source: dieline.com

Following its recent issue of collector-friendly postage stamps of The Simpsons, the US Postal Service is unveiling a series featuring more TV favorites, this time from the pioneering days of the medium. The “Early TV Memories” series of 44-cent stamps highlights 20 of the iconic programs and personalities of the 1950s including “The Honeymooners,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Ozzie and Harriet,” “Howdy Doody,” “I Love Lucy,” “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “Perry Mason,” and “Lassie.” The stamps will be launched today in a glittery dedication ceremony at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in Hollywood.
Originally commissioned in 2005, DJ Stout and Julie Savasky worked on the design and development of the stamps with Carl Herrman, an art director with the USPS. The finished design transforms each stamp into a miniature old-school television set. The black-and-white images, complete with the requisite static lines, feature classic television stills from the groundbreaking stars and shows.

“The big challenge with postage stamp design is dealing with the tiny size,” says Stout. “Every single design decision is ultimately about being efficient with the limited real estate you are given.” (Source: Pentagram.com)

The Geography of Design is a new two-part interview with Paula Scher directed by the filmmaker Nicolas Heller and produced by Brian Collins for the Art Directors Club. In the first part of the film, shot at Scher’s home and studio in Connecticut, Scher discusses the influence of New York City, its architecture, and especially its noise (the yelling!) on her design and typography. In part two, she talks about the development of her map paintings. In the film, Heller (son of Steven) takes viewers on a journey through Scher’s work, from her groundbreaking “Best of Jazz” poster to a new painting commission for the city’s Percent for Art program. (Source: Pentagram.com)

PART 1

PART 2

I want one!!!!

source: http://www.design-reaktor.de/produkte/02.html

The brief was pretty straightforward, to take a collection of boring statistics and make them into something that arouses interest and has a "visual punch". Luckily, there was no video involved it would only be still imagery. We had to come up with visual imagery to go with each statistic. The catch...it had to be done by Sunday night, so it could be used on Monday morning!

The first challenge was to find imagery that had a bit of visual interest to it, rather than being too obvious, cliché was acceptable only if it had a bit of a twist to it. The next step, given that there was no storyboard, we had to create it on the fly, no time to plan, we had to just jump and be guided bu intuition.

Ross (the boss) and I split up the task of finding imagery, and by Thursday afternoon, I had started compositing the collection of found images! We had a great soundtrack to work with so it helped. After pulling an all-nighter on Friday I finished the first draft by Saturday morning, a few minor adjustments on the weekend and by Sunday night woo hoo!!!! the piece was done.

Feel free to have a look!

United Way Syndey - CommonCause on Vimeo.

A promotional piece for United Way Sydney (a charity organization). We were asked to take a collection of boring statistics and present them in a visually interesting motion graphics piece that would create an emotional attachment to the viewer.

After the Second World War, Tschichold moved to England, where he single-handedly redesigned the entire Penguin paperback library, probably the first application of fine typography to the paperback book, and certainly (at over six hundred volumes) one of the most ambitious design projects in the history of type.

In 1960, Tschichold was commissioned by the firms of Monotype, Linotype, and Stempel to create a classical typeface that could be produced with no variations for the Monotype and the Linotype typesetting machines, and also for hand-setting. He named the result Sabon, which has since been adapted for phototypesetting systems, and continues to grow in popularity, particularly in Europe.

source: http://www.typographia.org

The documentary explores the different facets of the world of manufactured objects and our relationship with them - everything from toothbrushes to high-tech gadgets. "It’s about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability" (objectified.com).

It takes the viewer on journey through our world of products and interviews with the most influential product designers.

After seeing Helvetica (a couple of hundred times to date), I am almost certain this next part in the "design-trilogy" (yes, there is one more to come!) will be as good as Helvetica. I have not managed to find release dates for Australia yet but will post them up as soon as  they are available.

It was released at the SxSW Film Festival in March 2009.

To get a taste of things to come have look at the trailer.