Design Jones

Just ordered a copy of this to refer to at this year’s student workshops. A seriously valuable resource for students, recent graduates and even young design companies, in terms of what potential emploeyrs are looking for and how to best present your work and break in to a tough industry.

“Through more than forty case studies, nearly twenty interviews with experienced professionals, and a series of (nonscientific) surveys, Flaunt is a resource for design students as well as young, experienced, freelance, and independent designers. It explains how one can find a way to cohesively, succinctly and creatively showcase their work through an accessible, effective, and creative portfolio. Flaunt showcases a variety of alternatives through a selection of portfolios that represent both the most common approaches as well as some offbeat executions. Hopefully, this book will help ease the anxiety and burden of creating a portfolio—and, perhaps, even help demystify the process of putting it together, along with the expectations of presenting it.”

Find out more HERE, you can order the book or download it in full as a PDF for just $15!

I found this really useful list of great design magazines via a tweet from SwissMiss this morning. There are a few here I’ve not heard of and a couple more that I can only find every so often as they are US imports but it’s a really good list and well worth checking out HERE. I’ve had to clear my shelves in the studio to make room for all the books and magazines I’ve recently added to the library so it looks like perfect timing!

I really love the hands-on and low tech approach to these science fiction book covers I found on Computerlove’s site HERE.

Hannah recently sent through a link to the work of Andrew Bannecker. A talented illustrator with a feel for texture and all things Victorian by the looks of things. His book cover work in particular stood out to me, you can view his work HERE.

M S Corley has redesigned the covers for the Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket series of books to look like Penguin Classics. I enjoyed both these set of books and have often thought how I would approach the cover design. What I found great about these is the ability to condense the story into such basic elements, any fan would still recognise which books they were without the title being present! These have a very Saul Bass quality to them and make me realise how much movie poster design in particular could learn from this classic approach. You can view the full set HERE.

(Via QBN)

Whilst reasearching for a book project that I’m illustrating this week, I found an old bookmark to a Los Angeles based illustrator and generally quite crafty creative; Amanda Visell. I love the painted dry brush textures along with her great characters. She also creates wooden, vinyl and metal versions of her work. You can view it all here.

OK, last one I promise! (at least for today anyway) What can I say, I just love kid’s picture books. The standard of storytelling and illustration is so high right now and there is no better example than ‘The Great Paper Caper’ by Oliver Jeffers. Shortlisted for the 2008 Roald Dahl award, this book is a great mix of vectors and hand drawn characters, lovely colours and imaginative page layouts – this would make a brilliant Christmas gift and Oliver’s website even shows some of his development work and sketches.

Whilst we’re on the subject of kid’s books I have to talk about this one! Illustrated by Mo Willems, ‘Don’t Let Pidgeon Drive The Bus’ is an instant classic. The character he is able to inject into his illustrations is amazing, the line work is beautiful and we have even bought the plush toy for Ray’s room (although I’m currently borrowing it for my studio!). Check out all his work here.

This was one of the first books we bought for Ray, it is a really beautiful story and richly illustrated by Oliver Jeffers. His work is now available to buy as limited edition prints here.

(Via SwissMiss, thanks!)

Another great resource if you’re looking to add instant depth, interest and texture is ‘Crumble. Crackle. Burn.’ available from Texturebook.com. The book contains 60 illustrations paired with 120 black and white texture images, tutorials on how to achieve the best effects and further useful weblinks, the webiste even has some free textures to trial before you buy. I first came across this book in Chicago earlier this year, since then the reactions against the glossy, web 2.0 aesthetic has really grown making this is a great addition to any designers arsenal.