F Bomber

Recently, I have been working on a wine label design for a hot, fresh Napa Valley wine group (headed up by wine genius, James Harder) called The Dirty Pure Project. The idea was to create a wine so ridiculously good that the drinker of the wine would be dropping F Bombs (Tourette syndrome?) all over the place declaring what a truly delicious find it was. The very talented and great illustrator of our time, Tavis Coburn brought to life the idea and this is the result. An intoxicating image to shake up the wine crowd and spark a heady conversation regarding the product.

Typography Great Wins

Exciting news for all type-geeks everywhere! Today, typography legend Matthew Carter won a $500k Genius Grant. The MacArthur Foundation honors a graphic design legend, who created Verdana, Georgia, and dozens of other fonts we have used many times over the years. “Matthew Carter is a master type designer who crafts letterforms of unequaled elegance and precision for a seemingly limitless range of applications and media,” the MacArthur Foundation’s Web site says. “Throughout his career, which spans the migration of text from the printed page to the computer screen, he has pursued typographic solutions for the rapidly changing landscape of text-based communications.” A true craftsman and founder of Bitstream (a powerhouse type foundry), the 72 year old has been a prolific designer unassumingly crafting hundreds of faces that succeed precisely because you don't notice them. From early projects like AT&T's Bell Centennial typeface, to more recent work adapting to digital media with screen-friendly typefaces like Verdana and Georgia, his style is characterized by simplicity and readability. He has produced type for a raft of publications. Among them: Time, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, Wired, and Newsweek. The New York Times’s headline typefaces were designed by Carter. "Matthew Carter is often described as the most widely read man in the world," the New Yorker wrote in a 2005 profile

Miller High Life, Tasty!

Earlier this year, Miller High Life introduced a whole new look for all of its packaging and graphics designed by the San Francisco office of Landor, with illustration assistance by Chris Mitchell.

First brewed in the mid nineteenth century by Frederick Miller in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Miller High Life is one of most well known American beer brands and (coming from the midwest) I have a long standing relationship with the product and am quite a fan. I really love what Landor has done as far as updating the entire product offering as well as all visual touch points. Everything has been handled quite nicely from the revised logo to the packaging and illustrated Miller "Moon Girl". This is one of those dream projects and you can tell whoever had an opportunity to work on it really enjoyed the process.

Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity

At Arizona State, I had an instructor named Rob Roy Kelly who was heavily influenced by many of his instructors at Yale, one of whom was Joseph Albers who was an instructor at the Dessau Bauhaus campus. It was evident that Rob carried with him that connection and it made a deep impression on me early on, though it took years for me to fully understand that impact.

Hello Design (a fantastic interactive agency here in LA) has created a beautiful site for MOMA - Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity, highlighting over 400 works by some 100 teachers and students of the Baushaus that reflect the extraordinary broad range of the school's output. Additionally, it gives a historical overview of the school, it's workshop and faculty.

Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for Modernity is on view at The Museum of Modern Art, New York from November 8, 2009 through January 25, 2010. It will not travel so catch in person if you can.

David Carson on Ted

Love him or hate him, there is no doubt that David Carson has created a body of work that has effected a generation of designers and made it look fun in the process. Here is a great video of David at the 2003 Ted Conference explaining his process and insights regarding typography in the world and his views on it's impact. Definitely an engaging speaker with a great sense of humor.

Vania Zouravliov

So, I've discovered yet another genius creator of well drawn images. Vania Zouravliov, a Russian who is a master draftsman, is able to conjure up illustrations that are haunting and beautiful with exquisite detail. His work is rife with hidden meaning and symbolism and the longer one stares at the piece, the more is revealed.

Once again I find myself tempted to take a rock and tie it around my sketchbook and throw it into the ocean out of pure jealousy...

Communication Arts

Very excited to announce that Communication Arts recently selected my label design for Ex Nihilo Vineyards to be included in the packaging section of the upcoming 2010 Design Annual. Ex Nihilo is actually Latin for "creation out of nothing" so, I chose a typographical solve to best communicate the term. Photo credit goes to Trevor Pearson.