The other day I received a letter in the mail informing me that I had something in the newly released Best of Business Card Design 8. It wasn’t until I got the book in the mail this week, that I found out which pieces made the cut. Kind of strange timing to get a two-page spread in a design book in the same month that you are shutting the featured website down (i.e. this site).

I was also pleased to find out that the business cards I did for my wife made it in.

Watch and see 15 of the possible cover designs to Stefan’s new book appear before your eyes.

So Sagmeister has done it again. Although we have already seen many different pieces that are in this book, it is great to see and read about the entire project. It is fascinating to have all the work in one place, see the process it took to make these creations and discover the meaning behind it all. What has always struck me about Stefan’s work is the complete originality behind it and the guts that it takes to produce work like his own. We can make all the naked Sagmeister jokes we want (but please stop, it is very old) but he really has put himself out there and it isn’t based on arrogance.

While it would be amazing to have encountered some of this work in its original setting, I assume that the majority of this work was mainly designed for the end photograph and publication. If he created this work to be mainly viewed in these public spaces then his work would teeter over the design/art line very heavily into art. This work is interesting in that it is so much about self expression, but Stefan also has a message to say, and clients are willing to pay him to make the work.

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To start off, I thought this little video I shot would be the best way to show you the design of The Learners.

I have to admit that since I first learned that Chip was working on a follow-up to The Cheese Monkeys, I have been eagerly waiting to see layout, kerning, and typeface decisions weaved into a work of fiction again. While there was plenty of graphic design geekery to be enjoyed, the emotional and psychological aspects of Happy’s life are much more in the spotlight. Having previously worked at several small ad agencies it was very entertaining to follow the politics of a similar size office of yesteryear. The domineering boss, the talent that should have moved to the big city, the eager newbie, the burnt-out hack copywriter … they are all part of the ensemble.

While there are plenty of basic descriptions out there on this book, here is my two sentence summary (the summary from the publisher is more clear). After Happy has graduated from State he goes out to find his dream job at the firm his (de)mentor Winter Sorbeck, worked at. We follow Happy from his interview, to his first weeks and subsequent perils of dealing with clients and the things they promote.

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The name of the book is “Post Modern Bible Stories: Sunday School Never Looked Like This.”

The book is a collection of 45 postcards created by a assortment of designers and illustrators. Each postcard has an illustration on the front and a short paragraph sumarizing the story on the back accompanied by a few words by the artist. First of all, this is not an easy task for an illustrator! Not only did they have to illustrate some of the most widely recognized stories in the world, the format was a 4×6 postcard. If that weren’t enough, the whole piece needed to stand on its own with little more than a few sentences found on the back of each card. My hat is off to the illustrators for accepting the challenge and boldly proclaiming their faith.

As you would expect from 45 relatively unknown illustrators (at least unknown to me), some of the postcards are good and some aren’t that great. At the worst, the skill level reminds me of those montage things you make when you are first learning Photoshop. At the best, the illustrations were ispirational and moving. The illustrations that stood out for me were by Chris Koelle. His illustration for the prodical son was the highpoint of the book for me. Not only is it a strong symbolic story, it was one of the few illustrations that broke free of mediocrity and actually touched me. Chris’s other contribution was an illustration of Jacob wrestling with God that you can see on the right. Chris’s site is worth a visit, too, he is a fine illustrator.

Aside from the few truely inspiring moments, this book has left me scratching my head. First of all, what am I supposed to do with 45 postcards? Second, who is the intended audience for this book? That second question is where my real criticism is directed…

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Almost perfectly timed with the units on Renaissance and Pre-Renaissance document design that I’ve been studying with my students in Meggs’ History of Graphic Design lately, the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha is currently exhibiting multiple pages from the continuing St. John’s Bible Project commissioned by St. John’s University / Abbey. I won’t take up an extensive amount of space describing here what the Joslyn describes in detail on their own site, but I will briefly comment on what a wonder this project is to behold in person.

