White and Black
The values that make up the keys of my new musical instrument. Can you guess what it is?
I’m doing alot better with this instrument then I did with the guitar… If you know of a good piano teacher let me know

The other day at work I did one of those personality quizes. This one is supposed to tell me how I would fit in a Kingdom:

your distinct personality, The Discoverer, might be found in most of the thriving kingdoms of the time. Your overriding goal is to go where no one else has ever gone before. Regardless of the number of available natural problems to be solved, it is not unusual for you to continually challenge yourself with new situations or obstacles that you have created. You are an insatiable explorer of people, places, things and ideas. You thrive on constant change and anything new or different. On the positive side, you can be creatively rational as well as open minded and just. On the negative side, you might be an impractical and indecisive procrastinator. Interestingly, your preference is just as applicable in today’s corporate kingdoms.

Paula Scher Templates?!

This is a great article about Saul Bass. One of my favorites- he paved the way for design in the film industry.

The article “A Brave New World: Understanding Deconstruction” (article first appeared in Print Magazine in 1990) may be dated”but the information is still very relevant. Chuck Byrne and Martha Witte describe a new phenomenon in the design world. Designers typically refuse to believe that they could be influenced by an outside source and tend to think of themselves as originators. The concept that society could have an effect on design trends is a new phenomenon . Although some designers would like to think their inner creativity is the source of all their designs, it is simply untrue. Many aspects of society and culture such as literature, painting, philosophy, politics, and technology, have influenced the world of design.
One good example of how designers have used the influences of society to their benefit is the Bauhaus. Bauhaus was a design school that emerged in Germany in 1919. The success of the Bauhaus can be accredited to their innovative ideas and ability to be open to change. They used the inventions of the time to their benefit.
Modern technology has had a great impact on typography and design. The personal computer has allowed the designer freedom at a low cost. Old design techniques and tools, such as the grid, have gone nearly extinct since the emergence of the personal computer. Other revolutions on typography were brought on by movements such as futurism. Futurism began in Italy in 1909. It was a modernist movement that celebrated the technological era. Largely inspired by Cubism, the core of the Futurist thought and art were machines and motion.
More recently, deconstruction has been an influence either directly or indirectly on typography. The article defines deconstruction as, …the breaking down of something (an idea, a precept, a word, a value) in order to ˜decode its parts in such a way that these act as ˜informers on the thing, or on any assumptions or convictions we have regarding it. An example that was used in the article to further explain this idea is the word whole . The word whole is thought of as one complete thing. However, we understand everything in terms of its parts, and in terms of how its parts work together, making wholeness incomplete.
Typography and design have utilized deconstruction to create designs that are centered around content and language rather than convention. Deconstruction was introduced to graphic design by the reissuing in 1982 of Pioneers of Modern Typography which was first published in 1969, and the publication of The Liberated Page in 1987. In these books both written by Herbert Spencer, it became clear that the interpretation of the meaning of words was being used to provide emphasis by the Dadaist and Futurist typography. Traditional typography techniques were continually collapsing and new innovative styles were emerging like in the work of Paula Scher. It is unclear as to where the design world will go next, but it is important to continue the path these designers have set to utilize and understand our sources.

Neville Brody began his career by pushing the limits. He was almost thrown out of the London College of Printing when he designed a postage stamp with Queen Elizabeths head turned sideways. Brody was born in London on April 23, 1957. He attended Hornsey College in 1975 where he studied painting. From 1976-1979 Brody studied at the London College of Printing.

After school, Brody immersed himself in the independent music scene in the early 1980s. He was the art director of Fetish Records where he was able to experiment with graphic language. Then in 1981 he became the art director for The Face magazine, which was a London based magazine. He transformed the look of magazines. Brody left The Face in 1986 and shortly after became the art director for the mens magazine Arena. This time he concentrated on a minimal, non-decorative typography.



The Graphic Language of Neville Brody, was published in 1988. In this book, Brody documented his evolution from art student to renown graphic designer. This was later followed by a second book that chronicled the exploration of the personal computer as a design tool. Neville Brody and Stuart Jensen opened Font Works in 1990. Brody became the director of Font Shop International and created Fuse Magazine. Fuse Magazine is a collection of experimental typographic designs and is published quarterly by Font Shop. Brody wishes to liberate typography from its textual role through Fuse.

Research Studios was created by Brody and his business partner, Fwa Richards in 1994. Research Studios is a design studio that crosses many platforms including; web design, print, environment design, retail design, motion graphics, and film titles.

Neville Brody now focuses on questioning and creating a dialog on the role of electronic design and communication through the evolution of a new visual language.

Digital design is like painting, except the paint never dries. It is like a clay sculpture that is always being twisted into new shapes without ever being fired.
” Neville Brody
read more…

Some people just get a haircut to spice things up. Not me, I design a new website. Check it out:
lettodesign.com