AJ Fosik's Masks

I love these masks by AJ Fosik. The colours and the sharp shapes remind me of some of the murals I saw around the temples in Thailand.

"AJ Fosik's eclectic handmade and intricately designed wood animal sculptures and paintings, combined with cryptic symbols, intrigue and provoke. Fosik creates an experience that at first glance evokes a questioning of familiar concepts and then pushes the viewer to look and think deeper. Inspired by subversive cultural influences which shift complacency, he creates pieces that suspend comfort while at the same time offer recognizable symbols and images. In this dynamic tension the art and the viewer hopefully come together in an expanded definition of culture and assumption." - quoted from Fosik's biography on jonathanlevinegallery.com

Flickr Photostream

Brown

“Brown is a small confectioner’s shop in Bogotá that’s always used kraft board boxes to pack their products. They wanted a new corporate image and a simple and low budget solution to identify what’s inside them. Bogotá, Colombia design firm Lip Ltda came up with a series of cards and stamps that carry the information simply and succinctly.”

I love how they have kept costs down here by producing rubber stamps to spice up regular brown boxes. The effect is crafty and handmade, but keeps all their packaging on brand at next to nothing. Some good ideas here for a low budget up and coming project I have.

Jell-o

Richard Perez, a graphic designer from San Fransisco has re-branded Jell-o made some beautiful new packaging, style guide and window vinyls. I love this project. It has really captured the fun of Jell-o with its childlike primary colours and fun bold characters.

Perez says, "by introducing a cast of fun stylized characters and a visual vocabulary that feels fresh and fun, the new Jell-o identity burst with vibrancy and joy. The simple graphic fruit characters, bright color-palette and naive typography makes the brand feel playful and pop without veering into overtly saccharine or Saturday morning cartoon territory."

His website, Skinny Ships showcases lots more of his lovely work as well of some of his inspirational typography.

Herb Lubalin at Cooper Union

Just came across a nice set of images on flickr from Justin Thomas Kay of the Herb Lubalin Archive at Cooper Union in New York. Lubalin was a prominent graphic designer and typographer. He famously created typeface ITC Avant Garde, which is shown above in various stages of design.

Below is what fan Justin Thomas Kay had to say about the collection.

"i was lucky enough to visit the herb lubalin archives at cooper union. needless to say flipping through herbs flat files was a dream come true. seeing so much work i have been exposed to for so long start in the baby stages of a ink sketch on tracing paper (along with a boatload of unseen/unused concepts - like a preliminary MTV logo!) was humbling. he is the true embodiment of a commercial artist and creative director that knew how to map out his ideas for his cohorts (mainly petholick and canarsie). the best part is - the archives are totally open to the public. you can go and not only flip through his work, but the work of otl aicher, herbert bayer, and many others. they have an absurd collection of slides and full collections of avant garde, U&LC, fact, etc... way too much to list. needless to say a couple hours was not enough time."

Lubalin Images on Flickr

Adobe Future Creative Bursary

I am hoping to be nominated for the Adobe Future Creative Bursary. If I am successful, I will get:

£2000 of Adobe software
D&AD Membership
D&AD Annual
A place on Workout – D&AD's professional development programme

The latter is what I am most excited about. Workout is hosted by D&AD and provides workshops and networking opportunities which I would love to be involved in. So fingers crossed for me! And if you are a creative professional reading this and fancy nominating me, please feel free to do so!

D&AD Workout
Adobe Future Creative Bursary