Tag: design

Helvetica Now

Helvetica Now is a new chapter in the story of perhaps the best-known typeface of all time. Available in 3 optical sizes-Micro, Text, and Display-every character in Helvetica Now has been redrawn and refit; with a variety of useful alternates added. It has everything we love about Helvetica and everything we need for typography today. This is not a revival. This is not a restoration. This is the typeface Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann would have designed back in 1957 if they had known about offset printing, small screens, browsers, digital design tools and UI designers.

KCBC Design

interview with the amazing designer of the kcbc labels.

WHY DON’T YOU TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO WHERE YOU’RE AT NOW? We can go way back on this question but to be brief I can say that for as far back as I can remember I liked drawing a lot. The desire to create images has stuck it out in me through ups and downs. Like a lot of other people it was a coping mechanism at first, a way to exercise control, a pretense to interact with people. For a person like me because that was all pretty important as I was a bit of an introverted kid. I’ve been friendly with the head brewer Peter Lengyel for 13 years. He was working in biology at the time and had started home brewing in earnest in, I believe, 2006 and shortly thereafter embarked on becoming a professional brewer. When he opened up KCBC with his partners he approached me to produce some labels and see what would come out. I can say safely that we gelled well and have gone on to make some interested work together.

3D Printing Skills

3D printers are preparing students for life after high school

I had the opportunity to sit in one of the design classes offered to upperclassmen. The teacher divided the students into small groups and asked them to create a holder for their headphones. Using modeling software and a 3D printer, they had to design a project that considered function, durability, and user friendliness.

Each team had a different approach. Some were working on a clamp that attached their headphones to the edge of the table, and others opted for a stand that would sit on the desk. I was blown away by how well thought out each design was. (You can see several of their projects in the video above.)

The school’s unique curriculum is particularly beneficial to some students who may have struggled in middle school. English language learners and students with disabilities seem to thrive at AFSE, since computer science focuses more on numbers and less on language skills. These students benefit from the way even non-specialized classes weave in computer science concepts—for example, a history teacher might ask a student to design a webpage about the War of 1812 instead of preparing an oral presentation.

Digital super-models

Some of the most eye-catching and spontaneously interesting fashion models popular today have a secret: they may not be human at all. Advances in computer illustration and photography have made virtual high fashion models a super trend. Can you tell them apart from people? Avant-garde stylists are exploring this creative intersection of life + art. These digital personas are rising in the fashion world’s spotlight. This is Miquela: she’s a 19 year old model and singer. But she’s not real. She’s computer generated, created by mysterious start-up called Brud co. Their team of story-tellers dictate her every move. She has 1.2M followers and she collaborates with major artists, brands — and is popping up everywhere. She’s released her own songs with auto-tune and lyrics videos.

Looking for red

The world lacks a great all-around red. Always has. We’ve made do with alternatives that could be toxic or plain gross. The gladiators smeared their faces with mercury-based vermilion. Titian painted with an arsenic-based mineral called realgar. The British army’s red coats were infused with crushed cochineal beetles. For decades, red Lego bricks contained cadmium, a carcinogen. More than 200 natural and synthetic red pigments exist today, but each has issues with safety, stability, chromaticity, and/or opacity.

Skeuomorphic hell

Alone, each plugin is hideous in its own unique way. A panel of 3D knobs here, a pixelated oscilloscope there. But when a project really gets cooking, one can amass 8 or 10 of these interfaces overlapping each other on the screen at once, and that’s when skeuomorph hell really comes into focus. I don’t know why audio software has looked like this for the better part of 20 years, but I’d like to honor these sins of UI with a tour of some of the most egregious examples.

Trippy Tippy Hippy Van

Why not a vehicle on its side? But, how? You can’t see through a roof. You can’t see through an undercarriage. Most vehicle bodies are much wider than they are tall, which means they will be far too narrow once flipped onto their sides. My first thought was that it needed to be both iconic, and a vehicle prone to rollovers for the visual gag to really work. But with such restrictive design parameters, which vehicle? A typical conversion van would have the longer, raised roof required, but offered nothing in the way of real aesthetic appeal, and most are far too heavy. What van has both a smaller body, a raised roof, and a look that is at once both iconic and desirable? The answer finally popped into my head—it had to be a classic Volkswagen Type 2 Westfalia camper van.