Grand People

Stunning. A hive of inspiration - Grand People utilise a number of disciplines with dramatic effect.
www.grandpeople.no

Some superb examples of packaging at the Blog below. Some you may have already seen - all the same, some hugely inspiring examples.

www.h-kavanagh0710-dc.blogspot.com/2009/12/packaging.html

Wonderful, contemporary illustrations. Maybe a possible style to explore for 'Byron in a Bottle' if you wish to pull away from the gothic, traditional routes.

www.janinerewell.com/dollhouse.html

Anthony Freda

Quirky illustrations involving a variefty of mixed media and colage techniques.

www.anthonyfreda.com

Nature creates ice sculpture

We've had bad weather but nothing like this, check the link below.

www.uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20101216/twl-lighthouse-becomes-ice-house-41f21e0.html

Clients from Hell

Client: "We want something that has sort of an anarchist edge. Something crazy like Mickey Mouse with a swastika or something.”

Me: ”Are you sure your demographic is comfortable with swastikas?”

Client: ”Why wouldn’t they be?”

More here - www.clientsfromhell.net

The Rich Jerk

Superb find from Darren on Year 2. You want the cream of confidence and arrogance, visit the links below.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YBxeDN4tbk

www.therichjerk.com

I’d Live In It. Bufalino Camper Combines Car, Bedroom, Office

I’d Live In It. Bufalino Camper Combines Car, Bedroom, Office

More...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd-rDzsNbFM&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Micro festival ideas?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlQItYwQxIY

Everybody wanna be like Nike

Spike lee advertised for nike in the early nineties at the height of his game. now in the fashion of looking back at old trends, Nike has utilised their old campaign and made it interactive - check out the website below.

www.nike.com/jumpman23/becomemars/index.html

Great way to keep the customers engaged

Clever.

http://vimeo.com/11304460

Office antics

http://vimeo.com/9378525

Nike Beat Trainers

Ace concept. How much is true, I don't know.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1hNypys7Bs

Clever messaging system

www.geogreeting.com

Allows you to send a message to a friends email account using purely aerial shots of buildings taken using google earth. Fantastic idea!

Conviviality

Here is an example of how people are wishing for a more personalised fashion of electronic messaging. No longer are the regular fonts in your word fontbook the touch needed, here at this website your handwriting can be copied and recreated as a font for you to write the messages in. Clever and personal but still doesn't beat the old fashioned value of a postcard or letter in the post, email will always have a cold factor due to the nature in which it is presented.

www.seriouslyimportantinformation.com/index/write-a-handwritten-note-without-picking-up-a-pen-

Generation D

A good example of the way music and the fans of the music are communicating as well as the impact to which this connection has now upon the artist personally not just in a generalised way anymore. Here Imogen Heap has utilised the connection she had with her fans on Twitter in the design of the dress for the acceptance of a Grammy Award. The collar used an LED light display which was connected to her Twitter site so as the fans posted their messages would be projected upon the musician at the awards.

http://www.fashioningtech.com/profiles/blogs/twitter-dress-at-grammys

Alphonse Mucha - Moet & Chandon, White Star Champagne Label

FdA Year One: Write a brief description on the above image based on; colour, format, composition, influences, style including both historical and contemporary references.

i-pad magic!

John, bet you never imagined you could do this with it........

http://vimeo.com/14958082

Kinetic wood sculpture

Fantastic video of the creatively masterful Mr.Margolin...worth a watch!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dehXioMIKg0

Forgotten hopes and lost waistlines

I had a dream once, sniff sniff! blogtastic dream filled with cunning artwork inventive collage and wowzer design...if only dreams came true...(double take)!...yey!
www.forgotten-hopes.com

Olly Moss' Mad Men Poster

'You know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car. It’s freedom from fear. It’s a billboard on the side of the road that screams reassurance that whatever you are doing is OK. You are OK.' Don Draper

Another stroke of graphic genius from Olly Moss. Check out more of his work at www.ollymoss.com

Finders keepers....oh go on then i will share!

Great little animation blog called the hyde tube - www.thehydetube.com

AisleOne

www.aisleone.net

Metropolis Reconstructed

Broadway Cinema - Friday 10th- - 23rd September

www.broadway.org.uk/film_programme.php#metropolis

If you haven't yet seen Fritz Lang's masterpiece of film making, then shame on you. Keep an eye out for the epically restored version at local cinemas. Produced in 1927, the signature dystopic science fiction tale tells a story of an exploited workforce who rebel after being targeted by their masters in a violent act of oppression. It may feel like a plodding effort of silenct cinema, but the incredible special effects helped define everything familiar in modern film. Genius, prophetic and totally compelling.

www.metropolis1927.com

Design With Intent

Robert Fabricant discusses the sea change in the way designers engage with the world. Instead of aspiring to influence user behavior from a distance, designers increasingly want the products they design to have more immediate impact through direct social engagement.

