Scaffolders Drawings

Designing Like Subtraction.

Setting aside whether the aesthetic or style of my design is particularly original or not, I have a way of solving design problems that’s predictable, at least. For better or worse, there are certain tropes, tendencies, tricks and clichés that I repeatedly enlist in the pursuit of a design solution. I thought to myself the other day, wouldn’t it be fun to list them all out?

FIVE WAYS TO DESIGN LIKE ME

1. Use a grid, specifically use this grid. On this subject, I’ve already said plenty, so I won’t expand too heavily on it here. Though it’s worth saying that I’ve been using this same eight-column grid for more projects than I care to admit to over the past few years.
2. Left-aligned, top-aligned and nudged elements, please. I tend not to center text blocks when I can left-align them, and I tend to ‘pin’ items to the top and let them dangle below, too. I like the way that this regimented yet perfunctory placement of type within an area can still define the space; the text ‘owns’ the entire area without having to visually occupy the whole box. Of course, this technique goes hand-in-hand with nudging one’s elements.
3. Flat, simple and geometric. Aside from those pesky buttons at the bottom of each post on the Subtraction.com home page, I generally avoid drop shadows, gradients or dimensional rendering. I like everything to be reduced to its least superfluous essence, and rendered by the browser (rather than as a JPEG or GIF) if possible. That same impulse leads me to use a lot of one-pixel rules, rendered by CSS as borders, too. You’ll find those everywhere.
4. ‘Hang’ meta information in a left-to-right hierarchy. This is a design conceit I’ve been using for years and years; mostly because its highly structural aesthetic is very pleasing to me. But beyond that, I find the look to be very usable; having meta-labels visually separated to the left improves scannability. Moreover, dedicating practically a whole left-hand column to meta-labels is a handy excuse for creating narrow text columns, which of course mean shorter lines (a “shorter measure,” in traditional design jargon) which are much easier for the eye to traverse.
5. Use Helvetica. If it’s not already obvious, this is the workhorse that I return to time and time again. There’s nothing that works quite as well, in my book, though once in a while I’ll quite unexpectedly decide to branch out a bit. Not often, though.

Nikolaus Schmidt Design - Annual Report

More To follow.

Danish Film Institute: Signage

Since it was founded in 2001, the Copenhagen studio of the graphic artist Rasmus Koch has, beside corporate identity, book and magazine design, typeface and web design, been occupying itself with the graphic design of visitor guidance systems, exhibitions and installations. In this field the Rasmus Koch Studio is one of Denmark's most successful design studios, in particular because of its work for international art and cultural facilities such as the 'Kunsthalle Basel', the 'Kiasma Museum of Modern Art' in Helsinki and the 'Statens Museum for Kunst', Copenhagen.

The visitor guidance system and corporate identity for the 'unges laboratorier for kunst' and the art laboratory for young people at the 'Statens Museum for Kunst', Copenhagen are excellent examples of the operating methods and unique signature of this graphic artist. The typical slanting design of the barrier tape and the temporary look of the stencilled writing generate the atmosphere of a workshop, a laboratory for young art.


In 2000 and 2003 the Rasmus Koch Studio won the Danish Design Award with its typeface and graphic design for the Danish Film Institute. The fact that the typeface is broken down into individual elements means that the content of the text does not immediately become apparent. It's not until the elements begin to overlap during the animation, in other words when we watch the trailer and the animated website, that the whole text can be deciphered as the lettering turns into characters and an image.

Thanks to their own interest in art and architecture and a feeling for the content of the work as a whole, Rasmus Koch and his team are able to work closely with customers in developing their ideas and creating perceptive and well thought-through results.







Rasmus Koch Studio

Danish Film Institute: Report Covers

Danish Film Institute: Report

Rasmus Koch Studio

Mash Creative '10'

Nice minimal, type calendar designed by mash creative. The print process is lithograph with two colors on 170gsm Cyclus offset with a 60% cyan shiner to achieve an extra rich black. Good to note when i'm printing very rich black images.

Business Cards.

During a module briefing the other week, Fred asked who had business cards amongst the group. The response was very few so he gave us the task to create one by Wednesday, six days away. With this in mind i've selected a few business cards from agencies that i like.

Scandinavian Designlab

Brand Identity for 1:1 Arkitekter who are not only architects but also involved in construction. Scandinavian Designlab have designs a wonderfully bold logo that creates the letter "A" with the negative space. Very clever and conceptual thinking.

Design Museum

A sensible and functional piece of design by Biblioteque that captures the elements of Braun. The identity for the exhibition was explored through visual elements of products. Simple vector images of calculators, hi-fi interfaces and speakers were displayed on simple and contemporary posters. Great inspiration for the National Electronics Week.

Baptism Invitation

Nice initiation design by Antonio Carusone. The RSVP card was for his son's baptism and the colour theme was black and white, so he kept it consistent by making the cards the same. The card has been letter pressed and he has used a very heavy stock that he got from the Rising Museum Board. The cards look like they have a really quality texture to them and the overall result looks amazing. It just shows that simple can be best when you use some nice process's.

Black Umbrella

Black Umbrella builds practical, efficient disaster plans for individuals, couples and families. The umbrella was chosen for the symbolism of protection. Very sophisticated identity and i love the tessellating pattern on the backs of the business cards and envelopes etc.

Pierce Paris

Lovely piece of minimal type based identity and branding.

Newwork Magazine

Below are spreads i have taken from Newwork magazine. I've mentioned them a few times in this blog but i really love there work. The great thing about the magazine is the fact that the use mainly back and white, the effective use of negative space, great type treatment and the use of a strict grid system.

I like the way Newwork control you eyes around the page with the use of hierarchy. Simply brilliant.

Great use of type and layout. Love the No just leaving the page. Very smart.

Claude Maus

What makes this piece is the photography and the simple layout that 360 have used. Claude Maus is a very minimal fashion designer who likes to use very subdued colours and limited but quality material. All 360 have done is expressed this by being precise with small little details and printing it high end. I would love to eventually do a fashion brochure, probably after christmas for the Leeds College of Art end of year show.

Jens Risch Seidenstück 1

Nice type and layout piece for Jens Risch Sedenstuck, a poetic German sculptural artish. This A1 art poster was designed by Onlab in 2006. I like the fact the poster comes in, what appears to be a very thick piece of plastic packaging. The layout of text is fantastic and really engages the viewer. It also helps when you print it on a good quality stock. Great work.