Video: Book cover in 2 minutes

I have really gotten a kick out of the Gail Carriger Alexi Tarabotti/Parasol Protectorate book series so it is fun to see how the design was assembled for the cover of the third installment, Blameless.

Advice for design students

Frank Chimero's advice for design students:

Design does not equal client work.

It’s hard to make purple work in a design. The things your teachers tell you in class are not gospel. You will get conflicting information. It means that both are wrong. Or both are true. This never stops. Most decisions are gray, and everything lives on a spectrum of correctness and suitability.

Look people in the eyes when you are talking or listening to them. The best teachers are the ones who treat their classrooms like a workplace, and the worst ones are the ones who treat their classroom like a classroom as we’ve come to expect it. Eat breakfast. Realize that you are learning a trade, so craft matters more than most say. Realize that design is also a liberal art. Quiet is always an option, even if everyone is yelling. Libraries are a good place. The books are free there, and it smells great.

If you can’t draw as well as someone, or use the software as well, or if you do not have as much money to buy supplies, or if you do not have access to the tools they have, beat them by being more thoughtful. Thoughtfulness is free and burns on time and empathy.

To read the rest of Frank's advice, visit his blog.

AIGA Design Archives

I wanted to let you know that the new AIGA Design Archives web site encompasses more than 20000 selections from AIGA’s annual juried design competitions dating from 1924 through the present.

In addition, it features special collections of major American design firms and practitioners whose design accomplishments might otherwise not be preserved online or made available to the public.

The collection is expected to grow by approximately 300 selections a year!


Categories includes things like:
• book covers
• sports graphics
• ads of the year
• typography
• packaging
• political art
• and more!

The amount of information available is almost endless!