Back from the dead

 Oops... extended absence! Well, it's worth returning to blogging to post about this absolutely stunning letterpress packaging work by Yael Miller/Miller Creative LLC for The Painted Pretzel.

I found my way to the Miller site by way of FPO, where they posted yesterday about these gorgeous business cards Miller did for Olli Salumeria. (You can see my super gushy comment, right under the spam.)  I'm seeing a lot of this changeable branding concept lately, and really digging it.

Scardello Tour de Fromage Vat A Semifinals: British Isles vs France

Poster one is done! I'm pretty proud of this one. Great opportunity to play with some novelty typefaces, vintage flourishes and texture overload. I think I've found and downloaded every free high-res grunge texture the internet has to offer. Thank God for Flickr and generous photogs.
Some of my favorite Flickr users for vintage imagery, inspiration, and textures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thevintagecollective/collections/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fdctsevilla/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/calebkimbrough/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bittbox/

Keep up-to-date on the Tour de Fromage happenings (and sign up for classes) over at Scardello: http://scardellocheese.com/?page_id=420

Tour de Fromage Inspiration: Gaslight

I'm currently working on the new round of posters for Scardello's second annual Tour de Fromage. Last years' were constructivist-inspired, this year I'm going all Wild West-- clashing reds, turquoises and yellows, outlined type and gaudy serifs, excessive Gaslight-Baroque ornamentation, sun-bleached textures and layers of borders.

Matching the level of slightly irregular intricacy that only an era before Illustrator and Photoshop could produce is a tall order, so I might have to scale back and take a minimalist approach to the aesthetic (if that isn't completely paradoxical).  Sources of inspiration: DoubleM2's flickr, Exile Bibliophile's flickr, the Library of Congress, Typographie Vintage by Steven Heller, Gaslight Ephemera.

1500 unique covers from 2 PMS colors

I've long felt that limitations foster creativity. Sometimes having too much freedom can lead to obvious choices, and likewise being restricted forces the most interesting solutions to pop out-- you're never going to get Playdoh spaghetti without pressing it through the pasta maker.

Struggling with the challenge of representing a huge range of art with a single, cohesive cover concept, the designers of this series of catalogs for the Swedish Royal Institute of Art's Degree Show chose to limit themselves to two PMS colors, blend them together, and manipulate the dyeing process while the covers were being printed, leading to 1550 completely unique, "consistently inconsistent" catalogs. Beautiful. Via the ever-inspirational FPO.

Another California

Another stunning series by Tatiana Plakhova of Complexity Graphics in collaboration with photographer Leandro Sanchez. Haunting.

New World Symphony Logomark

Just perfect. {Pentagram}

Japanese Graphic Design {Pink Tentacle}

Early 20th century Japanese graphic design, brimming with social tension and political passion, though still immensely beautiful in a way only the Japanese can accomplish so elegantly. I especially love the "Nippon" covers. Read and see (a lot) more over at Pink Tentacle.