Right-reading (adj): Having the proper orientation (used in printing)

Today is Sunday, February 12, 2012 10:49 am (U.S. central time).

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  • Tom Christensen
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    Some popular blog posts, 2006-2008

    graphic design posts

    Pantone Chip Cookies

    Kim Neill at kimcreativestar.com tells you how to bake them.

    Posted: January 25th, 2011 under graphic design, ha!.
    Comments: none

    Project Thirty-Three

    lp graphic design

    Project Thirty-Three aims to connect the dots:

    The seemingly infinite number of vintage record jackets that convey their message with simple shapes like the dot never ceases to amaze and amuse me. Project Thirty-Three is my personal collection and shrine to these expressive dots along with their slightly less jovial but equally effective cousins; squares, rectangles and triangles, and the designers that make them come to life on album covers.

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    via Swiss Miss

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    Posted: June 24th, 2010 under graphic design.
    Comments: none

    Mistakes designers make

    Tara at Graphic Design Blog lists seven mistakes beginning designers make. It’s a pretty good list — I see the first item a lot.

    1. Producing two or more design concepts that are very similar
    2. Adding things in rather than taking them away
    3. Concentrating on features rather than benefits
    4. Not targeting the right audience or having enough gravitas
    5. Not presenting the finished design in the best way possible.
    6. Not sketching first
    7. Underselling your design work

    Read more at Graphic Design Blog.

    Posted: March 24th, 2010 under graphic design.
    Comments: 3

    “Books” in the age of the IPad

    books on an infinite plane on the ipad platform

    Craig Mod makes an interesting case for celebrating the (supposed) demise of “disposable books” — he elaborates at some length a simple distinction between books where the content and form are integral and those where they are independent — and welcoming the IPad as a reading platform. Here’s a sample:

    We’re losing the dregs of the publishing world: disposable books. The book printed without consideration of form or sustainability or longevity. The book produced to be consumed once and then tossed. The book you bin when you’re moving and you need to clean out the closet.

    These are the first books to go. And I say it again, good riddance.

    Once we dump this weight we can prune our increasingly obsolete network of distribution. As physicality disappears, so too does the need to fly dead trees around the world.

    You already know the potential gains: edgier, riskier books in digital form, born from a lower barrier-to-entry to publish. New modes of storytelling. Less environmental impact. A rise in importance of editors. And, yes — paradoxically — a marked increase in the quality of things that do get printed.

    Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everything in that last paragraph were true! Unfortunately, part of this is fiction writing. Check out the NYT bestseller list and see if you can observe “a marked increase in the quality of things that do get printed.”

    To me the most interesting part of Mod’s argument is his vision for booklike content that disposes of the metaphor of the page, as shown in the image above (the image is Mod’s). In this vision the content metaphor is not the bound book but the East Asian handscroll, on which stories were rolled out continuously from one end to the other rather than proceeding page by page.

    The book is a perfected technology, but why should the electronic platform inherit the binding metaphor?

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    Link: Books in the Age of the IPad

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    Posted: March 18th, 2010 under books, graphic design.
    Comments: 5

    Rag or justified?

    rag or justified? These are preliminary design pages for a new book about the art of Bali. The font is Garamond Premier Pro. The image is a cool piece by I Ketut Ngendon (1903–1948) called Goodbye and Good Luck to Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, 1938 (Batuan, Bali. Ink on paper. Mary Catherine Bateson).

    The pages are the same, except that in one spread the main text block is ragged and in the other it is justified. I’m curious which version people prefer.

    Posted: February 2nd, 2010 under books, graphic design.
    Comments: 7

    Sites we like: The Art of American Book Covers

    The first post at The Art of American Book Covers, by Richard Minsky, was made on August 26, so this blog is less than a month old. I regret that I don’t remember who directed me to it, but this blog is so rich in knowledge about techniques of book production that it makes me feel like an absolute novice. The blog will apparently focus on fine books of the nineteenth century. The image above is a detail from a book published by L. C. Page, who it seems offered each of their titles in red, white or blue cloth (wow!). Instead of stamping, a white cloth panel was glued onto the red and blue books. Following is a portion of the blog’s commentary related to this detail, but you should check out Minsky’s blog for the full story:

    Read more »

    Posted: September 18th, 2009 under books, graphic design.
    Comments: 3

    Redesigning Craigslist

    Recently Wired magazine asked a group of designerz to reenvision Craigslist. According to Wired, “Visitors arriving at craigslist are confronted by a confusing homepage cluttered with links most people will never click on. Overall, the user interface is in dire need of an organizing principle that guides you to the details you seek while filtering out extraneous information.”

