Tattly Tuesday

via swissmiss
Every Tuesday, Tattly launches 4 new temporary tattoos and this week’s designs are a homage to print design.
More on these can be found here.

Cover: Training in Commercial Art

via letterology
Just one of the old cover scans found here.
My 1982 degree from the Art Institute in Pittsburgh is in Visual Communication, and I am fairly certain that initially my resume from that time had me searching for jobs as a commercial artist. It was many years later that I took on the title of graphic designer.

Firecracker Labels

via letterology

See more examples of early firecracker labels here, with links to even more.

Color Communication: When You Say X, Your Designer Hears This

via colourlovers

Image from
Hearing Color: Neil Harbisson, Cyborg

“Let me paint a picture for you. You’ve just started working with a new designer. You sat down with that person, explained all of your dreams for the design, and left the meeting feeling like you were really on the same page. Then the next time you meet with them, they present a design that is completely different than what you expected. It’s not necessarily a bad design, but it is definitely different than what you described. Sound familiar? This is what I like to call a “lost in translation” moment. And it’s exactly what inspired me to create this guide on translating “design talk.” Why is there a disconnect?…”
Read the rest here.

Don’t Fear the Internet

via imprint
“…Jessica Hische and Russ Maschmeyer have started a wonderful little site explaining to beginners what production for the web is all about. Young designers, take heed: this is not optional information. It’s rare that a web shop would be willing to hire a designer who has no idea how HTML/CSS and JavaScript work together. Friendly and easy to understand, these guides are a good place to start.”
Be sure to visit here.

Paul Rand: A Designer’s Words

via Steven Heller’s imprint
“On April 3, 1998 the School of Visual Arts held a Paul Rand Symposium in New York City. To commemorate the event Nathan Garland, Georgette Ballance and [Steven Heller] edited a keepsake titled Paul Rand: A Designer’s Words, a collection of many Rand quotes from various sources. It was printed by Rand’s favorite printer, Mossberg & Co., typeset by his favorite typesetters, PDR (A Division of AGT), and produced with his favorite paper, Mohawk Superfine. Nathan Garland’s design was true to Rand’s typographic aesthetic. Only 500 copies of the keepsake were printed, given free to the symposium participants and sold through Emigre, among other limited venues (only a few rarities remain)...”
Now, Steven Heller has made it available to all via PDF. If you would like to download go here or here.

Who Did That?

Albrecht Durer’s monogram

via imprint

“Anon, short for anonymous, is as common in art history as Smith is in American telephone directories. Yet for a specific work to have its maker buried in an unmarked grave in history’s Potters Field is a sad epitaph indeed.

Credit implies ownership and accountability. Around the eighteenth century art became more commonly a function of individual creators who received credit. The term Anon is less commonly found in art histories of this era. In fact, the signature became an important component of a work, even for lesser artists.

While not on the lowest rung of the art hierarchy, illustrators and cartoonists of the nineteenth century started signing their wares as much for their personal satisfaction as for the recognition it afforded them in an increasingly competitive marketplace. And not only did the illustrator’s signature appear, so did the engraver’s and printmaker’s — akin to the lengthy acknowledgments found in contemporary graphic design annuals...”

Read the rest here.

How to Steal Like an Artist and 9 Other Things that Nobody Told Me

1 + 1 = 3

via HOW

“I love it when creative people explain how their creativity works. Artist and writer Austin Kleon gave a presentation called How to Steal Like an Artist and 9 Other Things that Nobody Told Me yesterday at Broome Community College in Binghamton, New York, and was kind enough to share the slides.”

See the presentation here.

Design Council UK Explains What Graphic Designers Do

via @Issue Journal of Business & Design

“Probably more people know what a microbiologist does than what graphic designers do. Undoubtedly your aunt and grandma – and possibly even your mother – don’t have a clue. They’ll look at a printed piece and praise the photography, the illustrations, the writing and sometimes even the feel of the paper, but they aren’t quite sure what role the designer played in this. That’s why we are grateful to the Design Council UK for producing a video that succinctly explains what graphic design is and what graphic designers do. We recommend that you forward it to every member of your family especially just before a holiday gathering, and perhaps selectively to a few clients.”

Watch it here.