Issue 02.10 // Nice. Printed. Paper.

Here is Jan - Feb's collection of free printed materials I picked up. The ones that caught my eyes are the Ettusais' (jp, sg) collateral:






Nice clean, light and clear typography throughout their marketing collateral sort of reminds you what their products are suppose to do. Hallmark of a good brand identity.

The Design Society Conference and Journal

The Design Society had their inaugural conference at The Drama Centre located in the National Library last Saturday. The line up includes 10AM, :Phunk, Temasek Polytechnic School of Design, The [Press] Room, Make Studios and, last but not least, Work.

This was a very Singaporean-flavored event (much more than the Singapore Design Festival, I feel) as the speakers were Singaporeans who did nothing to disguise themselves as Singaporeans. Plus, a few words of "assholes" and "fu*k" was thrown around - although the former was entirely spewed by Theseus Chan of Work and the latter was entirely spewed by Kun of Make Studios - made it somehow even more satisfying. The only Ang Moh happens to be the emcee for the day, whose name I failed to catch. At the end of it, I was very glad for, from what I have heard, I believe Singapore, being the centre of the world, is beginning to find our own design narrative.

My two favourite speakers of the conference were Kun and Kelley Chen of the [Press] Room. They represents young design start-ups who haven't been all there and done all that as opposed to Theseus Chan. It was good to hear the stuff that is more relevant to designers like me who need to pitch for work.

At the conference, they handed out The Design Society Journal which "is a biannual magazine dedicated to serious and professional discourse on graphic design in Singapore".


Credits
Creative Director:  Hanson Ho / H55
Front Cover: YT
Photography: Ming / Surround
Printing: Kin Yiap Press
Paper: RJ Paper's Eco Frontier 300gsm (cover) and 120gsm (inside)









There was an exhibition, called 100 Icons, which archives 100 iconic logos in Singapore. It will be there from now until 29 January 2010. Go check it out.

The 2009 Feltron Annual Report

Every year start since 2007, there is one annual report I eagerly await to read. No, not on a corporation but that of an individual called Nicholas Feltron.

Each day in 2009, I asked every person with whom I had a meaningful encounter to submit a record of this meeting through an online survey. These reports form the heart of the 2009 Annual Report. From parents to old friends, to people I met for the first time, to my dentist… any time I felt that someone had discerned enough of my personality and activities, they were given a card with a URL and unique number to record their experience.

Nicholas Feltron

Print Production Inspirations

Via Generation Press, UK.

Being print designers, it is important to find inspiration for the production of print projects. This is because, mainly, we like to "wows" the clients with terms like hot-stamping, embossing matted varnish or diecuts. This is because print materials and processes are very important part of design as it determine the feel and look of the medium which carries the message to our intended audience. Here are three of my favorite sources of inspirations:

"Lost and Found" Auction Catalog by Wright and Thirst via FPO

Foreign Policy 2009 Calendar by Singapore's Foreign Policy Design Group via FPO

For Print Only (FPO) is a division of a growing design network called Underconsideration, co-founded by Armin Vit, formerly of Pentagram. FPO not only highlight good print production, it details the production specification of each design project it highlights. FPO is, also, a sister site of other great blogs such as Brand New and Speak Up.

Design Miami by MadeThought via Graphic Exchange

Suite 88 identity by Paprika via Graphic Exchange

Graphic Exchange is without a doubt one of the best site dedicated to showcasing the best print projects around the world. Curated by French designer, Fabien Barral, GE is probably the one-stop shop where I steal my ideas get my inspirations for print production among other things.

Via Generation Press.

Generation Press is a printer based in the UK who does very impressive projects with very impressive clients and they showcase them in a blog format unlike most other printers I know. That means they are kind enough to share useful information about their projects which then can apply to our own.

There are other nice websites, such as behance.net and ffffound, which you can find print production inspirations from. However, these are my favorite. Feel free to share yours.

The Directory of Singapore Creatives

Thinking that I am some great smartypants doing something no one is doing, I wrote an entry in my drafts listing down urls of local creatives.

However, until recently, I discovered the directory is being compiled much more comprehensively by Yanda of the blog theartistandhismodel. You can check out theartistandhismodel for more Singapore creative related news and design/art/fashion related inspiration.

Links of Singapore Creatives Via theartistandhismodel

Issue 01.10 // Nice. Printed. Paper. (edited)

I have a habit of collecting beautiful brochure or free printed materials everywhere I go. So, here are some of the nice ones I found (I slipped in mine (-;) between November - December 2009.






Above is a brochure for Singapore Fringe Festival 10 beautifully designed by local design studio "multi-disciplinary creative communications company" fFurious Bureau for the Advancement of Lifestyle and Longevity and Success (aka BALLS). fFurious did their website. However, the photos don't give it the greatest respect due to the dirty floor of this blogger's smelly room.



