Home Stretch

Wow, it’s week 9 of the quarter and it’s coming to a close. My classroom has officially put up the finals calendar and it is crrrrunchtime. I basically have 3 weeks to do the following:

Letterhead, envelope, business card design
A full, working planner – printed and binded
A color theory movie poster + 1 more mystery assignment
Logo, brochure, 2 ads, a poster, website and presentation for SCCA

Of course on top of CAB, planning a huge conference, keeping up with the orgs and work.

I’ll be lucky to post anything here these next 3 weeks. But I am looking forward to spring break immensely - so wish me luck! Finals, here I come.

Double the Denzel

…in movie roles of course! Next week, Malcolm X, whose assassination anniversary will be this Saturday (February 21), will be screening at SCCC along with The Great Debaters and Bamboozled in honor of Black History Month. Made these posters for CAB last night. Don’t laugh at my vectoring – I’m a noob! But these posters were fun to make anyhow. Here goes:

My eyeballs are going to melt

This is what I do 5 days a week.

Via Shaz Madani

AP alleges copyright infringement of Obama image

NEW YORK (AP) – On buttons, posters and Web sites, the image was everywhere during last year’s presidential campaign: A pensive Barack Obama looking upward, as if to the future, splashed in a Warholesque red, white and blue and underlined with the caption HOPE. Designed by Shepard Fairey, a Los-Angeles based street artist, the image has led to sales of hundreds of thousands of posters and stickers, has become so much in demand that copies signed by Fairey have been purchased for thousands of dollars on eBay.

The image, Fairey has acknowledged, is based on an Associated Press photograph, taken in April 2006 by Manny Garcia on assignment for the AP at the National Press Club in Washington.

The AP says it owns the copyright, and wants credit and compensation. Fairey disagrees.

Via The Associated Press

What Photoshop Would Look Like in Real Life

This project shows us what Photoshop would look like if the UI were rendered in real life. If you check out this Flickr gallery of how it was created, it seems safe to say that this display is tangible, and was not created by computer graphics, or even—you guessed it!—Photoshopped.

Via Gizmodo

Handegg

I’m no fanatic of football. But I’ll enjoy this Super Bowl Sunday just as any other. And moreso now since there’s been a great deal of design involved with the promotion of Superbowl Sunday. It’s always interesting to see the evolution of a logo. Especially the Super Bowl’s, since it changes drastically every single year. Click below for more to the article.

Such is the interpretative nature of the logos. Rife with symbolism, they are simultaneously simple and complex. They must fit onto a lapel pin yet be jammed with the words “Super Bowl” and the requisite Roman numerals. The images are typically American — chunky and bold, unlike the more esoteric designs often used for international events like the Olympics.

Via The New York Times

And, just for giggles:

Impact

I wish I had something more impacting to show you on this historical day. But, I don’t. So here’s a graphic to make you think twice about things you usually browse past. Ta-da! Oh, the power of graphics.

Women in Graphic Design

7 Inspirational Female Graphic Designers

The field is ever-changing, yet the rock stars of graphic design are still, mainly, men. Meanwhile, the purchasing power of the globe is in the hands of individual women… It’s time to see more women like these seven, making a mark with their own Vision. Get inspired!

[...]

Barriers? Sure. Glass ceiling? Maybe. These ladies have their eyes on the prize, not the ceiling. As a result, they’ve busted right through it. Rock on.

As a woman in Graphic Design, I appreciate this article a whole lot. A lot of designers I know, personally and impersonally, are men – and as a minority in that, it’s a challenge in itself. I don’t agree that a glass ceiling has been broken, though. And that first sentence is an insult. Asshole.

But appreciate this article for what it’s worth. We’re out there, us shining stars. You guys just don’t know how to appreciate and spotlight us!

Honorable Mention (a big inspiration of mine): Favianna Rodriguez

Honorable Mention (not graphic, but production designer): Melody Ehsani

Design for Obama

www.designforobama.org

So, let me just say first off that I am neither a hardcore fan nor a knocker of Obama – but I have to admit I’m pretty pleased with his visual endorsements. (Except for the most famous Shepard Fairey one, because I hate Shepard Fairey with a passion.) This site has many of the Obama designs to promote his campaign him. It’s impressive, to say the least. Not only in terms of the quality of design (a much more contemporary-pop type style) but the amount of work put into making Obama appealing to this style of design’s target audience (which I believe to be the youth). Hmm… Smart these designers. Smart this Obama.

Not only were they for his campaigns, but what I’m seeing is a continuous line of graphics for the guy as his presidency pursues. He’s got the be the most visually endorsed president ever. From the campaign posters to the victory graphics and now, most recently, the inauguration graphics!

Via USA Today

Via eatsleepdraw

Bonus: Every Obama button made.