COLORCUBIC: LOGO & ALBUM ARTWORK FOR A GAP BETWEEN

I'm loving this sythy/80s revival in music that's hitting the fringes of electro. And along with the music comes the awesome artwork. I hadn't heard of A Gap Between before but as soon as I saw this artwork I new what I was in for, and a quick visit to youtube proved me right! Well done to Colorcubic for nailing this, visual communication at its best. Check out more their tasty work here.

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MOSHIK NADAV: TYPOGRAPHY STATIONERY

I spotted this awesome stationery by Moshik Nadav today after I went looking for some inspiration for a stationery project I'm working on myself. I'm always impressed by artists/designers that manage to push the boundaries on common objects/themes/subject matter into something completely fresh and unique – there are so many existing stationery designs out there – possibly hundreds of thousands, or even millions? The majority of which are clones of each other and completely lifeless (IMO). I also think it's awesome when something as mundane as stationery can be transformed into something kick-ass. The structure and colour are what really impressed me with this piece, there's a strong modernist vibe and no effects, gradients or trendy "design elements". According to his folio this set is for "the research center of the Hebrew Typography" which sounds pretty awesome itself. Moshik has an impressive behance folio with great diversity in his work. Check it.

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SUNNY BALLIETTE: STUCK PROMO POSTER

This piece by Sunny Balliette, in my mind is the definition of awesomeness. It's a little dark, a little nostalgic, has some great layering and nice type work. The contrast between the back ground textures works really well – paint strokes and vector patterns. I think she's done well in composition too, the wolf's mouth sits really nicely underneath the logotype, with the "descenders" of the "T" and "K" hanging in a very fang-like way. The space image seems a little arbitrary, but I really don't know much about the project and even if the project isn't space related who cares, it works well and ads a lot of depth to the piece. Nice one Sunny! Check out Sunny's blog here.

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JAMES O'BRIANT: POSTER COLLECTION

I came across these posters by James O'Briant on behance this morning. They are part of a series that I recommend you check out. Each poster exhibits its own unique direction but collectively they feel like they're part of the same family – due to James' great style. What I like about these posters is that they look great and James hasn't relied on lots of cliché photoshop effects to make them look good. Instead they feel refined and well thought out. I've always been a believer in the value of minimalism. I think that minimal, well designed content produces a louder/stronger voice from the design. James' work is a perfect example of this. Zero clutter combined with strong imagery and type work has resulted in a beautiful series of posters. I also thought I'd mention that I particularly like how James has played with combining 2D and 3D spaces in the first piece (as well as all of that beautiful white space). Check out James' website here.

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PINO LAMANNA: LOGO LOVE

Pino Lamanna has posted a series of awesome/experimental logos on his behance page. As far as logos go this is the sort of work I'd be happy doing all the time. He points out that some of the work is just experimental stuff that he's done in his own time and others are for actual clients. I recommend checking out the whole set. NOW.

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HENRIK WOLD: ALTAAR

Henrik Wold has designed an awesome LP cover for Norwegian metal band Altaar. Typically, in my limited experience of metal, cover art for metal albums is fairly cliché, white overly gothic looking (and I don't mean sans-serif gothic) text on a black background with an array of biblical references and a goats head somewhere. Henrik has managed to recreate a similar sense of dark and aggressive underworld forces through his clever use of photography, with no inverted crosses or pentagrams. As a piece of art the viewer is presented with a scene of a forest and a window into a darker co-existing world. I've assumed that the smaller photo is of the same scene but at night, which if I'm right, is a nice touch. Henrik credits Arild Danielsen for the photography, check out his website, there are some very tasty treats to be found. Also check out Altaar on myspace. I used to be into metal in some of my earlier days, these days I crack open Master of Puppets occasionally, but that's about it. Altaar have some great ambient metal (if such a thing can even exist), which I genuinely enjoyed listening to.

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BEN CRICK: TYPOGRAPHY

Ben Crick has posted an outstanding series of type treatments on his behance profile. In each example Ben has pushed the development and experimentation into completely different directions – a difficult feat to achieve. This one in particular caught my attention. I really like the letter forms and think the whole piece comes together nicely as a strong piece of typography. I usually consider glassy/gradient/glossy textures on type to be quite cheesy but I think Ben has used it wisely here as it compliments and emphasises the curves and fluid feel of the piece. I strongly recommend checking out the whole series.

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LAZENBY BROWN: NEUTRAL MAGAZINE

In my last post I wrote about unique magazine cover design, I thought I'd keep the topic open with this cover that I also found on behance this morning. Lazenby Brown (Mat Lazenby + Gary Brown), have put together a more conventional cover design than the one featured in my last post but it still pleasantly pulls away from the ugly face that is "modern magazine cover design". I feel like the magazine design/advertising world has turned its back on modernism/minimalism. Instead of an inviting cover that connects with its audience we are typically confronted with covers that yell several headlines in our face that are all competing with each other and the magazine banner. I really like how Lazenby Brown have created something that relies on the design itself. The result is a cover that is neat, well designed and most importantly, bold. The world would be a much more beautiful place if more people adopted and accepted this sort of design form.

