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Smooth jazz - Metallica - Enter Sandman

Nothing to do with graphic design but completely awesome. Check this out.

Steve Jobs on Paul Rand - 1993

Paul Rand is known in the graphic design community as being one of the greatest identity designers ever. He is responsible for logos including IBM, UPS, Westinghouse, ABC and NeXT where Steve Jobs hired him.

The interview shown here highlight Jobs' admiration for the great designer and shows his high regard for design which shows in the products and software Apple produces today.

In a book called "Design, Form an Chaos", Rand shared the following insights.

"A logo is a flag, a signature, an escutcheon, a street sign. A logo does not sell (directly), it identifies. A logo is rarely a description of a business. A logo derives meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolizes, not the other way around. A logo is less important than the product it signifies; what it represents is more important than what it looks like. The subject matter of a logo can be almost anything."

“Should a logo be self-explanatory? It is only by association with a product, a service, a business, or a corporation that a logo takes on any real meaning. It derives its meaning and usefulness from the quality of that which it symbolizes. If a company is second rate, the logo will eventually be perceived as second rate. It is foolhardy to believe that a logo will do its job immediately, before an audience has been properly conditioned.”

"Ultimately, the only mandate in the design of logos, it seems, is that they be distinctive, memorable, and clear."

The iPad magazine advertising model

After contemplating what I wrote below, I started thinking more about ads and what's possible. The major thing is that a reader will probably be able to click through to a website where they can find more info and more advertising. A valuable thing for an advertiser!

So how will publishers structure their ad income? A flat rate as it is now, a click-through cost or a blend of the two? Surely the ability to continue the conversation with the consumer is worth more to the advertiser than just a flat rate. Plus, that distraction take them away from the magazine. It'll be interesting to see how it all pans out.

Will we start seeing ad placement more in books now too?

Another example of content for the new iPad

The coming of the iPad is certainly exciting in that it brings with it a new way of receiving magazine content and a new way of working for editorial designers. But how far will it go? This video of the iPad running VIV Magazine is great but seriously, how many publications can afford to deliver content like this? Not many.

So, who will have the budget? My guess is advertisers. I see a shift where editorial is not only differentiated by copy length and design style but by the level of motion graphics and interactivity. With publishers trimming budgets and typically spending $3-5,000 on photography (if that), I don't see them spending money on filming, 3D modelling and editing unless advertising revenue is boosted drastically.

The beauty of what's possible and the desire to be seen taking part in this would be very attractive to an advertiser but what changes will happen to the industry? Will the ease of delivery prompt more people to create magazines since they don't need to pay for print? Of course. Will advertisers be willing to pay much more for ad placement, allowing magazines to have bigger budgets to spend on this kind of production, or will they want to pay less because there is a bigger market to cover and need their dollar to stretch broader across more publications?

Take a look and you be the judge but my opinion is that a select few will cross the boundary but most magazines won't be able to compete and will stick to a more static format apart from a few ads.



And here's a behind the scenes:

Digital publishing is here… Again (only much better)

Time Inc. has released a video walkthrough of it's digital magazine format design for touch screen tablets like the one long rumoured to be coming from Apple. This follows on recent rumours that a multi-publisher iTunes-like digital store for magazines is coming soon. Check out the video below.

Please Explain: Jonathan Hoefler & Steven Heller

WNYC 93.9FM has a weekly radio show called "Please Explain". They recently interviewed typeface designer Jonathan Hoefler, type designer and president of Hoefler & Frere-​Jones and Steven Heller, co-​chair of the MFA Designer as Author program at the School of Visual Arts and author of the VISUALS column for the New York Times Book Review, and asked them to explain how typefaces are created and why typography is important to communication and design. Listen in…

The crisis of credit visualised

Created as a thesis project in the Media Design Program, a graduate studio at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, this work by Jonathan Jarvis is a brilliantly produced movie explaining the credit crisis in a delightful way. Great work.

The future of the newspaper

I stumbled on this talk by Jacek Utko, a Polish newspaper designer. He makes some great points. Not only for designers but for anyone who loves what they do. A very (short) inspiring talk.

A normal iPhone ringtone

Like almost every other phone I've had in the last five years, my new iPhone is full of lame ringtones. What's wrong with phone manufacturers that they can't at least give us one normal ringtone. Anyhow, I went on a quest to find a decent mobile ringtone and came up with the ringtone that Apple had as a part of their ad for their first gen iPhone aptly called cellphone ringing. So if you want a regular ringtone for your iphone, control click or command click (mac) this link to download it as an m4r file. Then just open it up in iTunes.