Since it is the beginning of the school year, Print posted a nice article about 10 Essentials Design Students Should Know. Print surveyed graduate and undergraduate students from the MFA Designer as Author program at School of Visual Arts to determine essential knowledge for design students. The article gives advice for picking a design school, suggestions for developing your personal voice, and informs students about the importance of being fluent in typography.
The graphic designer and typographer use the grid for designing press advertisements, brochures, catalogues, books, periodicals, websites, etc. Grids are very helpful when organizing lots of material in limited spaces. This website, Grid and Design Philosophy, gives a history of the grid, it’s philosophy, and designers that were instrumental in its development. I’ve also attached a resources page for reference, and created some of my own grids to download.
While browsing the Pentagram website, I came across these two videos interviewing Paula Scher titled The Geography of Design. Instead of writing my own summary, below is a quick description of what these videos are about taken from the Pentagram website. Watch them here, or head over to Pentagram.
“It is a new two-part interview with Paula Scher directed by the filmmaker Nicolas Heller and produced by Brian Collins for the Art Directors Club. In the first part of the film, shot at Scher’s home and studio in Connecticut, Scher discusses the influence of New York City, its architecture, and especially its noise (the yelling!) on her design and typography. In part two, she talks about the development of her map paintings. In the film, Heller (son of Steven) takes viewers on a journey through Scher’s work, from her groundbreaking ‘Best of Jazz’ poster to a new painting commission for the city’s Percent for Art program.”
Graphic Design Referenced is a wonderful graphic design book by Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit. Their book builds on what Philip B. Megg and Richard Hollis have already created with their design history books. It is important for designers to know where our profession started and so we can take it in new directions. Gomez-Palacio and Vit wrote and compiled this book with that in mind including content that they feel is important, relevant, and influential to the world of Graphic Design.
Movie titles have opened up a whole new side of design, and artists are taking advantage of this. The great people at The Art of the Title Sequence have created this blog that gathers up a ton of these artistic titles. It’s a fun blog, and you will lose track of time once you start watching. But it is all worth it to see the old mixed in with the new.
Using type is something that designers sometimes struggle with. With so many type families at our disposal, it is amazing that we get anything done. But one thing is certain, understanding the essentials of typography will lay a strong foundation which will in turn take you far. This web tutorial, Typography Essentials, has all of the information for learning the basics of typography. From describing the parts of typefaces to suggesting helpful resources, I’ve constructed this website to be concise and clear.