Velvet Cartel

Irving Harper has been a long time hero of ours. We were first introduced to this design legend in 2001 from an interview in Metropolis Magazine. It was our first realization that George Nelson was credited for many of the iconic designs that Harper had created. Designs that are still being manufactured today by Herman Miller, Vitra, and Maharam from the Marshmallow sofa to the popular desk and wall clocks. Slowly but surely Harper is being recognized, either for his design contributions or his paper sculptures, a hobby he took on after hours. Michael Maharam is helping to document these sculptures in a monograph to be published by the end of the year. New York Times visited Harper recently at his home in Rye, New York, capturing a portrait of the him in his studio. Interestingly enough, the photo was shot from the same angle as the 2001 photo of his studio in Metropolis Magazine – every bit of the space appears to be the same.

Source: The Scout

This German graphic designer was way ahead of his time.

First off let me just say that it’s awesome to have come across this beautiful archive of work by German graphic designer, Anton Stankowski. The images in the archive are fairly large so the detail of the design becomes evident. In the first image of this post it looks to me like the background of the poster was painted with a brush then overlaid by the type. The process of how this was done would be refreshing to see.

The first thing about Stankowski’s work that pulled me in was the amount movement. Nearly every one of these pieces utilizes a visual system that controls your eyes across the graphic elements and to the typography. The system is very effective considering that I keep looking at these pieces every couple of minutes to see how my eyes move around.

The Sulzer poster and the Hill Briskuit Mehl packaging are undoubtedly my favorites. Even though both are very simple they still have a lot of motion in them. Also in the Sulzer piece, the transition of the mountain peak to the type sings composition to me and in the Briskuit packaging I really admire the grid and typography.

Source: ISO50.com

Stumbled across Yellow Bird Machine today, while browsing Kitsune Noir.  Amy Martino’s illustrations are incredible.  Her work has been featured on award-winning designer, Amy Henderson’s site Aqua-Velvet.  She has also been asked by Nike to do an original illustration for their women’s graphic t-shirt line coming out in May.

Here are some of her works.

I love finding good quality textures to implement into my designs.  Even a subtle use of a texture in a design can make a world of a difference.

Check out these textures and more at smashingmagazine.com