Blogging and all that Malarkey

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week 38 and my design this week was again inspired by Saul Bass. In a career which spanned over 40 years, Saul Bass not only designed some of America’s most iconic logos, but also designed title sequences and film posters for some of Hollywood’s best filmmakers, including Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, and Martin Scorsese. For Hitchcock, Bass created innovative title sequences for films including North by Northwest, Psycho, and Vertigo. The opening sequence of Mad Men—one of my favourite TV shows—pays homage to Bass who died in 1996 aged 75.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week 37 and my design this week was again inspired by Paula Scher. Paula Scher is an American graphic designer, painter and educator and the first female principal at design firm Pentagram. She is well-known for her distinctive typographic style.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week 36 and my design this week was inspired by David King. David King was a British writer, designer and historian of graphic design. He devoted his career to uncovering and chronicling the art of the Soviet and the Constructivist periods, developing posters and graphics for many political groups.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week 35 and my design this week was inspired by Paula Scher. Paula Scher is an American graphic designer, painter and educator and the first female principal at design firm Pentagram. She is well-known for her distinctive typographic style.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week 34 and my design this week was again inspired by Max Bill. Born in 1908, Max Bill was a Swiss artist, typeface and graphic designer, and industrial designer. He studied at the Bauhaus under Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week 33 and my design this week was inspired by Tibor Kalman. Tibor Kalman was a Hungarian American graphic designer best-known for his work as editor-in-chief of Colors magazine. In 1979, Kalman opened his own studio with the goal of challenging mundane design thinking and creating unpredictable work.

Since going on holiday during July, I’ve fallen behind with my commitment to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. Now II’m back in the studio and II’ve settled back into work, II’m making up for lost time. Here are six new designs, inspired by Otl Aicher, Saul Bass, Ken Garland, and Armin Hofmann.

I know some people swear by frameworks and I do understand why, although my work rarely needs them. I also appreciate why some people find the grids component in frameworks useful. But, to me, including a framework just for its grid has always seemed excessive. Particularly when there are other ways to develop reusable layout components which are far less generic, but no less flexible than a framework.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week 26 and my design this week was inspired by Lester Beall. Lester Beall was an American modernist graphic designer. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Beall moved to Chicago to study and from there to New York. From his farm in Connecticut, he worked on covers and posters which often featured his distinctive use of photomontage.

Throughout 2020, I’ve committed to designing 52 designs for a series of Inspired Design Decisions. This is week 25 and my design this week was inspired by Erik Nitsche. Erik Nitsche was born in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1908 and was a pioneer in the design of books, reports, and other printed materials. In 1955, Nitsche began working as art director at engineering company General Dynamics where he designed a 420-page book on the company’s history entitled Dynamic America.