Pantones Color of the Year for 2010

Color of the Year for 2010

The Decade's Best Design?

The New York Times published a slide show on their arts page comprised of 7 slides that name the decade's best designs.

Some I agree with, others not so much. Of course we, designers or not, can see that the iPhone is with out a doubt a beautiful piece of product design. It is user friendly, sleek, and elegant.


I don't agree with the other choices. It seems as though they were choosing designs not only based on aesthetics but on the overall idea behind it.

I am not really sure why something like this sofa was chosen. It doesn't seem very revolutionary or comfortable.

And this? Really? I understand that it was shaped by the designers hands but come on. There are lots of craftsmen who create beautiful things with their hands.

Check out the list for yourself, but these are the best designs of the past decade I think that we, as designers, need to step it up for the next decade.

JoceBoss' QR Code

Lookie here! its my QR Code!

what an amazing little website

I don't really have time to blog today but I just came across this awesome website for nike. check it

Swine Flu Hanky

I just saw this posted on swiss-miss.com and thought the post was so good that I would post about it! Its a swine flu hanky, made by Design Glut, who I've never heard of but I think that this is a really cute idea, especially since I have been obsessed with not getting sick (as my roommates can tell you) and even more so not getting the swine flu (I have "lysoled" the house).

The cutest part about the hanky?
The tag says "Think you might have swine flu? One things for sure- you'll need somewhere to blow your nose."

Motion Graphics

I just recently did three motion graphics spots in my senior project class for Manolo Blahnik. My professor emailed this to me to be inspired by. Although my spots are nothing like this one it really helped to inspire me.

Georgia Jagger for Hudson Jeans

Excluding the "Go Forth" campaign, I normally hate tv spots for jeans. They are all the same. They usually consist of girls with no tops on and close up shots of their hips, which are inevitably covered in a pair of ripped jeans while some sort of sexy rock n' roll plays in the background. These spots are no different. But for some reason I like them. I think its because Georgia Jagger is so strangely beautiful.

Art & Copy

The Girl Effect

I am usually not a fan of opening flash animations. I don't have the patience for most of them. This website is so well executed and has such a beautiful flash animation that I didn't even press the skip button!

Check it out! Not only is the website beautiful but The Girl Effect is for a great cause.

Go Forth!

Has anyone seen the new Levi's Campaign, "Go Forth!"?

A few weeks ago the Interactive Director for this campaign from Wieden + Kennedy came to talk to my Senior Project class. Turns out my Professor is good friends with him and he was in New York for the launch of the campaign.

It is a really exciting campaign for many reasons. I personally find the visuals of this campaign to be very exciting. One of my roommates said it reminds her of her teenage years, which I agree with, not that we are much past those years, but it reminds me of a time when I had more free time and less responsibilities. Although I do not want to go back to those days, it is nice to reminisce. The commercials and print ads speak to our generation, the website is really beautiful as well. The campaign has a call to action for people to participate in the search for Grayson Ozias IV's fortune (get it G.O. Forth?) which was buried somewhere in the US. There are clues given as to where hints may be found in order to ultimately find the buried fortune, $100,000. Supposedly, Levi's is going to fly the winner to the fortune and have them actually dig it up.

I don't know how effective this campaign is going to be at making people where Levi's. I love this campaign and honestly, I will never wear Levi's. They just aren't comfortable, but this campaign makes me wish that they were.

The Wonderfactory

Last Thursday, my senior project class had a presentation at The Wonderfactory. It is a really cool little design house (mainly web). They designed the Martha Stewart website which makes me automatically love them. We had to design iPhone apps for clients of our choice and then present them to one of the Creative Directors/Founders, David Link and the Director of HR, Carla Vilar. All of the presentations went well and we were well received, which was exciting, but the more exciting thing was the office that they had!

We were all blown away by just how creative the office is. There is a room called hell, video games galore, and a room that appears to be a closet until you push through the clothes hanging. They had also designed their own wallpaper with vector illustrations! Another cool thing is that when you get off of the elevator there is just a wall of book shelves in front of you and a rope hanging down with a tassle. When you pull the rope a secret door opens to the office! It seems like it would be the best office to work in! Check out more pictures of their office!

Font Apps for iPhone

Okay okay okay sometimes I am really sad that I don't have an iPhone. Today I am even more sad. There are type applications for the iphone! I read about it on the blog ilovetypography.com. I have a link to the blog in my blog roll and everyone who is interested in graphic design should check it out because they always have good stories.

If you know me well you know that I love type. Maybe it was the 3 semesters of Michael Kelly...actually, I know it was the 3 semesters of Michael Kelly...but I have truly learned to love type. An iPhone app about type is even worth paying for in my mind (which I would never pay for an app unless it was the coolest app I had ever seen)...You can even kern and the fontgame is even on it. If you are obsessive about type like me, you have already played fontgame on the website.

