Computerlove™

Android's Very Own Font

"The custom-made font took almost as long to create as Google's mobile platform, Android.

The font, dubbed Droid, is the product of a two-year collaboration between the Mountain View, California based Internet giant and Ascender, a digital typeface company based in Elk Grove Village, Ill."

Full article on Forbes

Download Droid

OneDotZero Adventures In Motion Trailer

The new trailer from OneDotZero 'Adventures in Motion' Tour.

Zamak

"I like working fast to have a quick result, that’s why I use simple forms to start. Then I leave the creation for awhile—hours, days, weeks—and [when I come back to] work on it again [I] add accessories, details, refining lights, shadows, texture. What really [matters to me are] not details but the [overall seductive] aspect."
-Olivier Bucheron aka Zamak

Check out also an interview at Newton.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro, new site & updated works

Pentagram gives architects, Diller Scofidio + Renfro a new look, in papervision no less!

Let's Talk, Alex Trochut

Barcelona's Alex Trochut is not your typical graphic designer. His work evokes a certain sense awe—the striking geometry of his lines, the beautiful shapes and contours of his illustrated typography. A graduate of ELISAVA Escola Superior de Disseny in Barcelona, Trochut honed his expressive graphic design working at studios like Toormix and Vasava before striking out on his own as an independent. Today, Trochut's services attract the attention of clients like Nike, Universal Records, and British Airways. His work has also graced the covers of magazines like Beautiful/Decay, and been featured at conferences like Australia's Semi-Permanent. I recently caught up with Mr. Trochut. Here's how our conversation played out. -Matthew Newton

Everybody has a different story about how they became involved with graphic design. Can you tell me yours?

I always liked to draw and became a design student without knowing much about it. I was deeply hooked from day one—I was very lucky I guess.

What hooked you?

I guess it was the fact that in school I studied so many things I had to study—not because I really wanted to—that when I got to design school I discovered a whole new world of exciting things that I didn't know I would like so much. So I guess it was the unexpected and sudden motivation I had during those first years that hooked me.

Do you have any influences that have shaped your style?

Sure, so many it’s hard to name them all—but a lot of the work [was] done in the past in graphic design, before the computer became a tool for designers. All the designers from that period that chose the visual side of design more than neutrality: Milton Glaser, Herb Lubalin, Rick Griffin, Jim Philips. All kinds of pictorial archived images from all periods: art nouveau, art decò, victorian art, calligraphy of all kinds. The inspirng work of Non Format, Si Scott, Marian Bantjes, John Langdon, and many many others I'm forgetting. And the new [artists emerging].

You seem to have a focus on client work. Is personal work something you have plans of pursuing?

Right now it doesn't seem so. I'm happy being a designer and solving projects through needs. I guess I learn more like this than just working under my own directions. I'm not closed to any option, but right not I don't have any particular personal content I want to show. I believe it has to be something thoughtful and reflexive, and I don't have the time right now to do it as it deserves.

Many designers approach projects from the vantage point of a problem solver. How do you view a new project?

For me it is important that there's room for both things. I like to work on projects that require solving a need and a client/concept’s demand. I don't see myself as an artist that faces reality only through his eyes, but that doesn't mean I don't want to express myself and find new visual results by the client needs. Actually I think many times these "limitations" make me more active to look for more visual solutions.

Your experiments in typography are very original. What attracts you to typography?

I like to play with flexible abstract shape and typography is the perfect material to do so—change the structure in unlimited ways and still keep a level of meaning behind the visual side.

What do you look for in shapes that make them visually attractive?

I usually look for geometry, fluidity, and organic shapes.

How have you refined your design processes over time?

It has been important for me to look for a learning experience in every project when possible, trying to change your techniques, methodologies, and habits, which is not always posible. But trying has at least provided me some nice surprises allowing me to [take] steps in my own creative evolution.

How would you describe your creative evolution so far?

I worked for two years at a branding and communication design studio called Toormix, where the design methodology and process was very rational and neutral, which was good for me to understand the "swiss" side of design. After that I spent two years at Vasava—which was quite the opposite [experience]—and where I learned so many ways and possibilities to express myself and to use illustration as a powerful tool for a designer to communicate. After these two important periods, my evolution has been based on finding little experiences in some projects that allow me to come to the next project with more ingredients to do the cooking. And right now is all about discovering [you] need ingredients to create new dishes!

What is it you hope to achieve through design?

A fun and evolving learning process that allows you to comunicate and
express yourself.

Related links: www.alextrochut.com www.vasava.es www.toormix.com

Apple archeology

Some time ago, Marc Esslinger published an amazing collection of pictures of Apple prototypes from the early 1980s including the very first telephone bearing the now defunct rainbow logo.

Marc Esslinger's father is no other than Hartmut Esslinger, fouder of successful design agency Frog Design and designer of the famous Apple IIc — Snow White — which was Apple's first portable computer in 1984.

It's interesting to see how advanced Apple design concepts were at the time, though technology didn't allow them to make those beautiful products come true. Laptop, tablet and wireless technologies are pretty resembling to the products that the Cupertino based company recently released.

MWMgraphics.com 2008.

I am very pleased to announce the launch of my Redesigned & Reloaded 2008 Portfolio Website – www.MWMgraphics.com – *Updated with over 50 freelance projects and commissions from this year across disciplines (All previous work is still featured in 2007 Portfolio Archive). New Vectorfunk Posters, Prints, Books, Tees, and Skateboards in the Shop. Recent Press Clippings, Features, Interviews, and Gallery Bio. And the new MWM Graphics “So, what can you do for me?” Capabilities Section. Surf through and check it out. Enjoy! –MWM

Meet the BigMan

Brazilian hotshop creative website

Surpy / Craig Shields

Craig Shields is a designer I've been following on Depthcore for a long time now.
Launched in 2007, Surpy.co.uk serves as the digital portfolio & showcase for this young aspiring illustrator from the UK.

Check out his work @ flylyf

Girls Must Have

We've seen it a hundred times and most of us hate it for being used one too many times: the classic Flash PageFlip effect. But this new enhanced version on Girls Must Have really pushes the limits: The whole runs smoother, with a dragbar and a zoom functionality. Website, photography, film and music in the mix by Parasol Island .

Negro Nouveau

Negro Nouveau is finally selling 3 typefaces, the so much expected Paz, Lynda & Santino typefaces are the first to come out and are now available.

London Design Festival 08 Preview.

LDF/08
WE MADE THIS
Mikael Alacoque