You can't miss: SmArtHistory

Ever regret not going to art school? Here's a great little resource that might fill that void. SmartHistory is being developed as an alternative to a art history book. Not just that, it also has a great design and user interface. You can quickly see a sample of images from a certain time period. Below is an excerpt from the Industrial Revolution period. You can also search by artist and medium.

So take a look if you want to beef up your art knowledge: SmArtHistory

This week in Veer: Best type video ever

Guys, I really found a jewel this week. Veer put out the ABC's of typography in this awesome video.
It's similar to bembozoo, if you've seen that. But way cooler. You'll just have to see for yourself.

F is for Fail

Response: Meredith visitors and advice

Like everyone else has already posted, I can't believe it's actually over. (The Meredith project, that is.) Probably the single biggest project of my college career, so far anyway.

It had its ups and downs, but as I look back and reflect on it, overall it was a success. It's always great to hear professional critique; everyone from Meredith was so gracious and constructive with their feedback for everyone. There was a good diversity of staff represented: visual, editor, web, etc..

I had to miss one of the presentations, but the ones I saw were wonderful! Each group had creative ways to present themselves. (and lots had treats! always a good idea.)

Hope everyone got a chance to relax a bit and enjoy it!

The Weekly Critique

The last part of design work for Spoon was to produce a few other cover prototypes. Most of the sell line typography is consistent with the original cover. I tried to always make the logo really contrast with the background. I particularly like the bright yellow on the fall cover.

Mostly, I'm just happy to be finished. But, as always, I'd love some critique as well.

Response: Website

As we looked at everyone's site's on Tuesday, I took a second to think back about where we all were at the beginning of the semester. Not only did we all accomplish the massive amount of design work and special projects, but we're all able to build a functioning, attractive web site.

It's also amazing how well we all learn from each other, and each other's mistakes. One person would learn some cool new flash trick or how to circumvent a common problem in dreamweaver, and share it with the class. It's been a really great learning environment for me, and I assume you all as well. It just hit me at we look at all the great sites: we've come so far..

You can't miss: FFFFound

Yes, I did actually spell it right: 4 f's and an ound. ffffound. It's similar to ImageSpark (a great find from Sarah.) Basically, it's just a bunch of images meant to spark your creativity. I love it because it's not just magazine design or product design. It's all art-based, whether photographic, computer-generated or wet-brush. Have a look; here's one I like.

This week in Veer: Photochromic Ink!

A week or so ago, I got this neat little cardboard postcard from Veer. (You should sign up to be on their mailing list for lots of cool stuff.) Anyway, it was a great, type-based beautiful postcard, that I didn't think much of at the time. Here's what it looks like



I was looking at it again today and actually read it (smart, I know) and discovered that if you take it outside, you'll get a special message. Really? Sure enough, there was one. Specific letters turned green and spelled out 'photosynthesis.' How cool, right? I always love learning about printing materials, so I really enjoyed the novelty here. I took this on my phone, so the quality isn't best, but you get the idea.