Author Archive

This week's Friday Favourite is a small collection of some of my favourite wayfinding.

Admittedly,  not something that usually gets the pulse racing. However, when it is done well, it’s useful and when it’s creative it’s even better. See what I mean…

I love the putty rubber look to the first two at 33 Parkgate Road  /  Clearly marked out floors at Vancouver Library  /  Neon stair signage  /  Carved pictographs and text using the font Gotham at the Heritage Museum, Amsterdam  / Lightbox wayfinding  /  Lastly, the interactive digital street sign called Points, it’s arms rotate according to the user’s requests for events tonight, conferences, transport and more.

This week, following on from last week's beautiful book covers are my favourite magazine cover designs with beautiful type.

With the growth of online magazines, there seems to have also been a rise in beautifully designed printed magazines catering for the stubborn audience that cling to and still enjoy look and feel of the physical copy. There are some really stunning designs out here and there is a great tumblr page for more covers called Magazine Wall.

The covers are from the following magazines: The Loop, Sova, The Gentlewoman, Kinfolk, It’s Nice That, Soigneur & Wilder Quarterly.

This week's Friday favourite delves into the world of beautiful type and book cover design.

I love illustrated and photographic covers too but the book covers that keep standing out for me are the most simple designs that use mainly type. The saying goes that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but I was reassured by a book reading friend that you most definitely can – different genres, styles and qualities of books follow styles, even the age of a book could be guessed by the design of its cover. Now that I don’t feel quite so guilty for being shallow, a great website for fellow book cover admirers is the Book Cover Archive. It’s great for book design inspiration – it can display the covers by designer or genre and also a random image generator for a mix of styles.

My shortlist today includes:

1. ‘ Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover’, the design for the Australian Publishers Association Best Book Awards publication for their 2012 wards ceremony by Toko Design Studio

2. ‘The Crow’s Vow’ designed by Salamander Hill Press

3. ‘Nov 22 1963 – A Novel’ one of many great designs by Christopher Brand

4. Anders Petersen’s ‘Soho’ – a cloth covered book designed by Greger Ulf Nilson

5. ‘The Belief Instinct’ also by Christopher Brand

6. ‘Against Happiness’ by Jennifer Carrow.

This week I spent some time researching and looking out illustrators that may have some artwork that could be used on my husband's upcoming album.

For his previous album or EPs and small releases, Dan has asked me to create artwork, but as the music on this album has a different mood to it, I have been way more excited about finding someone else to contribute!

We totally struck gold with a perfect piece that the artist has very kindly and enthusiastically allowed us to use. Cannot wait to work on the layout for the rest of the cd and/or vinyl!

So this week’s Friday Favourite features a great artist I discovered whilst researching. I saw a sketch by Grady McFerrin on Pinterest and discovered that he’s produced artwork for musicians like Bonny Prince Billy and Chris Schlarb. He has a diverse portfolio that ranges from music posters and cd design to kids work and producing dioramas.

I recently received ‘The Hobbit’, which was cloth-bound, and a book called ‘Paper – an Elegy’ from Sarah Jane, with a letterpressed hardcover. I find both of them a thing of beauty and have them on display in our living room.

My husband requested ‘cultural artefacts’ for his birthday – a title, albeit a little eccentrically, he has given to a physical copy of something creative i.e. a book, CD or LP. I also folded (or ruined some may argue) three old cloth-bound books into Christmas tree shapes for myself and for friends as I want to keep the physical artefact around and out on display to be enjoyed.

So when I stumbled upon the photo book company called ‘Artefact Uprising’ this week, you can imagine how I was hooked when their landing page greeted me, summing up exactly what I feel perfectly.