I was pleased to contribute a square in this fifth patchwork collaboration curated by mod.
Where as the previous patches are often standalone pieces of artwork, this one all the artwork patches are linked by blending in small sections from the adjoining pieces. Each artist had only a few days each to create their patch, and you only really get an idea of what you can do to creatively blend your work once you receive the template.

All I could see above my work was a small confusing piece of fish or frog foot(or at least this is what I thought at the time). This left me more than a little stuck as to where to start. With a lot of white space above i decided to build that into a cloud layer.

I created a very stylised rainy backdrop. This took a few revisions, the first being far more complex and random, eventually leading to this simplified pattern like background.

I drew a (farly rubbish yet somehow endearing ‘menacing robot’ silhouette, looming forward out of the rain with some big glowing eyes that seem to draw your focus. I am quite pleased with the final result below.

Much of my work is based around geometrics and patterns, and I hoped that the edges of my work would provide at least something interesting to be worked into other peoples work. Although the lines hitting my edge were fairly simple I was confident that the people following on from my piece would be able to do something great.

And of course the full patch poster (download link for high res below):

Here is a link to the full poster, which you can download and print. You can find the original thread at yayhooray. Hope you like the poster! Please let me know what you think in the comments below.

David A Smith is a name that has become synonymous in Sign-Writing and Glass gilding circles, with high quality, hand crafted reverse glass signs and decorative silvered and gilded mirrors.

In this short documentary, we reveal behind the scenes work, techniques and visions that Dave uses when carrying out his passion as a glass embosser – One of the few remaining traditional UK glass artists.

French graphic design studio Salutpublic excel in print and web design, with a focus on structural and narrative strategies when it comes to solutions.

Their Books and magazines are particularly impressive examples of work in my humble opinion, it isn’t any wonder why they have won a multitude of awards.

Check out more of their work at http://www.salutpublic.be

Meanwhile, here’s a taster:

Signs, signage and even waymarking; whatever you want to call it, it’s all around us. I’m going to share a collection of images that I have collected from the corners of the internet.

I must apologise however, I wasn’t always smart enough to take notice of where the sign is nor who designed it so I’m afraid you’re going to have to enjoy this for what it is.

Eind Goud, Al Goud

Level 5

Waymarks

Waymarks

Montana Library

Terror Museum, Budapest

Terror Museum, Budapest

Anamorphic projection

University of Catalunya

North Meadow

Cooper Union canopy

When I was a wee lad ….
I loved sci-fi books and mags and would read Omni, another great US sci-fi and science digest of the 80’s.
The other more vintage magazines I would grab were my father’s.
Since these mags were his ‘grown up’ books, all the better! Luckily for me, he kept the vintage pulp he had read from his late teens, in the attic.
When the boxes were brought down, I discovered Titles like Analog, Galaxy, Fantasy and Science Fiction and many more.

I love the artwork, and the simple clean look of the type. The sans style not distracting the viewer from the art, reminding the reader of the more sophisticated content they are about to read. Stories from the likes of Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov.

The mags were usually bi-monthly and crammed with some of the best sci fi writers of the time. The artworks were produced using color lithography, the headlines, usually hand drawn, then photo set.

Below is a selection of some of the best out there, from that golden era.

Since I began perusing the internet for its vast cache of design goodness, I often find myself being led back to a familiar corner of the online design community.

Whether it’s ffffound! Flickr or even Tumblr, it’s rather remarkable the number of times the recommended image/link belongs to the Korean graphic design studio, Workroom.

Seemingly effortless, the clean and expressive design supplemented by the crisp typography almost makes it look too easy.

Here is a selection of their work, along with a link to their site which contains a recent update from the year so far.

http://workroom.kr/index.html

Andy Gilmore has a great ability to combine colour, patterns and geometric shapes to create some stunning artwork

Born in Rochester, NY, andy is an illustrator and designer who creates some stunning works with a strong emphasis on geometry and colour. This is just a small selection of his work, you can find more at the links below.

andy gilmore illustration

andy gilmore illustration

andy gilmore illustration

andy gilmore illustration

andy gilmore illustration

andy gilmore illustrations

andy gilmore illustration

andy gilmore illustration

andy gilmore illustration

andy gilmore illustration

andy gilmore illustration

You can check out his website or view his flickr to see more.

So who didn’t love those 80’s films like Flight of  the Navigator and The Last Starfighter when they were a kid. I’m sure that a lot of you got into design through a love for all things astrological & Sci-Fi.

My personal favorite is 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Stanley Kubrick. Although the film was created 10 years before I was born just hadn’t seen a more visually complete and realised version of the future on film before. This film continues to inspire work by others too, and I’ve put together a collection of recent space age inspired projects by some pretty amazing designers.

2009 was the international year of astronomy, and Simon Page has created some retro space inspired posters to promote it. This is a great project.

international year of astronomy poster

Read More »

Glennz is Glen Jones from New Zealand, a designer who started making his illustrations into T-Shirts over at threadless. After creating a massive 21 successfully printed t-shirts there he’s now selling his wares on his own site. Simple & clever, funny & brilliant illustrations. Here are a selection of our favorites designs.

Less Formal

Read More »

20 Decks of designer playing cards to inspire, astound and make you drool

This collection of playing cards have been created by groups, individuals, professional artists, and for student projects. All of them have something in common, these aren’t just ordinary playing cards.

Suit Up Artists playing Cards is a great collaboration between many Australian artists to produce a stunning deck. With an emphasis on street art, comic and illustration the stylish cards sold out relatively quickly, however prints of most are still available.

Suit Up artist playing cards

Suit Up artist playing cards

Read More »