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PUBLISHER’S NOTE: CALL HIM JOHN
— Gordon Kaye GRAPHIC DESIGN NEWSNot Jaded Cullen and Cohen Out Of This World SPECIAL EVENT: GRAPH EXPOTaking place October 26-29 at Chicago’s McCormick Place, Graph Expo is the
most comprehensive graphic communications exhibition and conference in the Americas. See
the largest array of equipment and services for digital prepublishing, prepress, printing, digital
output, wide format imaging, bindery, package printing and converting, mailing, fulfillment and
creative services. For creatives, this includes an extensive seminar program. More than 70
educational sessions, as well as hands-on computer labs featuring the latest in software solutions,
provide creative services pros with real lessons that can be put to use as soon as they return to
the office. “Graph Expo’s value to attendees lies in the opportunity it provides to
not only evaluate the latest graphic communications technology first-hand on the show floor, but
also to learn in our many educational sessions how to apply them for greatest marketing response
for their clients,” say Ralph Nappi, president of the Graphic Arts Show Company. MORE GRAPHIC DESIGN NEWSConsumer Reports Recommends Hayman A Good Price Classical Cool SPECIAL EVENT: PICTUREHOUSE PREREGISTRATIONStock imagery buyers are invited to meet image suppliers from around the globe in New
York on October 29th. The 8th Annual Picturehouse New York event joins together creative
professionals with more than a hundred image suppliers in an intimate setting. This
year’s event moves to the prestigious Altman Building in New York’s Chelsea
District. Entry is free to professional stock imagery buyers and researchers, and there are lots
of refreshments and giveaways, but preregistration is required. MORE GRAPHIC DESIGN NEWSA Comic Entourage Democracy As Brand A Different Breed of Animal PRODUCT NEWS: STOCKLAYOUTS SUBSCRIPTIONS
MORE GRAPHIC DESIGN NEWSCartoons Convey Civility Publicis Picks Up PBJS Vote Early SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: THE GDUSA STORE
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An especially aggravating aspect of the great financial meltdown of 2008
is being reminded that the Wall Street “wise” men who led us down the
primrose path are, among other things, pompous, vein, self-important blowhards, not
to mention self-dealing thieves. Where are Eliot Spitzer and Rudy Giuliani — and
their high profile perp walks for the rich and infamous — when you need them? A
nice juxtaposition comes in the form of John Maeda, the renowned graphic designer, artist
and computer scientist, who was recently installed as the 16th president of the Rhode Island
School of Design. Maeda organized a low-key inaugural celebration that lasted just a couple
of hours and, as president, asks everyone to call him John, wears t-shirts instead of suits,
blogs daily about his experience, and is making his office smaller, because, he says, he
doesn’t really need all that space. “I’m into very simple,” said
Maeda, author of The Laws of Simplicity, his 127-page best seller.
Metallica’s new album “Death Magnetic” features packaging and
branding by the Turner Duckworth design firm. With CD sales challenged by widespread
downloading, the band says they were looking for new ideas. “This time, we wanted
to work with professionals who understand iconography,” said lead singer James
Hetfield. Lars Ulrich, the band’s drummer and frequent spokesperson added,
“We wanted somebody who commanded respect in branding but were not jaded
by the music business.” David Turner said, “The songs are about how death
— and life — repels and attracts us. Our image expresses the theme, with a white
coffin resting in a grave, surrounded by a magnetic field.” The image was created to
be recognizable even on a cell phone screen. “It’s not just about sleeve art any
more, it’s about creating icons that work across media,” added Turner.
Electronic Arts, the well-known game developer, is adding the much-anticipated Spore to a roster
that includes NBA Live and the Sims. An otherworldly advertising campaign by Wieden &
Kennedy, Portland OR, introduces the game in which players are brought to another world to role
play. Ads include a billboard with the slogan, “Tired of Your Planet?” Credits to
creative directors Jed Alger, Aaron Allen, and José Cabaco. Art directors are Matt Murphy,
and Jimm Lasser, and Drew Marshall did the illustration.
Consumer Reports called upon Luke Hayman for a major redesign unveiled with the October issue.
