• Blog
• Services
• Portfolio
• Contact

Kustom Graphics – Book Review #7

Posted 12 Aug 2010 - No Comments - leave yours now!

I’ve tried in the past to catagorise design books. Some inform, others instruct and there are a few out there that simply dazzle you with page after page of creativity and skill that leave you wishing you had done some of the works yourself.

Kustom Graphics is such a book.

Kustom Graphics – Introduction by Julian Balme, Compiled by Yak El- Droubie, Text by Ian C. Parliament

Blurb: Over the past 15 years, the art of kustom kulture has seen an explosion of energy and imagination, fuelled by a crossover of genres. Hot rod artists are now creating work for rock n roll bands, t-shirt designers are using the body as a canvas and creating amazing tattoos, tattoo artists are embracing tiki motifs, music poster screenprinters are adopting the raunch of burlesque in their work and skateboard artists are embracing the spirit of hot rods.

Continue Reading

- leave a comment!  

Creative Quotations #5

Posted 02 Aug 2010 - One gratefully received comment

Here’s another installment of quotes I’ve collected for your consideration. A lot of these quotes are about life in general but I think they apply to designers, creative thinkers and business people alike.

Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new. – Og Mandino

You live longer once you realize that any time spent being unhappy is wasted. - Ruth E. Renkl

Don’t argue with an idiot.They will only drag you down to their level and beat you by experience. - Greg King

Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that. – Norman Vincent Peale

Continue Reading

- leave a comment!  

Design Forums Brand Competition

Posted 05 Jul 2010 - One gratefully received comment

Design Forums has started another competition that might be of interest to a lot of you out there.

If you’re looking for a good brief to help hone and develop your skills or you want do do some work that will fit into your portfolio nicely, then give the brief a look.

On this occasion the brief is to develop an identity for a restaurant called ‘The Drunken Goose.’ You can see the full brief and competition thread here.

I would recommend Design Forums as an excellent place to visit, it’s a very friendly community with a wealth of combined knowledge. If you do decide to enter the competition I hope you’ll stick around and join in the fun that’s to be had there.

- leave a comment!  

Creative Quotations #4

Posted 10 Jun 2010 - No Comments - leave yours now!

Here’s another installment of quotes I’ve collected for your consideration. A lot of these quotes are about life in general but I think they apply to designers, creative thinkers and business people alike.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal. – Henry Ford

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. - Winston Churchill

We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are. - Anais Nin

It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere. – Agnes Repplier

Continue Reading

- leave a comment!  

Creative Quotations #3

Posted 10 May 2010 - 4 Gratefully received comments

Here’s another installment of quotations I’ve collected for your consideration. A lot of these quotes are about life in general but I think they apply to designers, creative thinkers and business people alike.

The Grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. – Allan K. Chalmers

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one. - Elbert Hubbard

The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work. - Robert Frost

Happiness is like jam. You can’t spread even a little without getting some on yourself. – Anonymous

Continue Reading

- leave a comment!  

1000 Type Treatments – Book Review #6

Posted 12 Apr 2010 - One gratefully received comment

Typography is one of those design disciplines that can overtake your entire career, it’s very easy for designers to become obsessed with type and then let it become the focus of their everyday activities. Of course even if this isn’t the case and typography isn’t your bag, it’s one of those things that you still need to understand. Type cannot be ignored.
Books like the one I’m about to review give an excellent insight into successful typography, which can lead to the reader obtaining a better understanding of how type works, whether it’s a passion or a chore.

Blurb: The ability to wield typography is a clear indicator of a designer’s talent. Being able to craft type well and thoughtfully requires a deep understanding of typography’s inherent complexities, and a keen eye for it minute, subtle details. This book contains a collection of 1,000 instances of thoughtful and inspired type usage, along with credits that note which fonts were used in the design. The photography in this book homes in on the star of the book – type treatments – so readers can get an up-close look at each piece.
This must-have book showcases an array of fonts in a catalog-like format, making it easy for the working designer to practically shop for ideas.

I was previously unaware of this book and received it as a competition prize from Design Forums (you can see my winning entry here.) It’s great when you get a book as a surprise and it turns out to be really useful, it’s much better than buying the book yourself.
If I had to sum up this book in a glib and slightly vulgar way it would be as follows: 1000 Type Treatments is typography pornography.

Continue Reading

- leave a comment!  

Creative Quotations #2

Posted 15 Mar 2010 - 2 Gratefully received comments

Here’s another installment of quotations I’ve stumbled across. The last lot I published seemed to get a good reaction, so I hope these ones will be just as inspirational. A lot of these quotes are about life in general but I think they apply to designers, creative thinkers and business people alike.

Money can’t buy you happiness but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery. – Spike Milligan

Never be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century. - Dame Edna Everage

Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it. - Mahatma Gandhi

He that waits upon fortune, is never sure of a dinner. – Benjamin Franklin

There is far more opportunity than there is ability. - Thomas Alva Edison

Self delusion is pulling in your stomach when you step on the scales. - Paul Sweeney

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else. - Judy Garland

If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur. - Red Adair

The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you. - Wolfdyke B.B. King

Underpromise, overdeliver. - Tom Peters

Mistakes are the portals of discovery. - James Joyce

Nothing will work unless you do. - Maya Angelou

No legacy is so rich as honesty. - William Shakespeare

Successful people do the things that failures never get around to doing. - Unknown

The best way to predict the future is to invent it. - Alan Kay

The question should be, is it worth trying to do, not can it be done. - Allard Lowenstein

Youth is a circumstance you can’t do anything about. The trick is to grow up without getting old. - Frank Lloyd Wright

New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become. - Kurt Vonnegut

First, get the facts, then you can distort them at your leisure. - Mark Twain

Live each day as if it were the last day of your life, because so far it is. - Unknown

What you are will show in what you do. - Thomas A. Edison

The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up …and doesn’t stop until you get into the office. - Robert Frost

Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together. - Carl Zwanzig

Your work should be a challenge, not a chore, a blessing, not a bore. - Hal Stewins

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues. - Abraham Lincoln

If you found a little glimpse of wisdom in any of these quotes, why not try a little experiment. Choose your favourite and put it on display where you work, this might mean a scribbled post-it, a printed sheet of A4 taped to the wall, whatever. As long as it’s somewhere where you can see it when you look around. You might just get a little kick out of it when you re-read it. It might also give you a little something to think about when you are stuck, think of it as a little oil to grease the cogs of thought in your head.

Let me know which quotes are your favourite and feel free post a few of your own.

- leave a comment!  

Who's Ken?

I'm a freelance graphic designer living and working in Suffolk. I've been using Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign & Quark Xpress since 1999 but I've been using pens, pencils, paper and most importantly my imagination for a lot longer. I'm always looking for new clients to work with and interesting projects to work on.

Advertise on this Blog through BuySellAds