Salon.com > Stephanie Orma

How great children’s books are born

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 01:00:00 +0000

We all have that one person we'd love to work with ― that dream creative collaborator.

Well, imagine you've just been assigned to work with the Edward Gorey. Holy cannoli ― that would be insane! And not only is it the most creatively fulfilling collaboration, you become the best of pen pals. You share crazy-long handwritten letters (yes, handwritten) discussing everything from favorite books to pancake recipes, with Gorey personally illustrating all the envelopes just for you.

That's exactly what happened to renowned writer Peter F. Neumeyer in the summer of 1968. Pomegranate Press’ new publication, "Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey and Peter F. Neumeyer," reproduces the never-before-seen, typewriter-transcribed personal correspondence and illustrated envelopes between Gorey and Neumeyer as they collaborated on several children's books, between 1968 and 1969.

Inside the branding process

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 00:30:00 +0000

Design enthusiasts from around the world gathered in San Francisco on Sept. 16 for the 2nd annual Brand New Conference – the logo and identity event hatched from Bryony Gomez-Palacio’s and Armin Vit’s wildly popular Brand New blog. Eager to peek into the brand-making process by industry trailblazers and pocket juicy creative nuggets, the well-turned-out set received an ear- and eye-ful of inspiration from: Vince Frost of Frost Design; Christopher Simmons of MINE™, Paddy Harrington of Bruce Mau, Marina Willer of Wolff Olins, Jonathan Notaro of Brand New School, Claudia Boggio and Alfredo Burga of Infinito, Ben Barry and Everett Katigbak of Facebook, and Matteo Bologna of Mucca Design.

The ornamental design comeback

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 00:01:00 +0000

Ornament and pattern design -- love it or hate it, the style debate rages on. Whether you dig decorative flourishes or vote anti-adornment on all things design, one thing is clear -- the fanciful aesthetic has developed a bad rep. Name-called everything from "fussy distractions" to "overly girly" to "old-fashioned," more than a few nerdy design brawls have broken out over the subject. Well, whichever side of the frilly fence you sit on, lately (as in the last 15 years) the expressive art has been making a comeback. And Denise Gonzales Crisp and Susan Yelavich, co-curators of CAM Raleigh's upcoming exhibit Deep Surface: Contemporary Ornament and Pattern, have taken note of the reemergence.

How to self-publish a typography book

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 00:20:00 +0000

If you ask any graphic design student at San Francisco's Academy of Art University to name his or her most-faved teachers, Typography 2 instructor Carolina de Bartolo will no doubt pop up in the mix. In fact, it was her students' encouragement (and their resulting wow-worthy portfolios) that finally convinced de Bartolo to bring her 10-years-in-the-making book idea to fruition. Two more years and a steep learning curve later, de Bartolo can now add author/entrepreneur to her title. "Explorations in Typography: Mastering the Art of Fine Typesetting" is de Bartolo's first venture into the world of self-publishing -- and a beautiful, instructive piece to boot.

"Explorations in Typography" by Carolina de Bartolo

How new technology has transformed graphic design

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 01:01:00 +0000

Pack up your pixels and don't forget your fishing pole -- we're headed to the Land of 10,000 Lakes. This October 22nd, Minneapolis' Walker Art Center is presenting Graphic Design: Now in Production, one of the largest graphic design exhibitions in the U.S. in over a decade. (Think: 10,000 square-feet of designer-made history -- swoon!).

The show will highlight design-driven works from the year 2000 to present including posters, books, magazines, information design, branding and identity, typography and typefaces, and film and television title graphics. And, of course, designer-made-goods will be showcased too. Expect works by Stefan Sagmeister, Mevis and Van Deursen, Maureen Mooren, Dutch design collective Lust, Marian Bantjes, and James Victore, among others.

What makes a great illustration

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:29:00 +0000

There are illustrators. And then there are illustrators -- the dripping with personality, oozing with expression, can't-peel-your-eyes-away-from-the-page storytelling kind. Speaking of the latter, Southern California-based ink-to-paper maker Jared Andrew Schorr is a definite cut above the rest. From monsters to retro radios, hotdog-shaped letters to space cadets, Schorr is a wizard paper crafter -- Xacto-knifing his witty drawings to infinite precision. Popping off the paper like mini lo-fi animations, he's crafted illustrations for such clients as Good, Wired, the New York Times, the Los Angles Times, NPR and Target, among others.

Hurry Up for POKETO

The return of an innovative designer

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 01:01:00 +0000

Thankfully, graphic designers are a bit too nerdy for the paparazzi. But had the snooping press hounds any clue into the talents of our industry's rock-star creatives, Jennifer Sterling surely would have been one of their buzz-worthy targets when she abruptly dropped off the design scene a few years ago.

As one of the most visually distinct voices in contemporary graphic design, the San Francisco-based type artist rocketed onto the radar a decade ago with her minimalist style and uncanny ability to transform type into modern art on the page. Her vocal typographic work has been featured in a laundry list of design compendiums and museums. And it's not hard to see why.

The hidden power of typography

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 01:01:00 +0000

"Widows and orphans give us sleepless nights." In any other sense, that phrase might conjure up images of black spiders or a certain little redhead named Annie. But when you realize the words were spoken by partner and typographer-extraordinaire Caz Hildebrand of London-based graphic design firm Here Design, the picture changes mighty fast. She adds, "All of us in the Here studio are unhealthily obsessed with the finer aspects of typesetting." And man -- does it show.

Image courtesy Here Design

How to make posters that defy two dimensions

Thu, 19 May 2011 01:01:00 +0000

Alfalfa Studio could not have been cast more perfectly as the design studio of choice for innovative Texas-based theater company Amphibian Stage Productions. Bringing the awesome three-dimensional quality of live theater to the flat, two-dimensional space of poster design is no easy feat. But when you combine the über-creative design skills of the New York-based design firm with the equally risk-taking Forth Worth theater company, the results are paper theatrics at its best.

Image courtesy of Alfalfa Studio

Fortune cookies, reimagined

Mon, 09 May 2011 01:01:00 +0000

"You will read something in the near future."

Cracking open a fortune cookie at the end of a Chinese meal and seeing if/how the inside message personally relates to our individual lives is all part of the fun and good times. But the fact is, we all know the prophecies are mass produced, completely generic and totally random. Even beyond the universal words, the fortunes share the same unconsidered design and ultra-ordinary typography. Thus, it all comes down to how we interpret the meaning of the message.

But what if we took a fortune cookie's fortune, altered its context and gave it a major redesign overhaul? How would the message be read differently? Or, for that matter, would it? Now through May 12, a new exhibit and silent auction at the Type Directors Club (TDC) in New York City, Posters of Fortune, features crave-worthy posters of re-imagined fortune cookie sayings by 20 internationally renowned designers and typographers.

The alphabet, reimagined

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 01:01:00 +0000

"S" by Jon Sueda

Can repetitive exposure to something -- no matter how good it is -- drive us crazy? How about listening to our favorite song over and over, eating our top dessert every single night, or even reading the good old ABC's every day of our lives? Will we eventually get sick of it all?

From the time we're born until the day we die, the twenty-six letters of the alphabet are completely and totally unavoidable. Thus, one has to wonder -- will there ever come a day when seeing our own language drives us all completely batty? Will people in the not-to-distant future be running and screaming down the streets from the frighteningly uninspired, overused curves of an "S" or the descender of a "p"?