    Read more »

    Posted: September 14th, 2009 under graphic design, webwork.
    Comments: none

    Hanuman Maximon

    I have been toying with the idea of starting a little imprint to publish mainly world literature and other titles with international scope. It would be called Hanuman Maximon. (Hanuman is the monkey hero of the Ramayana; Maximon is the cigar-smoking rebel saint of the highland Maya.)

    This is a logo for the imprint. I haven’t really decided on the color scheme yet. Any reactions? (Hmmm, maybe the graphics part should be a little smaller.)

    Posted: August 19th, 2009 under graphic design, publishing.
    Comments: 9

    Book design battle

    Over at Eye blog they’ve pitted Robert Klanten and Matthias Hübner’s Fully Booked against Jan Tschichold’s The Form of the Book in a book design battle.

    Find out who wins.

    Posted: August 18th, 2009 under graphic design.
    Comments: none

    Designing a book on Southeast Asian Art

    Over at the Asian Art Museum blog I’ve written a post briefly outlining some of the issues involved in designing Emerald Cities: Arts of Siam and Burma, 1775-1950. I oversaw this project; the book was designed by Tag Savage of Wilsted & Taylor.

    There are special issues for American designers when working with Southeast Asian subjects. This book demonstrates, I think, how they can be successfully addressed.

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    Posted: June 24th, 2009 under books, graphic design.
    Comments: 2

    The golden mean and the Fibonacci sequence

    I was looking for a video to help explain the Fibonacci sequence to someone who didn’t know about it. There are a lot of them that aren’t especially helpful. This one is okay (apart from the spooky music). Maybe a really excellent one will still present itself.

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    Posted: June 2nd, 2009 under graphic design.
    Comments: none

    15 years of work in 45 seconds

    The design firm Pentagram was recently honored for its long-term collaboration with the Public Theater in NYC. The video includes more than 300 pieces.

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    Posted: June 1st, 2009 under graphic design.
    Comments: none

    A designer’s resume

    From bulooji’s photostream.

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    via Fosfor Gadgets

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    Posted: May 19th, 2009 under graphic design.
    Comments: 1

    Nation brands

    Can we agree the whole branding thing has got out of hand? I wish that branding had never left the cattle corral. These days, instead of selling an actual product you sell the idea of the product. So you spend all your time working not on the product but on the idea of it.

    Today even whole countries get brands. Consider these national tourism logos.

    Read more »

    Posted: April 30th, 2009 under graphic design, marketing.
    Comments: none

    Thailand – Burma Map

    This is a little map I did for Emerald Cities: Arts of Siam and Burma, 1775-1950, a catalogue of a forthcoming exhibition at the Asian Art Museum. The museum’s website says:

    Read more »

    Posted: April 28th, 2009 under graphic design.
    Comments: none

    First rule of design?

    bad designer“If you do three designs, and there’s one you love, one you like, and one you think is crap, nine times out of ten your client will go with the one you think is crap.”

    Or so it says here.

    What is wrong with this picture?

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    Cartoon via Telec Thoughts.

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    Posted: April 20th, 2009 under graphic design.
    Comments: none

    Design geekiness

    Admit it designers, you’re a bunch of playbabies. Witness:

    Read more »

    Posted: March 31st, 2009 under graphic design.
    Comments: 1

    The five rules of book cover design

    John Gall, book designer for B&N, shares some thoughts about book cover design.

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    Posted: March 2nd, 2009 under books, graphic design.
    Comments: 1

    Charles Montgomery Burns Blogging Award

    charles montgomery burns award

    Almost a year ago, the excellent India Ink was tagged for excellence in blogging, an award she rebranded as the Charles Montgomery Burns Award. Mr. Burns is the owner of the Springfield nuclear power plant on the Simpsons. Well, India’s blog is hot.

    Read more »

    Posted: February 28th, 2009 under blogging, community, graphic design.
    Comments: 6

    How to design like Massimo Vignelli

    vignelli canon

    Crave that prominent-grid, basic-fonts, industrial design aesthetic? Massamo Vignelli  would tell you that you can’t just imitate the surface, which must emerge as an epiphenomenon from an essential spirit embuing the design at its most fundamental level. He has put a document called The Vignelli Canon on the web as a pdf. It’s worth consulting.

    Read more »

    Posted: February 26th, 2009 under graphic design.
    Comments: none