Kinetic Typography

This is a relatively new craze. The rules are simple:
1.) Find a song, sound clip from a movie, or pretty much anyone talking
2.) In After Effects or Flash, use only typography to compose a video.

YouTube has a whole lot of these videos, most of which are school projects. These are a few of my favorites:


Pulp Fiction - The first Kinetic Typography I ever saw.



Citizen Cope - Starts slow but just wait. It gets good. Really good.



Dane Cook - Enough said.



Nina Simone - Simply lovely.

"I AM A CATHOLIC"

Around first - second grade the St Joseph's School decided to make identification cards for all it's students. A good idea. A few months ago when I was helping my mom sort through some old items, I found that card. What I found to be funnier than the picture is, well.. just read...

Just Another Day with Elements

How could anyone resist?

Why I Switched to Google Maps:

Casa Cristina Redux

Yesterday morning we were at Derek's studio shooting Casa Cristina's newest collection Talavera (coming soon to a Kohl's near you).

Big ups go to Jim. His table was dragged out from the forgotten depths of his barn, delivered personally in his truck that morning, thoroughly cleaned by us and given new life as it was prominently displayed in this beautiful shot (Thanks Jim!).

The home baked brownies and fresh Connecticut kettle corn I brought along also went over huge with clients and photographer alike. I find treats help just about any photo shoot. Remember this tip: A well fed photographer is a happy photographer and clients love snacks.

Heather, our wonderful client and sometimes contributor to this blog, on set. (Note Jim's table again in the background).

Derek, our amazing photographer, looking for more brownies.

An Unusual Canvas

Talk about an ephemeral art form: these artists are creating artwork on dirty car windows. I can't believe the depth they can achieve with such an ordinary medium.

Of course if I saw this done on MY car, I would seriously hesitate to wash it for some time to come...

See more car window art.

Awesome Highlighter

Did you ever have a client on the phone and you were discussing a web page and trying desperately to point something out? "In the right column, but down from that. No, below the photo - not next to it ..." and so it goes.

Well, my friend, you need Awesome Highlighter. Simply type in the url you seek, highlight what you wish (and even post sticky notes if you have things to say about it) and hit done. It saves and you can send. Its really that simple. Check it out and work better.

Charles Chocolates

Who doesn't love indulging in a little chocolate now and then? Charles Chocolates are not only delicious, but come with beautiful, and in some cases edible, packaging. The dainty illustration matched with bold colored tags makes me melt a little inside every time I see one of these bars. Their website, designed by Templin Brink Design, is rich with chocolaty splendor and comes complete with a sign-up for monthly chocolate delivery called the P.M.S. assortment. Girls, get out your credit cards!

Hand Done Type

This post was inspired by a conversation we had in the office yesterday about our love of hand-done typography.

Below is some work by a few favorite designers.



Letterpress masterpiece by Craig Ward.


Illustrative type by one of the best: Mike Perry.



Fun illustration and type by Andy Smith.



Intricate and amazing piece by Post Typography.

Chris Jacobs

Lately, I have come across a lot of work from recent graduates of universities in the UK. Chris Jacobs is the first one of the lot that I chose to share because of his cheeky attitude and, of course, his interesting work. The piece below, entitled Waste of Time is based on the Star Wars series and depicts the planets that the characters frequent. There is one poster for each film.

My Bodyguard

Friday was a full day of art directing photo shoots. It was a hot, long day carrying equipment and hustling from location to location. I loved it. We had 8 different portraits in 8 different locations in one 8 hour day. It was a challenge, I'm not going to lie. There were a couple of reasons that this day of madness actually went really well and how we managed to sneak in some laughs.

First, our client, Town Green Special Services. We love partnering on projects with our friends at TGSSD. I spent the day with my client, my friend, Daisy. There was nothing that Daisy cannot make happen.

Next, was our photographer Lanny Nagler. Always the professional, always funny, Lanny is so talented and great to partner with.

Lastly - Derek who is Lanny's assistant who managed somehow to stay pleasant all day long while hoofin it with serious pounds of heavy bulky equipment whilst wearing long sleeves and pants. How'd he do it? And Amy Goldberg, Daisy's super assistant extraordinaire who was all over whatever the request of the hour happened to be. Go Team!

Now to explain the image. Lanny set-up for a shot on the green in New Haven. We were getting a bit antsy waiting for the person whose portrait we were taking next. It has been my personal experience (having been a photographer in my earlier career), when folks spot photo equipment, they get curious -and at times, a little nuts. People can't help it.

So, here we are with a a bunch of equipment on the green when the city bus lets out a group of people including this man - dressed all in black and about 10 feet tall with a large medallion roped around his neck. He walks from the bus purposely right over to where Daisy and I were standing on the bench getting our picture taken as the test shot. He strode over as if we had been waiting for him all along.

He stands right in front of us - just as pictured above with arms folded and a serious expression on his face. Lanny takes the picture (what else could he do?) and the dude marches right up to him after the shot. The man looks at Lanny's image on the laptop and proclaims "It looks alright" and strides back to the bus and gets on. That's the last we saw of him. We all stood there, dumbfounded, laughing, looking at one another and muttering "What just happened here"?

My only regret is that we didn't get this cat's model release. I LOVE THIS PICTURE! And look at the size of this guy!? He's a giant! His thigh was as thick as both of us! This guy is almost as tall as us ... and we're standing on a park bench, for pete's sake.

If you ever come across this man in your travels - on the New Haven bus or otherwise - please tell him that a graphic designer named Amy is looking for him.