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SAM NEWHOUSE: KAMIKAZE MAGAZINE DESIGN

I've never heard of Kamikaze Magazine, but I've spent some time researching it today. I think it's a magazine about street/urban culture – if I was to judge it entirely by its cover I'd say it looks pretty good. Sam Newhouse has done an amazing job at designing a magazine cover that completely stands out from an ocean of magazine covers out there. I used to read Made Magazine which also utilised unorthodox cover design. I think in a world where art and design for the masses seem to be determined by trend it is important to create a point of difference in niche areas (I assume Kamikaze Magazine is a boutique/niche magazine). As a piece of art Sam has done well to create something edgy and fitting to the theme of the urban culture world. His minimal use of colour and subtle use layering and texture draw the viewer in to reveal more depth. The piece has an overall uncomfortable mood but makes me want to buy the magazine anyway.

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GILES PEYTON-NICOLL: F40 FOUR

I find that when I'm working on a particular style of project be it type design, poster design, logo design etc my senses are heightened to other works in that area. I guess this happens to most designers and just comes naturally because you are constantly thinking of the project and comparing/contrasting it to what else is out there. At the moment I'm in the process of design a typeface and am trying to find ways to keep it fresh and original. Every character must be approached as an individual project whilst keeping it in line with its counterparts. My point here is that it takes a lot of focus and dedication to come up with fresh type – some thing that Giles Peyton-Nicoll has achieved. I've never been a big fan of 3D type, I'm not sure why, but perhaps those days are in the past. In addition I'm growing very fond of geometric/minimal fonts, and although this is just a logo type there is definitely the capacity here for Giles to develop this into an entire working font (if he hasn't already). Check out Gile's website here.

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LMD NEW WORK: THE DJ SHADOW REMIX PROJECT

This is my submission for the Dj Shadow Remix Project. On Shadow's website there is/was a calling for fans to submit art work for the cover of this upcoming album before March 31st (2010). I jumped at the opportunity, I've listened to Shadow for many years and the idea of creating a piece that reflects his music was very appealing. It took me a little while to nail a concept. I really had to stop myself from just diving in and creating some arbitrary mess that had no substance (but would have been fun anyway). I decided to concentrate on the idea of a remix and to try to visually define remix with a DJ Shadow flavour. I really wanted to avoid all the DJ clichés out there and in doing so started looking at old cassette tapes as a possible avenue, and the idea of a "mix tape" which was popular in DJ circles back in the day. I started collecting tapes and admiring their beautiful old designs from the 70s and 80s. I noted the feelings of nostalgia I got from tapes, probably associated with memories of my first cassette tapes. For the first 15 years of my life all the music I listened to was on cassette tapes. I've also felt nostalgia when listening to particular DJ Shadow tracks, and this was something I definitely wanted to explore in my submission. So eventually the idea of slicing, dicing and "remixing" old cassette tapes is what led to my final execution. The tapes I used are also my own design. I photographed old cassette tapes and redesigned the labels with a retro spin in illustrator and photoshop. Let's hope Shadow likes it.

Please feel free to tell me what you think of this design. Can you see it as an actual Dj Shadow cover?

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ANTHONY DART: HUMAN/HOUSE SLEEVE

I spotted this design in Anthony Dart's folio on behance a while ago and forgot about it until I came across it recently again. I love it when designers use black and white only. Too often colour is over used and can be very distracting. I've always found black and white to be powerful, when used properly – there's a fine line between something that looks unfinished and something that looks refined, especially when dealing with only black and white. Anthony's work looks both bold and refined. He's taken advantage of the power of the black-white contrast. The record sleeves also make good use of this contrast despite being a more technical execution. It's always great to see use of mixed media in design, his union of drawing, photography and typography gives this piece loads of depth.

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TAPE DECK

I'm working on a project at the moment uses of old cassette tape imagery. My first step was to try and get my hands on some old-school tapes, this wasn't too hard, my local tip shop had an enormous selection. After getting re-acquainted with the designs, textures and sounds of the old tapes and developing a new love for them it occurred to me that these are so cool that there must be some sort of online following. With out to much trouble I found tapedeck.org, I'm going to take a guess and say it's the biggest collection of cassette tape imagery in the internet. It's amazing to see all of these old tape designs lined up next to each other. I don't think I would have ever imagined who good these would look. I feel like I should be starting my own collection, I think these may become (if they aren't already) collectors items.

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DKNG STUDIO: THE APPLESEED CAST

I came across this work by DKNG studio this morning. I think they have given the world a beautiful poster and given us a rare insight into the process involved. I love seeing how other creatives work, I think it's almost as interesting and diverse as the artwork itself. The poster itself I think is very bold/striking with a great choice of colors and great composition.

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