I love the idea of this Lego Lamp from 25togo. I think I might get one for my desk as  you can also store stuff in it. At $15 each they are dirt cheap.

via Technabab

I keep waking up with a back every morning. I’m not sure whether it’s my bad posture through sitting at a desk most of the day. Either way I know one of these would help. The AERON chair by Herman Miller is the pinnacle of office chairs and is used in many graphic studios (who can afford it) around the world. It’s got a hefty price tag but I’m sure it’s worth it.

The way Stockholm Design Lab deal with information systems, packaging, type and graphics is effortlessly minimal. At first glance it may seem very straight forward, but it’s the linear nature of their message that I think is very complex. To bring packaging down to such a simplistic level (see chocolate bar for IKEA below) requires great skill. To pull off simple design, the raw elements have to be there, and I think Stockholm Design Lab has all the skills in the right area. Check their site for more examples of their amazing work.

www.stockholmdesignlab.se

After my girlfriend went on another wild “shop till you drop” spending spree the other day, she came home with this bag. I liked it so much I didn’t tell her off for spending too much money. I love the white type on the brown. I do have to mention however that I hate the shop. They seem to sell the kind of watered down,  homogeneous items that boutique stores were selling last year. I think the chief buyer must just look at blogs etc to see what is bang on trend. Hats of to them though, they do seem to have a very loyal following. (there isn’t a link for Urban Outfitters in this post like I would normally post. If you really like them that much, go put on your skinny jeans, big shades, silly haircut and nu-rave hoodie, and go find the site/store yourself)

Here are a few tips if you’re going to be laying out a large document and sending it to print. Some things will sound very obvious but most of these I’ve had to learn the hard way, so hopefully some of the tips will help you out.

So you’ve got yourself a nice grid down so your document will look nice and coherent throughout? What’s next?

Start as you mean to go on. Don’t rush into things. Plan your folders that you’re going to use and formulate a good working system for your images. It’s much easier to put some time in at the beginning of a project than it is to start correcting it towards the end when the print deadline is looming! Below is an example of a recent project folder I worked on for a catalogue.

As you can see everything is in one folder. This is vitally important if you want to move machine, or if the printer requests you send the document (InDesign or Quark) rather than a PDF. I’ve also included a FONTS folder with all the fonts I’ve used for the document. I always send the fonts over to a printers because the less chance you give the printers for mistakes the more likely your going to get the work back and be happy with the results.

The LINKS folder contains all my images that are linked to in the document. When saving your images try not to use unusual symbols in the title. Also avoid spaces and / (forward slashes). Some servers won’t like your filename if you do this (I learned the hard way, you don’t want to have to rename lots of files and re-link the files in your document). Instead of a space you can use an underscore.

You could also have a .txt file called “Read Me” in the folder that has all your instructions for the printer in such as bleeds, slugs, colours, spot varnishes etc.

Lastly is colour. Unless you have a very expensive calibrated monitor do not trust your screen! The way I do this is to find the colour I like on the screen, then I will find a very similar looking colour in a swatch book. Once I’ve found a colour, I look at the CMYK value of the colour and change the colour on the document to the CMYK values in the book. It may look the same, it may look radically different, either way, what you send to print should look like the colour you originally chose.

This isn’t a definitive guide just a quick run through which will hopefully help you out. You may have a different system that works better for you. Just remember to keep things organized and don’t give the printer any room for error, that way if the job comes back and its no good, it won’t be your fault!

OBJECTIFIED is the new film by Gary Hustwit, the guy who bought us HELVETICA. This time it’s about Industrial Design and look very exciting. It’s set to include some of the best industrial designers around, including one of my personal favourites MARK NEWSON.

Really excited about this, as I loved the Helvetica film. Also check out the amazing logo design by Michael C. Place of Build. You can buy T-shirts and prints at the SHOP. $125 is a bit steep for my budget, although I’m sure the value will double as soon as the prints are sold out, as most Build stuff does.

It was great to see the work of Jason Tozer in the Metro Newspaper this morning. A full half page spread about hi recent SONY/Creative review commission. Don;t you just love seeing half decent work in national newspapers for a change? Take a peek at his site for a selection of his works. I love his more abstract stuff, it’s really creative. Click the picture for article view.

I recently acquired the new Muji catalogue. I’m a massive fan of Mujis’ products and with designers such as Industrial Facility designing products for them who wouldn’t be? When I went to put the catalogue on my bookshelf full of stuff I like other than books, I noticed I had been subconsciously collecting the catalogues for nearly 4 years. Although the Inward design hasn’t changed much, and to be honest it really doesn’t need to change much as it conveys their utilitarian, functional aesthetic beautifully, the catalogue has started to use a different range of papers and printing techniques. The current catalogue has 3 different papers and is printed on eco-friendly paper using eco-friendly printing techniques. I’m also loving the spot varnish overlay on the front and back covers

I’m sure Mujis’ target audience appreciates little details like this (I know I do). So pick up one in store ASAP!

You can also enter the annual MUJI DESIGN COMPETITION if you’re a budding product designer, with a cash prize of $30,000!

MUJI

For all your Big Apple sexual needs. Surely every major city needs some of these? 

