A funny/serious look at options open to modern designers — choosing between autonomy and going corporate, making an impact with something socially responsible or going for a potentially lucrative start-up, doing something you love versus trying to find something secure. Julie Zhuo shows how a host of choices and assumptions can determine one's path through the extremely dynamic design landscape.
New York Retro Style — Cover Concept
A few ideas for a new edition of a work of fiction, centred on the cocktail bar scene of New York in the 1980s. Still a work in progress, but fun to work with bright colours, big, bold type and the very distinctive skyline of the Big Apple. Typefaces used so far include ribbon, Playfair and a photo typeface based on neon signs.
Visual Communication — A Cover Concept
A cover concept for a Visual Communications textbook for Cambridge University Press. I used an old experimental French typeface for the title — each letter is as minimal as possible, but still quite readable. The strange object featured at centre left on the front cover is a student artwork. This concept didn't make the final cut, but it was my personal favourite.
A Fifty Year Old Mystery — Book Cover
In January 1966, the three children of Grant and Nancy Beaumont were kidnapped from an Adelaide beach, never to be seen again. The Missing Beaumont Children minutely and carefully chronicles both the agony of their parents and the subsequent investigations, some serious, others farcical. The tragic subject matter called for a subdued and respectful treatment. Typefaces used are Veneer and P22 Typewriter.
A Minus for Website Grader
Website Grader puports to analyse all aspects of your website's performance, mobile readiness, SEO and security. Enter your URL, offer up your email address, it loads your site and in a few seconds, rates it on a number of metrics. It is probably quite valuable for spotting large issues, but for finer granular reporting, one would have to look elsewhere. The site's main function seems to be to nudge users towards the parent service, HubSpot Website Platform. But it is beautifully designed, fun to use and readable, so test away.
Re-covering the Classics
Cover art by Roberlan Borges
What could be more interesting for a book designer than tackling the cover design for some of the great works of world literature? The Recovering the Classics project aims to create exciting cover art for great works in the public domain.
“Sadly, many of the greatest classics in the public domain are left with poorly designed or auto-generated covers that fail to capture what makes these books exciting and inspiring to us. So we invited illustrators, typographers, and designers of all stripes to create new covers for 100 of the greatest works in the public domain.”
And some of the resultant covers very much fulfill that creative brief. Could this be the spur for you to read that masterpiece you've always been meaning to get around to?
Variations on a Theme — New Book Cover
A few iterations on a two book series (non-fiction) for a local author. At the time of posting, covers 1 and 2 are favoured, though further modifications are likely. As ever, selecting, manipulating, kerning etc. type is more than half the fun. Typefaces used include Trajan Sans, Trade Gothic, Alternate Gothic, Museo and Plume.
Australian Society of Authors looks out for Self Publishers
The ASA has compiled a compact PDF booklet with practical advice for self publishers. Of particular note is their discussion re. pricing a book by factoring in production, distribution and bookstore costs, and a rather short list of distributors who may be willing to take on self-published authors (especially those with active promotional plans). The Arts Law Centre of Australia has also compiled an in-depth discussion of self publishing from their rights/legal perspective.
Kids Book Reviews
Kids Book Review is an attractive and frequently updated Australian book review blog. Apart from thoughtful reviews, the site also features interviews with illustrators and authors. Due to the sheer volume of review requests, the volunteers who run the site will not review self-published work. The site also has an excellent list of writing awards and events, plus links to related blogs and services.
A Good Walk Spoiled — Book Cover Design
The Australian Golfer was originally published in 1906. The Australian Golf Society decided to reissue this early classic of Australian sports writing. We were tasked with typesetting and cover design (based on the original). The Victorian/Edwardian love of ornamentation is in evidence, but toned down a little more than the earlier version.
My Little Red Corvette — Cover Design
Our client wanted a stark, almost monochromatic cover featuring a vintage red corvette, and an assault-rifle wielding protagonist, all in the gritty shadow of a celebrity obsessed LA. Plus blood. There will always be blood. Typeset in Veneer italic and Magneto bold.
Big blocks for big boys (and girls)
An enterprising designer has come up with a system of enormous lego-like blocks that can be used to build a variety of non load-based structures, while channeling one's inner seven year old.
Views from Our Robot Emissaries
An astonishing set of robot and astronaut-taken space images collated by the Atlantic magazine photo editor. We have eyes almost everywhere now, and know orders of magnitude more about the solar system than a generation ago.
Image of the mountains of Pluto (!): Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute / NASA
If You Liked Author A You Will Like Author B
Amazon and other online booksellers are very good at picking up on your searches and purchases to anticipate other items you may be interested in. Of course, the selections are made by algorithms rather than Amazon staff members. Awesome Author Recommender goes in the other direction, using human beings to point the way from one author to the next. Judging from my searches, the site does not go very deep at present, but the authors it did highlight from the searches I made were definitely top drawer.
Displaying Your Fonts in a Browser
Wordmark gives users a way of displaying the fonts resident on their computer. You can enter your own text string, display black on white or reversed, increase the font size. An excellent way to make font selection a bit easier.
Four Minimalist Covers — Book Design
Four covers for the same publisher, each under the same imprint. All yellow backgrounds, strong, simple typography, minimal image content. There is much to be said for paring design back to its absolute essentials. Less clutter, less distraction, more emphasis on the content and the beauty of typography. Typefaces used include League Gothic, Clarendon Bold Condensed and Bell Gothic Black.
Guns, Money and the CIA — Book Cover Design
Some banks do more than rip off consumers. The bank covered in this story, for example, delved into drugs, gun-running and financial shenanigans. This soon-to-be-released book lifts the lid on a decades-old murder mystery. Building on a cover design initiated by the author, we aimed for a slightly sinister look and high impact type. Typefaces used are League Gothic and Veneer.
The Road to Follow — Book Cover
A multi-generational tale of Italian-Australian family life. We wanted to convey the feel of the story through a single image. The story focuses on the female members of the family. Typefaces used: Bianca, Orpheus.
Early Sydney Examined — Book Cover
Our client had access to many interesting artworks from colonial Sydney. The chosen image shows Sydney Cove in a very early stage of development, more a village than a town. The typography is simple and in keeping with typefaces in use at the time.
You Go, Books!
Printed books seem have unexpected staying power. The growth of the ebook segment of the market has slowed dramatically, and independent bookstores have experienced a modest expansion, both in terms of the number of stores and overall sales. Readers cite the tactile aspect of the printed word, along with the aesthetics of a good bookshelf. Not that the digital revolution hasn't changed the book trade — at least 40% of all book sales are now online.