People are funny...

Elements is currently working on the redesign of a website product page for a major manufacturer of cables. I was doing some online research on one of their major competitors - looking at layout, image size and copy placement - and I scrolled down to the customer ratings on one site and happened to see the following review:

"This cable sucessfully connects my Playstation 3 to my television. It has failed to snap and hit me in the eye, nor has it burned my home to the ground. The data must transfer quickly or my hand-eye coordination has become spectacular. I believe they have no intention of strangling anyone in my family."

Best review ever! Certainly covers all salient points in a succinct and direct manner. I believe he has a brilliant future ahead of him as a product tester.

Brilliant Article About Designer Mistakes

I often find articles about mistakes that designers make in their design – typography issues like "bad" fonts or horizontal or vertical scaling and image problems like using terrible, lo-res images – but it is not often that I find an article about things that designers are doing wrong in their practices. GoMediazine recently featured the first of three installments of an article entitled 15 Awful Mistakes Made by Designers in the Music and Apparel Industry. I strongly suggest checking it out for its valuable information and to chuckle at the quotes infused throughout the article. I will definitely be staying tuned for parts two and three.

Elements on Facebook

Elements is now a page on Facebook! Check it out HERE. You can see some work that isn't on our website and take a look at events that we will be attending/speaking at. We are looking to start an open discussion with anyone who wants to talk to us, get feedback on our work, and make some friends. Actually, please consider this your official friend request.

Adieu! We're off to Chestnuts ...

Once in a great while, we like to treat ourselves to a gourmet lunch. Our favorite place? Chestnuts in New Haven on State Street.

The offerings are plentiful and decadent (sandwiches on homemade breads, fragrant soups, hearty vegetable lasagna or slices of a rich quiche ...).

And then there are the desserts - which are all made lovingly from scratch and cruelly displayed in glass cases right when you walk in the door. I basically order my sandwich and soup to get to the cookie at the end of my meal. Their chocolate brownies (my favorite) alone weighs roughly two pounds each but, boy, even your grandma never made them this good (sorry, Grams).

So if you ever happen by our office one afternoon and there is a sign swinging from our front door announcing that we are "Off for Lunch - Back Soon", you know where we are. Come by join us! We love excuses to adieu to Chestnuts ....

Scrap Lights

Do you ever get a package in the mail that uses that thin, perforated corrugated cardboard? Two students from Kent State University came up with this clever way to reuse that packing material. Check out their Graypants blog to see other sustainable ideas.

Fonts!

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1823766

HAS TRYING TO BE GREEN GOT YOU BLUE?

If going green is so damn good, why – so often - does it seem like such a drag?

Sure, I get that keeping my home a little cooler in the winter is the responsible things to do, but that doesn’t make shivering in my bed during long February nights any more enjoyable.

And – yes – I get that owning a Prius will grab me a coveted spot on Al Gore’s Christmas card list, it’s just that I long for a slightly more sporty driving experience.

I could go on, but I think you get my point. In any case, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to conserve and NOT live like a monk (no angry responses from disgruntled monks, please). So, I gathered up a couple ideas that probably won’t get you nominated to serve as president of the local chapter of the Sierra Club, but might actually reduce your carbon footprint just a bit:

• Buy a Honda Civic SI – Any number of hybrids will reward you with better fuel economy, but at just under 30 mpg, the Civic SI ain’t bad and it’s a hell of a lot of fun to drive. Other fun-to-drive gas-misers include the Mazda 3i (32 MPG) and the VW GTI (29 MPG).

• Go to the movies - Yup, that’s right, go to the movies. And on your way out the door, turn down the air conditioner and switch off the lights.

I’ve got a few more I’m saving for future posts. In the meantime, I’d be interested to hear some other ideas from out there on the Blogosphere.

Poster Art Continues

I decided that since I posted about one earlier this week, I would follow up with some of my favorite poster designers.

The Heads Of State


Modern Dog Design Co.


The Bird Machine - Jay Ryan





Post Typography


And my long-time favorite: Aesthetic Apparatus

Poster Art

Last week I went to the free myspace secret show in Hartford. Jason Mraz played for an hour and a half for a little over 200 fans, most of whom had been standing on the sidewalk all day in the heat. After the show there was a mad rush outside. I thought maybe Jason had made an appearance to sign autographs or something, so I followed the crowd to see what was happening. What I found was a man with a cardboard box giving out free silk screened posters. I have always had an interest in silk screened show posters. The art is usually really interesting and the way the ink sits on the paper just makes me happy. Also, having done a few myself, I know how much work goes into making them. Way better than laser prints or zeroxed flyers, in my opinion. So in any case, I immediately decided I had to have one of these posters. When I finally got up to the box, after being pushed around by screaming 13 year-old girls, the posters were gone. Insert sad face here. The next day I searched online and finally found the person who created it: OfficeSupplyArt and immediately went to Etsy, where he sells his prints. Unfortunately, here I hit another dead-end as he does not have the poster up for sale. Insert another sad face here.



This image does not do the poster any justice. It was more of a natural paper with either metallic silver ink or a gloss varnish in the lighter areas (it was hard to tell in the dark as I was being run over by the crowd).

Animator vs. Animation

We all know how difficult flash can be, but what happens when your animation starts fighting back...

Animator vs. Animation



Animator vs. Animation 2




Test your skills. Play the game HERE .

Recycled Tire Products

A few products I stumbled upon that are made from old tires...

1) A trashcan from re:modern



2) A magazine rack courtesy of 2Modern




3) Tapestries




Anyone have suggestions for other tire products?

Their Circular Life








Have you ever wondered what happens in a place after you leave? Who was there, how the light fell at a certain time, what it looked like at night?

