Illustrator Travis Pitts is a fan of vintage design and sci-fi. He’s redone a few posters for some of his favorite movies and they look great. Click on and buy a few. Don’t forget to check out his illustrations and his Flickr page, you’ll probably recognize some of these splendid pieces floating around online.
We had no intention of posting two book cover posts nearly back to back, but upon viewing designer Jim Tierney’s work, there was no avoiding it. These redesigns of Jules Verne book covers were part of Tierney’s thesis project for the University of the Arts. Visit Tierney’s walkthrough of his process on Faceout Books for more images and insights. View the video for the glory of the books’ transparency, die cuts, and pull-tab goodness.
Coraline Bickford-Smith is the senior cover designer at Penguin Books, where she has gained notoriety for her clothbound covers. In a year starting off with a fervor over e-book readers, Bickford-Smith is making a strong case for the aesthetic and tactile benefits of ink on paper. Truly, these books are individual art pieces made to adorn the shelves of book lovers and anyone who appreciates good design.
Thanks to The 99 Percent for their interview with Bickford-Smith and for introducing me to her work.
Graphic designer and illustrator Justin Van Genderen’s Star Wars posters have been making the rounds lately and they are certainly Agogo worthy. Be sure to check out his Tatooine and Bespin posters too!
Influencing this post is the fact that the wife and I attended a prom last night as chaperones and got our prom photo taken — Star Wars style! (No Storm Troopers were hurt in the taking of the photo.)
Illustrator and designer Chris Thornley has good taste in movies and a lot of pent up creative energy. At least it looks that way according to this great Flickr set of black, red, and off-white cult favorite movie posters. Makes me want to take out the old VHS.
Aussie lllustrator Guy Shield wanted to propose to his girlfriend one her birthday while on a trip to Bali. So within two weeks time and many hours in InDesign, Shield created an 8 foot illustration of mundane life that folded into a “Will You Marry Me?” proposal. The work is brilliant. All you single illustrators, you can thank Shield for setting the bar so high. Read his story and more of the work here.
Cartoonist Darryl Cunningham is getting some well-deserved attention for his upcoming book Psychiatric Tales. The book challenges the stigma associated with mental illness and debunks commonly held stereotypes. From what he posted online so far on, it looks like a wonderfully illustrated and well-informed piece. Let’s hope this sells a lot of copies. View chapters from the book on bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
A project to publish “Designing Obama,” a chronicle of the grassroots designs of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, is underway. Support the cause or not, but it’s certainly a great effort in the name of design. Yes, design can help change the world.
One of the pitfalls of a Hawai‘i designer is the proper use of Hawaiian diacritical marks, particularly the okina. To not use them is to deviate from the true Hawaiian language, but to use them, you risk making the simplest mistake.
In this case, it’s the all too familiar use of an apostrophe instead of an okina. Unfortunately, this mistake was made on a U.S. postage stamp celebrating Hawai‘i. I feel for the artist, Herbert Kawainui Kane, who is responsible for the painted artwork celebrating surfing. Though it’s clear that he was only responsible for the artwork and not the type, it’s a shame that a simple thing as the careless use of an apostrophe can ruin this otherwise beautiful stamp. I’m sure the designer responsible for the typography feels terrible. Read on.
Here’s a graphic I created for a new mental health initiative in Hawaii.
