Newsletter 109
Hola.
The first newsletter of the year, back to the routine, back to normality.
I'm not the type of person who starts the year with a series of resolutions, but you do think that it might be a good time to start changing things about yourself. I don't make a list for these purposes, I'm more of the one that when something needs to be changed, it's done at the moment, you don't look for a specific date.
For example, last year I decided that I would not continue to drink alcohol. I only drank some beer from time to time, but since my throat is still damaged 13 years after the radiation therapy sessions, avoiding alcohol consumption is very beneficial for my health. And I have also cut down on carbonated drinks quite a bit. I notice that my body appreciates it and that influences my mood and my health.
I didn't sign up for the gym (I already do a lot of sport during the week) but last year I ended up attending a short course, this year I still want to learn and I'm even considering enrolling in a doctorate, something that I have always thought that it could be an excellent opportunity to investigate design.
But since I haven't put it on any list I don't have the pressure of failing if I don't finally do it ;)
I wish you that this year has a positive balance, that pain or sadness only appears a few times, and that you have as much fun as you can.
— W.
The links
Radio Garden invites you to tune into thousands of live radio stations across the globe. By bringing distant voices close, radio connects people and places. From its very beginning, radio signals have crossed borders. Radio makers and listeners have imagined both connecting with distant cultures, as well as re-connecting with people from ‘home’ from thousands of miles away.
The stories behind 2022’s best album covers
They say not to judge a book by its cover, but what about an album?When it comes to music, an album’s cover may be one of the most important factors contributing to whether you’ll decide to give something a listen — alongside the artist and, of course, the music itself. After all, in the age vinyl and CDs, it was the record’s cover art tasked with catching your eye while flipping through the bins, or while scanning the shelves of a supermarket; it’s what you framed and hung up on your wall when you found a particular project that you loved and wanted to display to the world as if a part of your own identity. It’s the singular stand-in for an album’s heart and soul, and as visual designer and director Andrew Thomas Huang tells NYLON, “it should be brave.”
Interview to Javier Errea
World’s Best-Designed Newspaper. This award was created by the renowned Society for News Design to elEconomista. The newborn financial daily from Madrid (Spain) was designed by Javier Errea. Besides the mentioned publication he and his team gave The Independent (UK), Liberation as well as Les & Echos (France), Bergens Tidende (Norway), Aamulethi (Finland), Mazlayala Manorama (India), El Universal (Mexico) and various others a new look too. Errea’s projects such as Expresso and Jornal i in Lisbon (Portugal), Eleftheros Tipos in Athens (Greece), Dagens Nyheter in Stockholm (Sweden) or La Nación in Buenos Aires (Argentina) have been also awarded as World’s Best-Designed. No wonder, that Javier Errea is dubbed miracle from Pamplona and considered one of best media designers worldwide.Base Design’s branding predictions for 2023
Having stared deep into their crystal balls, five Base team members reveal which themes, trends, and developments they think will guide the world of branding through next year and beyond.
Recurring themes include embracing inconsistencies, adoption of AI tools, creating immersive experiences both online and off, and a move away from traditional social media platforms in favor of smaller online communities.
LogoScale
LogoScale is designed to be a two-step process — it cannot directly output vector images from raster ones. The input is your crummy logo file, and the output is a raster image that is 4x the size. You can also chain the model’s output back into itself to increase the output size by another 4x. The model will attempt to account for JPEG artifacts, or weird jaggy pixels left over from PNG-8’s habit of crushing of the alpha channel.This raster image must then be placed into vector software capable of performing a bitmap trace, such as Adobe Illustrator, or Inkscape. The larger the resolution, the more accurate the live trace will be to the original logo. It is not 100% accurate, but in cases where the original vector imagery was lost or is irrecoverable, this can be a lifesaver. Plus, a little post-processing work can make many logos quite close to the original.
POOLSUITE PRESENTS #14 ☼ An hour of summer with Franc Moody
Welcome to the 14th installment of ultra-summer mixtapes from Poolsuite & friends. Pour yourself another Long Island and dive in.This month, @franc-moody bring you the most uplifting, sun-drenched disco they could find.
Blank VHS cassette packaging design trends: a lost art
In July 2016 the last known company making VHS (Video Home System) video cassette recorders ceased production. At its peak, Japan’s Funai Electric sold 15 million of its Sanyo banded VCRs a year. VHS was huge in the 1980s. It saw off the technologically superior Betamax (players discontinued in 2002; Sony continued making tapes until November 2015) but was outdone by DVD and Blu-ray. Jon Keegan, a senior research fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism wants us to “take a moment to appreciate blank VHS cassette packaging design trends”.Design Systems: Useful Examples and Resources
In complex projects, you’ll sooner or later get to the point where you start to think about setting up a design system. In this post, we explore some interesting design systems and their features, as well as useful resources for building a successful design system that works well for you and your team.These 4 brands have had long lives—here’s how they’ve stayed relevant
For a company to stand the test of time, does it take innovative marketing strategies? A willingness to change with the times? A no-holds-barred mindset? How about all of the above?These four Brands That Matter being recognized for Enduring Impact have all been around for more than 15 years—some for decades longer—and they’ve all managed to maintain their station at the top of their respective industries by keeping pace with changing needs and delivering on them in a way that is consistent with their ethos.
Department of Product. The Blog
The latest articles by Department of Product program leads and product thinkers to help you learn new skills and build winning products.History Lesson: Designers don’t like change
Not too many of our readers will recognize the name, but back in the 1980’s and 1990’s, if you were a graphic designer - you were probably using FreeHand.Released in 1987, it was the main vector design application on offer, gathering a crowd of avid users and enthusiastic followers. But when Adobe bought FreeHand in 2005, their own product— Adobe Illustrator—was already gaining momentum as the leading software for graphic designers. Therefore it came as no surprise that as soon as the acquisition was done - Adobe ceased development on FreeHand, which was then officially discontinued.
Don't specialize, hybridize
Specialization is too heavily encouraged as a career path.Becoming a generalist is one alternative, but there is another path less discussed: become a hybrid.
Top 10 Title Sequences of 2022
In 2022, many of the world’s cinemas reopened after a long hiatus due to covid-19 pandemic restrictions and audiences have returned for popcorn and pomp, albeit slowly. The overarching trend among this year’s Top 10 Title Sequences is a clear response to this hiatus and the last couple of years. A whopping three of the sequences selected below prominently feature dance as an expression of joy and connection. Movement. Togetherness. We craved and revelled in it. Of course, there are also the requisite dark gems, typographic treasures and CGI stunners.