The “I am not here to make friends” T-shirt is available in the shop now!
The “I am not here to make friends” T-shirt is available in the shop now!
Remember this? Don’t worry, I still have ten fingers, and I did not spoil everything by cutting across when nearly finished.
Cheers!
(Source: flis.nl)
I am not here to make friends. Design for a T-shirt print, available soon at http://flis.nl.
This is a preview of part of the new pattern design for the FLIS art & design textile collection, to be released in a couple of weeks.
I have not yet decided how to name the collection. The working title is “Modern Deco”, but I bet someone else could think of a better name?
Eames Century Modern by House Industries. I think I fell in love with it. Yesterday I suggested it to a client to use for her business card, and she likes it too. I’ll probably buy it.
The typeface is inspired by the work of Charles and Ray Eames, House Industries presents it as the typeface the Eames never got to design.
What do you think? And do you have a favorite typeface?
Procrastination activity of the day: creating a new splash screen for my TomTom SatNav.
What do you think? Should I procrastinate more often?
Does it count as shameless self promotion if you feel ashamed?
When I was still in school learning about graphic design I got invited by a crowdsourcing initiative not unlike the now well known http://99designs.com. For those of you who don’t know, their homepage says: “Need something designed? Our community is 198,050 strong. Whatever you need designed, count on us to get the job done right. Over 29,000 satisfied clients!”. Apart from the fact that the first question that rises is “198,050 designers, 29,000 satisfied clients, what the h•ll is wrong?!” you could ask yourself what message you are sending out by not asking for the best designer for your business, not looking for the perfect match. After all, design is communication. So when a business decides to use a <irony> service </irony> like 99designs or many others (the one I did a couple of logo’s for before I realised I shouldn’t was called logomatch), what message is this business sending?
I personally think people and businesses that use services like this are not taking themselves or their business serious. But is that true? Maybe they just don’t know any better? Or maybe they underestimate the job designers do?
Currently I am reading a book by Chris Brogan, called “Social Media 101”. Halfway through the book (most of the content I turned out to be familiar with already, but I guess it is a good start for people who are new to social media) I decided to take a look at the authors website. A little late maybe, but hey, I bought the book, right? It’s not like I read my books behind my computer, I like to read books in order to not be behind my screen for once. So I checked his site, and the forelast post turned out to be this one: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/the-design-experiment-contest-is-over/?dsq=51365483#comment-51365483. You can look for the commend I made there too, amongst more rational things I also let him know: “I don’t think I have to explain to you why this post about your 99 Designs got my designer blood slightly cooking, you say so yourself your designer friends have explained this to you already.”
After that I cooled down and started thinking about this topic again. I came to the conclusion (for now), that we designers don’t have to fear. Not really. Since our clients are those who do want a good design, a design that communicates who they are, what business they are in, and what clients they serve. But still, it would be nice if we found a way to turn the tide, and maybe even educate potential clients. Ah well, I am a dreamer.
What do you think? Is good design history? What do you think of sites like 99designs? Would you use one? If yes, why? If no, why not? Is there anything we can do?
A couple of weeks ago my friend and writer Judith van Vugt called me. I knew she made a living writing for different clients and projects, and now she had written a novel, together with her sister; Sabine van Vugt. The book is called “Colombiaans Carnaval” (Colombian Carnaval), and partly based on / inspired by their own experiences (I have seen proof in the form of a secret movie!).
I don’t know about you, but I like to read. When I was a little girl, my mother always joked I was eating letters, which was probably not far from the truth, since I never really got into literature for literatures sake. The thing I liked about reading (and still like a lot), is that it satisfies my hunger for knowledge, my curiosity, and I like how books can bring you into a new world, that is not yours, perhaps you could have never imagined this world, but now it is in your head, and it is also your world, since you can imagine a lot of it. Unless movies, many books leave loads of room for imagining your own world. Also, I really like writers who can play well with words.
You should definitely check the sisters Van Vugt blog, where you can read all about how to get your book sold. Well, published first, to be honest. I know they would be very happy if, when you like what they are up to, join / like / become a fan of the Facebook profile for their book.
I like the book. Although it is not my own reading taste, it ís well written, funny and fast, and as I tried to describe it to a friend yesterday: “It is not an intellectual book. It is a book for intellectuals that do wish to read in order to relax, since the book builds on quite some general knowledge, but it maybe also could be described as a mixture of chicklit and a thriller.” (Disclaimer: I am not an official critic!)
A couple of weeks ago the sisters van Vugt asked me and other proof readers to enter a Twitter contest and take 140 characters to say something about the part of the book that you think is best.
I did not write anything, but ever since I read the book I have this image in mind, and I decided to create that. Voila.
So if you like the image, if you like Colombia, if you like books, if you are a publisher, if you like frogs, if you like gold, if you like drugs, if you like guerrilla wars, if you like innocent (?) dutch girls getting mixed up in weird stuff in Colombia (think Tanja Nijmeijer!) or anything else that is in the book, connect to the Van Vugt sisters and let them know what you think!
Questions anyone?
Red, red and… red?
Today I have uploaded the revised versions of my second batch of textile designs. They are now for sale on Spoonflower.
The color red and Spoonflower are a difficult combination, or so I was told. If you ask me, as a graphic designer, there is no problem with red and or Spoonflower.
However, there is a “problem” that is called color management. I would call it a solution though. Without going to deep into details regarding color management, I’d like to emphasize color is not an easy matter, neither is color management.
But what the f*ck happens when you take a digital picture, open it in Photoshop, save it as .jpg, upload it on a website and let it be seen by anyone using any screen? Up until the uploading part you can manage the color. After that you can only guess what happens to the result people are watching.
That is why I use tricks like in the picture below to show what color red my design is.
Above you see a large red pillow. This pillow is what I like to call “fire engine red”.
Now as this is a picture, and I don’t know what your screen is like, at least you will probably be able to see the middle pattern (Type Tile Red) is almost the same red as the pillow. It is just a little bit darker, of course depending on the fabric it is printed on and the light that it is in.
The left and right fabrics orange red I have now changed to the red I used in the “Type Tile Red”. So if you order either the “Avant Garde” fabric or the “Apples”, you now you will get a red red, and not an orange red.
Besides, if you are by any change not happy with the textile you ordered, Spoonflower will return you your money.
I am looking forward to creating some cool new designs. Any requests out there?
