Edward Hopper’s Creative Process
— Edward Hopper is absolutely in my top 3 greatest inspirations. I love this short yet inspiring video on his creative process, from The Walker Art Center.
Public Art Trip: New York City
— The Art Assignment has a wonderful video on the abundant public art in and around NYC. If you aren't subscribed to them on YouTube, check out their channel for more weekly videos on the topic of art.
Adam J. Kurtz
— Adam J. Kurtz is a designer, artist, and author based in Brooklyn, New York. Whether it’s products from his quirky online gift shop, creative journals (including his latest, called Pick Me Up, which comes out tomorrow), or his monthly column for Design*Sponge, Adam’s work is always refreshingly honest and genuine.
Francesco Franchi’s Infographics
— Francesco Franchi is an award-winning art director and editorial designer based in Italy. I first discovered his work in the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum and was struck by the level of detail and quality of his imagery. His infographics are a real testament to the fact that often, the role of the graphic designer is to be an interpreter between the content and the reader.
Favorite Blogs
— These are a few more design blogs to follow that I’ve been enjoying recently. Take a look at them below!
Negative Space in Illustration
— This semester I am taking a class in illustration, and I am excited to dive in! One artist I have enjoyed looking at recently is Noma Bar. His work utilizes figure-ground relationships, negative space, and compelling symbolism to deliver a message to the viewer.
Louise Fili
— Louise Fili is a New York-based designer, but her graphic design and typography, in particular, derives from beautiful Italian design. It is fresh and impeccable work in my opinion! She also has a Before & After page on her site which is cool to explore.
Susan Kare Interview
— This interview with designer Susan Kare is fascinating! Kare designed icons and fonts for Apple in the 80s and helped create the graphical user interface for the original Mac.
Paula Scher
— Feeling inspired after hearing graphic designer and Pentagram partner Paula Scher speak in Cleveland earlier this month. I loved listening to her unique perspective on branding and identity systems. Paula’s work, especially her posters for the New York City Public Theater, really blew me away!
Rafaël Rozendaal
— Rafaël Rozendaal is quickly becoming one of my favorite contemporary artists in the digital/web realm. His recent solo exhibition, Abstract Browsing, consisted of woven tapestries of abstracted websites. Likening pixels on a screen to stitches on a weaving, the artist transformed the web into strange, fascinating works of art.
Cool Motion Graphics Video: A Brief Lesson on Color Theory
— This is a really well-done motion graphics video that takes the viewer through a basic lesson on color theory. I found this through my favorite art & design blog, This isn't happiness.
Fast Co. Design: 16 Famous Designers Show Us Their Favorite Notebooks
— Fast Company recently published an article showing the notebooks of famous designers. Many of these are artwork in themselves.
The key to good design: Emotion
— This is not web-related, but I love this short read on Print Magazine's website on NYC artist Timothy Goodman. In the article, Timothy says: “Approach design as a practice, not as a profession.”
AIGA: Do Designers Really Need to Know How to Code?
— I used to shy away from coding, but taking Web classes at my school has shown me how valuable of a tool code really is. As graphic designers, we should naturally reject these no-coding tools in favor of doing it yourself. Learning to code is not easy, but like the author says, “there’s no substitute for the real thing.”