You Can't Miss This: Complex's G.O.A.T. Graphic Designers

For those of you who don't know, G.O.A.T. means Greatest Of All Time. If you don't know anything about Complex, know they love lists. That's what they do, and they do it well! The list that caught my eye this week was The 20 G.O.A.T.  Graphic designers.

For the sake and integrity of this blog, we'll call these designers the O.G. Triple O.G. (That's like the godfather or O.G.'s)

the first O.G. Triple O.G. is George Lois. He help build Esquire as designing giant. He did the "I want my MTV!" campaign along with Tommy Hilfiger and VH1 designs. His Muhammad Ali cover is one of my favorite covers of all time.

The next and last O.G. Triple O.G. I will discuss is Milton Glasor. If you own a I <3 NY shirt, you're wearing his design. He founded New York Magazine. The I <3 NY logo is an iconic as anything New York. Iconic isn't a stretch either. His design is the definition of iconic.  I love his Dylan design too. As a self-proclaimed neo-hippie (I shower), I naturally love it.

For Schitz and giggles here's I photo I took of a swing on Dylan's property in Woodstock this summer. Miss that place. 

Critique: My TFA lesson designs

A little more than a month ago I decided to apply for Teach For America. I was lucky enough to get a final interview so I was faced with the deciding what to do for my 5 minute lesson. At first I was leaning towards something basic like addition or subtraction, but I realized if I'm going to do something that represents who I am I need to do something with art. After solo brainstorming, I decided to go with a personal branding exercise that allows students to draft their own logo using their initials in some sort of creative way. We'll see how it goes over, but I have high hopes! Here's my handout.

And here is the template for the business cards the students with design.

I think it's pretty creative, so hopefully the interviewers agree. That's my only design for the week! Crazy, I know.

Reponse: Portfolio reviews

Earlier this afternoon I had my first portfolio review with Jan.  Unlike my in-class review, I had a few more pieces to round out my portfolio. If only I had the will power to upload all those images up. You're in for a treat, though, because I am going to show you some stuff I left out. I still have to iron these puppies out, but I think they deserve to be seen.

These certainly aren't the headliners of my portfolio, but they have a special place in my design heart. I designed these when I had no clue what I was doing. This was before I dove into design, reading everything  I could about it and really studying what was going on in the field. 

Anyway, Jan has a great eye for everything. I tried to self edit, but she found things I wouldn't have thought of. While Jan and Theresa definitely praised some of my work, I left my portfolio feeling I had to work even harder than I have before. And I'm OK with that.

Critique: Just Dance

This dance cover was pretty much straight forward. I wanted to make something that showed off a few dance styles. However, the photos were really good, and I wanted to push myself to do an effective photo cover. So, here what I came up with.

I really liked my iTunes idea. I was kind of sad the editors didn't comment on it, but I was super stoked they liked my ballet photo cover. I wanted to keep everything soft, so the photo "could speak."

I'm not done editing it, but here's what I have so far. Just a few tweaks, but I will do some more.

Response: Just My Type

I'll keep this one brief. My favorite part of the JMT book was the Gotham x Obama story. If there's anyone that has as much swagger as Kanye outside of the hip-hop realm, it's Barry Obama. That's saying a lot. Anyway. Every time I design I look at a zillion different typefaces. I've seen Gotham a few zillion times now. I never thought of when it was created. If I were to guess (before reading the book) , I would have guessed in the 40's- 60's. I just assume that's when all the cool fonts were designed. Well. I was wrong. It was just 12 years ago in 2000.

If I were a font maker, a fontsmith if you will, one of the ultimate compliments would be to have the president use my font in their campaign. That must have been one of Tobias Frere-Jones' best days.  I really liked how it was all tied back together with the Obama GQ cover.

Response: OG Helvetica

Well before I start this response I have something that will hopefully make you laugh. While I was watching Helvetica I kept on thinking, "Wow, helvetica is really OG." As I starting to get my thoughts together for this post, I figured I'd call it "OG Helvetica." Then I figured not all you would know what OG means. I decided to test it on Andrea. OG means original gangsta by the way. A similar phrase would be, That's old school and awesome all at the same time." So here's what came of my test.


Me (sitting next to Andrea Hall in the lab writing my blog)- Do you know what OG means?
Andrea (with the most straight face ever): Oh, Goodness?


This made my week. Such a wholesome spirit that girl has.


Anyway, I didn't realize how OG helvetica really was until I saw this documentary. Like a few people have already said, I was just amazing at how passionate someone could be about a typeface. Once I thought about it, though, it sunk in helvetica is everywhere! All those emotional Drake memes you see on Tumblr- helvetica. Most memes in general- helvetica. The typography on my iPhone screen- helvetica(?).


it's everywhere. Maybe more astounding than that fact is that it is so versatile. It fits everything.  Its emotional enough for Drake memes. But it can still tackle the opposite feeling. That is cray.

Week 7: Kanye finds a way into everything I do-You can't miss this SKATEBOARDS

Glancing at Complex Design this week, I came across these awesome skateboard decks. You may ask your self, "Self, why was Nick intrigued by a skateboard?" Well, my friend, I might not look it, but I was once a skateboarder. I'm talking like 7th and 8th grade. I spent like 3 months worth of allowance on a skateboard. I even sold my Nintendo64.  I recently received a gift card to Target so, naturally, I bought a brand new skateboard. This one is much more cheap and, frankly,  much more wack than my skateboard years ago. But it on clearance and I had the urge to skate around the parking lot next to my house. Here it is in all its Instagramed glory.

If you could see the bottom, you would notice that the graphic that was there when purchased is ripped off. That is the real reason I bought this puppy for so cheap. I just wanted to design the deck. I'm thinking a stencil-type piece of art, but after seeing these decks on Complex I might change my mind. Check it out!

This might not look very difficult to do, but just wait to see how he did it.

Via Nick Schonberger/ Complex

Simon Ålander, a Swedish designer, combines analog and digital techniques to produce unique hand-lettering. For this skateboard, he employed a projector to trace the design and then enhanced the outlines using a white marker. To further the texture, Ålander applied three layers of ink and then stippled the foundation to give the letters some depth. Complex steps to a simple, neatly crafted end. 

The detailed shots really show the work Simon put in. Seeing and reading about this, a can of spray paint just into going to cut it with my deck any more.

P.S. I've been fooling with stenciling lately. Just as Kanye has a thing for Will Ferrell's body of work, I do too. So, I decided to make use his face in my first stenciling test drive. (I took this next picture before I did another layer of a stencil so it's not the finished product.)

Week 7: Kanye finds a way into everything I do- Response

The portfolio review this week was enlightening to say the least. I take pride in everything I do. This is especially true since the Roll On covers. Admittedly, I'm still learning how to take criticism, so I went through a bunch of emotions going through my critiques.

One of the more common remarks I received was not having enough variety in the pieces I brought to the review. I definitely agree with that. I did forget a few pieces I have done over the past year that would dispute that. I really have fallen in love with Illustrator this semester. No doubt about that. I've heard Theresa say before Illustrator is the most powerful application for a designer. I know what she means now. With that said, Photoshop is my next quest. The next portfolio review we have, there will definitely be some more photo driven work.