The last batch here is from Ion Orchard's which includes a christmas flyer and two of their retail guides. Not sure designed by who, but I do know Ion Orchard's Chinese New Year 2010 campaign is designed by Bangers & Mash.

Better Things To Do With Legos

Use your Legos wisely instead of wasting them on some useless and emotionless national building campaign. Look at how Muji does it with the plastic brick maker that had the whole internet buzzing.

[Via Today and Tomorrow]

Being made for people 6+, it is just right for me and I can't wait to get them. But for now, here are just a few other better things to do with your Legos instead of wasting them on a useless and emotionless national building campaign (yes, I have to repeat it again):

Aisle One's Antonio Carusone On Grid

To suggest that only certain designs can benefit from using a grid is to suggest that a structural foundation can only benefit a certain type of building or that grammar is only useful for a certain style of writing. A grid is a foundation, and like with any architectural structure, it’s a vital part of the process.

Aisle One's Antonio Carusone clarification on the grid after he read this article which discussed like it is some sort of a trend that happened not long ago. I guess that is why I read Aisle One rather than that other website.

Links of the Day

1. Hellen Jo’s Lady Gaga [Via The Beat]
2.You Are Not A Gadget cover by Olly Moss [CR]
3. Interview: Universal Everything [Unit Edition]
4. Ayamari Bijin – Beautiful Girls Apologize Online [Via Japan Trends]

Mistake(s): Experimental Jetset

Even the best make mistake(s):

Now we see this poster again, we see our great mistake. While designing, some of the letters must have fallen off the page: as you can see, the alphabet in the right column misses the letters 'g' and 'r'. The strange thing is that, around that time, nobody noticed it. Not us three, not Gary, not the printer. It's such a stupid mistake, and we are fully responsible for it. It shows how blind you can be
while designing.

Experimental Jetset is an Amsterdam based design power house. I like that they provide in depth explanations about each of their work.

Frank Chimero on Process

One of my favourite illustrators Frank Chimero share a bit of his creative process with us:

Fooling around is serious stuff, whether it’s for the sake of our work or for the sake of our sanity. Don’t get me wrong: design can be serious stuff, and every professional has the right to take their craft seriously. But, somewhere in the myriad of analysis and tight deadlines, we’ve revoked our permission to play around with ideas and experiment.

I think being serious (or being "professional and business-like") is a way to sell the creative business. Especially in Singapore where most people do not understand, and even fear, design.

However, a solution has become a problem as most client are not aware of a good visual communication. Most of the time we are treated like tools. Where does this leave some of the designers in Singapore? Jaded. Therefore, no play. Very unfortunate.

Distrito Capital Hotel by Joseph Dirand

Clean, modern and minimalistic interiors,  that I absolutely adore, designed by French architect Joseph Dirand, the 30 room Distrito Capital hotel is located in Mexico City. Check out more interior photos at the Contemporist. Check out the hotel's stylish website too.

CMYK 3.0: The Redesign Story

CMYK Magazine is where aspiring creatives showcase their talents to an industry driven by inspiration and new ways of creative problem solving.

CMYK magazine is getting ready to launch its redesign issue. Check out a preview. And, hey look! Another Christoph Niemann article.

Tokion Served

New website to plagiarise find inspiration. It is a TOKION Magazine X Behance Network collaboration called Tokion Served. Above is work by Craig Redman of RINZEN. It is just cool okay?

Leo Burnett Office by Ministry of Design

Headed by President's Design Award winner Colin Seah, Singapore's Ministry of Design is:

An integrated spatial-design practice, MOD's explorations are created amidst a democratic 'studio-like' atmosphere and progress seamlessly between form, site, object and space. We love to question where the inherent potential in contemporary design lies, and then to disturb the ways they are created or perceived - redefining the world around us in relevant and innovative ways, project by project!

Above is one of their latest project for Leo Burnett's Singapore office. Ad behemoths seem to like them as BBH's Singapore office was also done by MOD.

Via Dezeen.

"Objectified" - Jonathan Ive talks about Mac design & Unibody MacBook manufacture

Need. To. Watch. Objectified.

Weekly Cool Videos Release and some ranting

I am going to micro-rant about the local design industry in this post so if you are interested click "» read on...", otherwise, here is this week's link to the coolest videos of the week: Thirty Conversations On Design via formfiftyfive.

Burodestruct

Burodestruct, maker of many wonderful and unique typefaces, has updated their website (I think previously they weren't using a weblog format) and flickr with a few new work.

Links of the Day

1. 'Ora' Concept Watch by Alexandros Stasinopoulos. [Designboom]
2. Starbucks Marketing Push for Via Begins With Taste Tests. [Adage]
3. Nice old book cover found flickr. [Via We Love Typography]

Links of the Day

1. The Week In Type. [ilt]
2. Tomasz Opasinski Interview. [Psdtut]
3. How I Got 294 Comments With One Blog Post. [Copyblogger]