Chinese Graphic Design from the 1920's and 1930's Nowadays it’s hard to imagine a time when graphic design didn’t involve sitting in front of a computer screen. Perhaps that’s why it is so intriguing to look through this collection of vintage Chinese graphic designs from the 1920′s and 1930′s. The illustrations come from the book Chinese Graphic Design in the Twentieth Century by Scott Minick and Jiao Ping. Lu Xun, who introduced modern woodblock techniques to China, influenced many of the design artists at the time. See Also IN THE HEIGHT OF THE DEPRESSION: VANITY FAIR MAGAZINE According to 50 Watts, “Lu Xun taught many Western techniques [and] he always encouraged designers to seek inspiration in Chinese design history.” Via: 50Watts
Rick Poynor's Book List Books led me to typography and graphic design. Love of reading became love of the medium in which the words are printed, of the type that composes these words, of the substrate that supports them, of the page layouts that give form to narrative and argument, of the covers and bindings that hold these texts and pictures together, of the lettering and imagery that seek to express a book’s essential nature. . . . View the complete text Books led me to typography and graphic design. Graphic design books are a kind of meta-book. Several of these titles are books of particular significance to me, but none has been selected only for that reason. Living Large in a 130-Square-Foot Apartment | Wired Design With dense urban centers and housing that was built hundreds of years ago, Europeans have long known how to make their tiny spaces feel triumphant. But this apartment in the Montparnasse neighborhood of Paris is an above-and-beyond exemplar of hyper-efficient, micro-urban living. Architects Marc Baillargeon and Julie Nabucet carved a 130-square-foot space out of a Hausmann-style building to create a flexible yet utterly comfortable pied-à-terre. “Our approach to architecture is that the house is not so much a machine for living, but a tool for living well,” says Baillargeon. The apartment was once the master bedroom of a larger apartment, which should give you a pretty good idea of its postage-stamp size. Thibaut Ménard, a student and the son of the apartment’s owner, lives there now. The smartest design trick was to create a split-level floorplan. The split-level floorplan creates the illusion of separate spaces without using any walls or dividers. “I learned to be tidier,” he says.
The Most Beautiful and Imaginative Public Schools in the World Albert Einstein, responsible for the world’s most famous equation and quite possibly the smartest man to ever live, said that “logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” With that in mind, surely a child’s imagination is something to cherish and nourish. Enter the public school system. Architects and local governments around the world are now fighting the good fight against dismal, uninspiring schools and the groundbreaking results are re-shaping the learning experience for our future generations. Kindergarten Kekec by Arhitektura Jure Kotnik — Ljubljana, Slovenia Image credit: Miran Kambič via House Variety An extension of a typical Slovenian prefab kindergarten from the ’80s, the colorful, interactive design is a response to the school’s lack of play equipment.
IKEA introduces a clutter-free entertainment system: HDTV, media player included You’d think that in the second decade of the 21st century, cords, wires, and antennas would be rendered obsolete. While we’re still on our way to a completely wireless lifestyle, IKEA has come up with an immediate solution to our hatred for cables with the UPPLEVA entertainment system that can discreetly hide your wires so you can enjoy a sleek and clutter-free room. The UPPLEVA system contains a smart TV that has all the outlets, USB, and HDMI slots along the sides, so it maintains a thin exterior. The smart TV that comes with the set boasts full high definition display, LED technology, Wi-Fi integration, and 2.1 surround sound system. “We’ve had very clear signals from customers that there is a need to be able to buy and integrate home electronics with the furniture in a simple way,” IKEA Sweden sales chief Tolga Oncu told Reuters. ”With the way IKEA works, the way we can offer our products at the lowest prices on the market, we are convinced that this will be a really big success.”
