I came across this image by Bee Combs calle Excavation and instantly fell in love with it. The idea alone is genius, essentially taking apart the pieces that make up our world and then laying them out in layers. His execution though is spot on, you instantly know what this piece is trying to convey and it’s beautifully done. Funny enough you can also get this design as a t-shirt over on Threadless.

Bee’s got a lot more great work as well like these redesigned tabloids which I liked quite a bit.

Found through The Fieldworker

Bobby

Earlier tonight I sent my buddy Frank Chimero an IM that simply said,

“Idea: Make a deck of Magic: The Gathering cards based around current and classic designers.”

His response:

“i’m tapping 7 mana to summon josef muller brockmann
MANA BURN”

And with that we decided to create a contest where you, the reader, should design a Magic: The Gathering card for your favorite artist/designer/architect. Frank and I are both nerds and played magic when we were younger, so this is our tribute to this fine sport.
Here’s the gist:

- They can be dead or alive.
- Their Mana needs to be their country of origin or where they currently reside, the choice is yours. As you can see Josef is Swiss powered. You design what you think is rad.
- You must create original artwork for this. I made that whole damn card, except for Mr. Brockmann’s portrait which was done by Frank, in like 3 hours, so no whining.
- Make it funny. This is a stupid contest, so be creative and have fun!
- All designs should be 8″ wide at 72 DPI so it fits in the blog nicely.

The deadline for this little contest is Saturday, March 20th at Midnight PST. Frank and I will be judging these Sunday and then announce the winners on Monday. The winner will receive some Frank Chimero posters or maybe some of the weird crap he’s been buying lately like this pipe smoking viking. No matter what we promise it’ll be cool shit.

Please send all entries to thefoxisblack@gmail.com with the title Magic: The Designinging. Failure to do so may get you kicked out of the contest and all that jazz.

Happy designing and if you have any questions just leave them in the comments.

Bobby + Frank

P.S. We have no affiliation with Wizards of the Coast. Please don’t sue us.

I haven’t shared any of my personal work in a while so I thought I’d show you this album art I created about a month ago. It was for a band called In Silent Movies, a little band from Ohio that wrote me out of the blue and asked if I’d be interested in creating artwork for their album. I took a listen to their MySpace page, liked what I heard, and decided to take on the project.

They liked the style I already had and let me go in any direction I wanted. Listening to their songs there was definitely a nautical feeling to it that I wanted to play up. Overall I went with some older images of captains and boat crashes and women falling off of cliffs. Just looking at the tracklist you can see that I was playing with certain ideas, so you get a good sense of what you’re getting into musically.

I also tried to tie things together with color, so you have this big splashes of red that catch your eye on each image. For the title I just wrote out the name and surprisingly it turned out pretty well. Funny enough I cropped out the guys face before I knew the name of the album, which is They Had Faces Then. It was a happy accident that was clearly meant to be.

I’d suggest you take a listen to their music and if you like what you hear buy their CD and get some of my art at the same time (shameless plug).

Bobby

Having an entire board dedicated to statistics based around your business is such a rad idea, and Panic has created a beautiful monster called the Panic Status Board. What they’ve done is created a way to track all of the major things they do, like emails to return, their status on products and even a feed of their Twitter updates.

This seems like something every person could use. Imagine if you had a board like this to keep track of your life? Sure, you could say that we have things like computers and iPhones that do that kind of stuff, but I like that this board is dedicated to just certain statistics. Imagine if it kept track of the contents of your fridge, or when your bills are due, or when to pick up your kids from their playdate, so on and so forth. An entire board dedicated to keeping track of your life.

Bobby

Andy Spade: At the Bar by David Coggins

I posted this about this Andy Spade interview on my Twitter but there are a couple of gems that I wanted to point out:

DC: It seems like it’s not enough to design something—it has to have a place in the world, and be used in the world and responded to. It’s not enough to be self-referential or clever for its own sake.

AS: Exactly.

DC: It seems that there’s a lot of that these days.

AS: There is a lot that. It’s one thing if it’s a conceptual art piece, but another if it’s an object to be used. My friend Rich Silverstein, who’s in advertising, said this great thing: ‘Everyone borrows from the past. Just don’t steal from other advertising agencies. Look to the history of art or bridge design there are so many great places and put them together in a new way.’ Putting a piano in a bar at the Carlyle is a lot different than putting one in our store on Great Jones Street. It’s how you do it.

