Penguin Canada

The Series:

Karin Hands, Creative Director of HandsDesign, describes the inspiration behind the project - a direct quote from DesignEdge – Canada: “I had the idea of a kind of Saul Bass style, as he’s renowned for his kind of detective style movie credits and things he’s done,” says Hands. “I though it fit in quite well, a quirky fun version of that detective feel. The style of writing is kind of a Dick Tracy-style writing anyway where it’s more poking fun at the genre, kind of riding along with it in a fun romp kind of way. I thought I’d do the same with the design by riding along with it and having a bit of fun with it.”

The Series, whole covers:

Each book has an illustration and type design that works for the singular story, but also fits into the group as a whole. What I like best about the cover design, is that you can just tell that the designers had a blast working on this project – and that is always a good thing. You can read more on Design Edge or on The Canadian Design Resource. And just to be thorough, this is what the covers looked like beforehand. (Pun embarassingly intended.) I wonder which ones I'd be more likely to pick up off the shelf?

Debbie Millman

VM World Conference 2007

Lippincott's Delta Identity Upgrade

The Sound bites are great, but only about four pages. It seems to me that these were little gems thrown out by the contributing designers that although didn’t fit into the final project write-up, were too good to throw away. They feel somewhat like a continuation of Millman’s previous book, How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer.

Marian Bantjes on Typography

Millman's Essential Principles isn't so much a textbook as it is a text supplement. It's not nearly in-depth enough to really instruct a classroom on all things graphic design. (And that wasn't the intent either.) However, I would suggest going over the first 47 pages would be a good way to begin a design course and the other 209 pages will become more important to each designer as their career progresses. And if you are way past your student years, you'll find room on your shelf for this book because of the insight shared through three-dozen case studies of high-profile projects. You can read what the author says about the book on her blog here.

Be A Green Patriot:

Just a few thoughts, with no spoilers.

1. Integrated campaigns. I don’t remember the last time we pitched business without pitching ambient, interactive, and alternative media to go along with broadcat and print. Watching Don Draper pitch an account using only three print ads seems downright neolithic. This underscores how much the industry has changed in the last forty years – you can’t serve your clients with a mere magazine campaign. I can’t help but wonder how they would pitch a new micro-site or how well they’d work with product placement.
2. Presentations. I’ve worked with creative directors who were just as confident when presenting as Don Draper, though none had quite the amount of arrogance. I know they are out there, but I don’t think that approach would work very well anymore. I'm not sure if that’s because clients are more demanding and suspicious or if the industry is simply more transparent. Draper is smooth but not very empathetic in most pitches, with the beautiful Kodak presentation as an obvious exception.
3. The drinking and the smoking. Thank goodness I don’t have to work in an environment where everyone smokes. I think you can still smoke on some floors at Leo Burnett (agency of record for RJ Reynolds), but like most other business – it’s a thing of the past. The drinking however is still very much evident but most often is done not during business but afterwards. I have never seen anyone offer scotch or gin during the day, but we’ve often had a few beers out during a longer client meeting or on Friday afternoons.
4. Dress Code. It’s interesting to watch the creatives run around the agency in suits. This is strange as I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of my creative directors that I’ve worked with wearing a tie; let alone an entire suit. Most often my uniform is a tshirt and jeans. The attitudes have completely changed on this, as the best agencies are usually the most casual. Though a part of me would like the dress code to come back. Maybe for a week. Or just a day.
   
5. Women. The woman at Sterling Cooper are looked at as second-tier people. They are secretaries and paper-filers and none of the important jobs at the agency are filled with women. I’d like to say that this still isn’t the case, but I simply haven’t seen many women in the creative departments of the agencies of today. Women have made more grounds in the account executive roles, but not so much in creative or management. Maybe that is changing.
   
6. Art Department. The art department was secondary to the copywriters. The ideas came from the writers and the art directors simply slid the layouts under the door. Yikes! Today, the writers and art directors usually work together on the ideation and are more of a team throughout the creative process. I’m glad that I wasn’t an art director at Sterling Cooper, working in the dungeons.

Packaging Shots:

Be sure to check out the title sequence for the show too. It’s quite well-done and worth watching on it’s own merit.

Try that stuff in the states and you'd have a riot on your hands. We'll wait six days in a line outside a gas station just for a chance to win a $10 gas card.

Via Autoblog via Carscoop.

Here are some pics:

A sample sketch:

An early sketch of Lagarto, a favorite face from Kimera:

Full type specimen of Presidencia, the TDC² 2008 winner: