Article by Martin Gibson – @embody3d @martingibson – Monday – 19/12/11

This week in Industrial Design features the hottest links to other cool Industrial Design resources from around the web. For your weekly dose of Industrial Design news, events and products check out TWIID! If you have or know of a good resource for TWIID please get in touch with us!

The CAD of Aerospace

What Happened to USA Design?

An Exhibit of Ive

The ID of Braun

Article by Martin Gibson – Twitter: @martingibson @embody3d - 19.11.2011

ISBN – 9781592534821

1000 Type Treatments – From Script to Serif, Letterforms Used to Perfection by Wilson Harvey/Loewy and published by Rockport

The best way to describe 1000 type treatments is that it is a book about standard font manipulation. That is, you have a whole great selection of free and premium fonts in your design program like Adobe Illustrator, now how can you make these fonts dazzle and create interest for your desired project.

The book is split up into the following chapters: Flyers + Leaflets, Books + Magazines, Logos + Stationary, Brochures, Posters + Banners and 3D + Outdoor + Digital.

1000 Type Treatments – From Script to Serif, Letterforms Used to Perfection by Wilson Harvey/Loewy and published by Rockport is an inspiration book featuring hundreds of designs from all around the world. The book never aims to educate you on the process of font manipulation but rather give you ideas for your next design project.

All the designs are beautifully designed and presented as either vectors or as in-context photographs. The amount of designs for each section is just about right giving you enough projects to keep it weighty yet it doesn’t overburden you with inspiration and ideas (which actually can be bad). The designs include your typical grunge, minimalist, colourful, greyscale, ultra-modern, consistent, random, contrast, blended, photographic, vector, playful, scary and bold variety and tones.

For each design image it shows the country of origin and the design firm responsible for the work.

The small pages both have are a positive and a negative. Positive in that it is a cute little reference book to show clients. The obvious downside however is that all the images are small, especially when you divide half of the pages into quadrant images. But for anyone with youthful eyes like myself I am sure this will not be an issue.

There is no doubt the designs are excellent, but it just seems to lack creativity or any kind of distinction from many of the other portfolio books we receive. What’s the point of creating a book, a piece of art, a movie, a product when it doesn’t add anything new or unique to the genre? The only thing unique about Type Treatments is its title, in reality however this book is a polished typical portfolio book. The title brings connotations of surgical precision, unknown methodologies but all you will get are great images and inspiration. The term ‘type treatments’ also suggests it is concerning inner font manipulation, that is, how to edit fonts in a designerly manner to create something new. However 1000 Type Treatments also shows layout changes of fonts, so it shows a standard font at a 90 angle, or the structure is disjointed just to mention a few. Because of this open scope there is nothing that separates these portfolio items from any other design book. I guess an advantage of 1000 Type Treatments is that it houses all these project portfolios of different categories like logos, brochures etc. under one compact roof. 1000 Type Treatments isn’t bad, but nothing new.

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Article by Martin Gibson – Twitter: @martingibson @embody3d - 31.10.2011

ISBN – 9781440310324

Identify – Basic Principles of Identity Design in the Iconic Trademarks of Chermayeff & Geismar by Tom Geismar, Ivan Chermayeff and Sagi Haviv, published by Print Publishing is a dedication to the monumental graphic work of Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar.

If like me and you’re a little distanced from the history and development of logos and trademarks the Yale graduates Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar and their company Chermayeff & Geismar won’t be as recognisable as Michael Jackson or Buzz Aldrin but I can assure you at some stage of your life, whether you’re American or not you would have crossed paths with their work. In fact Chermayeff and Geismar’s work is even known on different planets! Even the red aliens of Mars have witnessed the universal (pun intended) appeal of their design nature. The Chase Bank, Mobil Oil, the Library of Congress, NBC, National Geographic, PBS, Smithsonian Institution, Showtime and Armani Exchange all bare the hallmarks of Chermayeff & Geismar.

Their work transcends time and culture and their influence permeates through the industry to this very day. This is really achieved through a minimalistic style, eclectic influence and a modern outlook of what a brand should communicate to its target audience. It’s staggering at how consistent their design language is yet the amount of diversity they are able to achieve with that style. One logo that really took me by surprise was a logo for a documentary series on PBS called ‘Half the Sky’ which actually includes a photograph of clouds within the logo! A practice which would be frequently frowned upon by top college lecturers. Some of their designs upon first impression seem unfinished or even inappropriate, but once you understand the context, design process and let the design sink in you appreciate the beauty of their work.

The concept of skilfully achieving iconic design is a hotly debated issue amongst academics. That is, is the design itself what makes a logo iconic, or is it the design prevalence amongst society and its familiarity in which we view it what elevates it into this glorified ‘iconic’ status. Who knows, but one can’t falter the great success of Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar. In my eyes there is just something special about it even if one can’t document it utilising the written word; well I guess that’s what design is all about.

What I really enjoyed about Identify was its really personal approach. Through its first person language it really felt like Tom and Ivan were guiding me through a museum of their most cherished pieces. Documenting the thoughts and struggles and development of the work strikes a real bond between the author and reader. Identify does a great job of showing concept drawings, different variations and the finished design in different contexts like posters, flags, brochures, and coffee mugs. In the minimalist style of their work, Identify likewise is presented with these same aspirations with grand pages with sometimes little scrawny logos in the middle adding full focus and appreciation of the design.

Ivan and Tom talk about their problem solving design approach that so many of us designers forget. One can easily overlook the problems of a logo design brief, most of the time it seems there is no problem at all. Identify re-affirms that every design addresses a problem. It might be that the current logo merely doesn’t look good anymore, or the feelings and emotions conveyed in the design have lost touch with a modern market, or the businesses current logo doesn’t represent the businesses core values, products or services. The process of sketching for initial ideation and then further development of the concept using computers is the chief tools of the Chermayeff & Geismar design firm.

There appears to be no order of how and why these logos are placed amongst the pages, but in this instance that’s ok. The book doesn’t make the mistake of becoming stale by revealing all the good designs at the beginning and then drying up. In fact one of the firms most notable designs, the Mobil logo is placed on the very last page taking Identify to a climatic end.

Only sometimes I can say a book truly transforms me to a new level of understanding. Identify certainly does this. For me it emphasises the beauty of simplicity. It is re-assuring to know that beauty doesn’t have to be complex and time-consuming, but rather it has to be of good taste; as they say less is more. What a great tribute to two astounding designers and their design legacy.

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Article by Martin Gibson – @embody3d @martingibson - Monday – 5/12/11

This week in Industrial Design features the hottest links to other cool Industrial Design resources from around the web. For your weekly dose of Industrial Design news, events and products check out TWIID! If you have or know of a good resource for TWIID please get in touch with us!

Investing in 3D Printing

3D Printing Body Parts

Designing a Mars Rover:Curiosity

Apple vs Samsung – The Tablet Wars

Glass Keyboard Design

Article by Martin Gibson – Twitter: @martingibson @embody3d - 31.10.2011

What an interesting book! The Best of News Design by the Society of News Design, published by Rockport. So often when we flick through a newspaper the concept of design is hard to imagine past all the cliché headlines, cheesy celebrity photos, and just bias and often poorly informed journalism. So often newspapers just seem like the pinnacle of efficiency design. It is like a well-oiled train always on time often compromising on imagination and complex thought. With so many templates, poor budgets and tight deadlines, so often the best designed parts of newspapers seem to be the advertisements and that is no exaggeration.

But every so often you will see a feature or a story that will take your breath away. Something that just stands out or strikes interest, or something you admire about the hard work of the collation or the inventive nature gone behind the piece. The Best of News Design is actually a competition that collates these highlight pieces from newspapers around the world.

For those that are asking, this is a product design blog, why on earth are you bothering with this newspaper design. I can’t stress enough the great relevance this book has to product designers. In fact I would go as far to say this is more relevant than any logo or brochure design book we cover on here. The reason for this is that newspapers have the task of telling a story, portraying information/content in an interesting manner. This is something logos and brochures do in a quasi ultra interpretative way but newspapers have to achieve in a literal mass market way. This is the exact angle product designers must venture to communicate their design. Once you delve into The Best of News Design you begin to appreciate the great lengths the artists have gone to reveal the inner-workings and the true nature of events, subjects and stories.

The book has nicely rendered large pages with small captions documenting the newspaper, artist and award category. I don’t want to explore specific examples because I really wouldn’t know where to start as the data visualisations are amazing to say the least. But just to give you an idea of what to expect some illustrations are of wars, sporting events, elections, health, religion, biology, politics, entertainment, crime, natural disasters, history, geology, art and exploration. The authors have picked a real diverse mix of illustrations that cross over languages, cultures, societies, ethnicities and even time which makes the book really interesting. It makes the reader say “where are all these great designs in the real world, they aren’t in my newspaper!”

The illustrations are sorted by award winners and categories like visuals, portfolios etc. While I would prefer it to be sorted into topics like sport, health etc. I can appreciate why The Society for News Design has kept the structure inline with the competition.

Despite The Best of News Design being a competition, one has to appreciate the achievement of bringing these gems into one comprehensive volume, it’s difficult to get these kinds of sources and reproduce them. The book doesn’t have the luxury of nice vector graphics submitted by eager designers, it has to really earn them by discovering them and even at times scanning them in. As a source of inspiration for industrial designers The Best of News Design has loads of potential in the right hands. Even if it isn’t in these crafty palms as a matter of interest and conversation the book is a real entertaining coffee table piece.

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Article by Martin Gibson – @embody3d @martingibson – Sunday – 27/11/11

This week in Industrial Design features the hottest links to other cool Industrial Design resources from around the web. For your weekly dose of Industrial Design news, events and products check out TWIID! If you have or know of a good resource for TWIID please get in touch with us!

Canadian Female Industrial Designers Showcase

Food Industrial Design

Aero Lighting System

The Desk Design

Dare to be Different

Article by Martin Gibson – @embody3d @martingibson – Monday – 21/11/11

This week in Industrial Design features the hottest links to other cool Industrial Design resources from around the web. For your weekly dose of Industrial Design news, events and products check out TWIID! If you have or know of a good resource for TWIID please get in touch with us!

Does Blackberry have any Hope?

Industrial Styled Light Concept

New Age Artists – An Interview

Outdoor Furniture

A Light Tree Concept

Grand Piano Design

Culture and Product Design

Retro Designs

7 Principles of Holistic Product Design

Industrial Design by Braun – MUST SEE!

Article by Martin Gibson – @embody3d @martingibson – Monday – 14/11/11

This week in Industrial Design features the hottest links to other cool Industrial Design resources from around the web. For your weekly dose of Industrial Design news, events and products check out TWIID! If you have or know of a good resource for TWIID please get in touch with us!

A Review on Corel CAD

Design a Transport Vehicle for Santa!

7 Holistic Design Principles

What Designers Say About Marketers

The Glow – An Amazing Light Design – MUST SEE!

Article by Martin Gibson – Twitter: @martingibson @embody3d - 31.10.2011

Design Matters – An Essential Primer by Maura Keller, Michelle Taute and Capsule, published by Rockport is an educational, illustrative and portfolio driven book on brochures, logos, packaging and portfolios; the key mediums of any branding pack.

Design Matters is split up into planning, creating, implementing and case studies with sub sections for each chapter on the 4 mediums which are as described above: brochures, logos, packaging, portfolios.

The book initiates with the planning stage which covers all bases from setting up design briefs, competitor analysis, research. It even questions what medium you should pick int he first place to communicate your graphic design message, and not to mention how to work with style guides.

The real educational meat of Design Matters comes in the Creating section which doesn’t leave a stone unturned. Some of the topics include: branding, busyness, attention, simplicity, uniqueness, metaphors, inspiration, layout, colour, emotion, memory, typography, hierarchy, personality, navigation, functionality and the list goes on. It never gets into any intricate detail on these topics which is unfortunate, but it is sufficient enough to keep up momentum and maintain interest. Most of the concepts/principles don’t require exhaustive technical analysis anyway. My favourite sections include the technical considerations like separating tag lines from logos and the avoidance of gradients and photographs inside logos and also the lesson of having a logo that can be inverted for different background colours. There is a nice little section on legal protection which goes over some thoughts you should discuss with your client regarding trademarks and copyright.

A large chunk, around 108 pages is dedicated to case studies which I tend to always have mixed feelings about. Realistically Design Matters doesn’t need any case studies whatsoever as the book is already littered with great examples of real world projects. However the case studies are engaging and it potentially humanizes all the lessons taught making the overload of information prior plausible to implement.

The clientele of the portfolio examples in Design Matters is top-notch quality-wise, it is a real inspiration and jaw-dropper. A real positive of Design Matters, is its ability to question assumptions. It has headings like “Is a Brochure the Right Solution”. This is such an important question as often clients will approach a designer with set outputs, but these notions perhaps should be questioned occasionally and a good designer should go to the goals of the client not the clients expectations.

The biggest issue with Design Matters is its overlapping structure. There are so many great aspects of the book, but its structure, such a fundamentally important part of any book lets it down. It’s so logical to come to the conclusion that the process of planning, creating and implementing is common, and in some cases identical whether you are doing a brochure, logo or packaging. There’s a standard and well-known design process and because these chapters are split up into the 4 design products: brochures, logos, packaging and portfolios it runs a dangerous line of being too repetitive (because after all these design processes are identical) and too sparse (because not everything is repeated which can appear as if somethings shouldn’t be done for some products when they probably should). The book fights a continual loosing battle to the very end and the simple solution of removing these sub product categories and just citing different examples of these products in a common section would make life for both the authors and reader more desirable. That or they could have just created 4 different books as part of a mini series as the book is fairly weighty. Accentuating this deficiency is the lack of prominent headings in Design Matters, for example, for logos, brochures etc. You have to pay close attention to the breadcrumbs on the side of the page to keep track where you are and where you are going. This just shouldn’t be the case.

I have harked on considerably on this issue, but if one removed this misdemeanour the book content wise (arguably the most important aspect of the book) is pure gold. The use of examples and real world ideas brings so much context and understanding to each topic area. Diagrams and illustrations are beautiful. So who is this book for? Well I see there being 3 key customers: students, professionals and prospective clients. Students will love the introductory nature of the book showing all considerations in a brief and fun format. Professionals will love the amazing quality of the featured projects and might even prompt them to revisit some issues in their own practice. For prospective clients Design Matters will give you an idea of what is important and will provide invaluable considerations and ideas which you could then present to a designer. For example later on in the implementation section it provides a swatch-like listing of materials that could be used for packaging just like you would see in a car brochure. I am giving this 3.5 stars but with a revised structure it is easily worth 4.5.

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Article by Martin Gibson – @embody3d @martingibson – Monday – 31/10/11

This week in Industrial Design features the hottest links to other cool Industrial Design resources from around the web. For your weekly dose of Industrial Design news, events and products check out TWIID! If you have or know of a good resource for TWIID please get in touch with us!

Ive the Future

Calma Chair Design

Kitchen Scale Design

ID Melbourne

Digital SLR Camera Redesign