Happy Halloween! British design studio Dorothy went above and beyond the usual office costumes by designing business cards for your favorite characters from creepy films. Can you tell which movie is which? Some are tricky!
You’ve seen a map of subway stations (or if you’re Atlanta-based like KEYLAY, MARTA stations), right? It’s a bunch of flat lines showing where each line and station is in relation to the other. Pretty simple stuff. Architect Candy Chan argues that those stations are also places, and that’s partly why she drew 3-D representations of New York City’s upside down. It also served a practical purpose — after eight years in NYC, she kept getting lost. See more about Candy’s designs and think about what every-day object or item you can think about designing differently to really bring it to life!
The Freakonomics Radio podcast features weekly episodes exploring the “hidden side” of…just about everything! The podcast recently launched a brand new series called “How To Be Creative”, where the host, Stephen J. Dubner, speaks to artists, inventors, researchers, and innovators who essentially live and breathe creativity every day. This first installment of the series features Pentagram graphic designer Michael Beirut, who discusses his definition and pursuit of creativity. Check it out!
IKEA’s former Head of Design, Marcus Engman, has a bold new philosophy: design can replace marketing. His new venture, Skewed Productions, has a goal of removing the need for marketing through an emphasis on quality of design, and hammering home the added benefits of using funds that would have gone to marketing efforts to improve individual products and brands as a form of marketing themselves. We are anxious to see the results as he puts this into action!
It’s the simple things. That’s what we thought about when reading this Design Observer article about product designer Emily Campbell’s book “A Few Minutes of Design: 52 Activities to Spark Your Creativity.” In one activity, you’re shown three items and you have to decide which one is the odd one out, and give a thoughtful reason as to why. In another, a wildly designed chair is shown and you are asked to draw each of the flat pieces you think are contained within it. Try one of these and see what it can do to get your right brain kicked into overdrive!
German car manufacturer Audi’s current logo emblem is only about two years old. The company did away with its metallic sheen to go “digital first,” with an entire branding system being unleashed this year for this purpose. The pared-back strategy seems to be working, as a set of new trademarks have been filed in Germany and the US that appear even more simplified than the current identity. There’s a good reason why Audi might have decided to simplify its logo even further: earlier this year, the agency that worked on the brand’s recent overhaul said displays keep getting smaller, which means logos have to be distinguishable no matter how tiny an interface is. Way to think ahead, Audi!