Advertising Trends I Hate

From time to time or whenever the mood strikes, I'm going to write about advertising trends that I find offensive. In some cases, these trends will be well recognized and the subject of no small amount of articles in trade journals as well as more mainstream media sources. In other cases, these trends maybe nothing more than random coincidences and - therefore - not really trends at all. My first post falls into the latter category.

In the past year or so, I've noticed any number of TV and radio spots making light of some hapless worker getting fired. The first one I recall involved a man eating cereal and crunching so loud he could not hear his boss firing him. Next came a spot for a well-known purveyor of previously-frozen meat patties in which the previously employed person's dismissal is predicated by a bad breakfast choice. Finally, a maker of a light, presumably refreshing alcoholic beverage shows a member of its marketing team getting axed for pitching poorly designed bottles.

I can only assume the people at the agencies responsible for these ads and the marketing people at the companies who okayed these spots have never been fired. Otherwise, they'd know for many, many people the thought of losing one's livelihood is never, ever a laughing matter.

We've Got Opinions

And we're not at all shy about sharing them. Within the past year or so, Amy and Jim have penned opinion pieces or contributed quotes for articles on a range of topics in a variety of publications including: Packaging Design Magazine, GD Magazine, Hartford Business Journal and Business New Haven.

Most recently, Amy weighed in on the advisability of consumer product companies implementing nostalgic packaging programs for Package Design Magazine's eNewsletter. And while we think our response was pretty darn smart, the editor (Ron Romanik, a truly swell guy) was forced to remove a couple paragraphs to make it fit. For those of you interested in this sort of thing (we probably lost those who aren't a couple sentences ago), here's the complete text:

In the late Nineties and into the first few years of the new millennium, several well-known corporations spent a lot of time and money publicizing milestone anniversaries. Some of these programs were successful and others spectacular failures.

The reasons some of these anniversary programs worked and others didn’t are instructive for any company considering implementing a nostalgic packaging program.

Because there are too many variables (target audience, price points, market share, etc.) to address in this forum we’ll stick to the basics. The losers of the big corporate birthday rush simply reminded anyone paying attention that they were old, without any meaningful explanation of how that advanced age was any kind of benefit to consumers (ex: a large manufacturer of blue jeans, rhymes with “knee-highs”).

The winners made a good case that over the years they had been innovators, continuously raising the bar in their particular category. That point made, they demonstrated how their unbending desire to improve the breed translates into a demonstrably better product today (ex: a manufacturer of very expensive cars, rhymes with ‘her lady friends”).

In short, a respectful nod to the past is fine, so long as it’s done against the backdrop of relevancy in today’s marketplace. So, to any company considering a nostalgic packaging program, I’d recommend taking a very realistic at consumer perception of the brand/product and then proceeding very carefully.

Photoshoot - Elements at Work

Today we decided to show a little love to our own work by giving you a glimpse into the photoshoot we had yesterday. We worked with the amazing Derek Dudek, a friend of Elements and a professional photographer. At the expense of two plates, one tray of ice cubes, and the cleanliness of my black dress, we got some really beautiful images.


This blackboard is for our ‘reaction’ themed view book for a New Haven client. After washing the board several times, we hand wrote all of the equations and diagrams. Don't we look smart?





This was the lifestyle shot for dishes for a private label ceramic dinnerware and gift client in south Norwalk for whom we design packaging. The photo includes different sets of dishes which we mixed and matched for a dinner for three. Personally, I am a fan of the suspended lime in the pitcher.

Documentation of us working courtesy of Amy's iPhone.







Well maybe Derek was working and I was posing for the camera...

Old School Exercise Machines

Cabinet Magazine featured an article about Swedish physician Zander and his 27 machines that made up the first "gym". I have to say these contraptions look pretty snazzy for the 1890s.

#100 - Habitat

Our 100th post today - hooray! Images above are from one of my favorite stores and catalogs - Habitat. Sadly, there are no Habitat stores in the U.S.

Habitat was started in 1964 by Terence Conran. (Conran's is another store I miss that was in the U.S., but no longer) and today is owned by the IKANO group (who own IKEA). Interesting history!

The logo is the "Love Your House" mark, which derived from a campaign Habitat ran in stores in the 1970's. I love the simplicity of the mark. They even sell paper clips of the "Love Your House" logo. (Can it get any simpler than that?)

The firm GTF (Graphic Thought Facility) of London created the new identity back in 2003. They even customized the typeface DIN (another favorite) to become the family-friendly Habitat DIN.

If you are traveling overseas this summer and happen to see a Habitat store, stop in and check out their in-store graphics and their beautiful, simple, functional products. And don't forget to grab a catalog on your way out the door. It is certainly worth the time.

Ahoy, Maties

I just posted my July Event on MeetUp. Hope some of you can join us! (Yes, J, this means you). Caution: Pirates will be involved.

A Few Favorite Title Sequences

This is our second entry about Shadowplay Studio. They are known for their incredible opening sequence to the movie Juno but I didn't know they also did the title sequence for Thank You for Smoking. Their use of typography, cigarette packaging and minimal animation makes it easy to read but fun to watch. Just beautiful.




Another fun sequence is the intro to Superbad by Yard VFX. Who doesn't love those awesome dance moves?






The Down With Love title credits by Asylum VFX and the Catch Me If You Can opening sequence by Nexus Productions both use great illustrations and amazing typography.

Ferm Living

I just stumbled across this company, Ferm Living, and was excited about their simple decorative approach. From note cards to wall stickers, you can find beautiful bold graphics in unusual earthy colors. Most of their designs play off of nature in a edgy, modern way but they also have some urban and Victorian inspired pieces as well.