Hackney Wick's The Walls Have Ears mural Collaborating with the local community, Bread, a creative collective based in East London, has just completed a 100 metre long typographic mural along a street that leads to London's Olympic Park... Bread essentially wanted to brighten up an unloved, bleak street called White Post Lane and managed to secure funding from the London Legacy Development Corporation to paint the mural which is, according to Bread's Victoria Walmsley, based around the industrial past of the area (Hackney Wick). "The six-month project involved various workshops, interviews, research and a blog-style website and social media to engage the local community," she explains. The mural, entitled The Walls Have Ears, features words and phrases suggested by local residents that hint at the area's history. 'Fridge Mountain' references the area's biggest landmark pre-Games: a 20-foot high pile of defunct domestic appliances which had the dubious honour of being the biggest heap of fridges in Europe. 15 Comments
Here’s how one designer reimagined the Pringles chips packaging Pringles are pretty delicious. Where I used to work, the HR person will often restock the kitchen’s snack table with various goodies and Pringles were always the first to run out. But the tall, narrow tube design is difficult for sharing, and the more you munch into the chips, the deeper you have to reach into the tube. That’s awkward design. In comes the redesigned packaging for Pringles by young interior designer Dohyuk Kwon who created a way for the chips to be more shareable. This Bloom Chips concept design initially seems like an ordinary tall tube we’re used to seeing, but a quick unpackaging reveals that the tube expands into a bowl. “Its mechanism is more complex than it looks,” Kwon tells Fast Company Design. The Bloom Chips design recently won a Red Dot Award under its Interior Accessories category. “I didn’t know Jiffy Pop until a few minutes ago,” Kwon replies. What do you think of this Bloom Chips packaging? Editors' Recommendations
50 Beautiful Black and White Business Cards You probably heard the expression black never goes out of style. The same goes in some cases for black and white. Black and white business cards have been ever since the invention of business cards the standard, mainly because, in the early days due to the printing limitations. With the invention of color printing, business cards started a process of diversification without precedent. Although color brings a lot of depth to a business card and gives the designer basically limitless designing possibilities, black and white business cards have a certain finesse, a special visual appeal. Where color can fool the eye of the beholder, designing in black and white reveals the true skill of a designer. If you like business cards inspiration you might also like our previous articles on plastic business cards, creative business cards, cool business cards, metal business cards Below I would like to present 50 beautiful black and white business card designs :
Dyson DC39 is a Topple-Free Vacuum From the Future Dyson, the company that makes all those expensive and attractive vacuums and fans, has done it again. That is, it's rolled out another vacuum cleaner you might not buy but sucks up dirt in novel ways. The Dyson DC39, unveiled today, looks similar to the company's previous compact cylinder vacuums, but it's actually quite different. The DC39 reinvents the Dyson Ball design that's in some of Dyson's stand-up models and modifies it for the small form factor of a canister vacuum. Dyson says its engineers spent three years creating the design, a good chunk of which was spent modifying and miniaturizing components of the Ball. The result of those labors is a cylinder vacuum that Dyson says is its most maneuverable yet. SEE ALSO: Dyson’s New Space Heater Is Stylish, but Expensive [VIDEO] The whole vacuum mechanism is contained in a sphere-shaped canister that measures about a foot in diameter. How does Dyson build such a powerful vacuum in such a small space? How do you like Dyson's new vacuum?
UnderConsideration LLC Every Designer Should Start With Paper, Not Photoshop Designers come from every background imaginable. They teach themselves, go to art school, or even begin as developers, business owners, etc. But no matter how a designer gets started, somehow the lure catches their eye and ropes them in permanently. If you’re hooked, there’s typically no going back. You’ll begin absorbing everything you possibly can, reading books, watching tutorials, attending classes or browsing inspiration online. There are so many different ways to build your skill, because design spans across all industries, from automobiles to websites and editorials to hardware. Like I said, everyone is taught differently and there really isn’t a right or wrong way to learn. It’s genuinely tempting to begin all of your projects with a computer if you’re going to finish there in the end, but the results will be so quickly polished that you’ll settle too early. Drawing is at the heart of every design, and the best way to do it is with a pen or pencil and a sheet of paper.