by Annie | Dec 18, 2009 | Adchievements
The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is one of the most heavily ad-littered times of the year. Between Black Friday and last-minute Christmas shopping, these few weeks often fill store fronts, circulars, and online banners with holiday ads as retailers hope for looser consumer wallets. Here are some ads that have taken a creative and fresh outlook on age-old holiday...
by Annie | Dec 16, 2009 | Other
Looking for a great gift but strapped for cash? Here’s a gift idea that’s easy, inexpensive, and useful! Step 1: Obtain a can. Larger ones are better. I saved the green bean cans I used for our Thanksgiving feast. Eat, give away, or save contents of the can. Clean out the can and make sure there are no sharp edges. Step 2: Cover with pretty papers. You can keep the label on the can so you’re gluing paper to paper rather than paper to metal. You can find fun papers in art and crafts stores, or you can design the papers yourself. Step 3: Fill with potting soil and small plant. Both soil and plants can be found in most home improvement stores or garden stores. You can also add a little whimsy by including a witty, personalized tag. Ta-da! Quick, easy, and gentle on the wallet. Lots of variations possible, so have...
by Annie | Dec 14, 2009 | Adchievements, Typographically Speaking
It’s amazing how the simple ideas stick with us the longest. Many designers use text in interesting ways in their designs. Some use big bold text, others use scripty and flowy text. Even the fourth graders I taught could change fonts, sizes, and colors. However, the designs that we remember most are those in which the text blends seamlessly into the image. Image relies on text, and text relies on...
by Annie | Dec 11, 2009 | Logoland, Typographically Speaking
Anyone can play around with letters, but a great designer arranges, changes, and adds to letters so as to reveal the essence of the message. Here are some straightforward logos that convey meaning in powerful...
by Annie | Dec 9, 2009 | Typographically Speaking
If a picture is worth 1,000 words, using text as image must be worth 1,001. I first learned about the technique of using text as image in college during a book arts class. Prior to that, I hadn’t given typography a second thought, blindly using double-spaced 12-pt. Times New Roman for every paper I’d written. Teachers get cranky otherwise. The subject of the memoir I wrote for my book arts class was my journey through childhood and adolescence as a fat kid. My professor pushed me at every step to consider all design decisions carefully in order to communicate the message of my story as clearly and effectively as possible. While reading through A History of Graphic Design during one long caffeine driven night, I was blown away by the thought that text could be used as image. Since kindergarten, I’d been taught the names and sounds of the letters, how to combine the letters to form words, and how to link words to form sentences. During all that, not once did I stop to consider the shapes of the letters themselves. After all, the alphabet is essentially a gallery of 26 pictures that were eventually assigned to sounds. With that new revelation in mind, I decided to use text as image as the underlying design theme of my book. As I played around with typography, text placement, spacing, and letterforms, I rediscovered the beauty of letters and text, approaching them with the same wonderment and curiosity that I had as a preschooler. Through my study of typography, I learned that effective synthesis of text as image and the...
