F

Flavorwire

graphic design

Design

The Top 10 Design Books of 2012

By Claire Cottrell on

What do we love more than lists here at Flavorwire? Lists about books, that’s what. In keeping with one of our favorite time honored traditions — the end-of-year requisite roundups — we thought we’d take a look at some of the most noteworthy design books released in the past twelve months. Often relegated to the coffee table category, the design tome is a hallowed genre that’s more pictures than prose, but affords what we think is still the best form of inspiration in the world: the impeccably printed page.

From Phaidon’s comprehensive book-in-a-box featuring 500 plus graphic designs to Taschen’s enchanting retrospective of fairy tale tree houses for grownups, click through to check out our favorite design titles of 2012. … Read More

Design

The Most Iconic Film Title Sequences of All Time

By Claire Cottrell on

This week marks the opening of Goldfinger: The Design of an Iconic Film Title, MoMA’s focus installation — in conjunction with the film exhibition 50 Years of Bond — featuring the first film title sequence to enter the museum’s permanent collection. In honor of Bond’s golden anniversary and a long-standing legacy of outstanding opening credits, we’ve taken a look at the art of the title through the ages. From Saul Bass’ pioneering early work all the way up to the exceedingly clever introduction to nerd dramedy at its best, click through to check out the most iconic film title sequences of all time.… Read More

Web

What’s On at Flavorpill: The Links That Made the Rounds in Our Office

By Alison Nastasi on

Today at Flavorpill, We saw who “got your 6.” We felt cosmic with Tweets in space. We honored the Hall of Femmes in graphic design. We were hypnotized by abstract skater shadows. We watched President Obama’s message for the It Gets Better project. We discovered an… Read More

Art

Minimalist Graphic Maps of American Universities

By Emily Temple on

These cool minimalist maps of American universities by Tony and Katie Rodono, which we first spotted over at Explore, make us want to do color-coded fly-bys over our alma maters. But since that’s pretty impossible, we’ll settle for clicking through these gorgeous and strangely calming maps, rendered in each university’s colors. Click through to see some of our favorite grids, and let us know if the Rodonos have captured the spirit of your own university in the comments — if not, head here to check out even more or custom order a map of your favorite locale. … Read More

Design

Stolen or Borrowed: Designs Reappropriated and Redone

By Emily Temple on

The best things come in pairs. Or so we think after coming across “Similarities“, retired Professor of Graphic Design at West Texas A&M University Bob Caruthers’s Flickr set of reused designs, which we discovered over at Quad Royal. Carthuers writes, “The pairs of images in this “Similarities” set are similar visually in one way or another. They are presented without judgement as to the motives of their creators. The viewers of the pieces can form their own opinion(s) about what they see.” Some of the pairs are “accidents”, some are “re-contextualized”, some are “inspired”, some are “homages”, some are “appropriated”, but no matter what the politics or language, it’s amazing to see the way that images can influence — or down right form the basis of — new designs. Hey, our mothers always told us it was good to recycle. Click through to see some of our favorites, and head on over to Caruthers’s Flickr page for many more. … Read More

Art

Wanted: Our Brooklyn Neighborhoods in Poster Form

By Emily Temple on

Brooklyn-based graphic design team Two Arms Inc. have recently released the first two installments of their Brooklyn Neighborhood Series, wherein they will design posters representing each neighborhood in the eastern borough. The designs are simple but elegant — Two Arms pulls essential, representative elements from each neighborhood and juxtaposes them for a warm and fuzzy, almost nostalgic feel. So far, they’ve only released Williamsburg and Greenpoint, which is probably a smart move — we bet those are the areas with residents most likely to buy a poster of their hood — but we’re excited for the rest. Click through to see the posters, and let us know which elements of your neighborhood you’d want to hang proudly on your wall. … Read More

Daily Dose

Daily Dose Pick: This Is NPR

By Shana Nys Dambrot on

National Public Radio chronicles four decades of broadcasting independent-arts and political programming across America with a new book presenting the faces behind the radio dial.

A constant companion to daily commuters and fans of arts and culture journalism, NPR celebrates what it does best in This Is NPR: The First Forty Years, combining stellar graphic design, in-depth interviews, behind-the-scenes photos, and rare anecdotes from its best-loved voices. And if reading the radio is too strange, there’s also an audio version. … Read More

Design

Graphic: Inside the Sketchbooks of the World’s Great Graphic Designers

By Tanja M. Laden on

The journals of commercial designers, graphic artists, and illustrators become subjects in a new publication from Graphic: Inside the Sketchbooks of the World’s Great Graphic Designers by Steve Heller and Lita Talarico (Montacelli Press). Whether it’s design and branding, stock illustration, print, interactive media, or typography, ideas are recorded in the artist’s sketchbook long before the finished products are in the public eye. This book illustrates a wide span of creative approaches and techniques with themes as unique as the artists who created them. … Read More

Books

Image Gallery: The Art of the Paperback

By Chelsea Bauch on

We’re suckers for a juicy paperback as much as anyone else, but there’s no denying that the modern grocery store variety falls short on external appeal. Although raised gold lettering and glossy monochrome tend to dominate recent cover design, the art of the paperback was once a far more enticing feature of cheap genre fiction. Steven Brower’s Breathless Homicidal Slime Mutants pays homage to a wide-ranging variety of paperback art from the last century — from romance to mystery, science fiction, and westerns — while detailing the nuances of the medium’s evolution. Many of the featured stories are out of print these days, so consider this your guilt-free chance to judge a book by its cover. … Read More

Design

Pic of the Day: Star Grid Posters

By Todd Van Luling on

Spanish graphic designer, Mark Brooks, has created a unique series of posters that require the viewer to, as he puts it, “distance yourself from the stars and enjoy the view.” The posters are made of very little black stars that at up close do not reveal any sort of image except a sea of black dots, but by stepping away from your computer (or tilting the computer screen backwards) the true portraits become visible. Click through and try to see the stars within the… Read More