On this website you're given a 24-hour glimpse into five different places in Italy. Just twirl the orange triangle around the circle to advance or rewind time and see how each place looked at different times of the day.

Three Weeks - Sixty-eight Pages – One Beautiful Book

About a year ago, Town Green Special Services District – an organization that supports Downtown New Haven’s businesses and property owners – asked Elements to assist with the design and writing of a special ten-year anniversary commemorative/annual report.

Eager to help this long-time client and partner, Elements immediately signed on for the project. Shortly thereafter, several overall themes and design concepts were presented. With some refinements suggested by the Town Green staff, a direction was chosen and work began.

With plenty of time before the task needed to be completed and many important initiatives to work on, Town Green redirected its efforts. While Elements stayed in near constant contact with the client, as the date of the organization’s annual meeting drew closer, the tactic changed from gentle prodding to a near-constant reminders.

With only three weeks to go, work on the information-packed book, including writing of several articles, began in earnest. The deadline to get the piece printed was so tight on several occasions Town Green staffers took up residence at Elements’ studio, working directly with staffers to move the project along.

And move along it did. Not only was the project completed in time for Town Green’s annual meeting, the end result – as pictured below – met and exceeded the client’s most hopeful expectations.






The blackboard shot featured on the opening spread can be seen HERE at our first photoshoot for this project with Derek Dudek. Information on the rest of the photography in the book can be found in THIS previous post.

Seeing Double on the Subway

Improv Everywhere's latest project = a human mirror.



How many people do you think they freaked out?

42¢ Worth of Happiness

Finally! A stamp actually worthy of mailing a 42¢ letter.

We all have things we are picky about. Mine is stamps. I'm sorry, but I hate ugly stamps and am so sick of sad portraits, bells or (sigh) flags. When we send out business or personal correspondance, we need a well designed stamp.

The other day, Matt arrived happily back from making a Post Office run and couldn't wait to show me these beauties just being released.

Over 10 years in the making, on June 17, 2008 the USPS released the husband and wife/design partners Charles and Ray Eames stamp collection - and its sweet.

This gorgeous set of 16 stamps celebrates the beauty and genius of their groundbreaking contributions to graphic design, architecture, furniture design, manufacturing and photographic arts and showcases the Eames House, La Chaise, the Lounge Chair, Crosspatch, House of Cards, the film Tops and more.

The set was designed by Derry Noyes of Washington DC, who designed many of the stamps for the US Post Office, and is also the daughter of Eli Noyes, who was an extremely close friend of the Eameses and the director of design at IBM.

The USPS website describes the Eames collection as "(an) extraordinary body of creative work — which reflected the nation’s youthful and inventive outlook after World War II — also included architecture, films and exhibits. Without abandoning tradition, Charles and Ray Eames used new materials and technology to create high-quality products that addressed everyday problems and made modern design available to the American public."

And the best news: Matt told me the Post Office assured him that they won't be raising the stamp rate again until May 2009!

Building Up

The family who owns this home was in desperate need of more room, so they decided to expand their space by adding to the roof using renownded architect Winy Maas. MVRDV, Maas' firm in the Netherlands, completed this project in 2007. They combined style, sustainability, and practicality to meet the needs of the client and change the perception of what home renovation can mean. Read the full article HERE and find more pictures of the project HERE.

Beautiful Folds and Cuts

This link is for Matt Shlian's portfolio of sculptures. He works with scientists researching folding in solar cells now, but got his BFA in printmaking and sculpture. Check him out here. What I want to know is how you make a curved fold. Amazing!

A Really Bad Marketing Idea

You can almost picture the scene: a group of automobile executives meeting in a lavishly appointed meeting room to discuss dramatically flagging sales. As impeccably dressed as they are out-of-touch, they seek to find fast answers to declining demand for huge – and hugely profitable - SUVs.

Average folks like us might guess the conversation might turn toward shifting production to smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. But no, this group of geniuses decides that bribing people with artificially low gas prices is the best solution.

That’s right, one of America’s “Big Three” automakers has a program that guarantees gasoline at $2.99 per gallon (with - of course – a number of restrictions).

Don’t get me wrong, I understand the need to reduce existing inventories until the product line can be shifted to reflect car buyers’ changing priorities. It’s just that the messaging is so very, very wrong. To me – and I suspect plenty of others – it says “Go ahead, waste fuel like there’s no tomorrow, we’ve got your back.”

I don’t claim to have any answers to fix the sad state of affairs that mires the domestic automobile industry. I do feel reasonably sure it’s going to take more than – please forgive the business cliché – putting some lipstick on the pig.

-Jim Katz

fav typefaces

Weekend in VT

Captions from top left: Hotftuna hot rod; Cloud over Okemo Mountain; Cummings Hardware Store where the sign announces that they have not only been around since 1858, but they proudly sell the following items: Eagles, Cast Iron Toys, Weather Vanes, Lava Lamps, Cast Iron Cookware, "T" Shirts, Maple Sypup (their spelling, not mine), Snowshoes, Cooking Condiments, Crafts, Hats, Books, Train Paraphernalia; Elvis sighting in downtown Ludlow (last place I'd look for Elvis!); beehive steeple on a Lutheran church, and nothing says summer like fresh corn-on-the-cob - a family favorite.

Favorite Typefaces

Create/Reject just released a book called Fifty Designers Current Favourite Typefaces. Some of the proceeds will go to UNICEF's Myanmar (Burma) Cyclone Children's Appeal in the wake of Cyclone Nargis that hit Myanmar on May 2nd 2008. Here are some of the people included in the book:




And here are some Elements' Favorites:












What are your current favorite typefaces?