Ringling's New Logo

Brand New examines the recent identity overhaul of Ringling College of Art and Design, which "joins the rank of other ever-changing identities that hinge on one strong visual identity and then mutate in several, controlled ways." Personally, I can't help but think National Geographic any time someone uses a frame.

FontBook

Over at Subtraction, Khoi Vinh talks to Stephen Coles about the new edition of FontShop's gigantic 1,500-page FontBook, billed as “the largest typeface reference in the world”. Coles was so persistent about sending notes and corrections to the editors of the previous edition of the book that they hired him to shape the new version.

The Pearce Sisters

Fun for Friday: The Pearce Sisters is a new animated short from Aardman Animation (Wallace & Gromit, Creature Comforts). It's a tale of "love, loneliness, guts, gore, nudity, violence, smoking and cups of tea." Since the film has already won several international awards and is getting Oscar buzz, they can't put the whole short online, but two clips are available to view. [via Drawn!]

Helvetica NOW Poster Contest

In celebration of Helvetica's 50th anniversary, Linotype invites designers worldwide to participate in the Helvetica NOW poster contest. The contest is open to poster design work that has been published between 2000 and 2007 and that uses Helvetica as a primary or secondary typeface. Deadline is October 4th.

Mad Men

The new television show Mad Men portrays the strange world of advertising ("You are disgusted by it, repelled by it, but also thrilled by it.") in the even stranger world of 1960. If you missed last week's episode 1, encore performances are on this weekend. For an overview of the show, take a look at the free "Making Of" documentary available on iTunes (click here to go straight to the iTunes store), or read Armin's review of the preview episode over at Speak Up.

MOO Stickers

Stickers are the latest fun product from MOO, the company that brought you the popular mini-cards. Sold in books of 90 for a ridiculously low price, the stickers create the perfect opportunity to try out some great imagery or identity work—you could even use them to create an index of portfolio pieces. [via Cool Hunting]

Tenenbaum Type

In an oldie but goodie post, Mark Simonson Studio takes a look at the use of Futura and other typefaces in Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums. I've seen this movie many times, and never noticed the continuity of Futura use—am feeling like a chump. Futura is used for all direct Tenenbaum family associations, while typefaces like Helvetica are used for outsiders, as on the cover of Raleigh St. Clair's book Dudley's World. [thanks Alex!]

Tea Sketches

Fun for Friday: the Flickr Tea Sketches photo pool asks only that you mark an index card with a teabag, then let your imagination run wild. This fun little diversion has some great results. [via Drawn!]

Dark Movie Posters

Armin's got an interesting post over at Speak Up about colors used in top-grossing movie posters—"while the psychological and emotional explanations of what colors mean are too varied to take any which one as authoritative, it is nonetheless telling that black is the color of choice in movie posters."

International Animation Contest for the Web

The International Animation Contest for the web is calling for global warming-themed, dialogue-free animated shorts (2 minutes or less) and is accepting entries until September 24, 2007. Winners will be announced in October. [via HOW]

Veer Merch

It seems about once every season I get inspired to mention Veer's design-oriented line of merchandise, a cool collection of wearables and accessories that includes CMYK hoodies, Lorem Ipsum cuffs, typeface cushions, an array of quirky books and much, much more. Some new items since the last time they got the spotlight here—be sure to check things out.

Ain supplio: fragranced pencil lead

Need a little refreshment, healing and/or positivity? Consider sketching with Pentel's latest product, a fragranced pencil lead called Ain supplio. Combining "the power of nanotechnology with the knowledge of expert aromatherapists", the lead is designed to retain its scent for long periods of time and to enhance mental capacity with herbal fragrances like rosemary and lemongrass. Ain supplio, which was recently awarded the Stationery of the Year Award, will hit shelves in September. [via Coudal Partners]

Jason Munn

I'm enjoying the messy type and muted palette of the music posters created by San Francisco artist Jason Munn. Metropolis magazine praises his "ability to control and manipulate letterforms stylistically so that they evolve into visual metaphors", and last year he was one of the ADC's Young Guns. [via doane paper]

Deleted Images

More fun for Friday: Deleted Images showcases the shots we thought weren't good enough, stripping them of context and turning them into unexpected works of their own. [via Coudal Partners]

Typographica's Favorite Fonts of 2006

Why has it taken Typographica so long to put out their list of favorite fonts from 2006? They had to wade through the estimated 1,800 new commercial typefaces that were released last year (and that's not including the freebies). From the thousands, they've selected 23 of note.

Take Shape Patterns

The web is all a-buzz for Take Shape—and rightly so. Designer Daniele De Batté's wonderful patterns are full of vivid color and simple imagery. Beautiful stuff.

