13th Street Identity

Out of all the portfolio showcase/ portal sites available Behance Network has to be the best. Always inspirational and quite dangerous to have poke around the site (you can loose hours if your not careful). Absolutely love this recent post of corporate stationery for German Horror Channel 13th Street by Jacques Pense at Jung von Matt agency.

Beautifully executed (no pun intended) and good on the client for obviously not being afraid to go the whole hog with the concept. Well worth checking out his portfolio on the site too, top notch.

Alexander McQueen

Totally shocked by the death of Lee McQueen, a true loss of creative genius. So much more than a fashion designer his collaborations with Puma, Samsonite, Bjork, Nick Knight to name a few have provided some of the most stunning pieces of design and iconic images of the last 20 years. A truly rebel style, here's just a few images that show what a talent he was.

Hot Links

Got my inbox down to zero and am winding down for Christmas, so final post for 2009, a quick round up of some interesting finds from the last month or so.

There are loads of to-do list manager apps around but I've been using Teux Deux, a browser based app, for a couple of weeks and really like it. I love its simplicity and uncluttered design, hoping they do develop an iphone app as this would make it pretty much perfect.

Definitely my gig of the year, a welcome return for Skunk Anansie. Couldn't resist picking up a signed copy of this ltd edition collectors box designed by Shotopop, it's a really treasure chest.

Very entertaining round up of customised My Little Ponies on SpoonGraphics, I want a My Little Mr T Pony for christmas

Bizarre combination of classic asian ceramics and manga-esque design from Brendan Lee Tang, how great would one of these look on your mantlepiece.

Porcelain artist Kate MacDowell's work is another slightly surreal find but absolutely beautiful.

DesignM.ag give a very useful round up of organisational resources for designers, including a couple of my favourites, Dropbox & Daylite

Another useful post on DesignM.ag with some great free fonts, quite a few I hadn't come across before. Most on the list are via Font Squirrel, which I've mentioned previously so note to myself to keep checking in on that site.

I haven't got round to installing Google Chrome (now available for Macs), more than happy with Safari to be honest, but shall download for cross browser testing. I do love the series of supporting low-fi ads, no idea who is behind them by but they're great.

Essential Reading

As the year draws to a close I thought I'd put together a small list of some of my favourite design/ inspiration books I've purchased in the last 12 months (and a couple that are on my xmas list). Whilst the web is great for inspiration it can be difficult to know where to start, so a well stocked shelf of inspiring stuff at your fingertips is a must if you ask me.

Destroy/Rankin: I'm eagerly awaiting delivery of this one, ordered it a while ago but as I was one of the first 20 to order, mine's signed by Rankin so have to be patient. The books a collection of re-worked classic Rankin photos by various artists/ designers and comes with a behind the scenes dvd too.

Logo Lounge 4: I'm a big fan of the LogoLounge series, not as nicely presented as the Los/Dos/ Tres Logos books but still a great resource for branding inspiration and a fair bit cheaper. The option to join online and search the whole database is good too but it will cost you.

Negative Space: By Noma Bar is one on my wish list, some clever visual trickery using a very minimalist style.

Boxed & Labelled: I've always been a sucker for good packaging and this book contains some real beauties. Also worth mentioning again is the very good Lovely Package, really nice blog site for packaging inspiration from round the globe.

Papercraft: Another for my wish list, Papercraft takes a look at, well work created from paper. Mixed reviews for this one but I do love a bit of hand finished design and the DVD with it adds appeal.

Little People In The City: by Slinkachu is a little book full of big photos of little people, humorous and sometimes touching miniature street art.

Derren Brown Portraits: Who would have known Derren Brown had a talent for portraiture. His exaggerated celebrity portraits are so full of detail; especially the craggy Tom Waits, Ian McKellen and Clint Eastwood. Too seaside caricature like for some tastes but I think they're great.

Business Graphics: One of the most useful reference books I have bought in recent times from Rockport. Virtually every other page has a post-it sticking out of it at the moment, highly recommended for anyone producing corporate marketing and branding.

Adrianne Illustration

Good friend of mine, the very talented illustrator Adrianne Yates has been rather busy of late. As well as various commissions for magazine illustration work, her fantastic photographic journal Today I Am Loving... and wedding stationery designs, she has also set up a couple of online shops. A selection of her beautiful illustration works are available as limited edition prints, greetings cards, stickers, badges and notebooks at Folksy & Etsy. Perfect little stocking fillers.

Hot Links

Finally got round to sorting my RSS feeds on my new Mac so here's a round up of some interesting web finds over the last month or so. If you're a regular to this blog then sign up to my twitter for more hot links and design related musings.

Just treated myself to this limited edition book Destroy/Rankin featuring reworkings of classic Rankin Photos by a variety of designers and artists. The the hard back book comes with a behind the scenes DVD and essays from Marianne Faithfull, Peter Saville and Damien Hurst amongst others. With all proceeds going to YouthMusic.

Some amazing macro shots of water splashes on Design Beep, great to see a photo of Corrie White's studio set up (in a kitchen), proof you don't need a high spec studio set up to get great shots

Interesting iPhone app concept for Jamie Oliver, puts together recipes, shopping lists, step by step photos and video clips

HypeforType have released another set of exclusive typefaces designed by the likes of Research Studios and Non-Format

Fantastic, complex illustrations from Gary Milne

New York based Studio Von Birken have a simple/ distinctive A-Z website showcasing their work

Really like this new typeface developed by Fontsmith for the UEFA Champions League, a solid looking san serif but with distinctive sharp terminals/ ears and tall x height