It’s true. Surfstation is back. It’s interesting to have witnessed the history of design portals on the internet. It seemed like yesterday when K10k, Surfstation, and Design is Kinky ruled the design news planet. I am sure I already forgot about a couple. Check it out though, looks nice.

My friend, Emily Anderson has just updated her portfolio with a solid array of work. Of particular interest is her work for American Craft Magazine. It is there that you will see her top notch sense of balance and color. Go have a look.

These days, I would say what one might call himself is very confusing, if your working in the business of ‘Graphic Design’ and work mainly online or in a digital medium. I could get into a long drawn out post here, I originally just wanted to post something about how great a current PHP framework (Code Igniter) is that I am working in. That got me to thinking, do I have any right to say something is good in the programming world? I have no college degree in anything and just learn from forums and guides. I have been a self taught graphic designer and business man for the past 12 years. But at the same time, I have learned the print process, web programming, accounting, shipping business (!?) and many other random bits (plumbing, electrician, janitor), well that just are necessary for my role as a graphic designer, running a business and overall survival. That then begs to ask the question, are you a graphic designer then, if not, what are you?
Read more…

This last year’s show was an open entry exhibit. Normally when you do something like this, you get a couple of good pieces and a lot of not so good ones. This was not at all the case for this show. Shu and I saw that we had enough room (barely) to get all the posters up if we used the walls and fabricated cardboard walls. The posters that did not make it up were ones that did not arrive, or the ones that were too large or heavy that they kept falling down, thus removing themselves from the show. It felt good being able to have everyone’s work up.

The poster show was very well received, a lot of people complimented it and asked questions. A local gallery, Western New York Book Arts Collaborative, asked if they could display it in their gallery and the show may also travel again to ATypeI, the largest type conference in the world. This year it is being held in Russia. That was a great feeling as it has a home and can travel if needed.

Thank you and congratulations to everyone who submitted work. It really was a positive reflection of the current state of typographic design. The pictures shown are primarily close-ups, as the room was dark and I would have needed a professional lighting set up to get decent shots of the posters. These are the best photos that I have of the show, you probably can see random shots if you look around Flickr for some. In no way are these displayed as “the best posters in the show.” They are just the pictures that turned out and fit the vertical format.

Thanks again and next years show will be even better! Thank you to everyone that helped with the show and entered work, it would have been literally nothing without you.

First thing first, thank you to our families, customers and supporters!

Six years ago, YouWorkForThem started out as two guys (Michael Cina & Michael Young) running the business from a spare bedroom in the suburbs of Minneapolis, MN with less than 50 products. Many people doubted us and what we were going to do with this store. But we kept on working and we now handle over 200 fonts, 1300 book titles, 14,000 stock art items, and many more various products. Read more…

Stumbled on this inspiring poster work from Gunter Rambow (prime name right?). It’s perhaps most interesting to look through the work created during a designer, like Gunter’s, entire career.

I met Renata at TypeCon and we got to talking about music, Brazilian music in specific. Anyway she just sent me a movie to check out and clicked on her companies site, Plural. Some great work in there for sure, the navigation took a bit to pick up on, but really like how it works. For sure worth a visit!

Time for another round of staff picks. Download the full PDF here.

All of the links are as follows:

Two Lines Align
Geometry of feelings
Milton Glaser
Pino Tovaglia: The Rule That Corrects Emotion
Over and Over: A Catalog of Hand-Drawn Patterns
AGI: Graphic Design Since 1950
Jan Van Toorn: Critical Practice
Karel Martens: Counterprint
It is Beautiful…Then Gone
Idea Magazine #328
Idea Magazine #316
Typographie: Emil Ruder
Giancarlo Iliprandi: Disengagement

Once again, another hot use of Black Slabbath has come upon us. Check it out in the really nice pdf zine, Parq. Have you done something with a YouWorkForThem product? Don’t be shy, tell us!

Just when I was about to forget, the London/Minnesota Non-Format update their site and remind me who my daddy is. Some of my favorite new work is the type treatments in these NY Times Style Magazine spreads.

Non-Format.

(Seen on cpluv)

We just got in MoMA’s new book, Modern Swedish Design.
At first glance, it doesn’t stand out from other books on Modern Design, but this book definitely deserves another chance. The rarely translated writings of the founding texts that initiated modern design in Sweden, make it a necessary addition to any designer’s collection. This book shouldn’t be overlooked!