Category: Design

Design

Logo Design

Post author By Dan
Post date December 11, 2014

This is just lovely to watch, truly lovely.

Most logos aren’t designed in fifteen minutes, but most designers aren’t Aaron Draplin. Aaron’s a Portland fixture by way of the Midwest, the owner of Draplin Design Co., and an advocate of “blue collar” design: design that works. Here he takes our logo design challenge, creating a dozen iterations of a logo for a fictional construction company. Not inspired? Just wait. Watch as he sketches, brings his ideas into Illustrator, and tests and tunes the different iterations. The logos Aaron creates prove design can elevate any company or brand. Along the way, he provides tips for freelancing, finding inspiration, and providing clients context for logos that won’t just live in PDFs.

Tags aaron draplin, logo

Design Film Technology

That lightsaber

Post author By Dan
Post date December 4, 2014

I loved the trailer, every bit of it, even the bit I really wasn’t sure about: that lightsaber.

The idea of a crossguard isn’t a bad one but if if one saber slides down another (something we don’t often see) it’s just going to hit the emitter and slice through handle (and now the Holocron has been Order 66-ed I imagine a cortosis-weave is out of the question). Then again, I could be wrong:

(There’s also the issue of self-harm, though presumably if you’re going with bonus blades you’re going to be competent enough not to nick yourself.)

Apparently in some quarters it’s getting called a Laser Claymore but the idea of a lightsaber as a big two-hander gets a bit weird too. The trade-off in a two-handed weapon is weight/power for speed/finesse. Surely a lightsaber weighs no more than the handle irrespective of the length of the blade? If so could you just have a really long blade and not have to worry about actual swordplay, just swing/poke from afar?

Ultimately I hope the crossguard-saber is awesome. In fact I’m almost certain I will love it within seconds of seeing it on the big screen. As a kid I drew so many lightsaber weapon variations: somewhere in a box there’s a guy I drew with freakin’ light-boomerangs which is getting into Mad Max territory.

Tags episode 7, star wars, stephen colbert, xkcd

Design

Death of cover art

Post author By Dan
Post date September 23, 2014

The death of design used to be a regular topic around these parts. It’s been a few years since I’ve had to design posters and magazine covers but this article about the demise of quality poster/cover design rings very true. (“Make it edgy” holds a particular resonance for me).

I recommend you give the full article a read, it has great examples of what a poster or cover can be and talks about the change in creative process and shift in creative control that’s lead to the dearth of quality (the Jaws poster is a gem).

The article also includes a video (embedded below) which showcases just how generic movie posters have become.