine he consumea per year, it is all there.

Nick's obsessive tracking of data has help, and herein lies the double beauty of the Feltron Annual Reports. Nick, along with designer Ryan Case, is co-creator of the website Daytum.com. Daytum is a website for personal data tracking. Aha! To my eyes, these reports are the best advertisement for their product imaginable— well-designed, wryly funny, and unbelievably, unbelievably thorough. ••••

Sears Goes Zombie?

The spirit of Halloween might be in the air in October, but Sears took a very healthy dose of Halloween spirit with their new social site dedicated to zombies.

Click out the Zombie gift guide, the blue zombie crew, ohh and you can translate the site into zombian (the official zombie language, of course).


Seems to me a marketing department or few graphic designers had a lot of extra time on their hands this year.


Nah bra bram. Bragz harrh nah! (good luck figuring that out). ••••

Fred Perry Heritage

It seems to me that most brands are playing up their heritage pretty hard these days. Don't get me wrong, I love a heritage story, but it is quickly becoming white noise. Fred Perry has a nice twist on it- bringing your stories to them. I really like the aesthetic they are using on the site, but I am a sucker for most things handmade I suppose. I like seeing handmade things on a digital space, call me crazy. ••••

P.S I Made This

I'm not sure how I came across this site, but I know I love it. P.S. I Made This is one woman's venture to deconstruct today's trends into affordable DIY projects. I have no clue how she comes up with a lot of her solutions, but they all appear affordable and pretty fabulous. I won't lie, some are a bit over the top, but still appreciated! Enjoy. ••••

The Oughts (?)

The topic of much debate. ••••

A Journey Across America

I first saw screen shots of Orba Square's website on Grain Edit awhile ago. I had bookmarked the page because I loved everything about this design...color palate, typography, photography. The site was designed by Random Collective to commemorate Orba Square's second album and his journey across the states.





Check out the rest of Orba's website here. ••••

Exactitudes

Rotterdam based photographer Ari Versluis and profiler Ellie Uyttenbroek have worked together since October 1994 on Exactitudes. Inspired by a shared interest in the striking dress codes of various social groups, the Rotterdam-based photographic team of Ari Versluis & Ellie Uyttenbroek have been systematically hamstringing such permutations of received identity for ten years. They call their series Exactitudes, a contraction of “exact” and “attitudes”.

Click here to see this website and common similarities between peer groups.

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Mad Men Buzz

In preparation for the season premiere of Mad Men, AMC created a new viral site for the fans, MadMenYourself.com. I know I am not the only Crew member that watches this show.

This site is a fantastic way to procrastinate at work for five minutes.

The image on the right is my character. (I know...it looks nothing like me. I'm no Betty Draper). ••••

A Bird's Eye View on Typography

One of those projects you just wish you thought to undertake yourself— Rhett Dashwood has scoured Google Maps and discovered the above letterforms in the landscape of Victoria, Australia. ••••

No need to refresh, it's just fresh.

My love for Mr. West is no secret. I didn't expect this song to be released as a single, or even have a video but this thing is really original. According to his website, there is another video coming out soon that employs the same technique so he had to get it out there. Don't adjust your screen, those compression artifacts are the whole visual language of the video. I don't know who Kanye surrounds himself with, but he always seems to be at the forefront of cutting edge design, art and fashion that becomes mainstream months later. Soon everyone will be rocking a mini-mullet, praising Hedi Slimane and collaborating with Takashi Murakami. Not a bad crowd. Let me know what you think...I am ready. ••••

2008 Design Review

Happy New Year, everyone! And, fyi, my New Year's resolution is definitely to blog more frequently. It's been a very busy holiday season for all four members of the Crew, so I hope you will forgive our recent ebb in postings. What better way to kick off the New Year than with a summary of last year's great design accomplishments. Luckily, Michael Johnson has helped to get the ball rolling with his list of 2008's design greats.

"Wish We Had Done It" Project of the Year:
Stefan Sagmeister's coin installation in Holland

Illustration of the Year:
Marian Bantjes's snowflakes for Sak's Fifth Avenue

Branding of the Year:

Duh. The Obama campaign.

Logo of the Year:
Their pick— the we/me mark for the Alliance for Climate Protection. I do love the mark, but can't say with certainty that it is my favorite of the year. The logo for the National Center for Responsible Gaming featured in the Print Regional Design Annual stands out in my mind— anyone else have a favorite they want to cast a vote for?Check out the full article for more great picks— including these clever tea bags for a Health-centered cafe. I definitely hope to see more great design like this in 2009! ••••

Screen(saver) Gems

For Crew devotees, you may remember a post several months ago with a round-up of desktop wallpaper favorites. As you might imagine, a designer has an equally important decision to make for those (rare) times her screen goes idle. Choosing a suitable screen saver is somewhat more challenging than wallpaper shopping (with fewer quality options available), but there are a few standouts I would like to suggest.


For months now, I have been rocking the mesmerizing Drop Clock at work. You can download it here free of charge (although it will prompt you occasionally to purchase it). But if you aren't sold on that, there are a few other timekeeping options that would make good choices. Check out Simon Heys' Rotary Word Clock and Word Clock (both free downloads), a standard flip clock from Fliqlo, and the Polar Clock from Pixel Breaker.

If none of those float your boat, we're moving on to my top five non-timekeeping screen savers. Also from Fliqlo comes a fun lego building screen saver called Briblo. You can try out a Kuler screen saver that generates a feed of popular color harmonies from the Adobe Kuler website. For die hard fans like me, download the opening credits of Mad Men from the AMC website to set that as your screen saver (my choice for my home computer at the moment). There is an unusual, fun screen saver of Japanese girls dancing available at Uniqlock (you're just going to need to check it out to see what I mean). And finally, perhaps my favorite choice: Veer has created a screen saver that is simultaneously eerie, funny, and clever. Like something out of a cheesy horror movie, the eyes of offbeat portraits will follow you around the office until you return to your desk and get back to work. ••••

Questionable Characters

Designers Ben Barry and Frank Chimero have just launched a new website that serves one simple purpose: answering questions. After receiving numerous emails from inquiring students they decided to develop a forum for the questions and answers. The result -- www.questionablecharacters.com. Some of the questions are design related, whereas others are simply random and often humorous. Original and clever. Great job. ••••

Materialism Made Easy

I stumbled across this amazing gift guide created by Zeus Jones, and was blown away by the organization and usability of this website. Just decide whether you want to spend less ($3) or more ($3600), and then choose your recipient's gender, age, and relationship to you— Zeus Jones will narrow down your options and practically do all of the work for you!

Just take a look below! I even found the perfect gift for Meghan B. Easy peasy. (via Design Observer) ••••