Weather Icons

Fun for Friday: A look at various weather icons used by different news sites becomes an interesting study in the language of meteorological iconography. [Via Subtraction]

Two Exhibitions on Now at SVA

Two exhibitions open today at SVA. The first, Everything I Do Always Comes Back to Me, is an exhibition of work by SVA faculty and alumni commenting on conflict, compassion and the Buddhist ethic. Curated by Milton Glaser, the exhibition includes photography, painting, sculpture, digital art, cartooning, and 3D and graphic design. The second, The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama, expands on a current show at the Rubin Museum of Art and features work by artists including Richard Avedon, Anish Kapoor and Sebastiao Salgado. Both shows run through August 22nd. [Thanks, Samantha]

Ads of the World

Jupitermedia Corporation's Ads of the World site is full of interesting international advertising work. The site has a forum for discussion, a blog and a membership option. [Thanks, "Heyho"]

Tartan Maker

Looking for something a little more interesting for web design backgrounds? Try plaid. Tartan Maker does the work for you and generates a small image file to be used as a repeating background element. [via Zeldman]

Graphic Define Magazine

Graphic Define is an online magazine that focuses on the business of running a graphic, web or interactive design studio. All articles are contributed by industry professionals looking to share their tips and experiences—some of the current headlines are featured above. [Thanks, Daniel!]

Cut & Paste 2007

The Cut & Paste Digital Design Tournament is back for 2007 in an expanded range of international cities. This live event has been very popular in previous years—eight contestants go head to head in an elimination tournament where they have fifteen minutes to produce a design that best exemplifies a theme, using the materials and tools provided. Entry deadline: July 17th.

Maopost: Chinese Propaganda Posters

Maopost distinguishes itself from other propaganda showcases by providing a translation for each image (pictured above: Contribute to the forces for scientific and technical modernization) and by offering you the chance to have your own image "seamlessly incorporated into an otherwise faithful reproduction of a classic propaganda poster" (what a potentially strange and wonderful gift idea). [via the ever-delightful How about orange...]

Type City

Fun for Friday: take a trip through the "dreamy typographic landscape" of Veer's current project, an endeavor called Type City.

Lori Nix

Cool Hunting's latest video focus is the photograhy and diorama work of Lori Nix. Nix purposefully blurs the line between truth and illusion, working with a delayed awareness of artificiality and her Kansas-bred natural interest in disasters. Perhaps surprisingly for someone who creates such detailed windows into meticulously constructed worlds, Nix doesn't do location research: "I bring what I need to my studio, where it's more private, more introspective." Watch the video or visit Nix's official site.

Vintage Graphis Diagrams

The Things To Look At blog spotlights some of the wonderful vintage charts and diagrams from Graphis magazine that appeared in the 1981 book Graphis Diagrams. [via swissmiss]

RIP SVA Co-founder Silas Rhodes

Silas H. Rhodes, co-founder of the school for cartoonists and illustrators that evolved into SVA, died June 27th at the age of 91. Steven Heller pays tribute to Rhodes in an article on Design Observer.

Happy 4th of July from GDBar

Here's to independence and a midweek break from work! Veer has a great slideshow of Americana full of photos and illustrations that show a nice visual range of both traditional images and more modern takes on American symbols and the ever-present red, white and blue.

Tufte spotlights Megan Jaegerman

Edward Tufte highlights the news graphics that artist Megan Jaegerman did for the NYTimes in the 90s. "Megan has the soul of a news reporter, who happens to use graphs, tables, and illustrations—as well as words—to explain the news." One of Jaegerman's graphics appears in Tufte's recent book Beautiful Evidence. [via Subtraction]

Brad Bird Video Slideshow

Slate has a video slideshow about the rise of animation director Brad Bird, complete with clips from The Iron Giant, the Incredibles (though, unfortunately, no moments from Bird's turn as the voice and attitude of Edna "E" Mode), Ratatouille, and more. If you've ever watched the special features on a Bird movie, you know he's a unique force of personality. The slideshow showcases his career and how he's infused what he touches with a more auteur film style, quality character development, great energy and layers of depth. Slate's Josh Levin goes so far as to call Bird "the Stanley Kubrick of animation." [via kottke]

FontShop July Calendar

The latest in FontShop's free monthly calendar is available. Each month features a different typeface—July's spotlight is Amsterdam-based type designer Angus R. Shamal. The calendar features his ARS Region and ARS Twenty typefaces.

Thank You Tote Bags

I like Robin Hendrickson's Thank You Tote Bag best of all the recent message-on-canvas bag endeavors. Personally, I find the typography on Anya Hindmarch's popular I Am Not a Plastic Bag to be loopily off-putting, and Lauren Bush's Feed Bag is too controversial (there is much debate about how much money actually goes to charity). The Thank You bag doesn't blast its agenda by trying to be ironic or trendy, it simply puts the old-school typographic action (Helvetica?) of a grocery bag onto a more sustainable material. Not to mention it's the friendliest of the bunch. Have a nice day.

Park Avenue Café: Seasonal Identity

While Springwise is focusing on the Park Avenue Café from a business angle, the restaurant's intent to close and reopen every season also results in an interesting branding exercise. Each season, Park Avenue will "completely revamp its décor, staff uniforms and place settings"—the current summery yellow will shift to an autumnal red in the coming months. Fellow fans of maps, clean design and shifting palettes should be delighted by the above logo treatment.

Threadless: The Accident

The Accident is another art-related tee from Threadless. As always, the shirts are available in limited quantities, so get in there early.

Mix

The design word for July over at Speak up is mix.