I’ve felt this way for a long time. Being clever for clevers sake just doesn’t work for me and it never will. This is especially true when it comes to the popular tren of “Star Wars posters that look like cereal boxes” or “TV shows in the style of German propaganda” or whatever. Sure, you smirk at them, but no one is going to remember what you did two weeks from now.

I also liked this gem:

DC: There’s something depressing about seeing the same store with the same window design uptown and downtown. It’s only a step away from seeing it in the duty free store in the airport. I would go into Jack Spade just to see what’s on the wall.

AS: Right, that’s why I go in to a store, too. I was totally influenced by Agnes B and Paul Smith. I wanted to make everything personal to be sure it felt honest. Don’t make it look like it’s been styled. I would say to Mordechai and Matt Singer, do what you like. It doesn’t have to be duplicated. It’s like organic farming. This is our little community store, it reflects the neighborhood. How big can you get before you get bad? I need that detail to be exactly right or exactly wrong. It’s like a living breathing creature—don’t you like your friend more when he makes a mistake or falls down? That’s what brands need to be.

Making mistakes as a brand, the right mistakes that is, is essential to anyone. But thinking about making mistakes as a brand and learning from them is such a great concept. Andy Spade is kind of my new design/life hero. I’d suggest taking the time to read the rest of this article.

Bobby

If you’re in Los Angeles, Santa Monica to be specific, I highly suggest you check out this Eames Gallery Exhibition at the Eames Office which is being put on by the folks over at House Industries. You’ll be able to meet up with both the House Industries and Eames designers, see cool art and furniture and hell, spend time in the Eames office, which is cool enough all on it’s own.

These are the times when I wish I had a car. For more information click here.

Bobby

Being a west coast native I’m not very familiar with Massimo Vignelli’s subway map, though I’ve definitely seen it before. Brooklyn based designers Triboro have taken this timeless design and reprinted in nothing but fluorescent red, and I have to say it looks pretty awesome. Triboro is made up of a husband and wife team David Heasty and Stefanie Weigler, who have a great portfolio of work including designing for William Rast (love that flag-esque logo), Knopf, GQ and more.

Going back to the poster, this new design clearly loses some of it’s context without the classic color coded system that Vignelli created, but there’s something quite charming about this new application. It’s almost like the intensity of the color demands your attention, like the maps don’t want you to get lost. Eye-catching at the very least.

Found through Thinking for a Living

Bobby

At the end of February comic book writer and all around lunatic Warren Ellis asked the readers of his blog to redesign Superman as if it was being released today:

You are an artist/designer. You have to put together the cover for a comic called SUPERMAN. It is issue 1 of this book.

You have been told that Superman is a man who dresses predominantly in a shade of blue, and wears a red S symbol. You know nothing else about the character.

The cover must include a logo and the text THE COMPLETE STORY OF THE DARING EXPLOITS OF THE ONE AND ONLY SUPERMAN.

And that’s it.

It’s up to you what kind of company you’re at. What kind of comics you make. How you translate that description of Superman. What era you’re in. Who you are, even. Go nuts with it.

A lot of the entries were, well, kind of janky, but the cover above by the very talented Tom Muller definitely caught my eye. I’ve posted about Mr. Muller before and I’m sure this won’t be the last time. I love that he didn’t try to go with any kind of superhero motif, he simply made an awesome and interesting cover. If I saw this comic sitting on a shelf I would buy it in a heartbeat. This is exactly the reason why I always say that there needs to be more graphic design in comic books.

Bobby

I got an email the other day from Micah over at Devicious letting me know that they teamed up with Skinny Ships, aka Richard Perez, on a totebag and it turned out pretty rad. It’s got kind of this contemporary, retro design that reminds me of Chris Ware’s work, which is obviously a compliment. I think it’s hysterical that the front says “The Amazing Practical Totebag”, and then smaller on the bottom it has “See Flipside For Details”. Once you flip it over it gives you an owner’s manual on how to properly use your tote… genius! They’re only $18 and you can get one by clicking here.

Also don’t forget that Richard did an awesome desktop wallpaper which you can grab for yourself by clicking here.

Bobby

First impressions are everything, and viewing the opening splash page of Nick de Jardine’s portfolio site you’re immediately confronted with the amazing image above. Honestly he could be trying to sell moldy cakes and I’d click through to see what flavors he had in stock. It’s even better when you see it in your full browser, just this immense redness with some perfect curated typefaces. Excellent work.

Bobby