Those interested should also visit the principle site for the St. John’s Bible.

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Customer service. Why do I feel a little uneasy when I think of the phrase? The words “customer service” might as well say “customer complaints,” “unsatisfied customers,” or “those people who want me to produce garbage just because they don’t know the first thing about good design.” Ok, so maybe I could benefit from reading a book about customer service. Maybe you could, too…

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If I had one word with which to review this book, I would choose “collaboration.” If I had more-and you know I do-I’d talk about how Duffy explores the creative teams, account teams, and the clients on their roads to success.

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Who hasn’t thought about ditching their day job and going into business for themselves? You have the talent and ambition, so what is stopping you? Well, if you are like the majority of graphic design professionals, your design education probably didn’t prepare you with the business skills needed to start your own business. You need help. You need a guide that will teach you the basics of starting your own business, and provide you with the knowledge to help you avoid the pitfalls that could destroy the unprepared. Tad Crawford is the author of just such a guide. It is called “The Graphic Design Business Book,” and I was lucky enough to ask him some questions about his new book.

With your background in law, how did you become so passionate about design?
I became passionate about the rights of creative people early in my career. I was teaching writing at the School of Visual Arts and discovered the students knew nothing about business. This led to my creating a business course and then writing Legal Guide for the Visual Artist, which is still in print in its Fourth Edition. I became General Counsel to the Graphic Artists Guild and lobbied on both the state and federal level for rights for creators. In a sense, Allworth Press grew out of this passion.

I think that most designers fantasize about going into business for themselves, but your book doesn’t make it sound as glamorous as our dreams. Law suits, insurance, profit margins, taxes… that doesn’t sound like much fun at all. Is it really worth it?
It’s important that our dreams be grounded in reality. Being an entrepreneur is very different from being an employee. It has different challenges and different rewards. The entrepreneur has design skill, certainly, but also a vision of building a design business. Building any business requires a willingness to take responsibility and risk, to do the menial business chores as well as the exciting design work, to worry about money and perhaps be the beneficiary of a profitable business. When someone is ready to begin a design business, it can be terribly frustrating not to move ahead and get started–whatever the risks and however hard the work.

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I design Chip Kidd covers in my sleep. Ok, ok . . . so it is more like I was designing his covers in my dreams by the time I was done with this book (true story). Chip Kidd: Book One is chocked full of Chip’s design. When he says he has designed over 800 covers, he is not kidding (sorry for the pun). When you get this book I would suggest digesting it slowly, unlike my week of fairly consecutive four hour reading sessions. There is just too much to take in. These covers are all original (some more than others) and unique, but of course you know all of this stuff. Before I go into my overall nit picky complaints, let me say this. This is truly a beneficially read and an invaluable collection of his work. If nothing else this book shows the progression of book design over the last twenty years.

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by Marty Neumeier

Your new client sends you a breathless email: “Our CBO is building an IMT to reorg the brand architecture from the bottom up. We’re deciding on a BHAG this week, and as soon as we refine our backstory, we’ll probably need an avatar. What do you think?‚Äù

You could respond in several ways: 1) “What’s an avatar?‚Äù 2) “I’m not really an architect.‚Äù 3) Could you please translate that into English? 4) “Don’t call me a beehag.‚Äù

None of these answers is likely to raise your client’s confidence in your brand savvitude, especially after you sold yourself as an expert. However, if there were a copy of *The Dictionary of Brand* on your shelf, you could look these terms up and give her a knowledgeable response.

The Dictionary of Brand is published by the AIGA Center for Brand Experience, and contains 211 terms currently in use by leading brand professionals. Some of the terms are fairly stable, such as *brand equity* and *primacy effect*, while others, such as *brand police* and *parallel thinking*, have sprung up like mushrooms and may well disappear overnight. (This dictionary is nothing if not fresh.)

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