Dog Opus Blog

Anyone taken a gander at Emigre’s site lately? It’s looking pretty nice if you ask me.

(What’s a few millennia anyway?) Happy birthday to Israel, a true friend to America, and an exemplar of hope, pluralism, and freedom in a fearful and, sadly, often hateful area of our world.

I really like the logo, except for the fact that the word “Israel” is actually broken up by the graphic:

That’s horrible! I was thinking it might be some weird anomaly in the English version, but it’s the same in the Hebrew one:

Oh well, that’s just the way the logo gets crappy sometimes. The rest is great, though, in my opinion: Jubilant running kid, lovely ribbon motif, vibrant blues.

Anyway, mazel tov, dear friends—am Yisrael chai! I’m going to celebrate with John Zorn’s Masada performing “Karaim.”

So I’ve finally gotten around to reading How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul, by Adrian Shaughnessy. It’s a beautifully laid out book, which is, so far, an excellent, informative, and affirmative read. It’s got everything the hard and unforgiving business side of design that a fledgling designer needs to understand, but is not generally taught in design school. Here’s his site, which is interesting in that you don’t have to do anything on it—you just sit and watch: This Is Real Art

Here is an interview with Adrian at Under Consideration’s Speak Up: Adrian Shaughnessy Speaks Up

I personally think that this book, or at least a large part of its subject matter should become a senior level course for design students ready to make the difficult transition from heady self-congratulatory parochialism to ruthless soul-crushing design business reality.

We may seem to be an inscrutable breed to many prospective paramours, but with a little practice, you too can learn How to Pick Up a Graphic Designer. {from this month’s “Room 650,” the back-page comic of Step Inside Design}

TIPS:
• Praise the old UPS logo.
• Make thoughtful comments on menu design while ordering.
• Handwrite your number on a napkin… IN GOTHAM!!!
• Judge a book by its cover.

PICK-UP LINES:
• Kern here often? (heh—ed.)
• PMS 293 really brings out the color of your eyes.
• Great use of white space.
• Paul Rand is my uncle!
• Command (⌘) X the zero and get with the hero.
• Remember Quark? (double heh—ed.)
• Hello, I’m NOT a graphic designer.

Simple, easy steps to make us swoon.

You can create the illusion of transparency in color mixing by combining two colors, with their result shown between them.

I used gradients to amplify the effect.

From my favorite modern diva—the one whom folks in the know love to hate—here’s a promotional video for her stunning, and I mean stunning, Casta Diva.

Oh yeah, goosebumps.

You can hate her, but she don’t mind—that’s just how she rolls.