You can read all about it!

Sift Journal

Sift is Pratt's new sustainable publication put together by my good friend Noura Salem. All Pratt people should check it out if interested in sustainability. I just happen to be the resident blogger for Sift. We are working on putting together a community where people can learn and discuss sustainability and sustainable design. There are some really great resources on the blog and also on the facebook page.

Check out the blog!

Article from Design Observer

"100 Colors, 100 Writings, 100 Days" is an article that I just read on designobserver.com and was inspired by. Each day this person had a personal challenge/goal to pick "a paint chip out of a bag and responded to it with a short writing." I always want to set a daily activity for myself like this one but never do for fear of letting it fall to the wayside because of things that I may find to be more important like...school work....
check it out
Here are some examples of the writings and paint chips.

Spectra Visual Newsletter

WOW! This is such an awesome site! It is part of MSNBC and is a mini site that you can get "a fuller spectrum of news" as well as customize the news that you receive. It isn't only awesome because of the cool features but for the design as well.
As many of you readers know, I love white space in my design, which this site has, as well as a full spectrum (...haha) of colors and graphics. I am also really taken with the way that the stories and headlines move about the page.
The only problem for me is going to be remembering to visit it everyday.

Visit the website to see more!

GQ: Ideal Man

I have been trying to get inspired for my commercial for Axe shampoo. For some reason trying to come up with an idea for the commercial that I would actually be able to film and edit (with a small budget) has been very difficult.

A friend of mine showed me this youtube video of a commercial for GQ. It's called GQ: Ideal Man. It really got my creative juices flowing! I had a total creative block until I saw this and now I am really excited about my campaign and my commercial! Its really funny, and has the same feeling as Axe Advertisements but just a tiny bit more mature....but really just the tiniest bit more mature...

CHECK IT!

Axe Ads

For one of my Senior Project classes I am doing a campaign for one of Axe's shampoos called Deep Clean Shampoo + Hair Scrub. My idea is to do a campaign called "Wash Away Last Nights Sins" incorporating print, tv, social media, and product promotion (giveaway). My professor suggested that I look at what Axe has done (since it is so good) and try and make what I create mimic (in look and feel) but not copy what Axe has done in the past and although I do think that Axe products smell horrible (and make me want to gag) their advertising is amazing and some how make teenage boys (and grown men) think that their products smell good and attract the opposite sex. I have been researching their campaigns and I must say they are much better then I was expecting. In fact I think they are pretty "poppin" (as my sophomore des pro professor always says)! Even their Guerrilla Advertising is awesome. Here are some of the ads that I've found that I truly love.

Print Ads

Guerrilla Ads This is a Guerrilla Marketing Campaign in Poland where women dressed as police officers and sprayed men in the streets with Axe and then proceeded to demonstrate the effects that Axe has on women.

**now I am interning at BBH Axe's agency

Hendrick's Gin - Social Media

Hendrick's Gin Came up with this awesome social media advertising campaign.

Check it out!!!!

Their website is pretty cool as well!

Both, the website and "The Unusual Times" has a Facebook component where they frequently post updates, promotions, events, and questions.

One of my best friends posted this on my facebook wall.
Its a pretty awesome challenge! Click here to read more about it.

Whoa

I would love to have a wall of colored pencils

I watched helvetica today

I can truely relate about half way through when they talk about remembering thing by type.
Helvetica Clip

Mad for Mad Men fashion

Ah I love Mad Men.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/08/13/mad.men.fashion/index.html

Alexander McQueen for Target

I have to say I'm redic excited about Alexander McQueen for target.

Oh and i loves the dolls that they use in the ads

oh and i want the denim jacket.

cool wall

this is a cool wall

my computer broke a few weeks ago

My computer broke a few weeks ago and even though I have an amazing new computer the images of me holding a light up to my computer to use it for a few days still haunt me.

Deitch Projects

As I said, I had to go to Deitch Projects for a gallery identity project for school.
At the first gallery space that Deitch owns on Grand Street we saw an exhibit titled "Ben Jones: The New Dark Ages." I'm not sure what I thought of this exhibit. It was comprised of sculpture, flash animation and paintings.

Here are some photos from it.

Steven Sprouse

For my Type 4 class we were assigned an identity project for a gallery of our choice from a long list that the prof has supplied. I chose to do Deitch Projects after visiting every website on the list. It seemed to have the most interesting shows and has had a lot of publicity in the past.

One of the exhibits that was up was "Steven Sprouse: Rock on Mars."

I was totally inspired by this show although my friend Abe who I went with was not.

Steven Sprouse was a very influential fashion designer in the 80's and 90's and continued to create until his death at 50 in 2004.

Marc Jacobs has done a tribute to Steven Sprouse for the Louis Vuitton Spring 2009 collection!