:: Call to Action :: Wear Bicycle Helmets

The importance of wearing bicycle helmets can not be stressed enough. Every year hundreds of children are injured in bike related accidents. As these posters indicate, there can be future consequences from head trauma sustained from a biking accident. 

These posters are selling a product, however, they are also creating awareness by using a sense of humor. Originally found at The Creative Blog. Check this site out, it has many other great examples of humorous/intriguing advertisements.

:: Call to Action :: Get Out the Vote 2008

'tis the season. 

November 4, 2008 is looming. AIGA is looking for graphic designers to create voting awareness posters. 50,000 posters were produced in 2004. This year appears to be a bigger draw with the prospect of electing a non-incumbent president since 1928. 

Check out the galleries for 2000 and 2004 while thinking about your submission for 2008. and go vote.

:: Call to Action :: American Mustache Institute

Since the 1970s, American men fear growing facial hair above their lip. Mustaches conjure images of The Village People, Harley aficionados, and porn stars. However, if facial hair is grown as a beard, or even a goatee, it is deemed acceptable by society. With my help, the American Mustache Institute will break the stigma of the mustache, allowing men to achieve free will over their appearance. In the coming weeks I will aim to educate people about the benefits of mustaches and how mustaches can improve society.

26 type critters

Jeremy Pettis' senior thesis project is a unique take on a classic problem: A-Z animal typography. Instead of following conventions of creating the type to look exactly like the animal, Jeremy captures each creature's essence in typographical form. You can view the complete portfolio at the above link. And an interview can be found here.

Anatomy of an Illusion

Stumbled across this site the other day. The text may be too academic for easy digestion, but I found the experiment/flash animation to be interesting.

source: Aurthur Shapiro

Two circles are alternating pulsations inside larger circles. One larger circle is white and the other circle is black. The pulsating circles fade from white to black and appear to alternate within the larger circles. However, this is the illusion, by turning off the larger circles the viewer realizes that the pulsating isn't alternating, but rather synchronous. The visual system is designed to detect contrast and this animation fools the system. Its pretty clever. Hope you check it out. 

:: Call to Action :: Typophile

Typophile is a community forum for type enthusiasts and novice designers. There are plenty of topics covered ranging from general design to specific typeface selection. Many people on the site offer great advice for typography and layout questions. Currently typophile is attempting to raise money to support maintenance and upkeep of the site and maintain he high quality of the forums. If you would like to make a donation visit here.

Nanoscale images

wired.com

How I spent my Wednesday...

Spent a good portion of the day reading the live blog of Roger Clemens testimony. (Link is ESPN's version. SI and several other outlets had their own coverage.) The interesting part of this whole circus--other than Congress has nothing better to do--is technology today can allow a reporter (or blogger--I'm sure there is debate about this somewhere too) to stream the news to their audience as it happens, rather than hastily crafting a story, proof reading it, editing it and sending it to publish (online or print.) The audience is instantly gratified and the 'journalist' doesn't worry about finding a story, or editing out the superfluous portions. Computers, wireless internet, and blogging have replaced CNN and the traveling reporter/camera crew.   

:: Description :: Chris Jordan

I stumbled upon Chris Jordan's work through a digg.com link leading to divinecaroline.com . Jordan's most recent work is 'Running by Numbers' where the artist photographs everyday objects, then multiplies them to represent the quantity found in a statistic, such as the number of plastic bottles used in 5 minutes. Instead of quantifying the answer, Jordan visually shows the scale of those 2 million bottles. The large photographs from a distance appear as patterns, but when the viewer goes in closer they are surprised to see what comprises the image. It is a very visual way to describe everyday statistical numbers.

Images by Chris Jordan depicting 200,000 packs of cigarettes, the number of cigarette smokers who die every 6 months. The skull image is based on work by Van Gogh and the additional images are details of the work. The final image is actual size.

Rox Out with Your Posters Out...

Went to a gallery opening on Wednesday for an exhibition of silk-screened rock posters. If you are in the College Park area I recommend stopping by and taking the tour. 

The show is "Sweet: The Graphic Beauty of the Contemporary Rock Poster". (the subtitle definitely does not rock) 

The posters above are designed by The Heads of State. Unfortunately, they were not on display and neither were their other work. Because of the snub I'll redirect you to check out their wares. 

My fave of the show was Aesthetic Apparatus. 

And because I want Amazon.com to fund my daughter's college fund I will plug their site for a book written by the show's curator John Foster; New Master's of Poster Design: Poster Design for the Next Century. (I know who came up with the joy titles now...)

:: Inspiration :: Hermann Zapf

"Typography is basically two-dimensional architecture. The harmony of the proportions, the grouping of the lines of type, the balance of contrast and symmetry, the dynamic tension of asymmetrical arrangement, are the means which the typographer may use in a given task so that the text is communicated to the reader in the most articulate form. His inventiveness is restricted only by the technical limitations of the materials, and the obligations imposed by the history of style." —Hermann Zapf, Autobiography in Type, Motif. No. 3. London 1959

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Herman Zapf is a typographer, graphic designer and calligrapher. The beauty of his work and the level of craftsmanship he exhibits in his work inspires me. 

More information.

Who are Max Miedinger + Eduard Hoffmann?

Some say they are bastards. Other say they are saints. I agree with both. 

Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann are responsible for creating Helvetica, the most commonly used typeface in the world. Helvetica's pop-culture success can be attributed to the typeface's neutral design. It can be both used beautifully and disgustingly. It all depends on the designer.

At least its not comic sans...