Thanks Sam

You all thought Penguin books were king! Check out this Flikr set of awesome Pelican Paperbacks.

Also check The Pelican Project

Just got pointed in the direction of SUPERMARKET. It’s a great store selling lots of designer goodies. I’m loving the optimism stickers. Imagine walking into work on a Monday morning and slapping one of those on your grumpy colleagues big, fat, red face! YES PLEASE!

I’ve also found out that my friend Jack has an unhealthy obsession with chairs so this cushion is bound to impress him.

I saw this just before it was put into mass production over at Swiss Miss and thought it was super! Can I please have one?

Finally, I love these wall graphics. I’d love to stick these miniature people all over the house. Now all I’ve got to do is persuade the girlfriend that wall graphics are a good idea!

Thanks for the link Lawrence

A bit off topic for this blog but as an avid fan of electronic music I’m sad to see the current bastardization of minimal techno music. At the forefront of this is Richie Hawtin, who in some respects helped invent the scene. Richie and his silly antics no longer bug me as they used to but I nearly fell over laughing to this text message a friend sent to another friend asking whether or not he wanted to go see Hawtin and his Minus people play. The SMS conversation went something like this:

Friend 1: You fancy going to watch Hawtin Play?
Friend 2: No Because he’s shit!
Friend 1: Why do you say that? You used to love him?
Friend 2: Look the train was beautiful. It was simple, effective and clean in design. As the train forged onward the only sound was the incessant clanking of quality engineering, of well-meshed gears. For this reason the train kept to time, it was never overcrowded and only ran to a limited timetable. Then the train took a wrong turn, it went to Ibiza. Bad people boarded the train; they made the train get a new haircut. Then the train went to Berlin. More bad people got on, they made the train wear multimedia leather and charge £30 for a membership to be “associated” with the train. NOW I’D RATHER WALK!

If I had a child I would definitely be up for putting them in a pod like bedroom like this. It has made me ponder the thought of whether or not this would be cruel? You know those parents who dress their children like complete idiots for there own benefit? Maybe putting a child in a room like this would be like that. Either way it looks cool and if the spare room/office in my house was like this I’d leave my girlfriend on her own to sleep in this minimalistic bad boy! It’s all a bit 2001: A Space Odyssey

Industrial Facility design things we use everyday. Design with a greater purpose. They seem to take the everyday mundane and turn it into tangible poetry. The work speaks for itself. Intuitive, simplistic and most importantly, very usable.

Great article on re-banding starbucks. James Biber of Pentagram has a very radical solution. Read the article here:

Starbucks

So I’ve had my Iphone for over 2 weeks now. Does it live up to the hype? All in all I say it does. It’s more of a mini computer than a telephone though. I think the poorest thing about it is the phone section. I tried to jot down a number of a business as I was passing it on the bus, and by the time I had gotten into the phone part the bus had drove straight past it!

Another feature that is really bugging me is the poor quality of the camera and the lack of video recording, but as a graphic designer I suppose I should shoot videos/photo’s with suitable equipment.

The post is sounding rather negative about the Iphone but I really do think it’s a great device! Checking your email on the go couldn’t be easier, and as per usual, Apple really have the interface down to a fine art. Everything is so easy to use my mother was able to use it with ease.

Hopefully over the next few weeks more useful apps will start to appear, at which point I’ll write a post on all the cool apps for the phone.

So if your in the market for a new phone I’d defiantly consider one of these, although is you require photo’s and videos you might feel rather let down.

I love the idea behind this ident from Ross Colquhoun. I like the idea of MTV being a virus that spreads. Live fluorescent genetically modified e.coli bacteria are recorded growing in to the form of the MTV logo over a 48 hour period. He has some other top work on his site as well, so check it out!

I came across the work of Chuck Anderson in a recent interview he did with istockphoto. It wasn’t until I visited his website No Pattern that I realised I’d already seen much of his work.

After finishing school he had a variety of jobs from screen printer to working as a packer for threadless (who he has since subsequently designed t’s for and had a show at the gallery). After that he decided to brave it on his own and seems to be doing very well for himself.

What I love the most about his work is his bold use of colour. It’s really confident and in your face, which isn’t the type of design I usually admire, but Chuck seems to pull it off effortlessly. He can do bold brash urban design as well as doing understated colourfulness (see my personal favourite of his work, first picture below).

He really does have a very distinguishable style all of his own, which from the looks of things, people are queuing up to get him to do work for them.

Visit his site and have a mooch around, and maybe even visit his online store and buy a bargain print for your wall.

www.nopattern.com

I was starting to get worried that my copy had got lost in the post! Rest assured if you have ordered one it will come in the next week or so. As James West puts it:

“Sorry for the delay there have been some logistics issues here to say the least with all the books ordered!

James”

He only intended to sell a few hundred but he sold all 2000 in 2 weeks! Well done James on putting together a very thoughtful project that will help a lot of people. Design with a concience. See the rest of James’ work here:

www.createreject.com

A poster I’m working on as a response to the amount of hours I seem to be working. Everyday seems like Groundhog Day.

To be screened with this ink and a spot varnish typographic overlay. Looking for a paper at the moment. Was going to use BJ Balls excellent Notturno paper but minimum order is $500!