You can view the article here - www.changeobserver.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=14338

Breast Awareness Ad Campaign

www.thecoolhunter.co.uk/article/detail/1779/breast-cancer-foundation-of-singapore

The Cool Hunter

Check out the cardboard cinema and other wonderful designs via www.thecoolhunter.net

Luke Insect

Stunning work from the designer behind a number of familiar brands and album covers, Luke Insect. Some wonderful slick and grungy products for the likes of The Prodigy, Levis and the Free Range brochure (above).

www.lukeinsect.com

Artbox

Superb magazine for you all to check out. Healthy mix of product, interior, graphics and illustration.

www.artboxmagazine.bigcartel.com/product/issue-10

Welcome FdA Year One

Hello all,

I’d like to welcome you to Year One of the FdA Design course and hope you have had a decent summer, despite the rubbish weather.

We’ve decided to send you a summer project to keep you company and hopefully give you a little something to discuss during induction week. I would also like to introduce you to the official Blogspot we have set up for you – www.fdodesign.blogspot.com. We would like to encourage you to use this area of the tinterweb throughout the year. For now, it is the perfect place to introduce yourselves and hopefully help each other out with the project. Perhaps you’ll share ideas, research, or even some of the final pieces.

In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your summer and I look forward to meeting you all in September.

Richard Johnson
Year One Course Leader

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00slplb/The_Genius_of_Design_Better_Living_Through_Chemistry

great series again bbc production.....justifies the tv licence from time to time.

A Timeline of Chairs

Here is a useful site with regards to placing chair designs into context for our latest brief......

http://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/online/a-century-of-chairs/1920s

Emma.

ron arad at the barbican

www.barbican.org.uk/ronarad/exhibition

late night find part two...

www.behance.net

A great source of artists and designers under pretty much any category...have a browse every now and again you won't fail to be inspired.

late night finds....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wox70QK6ZW4&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33MsPW4mUks&feature=player_embedded#
http://allthingsconsidered.co.uk/2008/11/joshua-allen-harris.html

the top two are great inspiration for the metro project, paper apparently is boundless with possibilities

the joshua allen harris page, well see for yourself and feel saddened too when they deflate like i did

Vault49

I've just discovered this website....It's got some great examples of animation, typography, illustration & photography etc.

Have a gander -

www.vault49.com

Emma.

Information is beautiful: 30 examples of creative infography

www.designer-daily.com/information-is-beautiful-30-examples-of-creative-infography-5538

Superb find from D – beautiful use of simplicity in graphic design, which is the key to any good piece of graphic design. How do you show a subject matter and/or concept so clearly, even when it is based on religious references? How do you display the mundane in such an exciting and dynamic way?

Simple - you understand the audience and the context of the subject matter on as many different levels as you can. It's like looking at an alternate reality.

Also worth having a look at Johnathan Barnbrook – good examples of intelligence and wit conveyed behind typography.

Direct link to Designer Daily below.



www.designer-daily.com

Abandoned building animation

An absolute must see.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uad17d5hR5s&feature=player_embedded#

KaBoom!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZeguaJzUyk

Low-fi Sci-fi

www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2009/april/low-fi-sci-fi

Book cover

New Year - Good times!

Happy New Year and That!

Second years, see you at the end of the week. Be impressive.

Here be links -

http://www.designerstoolbox.com/

Full of design resources - Lorem Ipsum generator, binding information, web banner sizes and browser safe areas, and so on. Mad useful, yo.

http://www.nobledesktop.com/shortcuts.html

Lovely time-saving keyboard shortcut 'cheat sheets'.

http://www.pantone.com/downloads/articles/pdfs/PANTONE-FCR-sp2009.pdf

This season's colours, according to Pantone.

http://www.27bslash6.com/

Using the internet for fun and games - there's the odd design-related bit, but it's the vengeful creativity that gets me. Happy days.

http://www.codehunters.tv/swfs/main.htm

Animated goodness - 3D cell-shaded dystopian nightmare with pencil marks as texture detail.

And finally:

http://www.creativetechs.com/iq/controlling_the_align_feature_in_illustrator.html

This has been bugging me for years, and might possibly be the most useful Illustrator thing you'll read all year. Or week. Or day.

I liked it.

TODAY

http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=12317

TODAY is a weekly jewel box of seemingly random, yet thoughtfully selected, images. At times tender, wicked, nostalgic, amusing, and dazzling, each edition is presented without narration, editing or explanation by its author, designer Eric Baker. "It all began as a goof. One day I sent a good friend about 50 random pictures of cheese. I don't know why, but to me cheese is funny, perhaps it is the word itself and its various connotations. Eventually I began looking closer, or should I say broader at 'things'. Things lost on the fringes...ordinary, odd, beautiful things. Esoteric images, old diagrams, typography, cartography — visions of a once promising but now extinct future."