Hayman, a designer with Pentagram, New York, worked with the magazine’s creative director
Tim La Palme to develop a new logo, a simplified color palette, reorganized editorial sections, an
updated ratings section, a new section for updates on “big-ticket” products, and a Q+A
feature section. A customized condensed font put the logo on one line, creating a clear space for the
cover imagery and allowing a clearer hierarchy of stories. Content has been grouped into newly named
sections, which are clearly marked and color-coded. All the fonts are new: text and headlines are set in
Fedra, a modern Dutch typeface with a serif and sans serif version. The magazine has a circulation of
more than four million.
The Stamford Symphony Orchestra has launched a new brand identity reflecting a
“cool” approach to classical music, with a logo and website designed by
CoreBrand, New York NY. Eckart Preu, a young music director who embodies an animated,
fun and engaging philosophy, inspired a brand positioning and visual identity in line with
this spirit. “The new symphony logo is quite a departure for the category with its
sweeping visual representation that can be interpreted as the motion of a conductor's baton,
the bows of violinists or lines of a musical staff,” says the design firm’s creative
director Andrew Bogucki. James Gregory, a former Symphony board member, is CoreBrand
founder and CEO.
Engine Design, a broadcast design firm that works closely with sister visual effect and animation
company Engine Room, has officially launched. The kick off project is a promo for Entourage,
the popular tv show, in which the characters are visualized in comic book form. To achieve the
look, Engine Design hired illustrator Ian Slack who rendered the concept drawings in marker. The
firm then conducted a live action shoot with body doubles of the show’s stars to capture
the physical nature of each for the desired animated graphic illustrations. Finally, a team of
illustrators replicated Slack’s hand hewn style in Photoshop laying images over a rough
cut until the final project came vividly to life. The entire promo can be seen at…
“A brand logo for a TV production is a different breed of animal than one for mere print
production,” says Rich Lay of Glitschka Studios. “It has to work well as a
“bug” on tv. It has to allow for the possibility of animation and seamless integration
across all media venus including both print and web.” Lay was the art director for the logo
and branding creation for a new show, “Cool Houses Daily,” on the Scripps Networks.
Cool Houses Daily is directly tied into an online web portal called www.front door.com.
StockLayouts LLC, a leading provider of graphic design templates for print, introduces
subscriptions as the principal way for its customers to purchase and download a constant supply
of its fully-designed templates for creating business marketing materials. Subscribers pay an upfront
fee for convenient access to the entire StockLayouts template libary, enabling them to create
printed marketing materials for more than 21 business categories. Template Library Subscriptions
are available for 3-month, 1-year and 2-year terms, and include full download access to the growing
template library. The ready-to-print templates are available as fully editable files formatted for
QuarkXPress, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW, Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Word
and Apple iWork Pages.
New print ads from BBH New York position British Airways Club World as an oasis of civility in the
ugly world of travel. The ads announce a new promotion: “A more civilized way to bring
someone along” by offering a complimentary companion ticket. The campaign showcases
the artwork of three different New Yorker illustrators. Credits to creative director Kevin Roddy, art
director Amy Servidea, copywriter Peter Lefebvre, art buyer Andrea Rodriguez and illustrators Mick
Stevens, Pat Byrnes and Liza Donnelly.
Madison County IL is working with Creativille, Inc. on getting out the word that voting early is easy,
convenient and the right thing to do. In order to alleviate the stress of voting, on both the voters and
poll locations, Madison County, Illinois is stepping up efforts to promote early voting for what could
be a record turn-out for general election attendance. In a nutshell, the campaign offers voters a
more convenient way of casting their vote, on their schedule, near work or home or school. The
goal is to reduce the election day crowd by 20 percent. Steve Hartman, heads the design firm and
Mark Von Nida is Madison County Clerk.
GDUSA continues to grow to serve the graphic design community. In this spirit, we have been named
an official reseller of Pantone® products. Our offerings run the gamut from traditional Pantone®
Solid Colors Palette, the most widely used Pantone® palette with over 1100 unique numbered
colors… to the new Pantone Goe System, a new vision of color that provides an extended range
of 2,058 chromatically-arranged solid colors that are easy to locate and specify using guide, chip and
software formats… to the fun and versatile ColorMunki tool…