Graphic Design Reading List
Dig the breadth, diversity and cross-section of websites, articles and books covering a bevy of design topics. / via DJ

Busy Beaver Button Museum
I’ve had oodles of buttons produced by Busy Beaver (they do fantastic work). I didn't realize they’ve also made a book and started a button museum. Fun. / via Grace

CSS Zen Garden is 20 today
Admission, I never was good at CSS. I made things with tables and visual editors. But the CSS Zen Garden taught me how to see, understand and articulate CSS. Dave Shea reflects a bit on how important it was (and still is). I'm linking to Andrew Lohman’s contribution, but really the joy is in clicking around the archives at how others re-interpret the page!

Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis)
Hipgnosis made extremely iconic album covers. This is the trailer for a film about this art design studio. / thanks Tom!

The Federal Design Improvement Program
Phil Edwards shares history of the initiative that brought identity standards to government institutions.

Start low-fi
Erica Heinz shares perspective on why low-fidelity is a better approach for product development. In some sense, this is a great approach for any notion...

A Mid Century
This poster from Eaton Print Shop made me chuckle. / via Chris Streger

Making an interactive blog map
Or any sort of diagram for that matter. Tom Critchlow shares an option that uses Figma, SVGs and CSS. I had no idea this was possible — this opens up so many doors!

Doug Wilson catalogs his library
From the shelving, organization, labelling and cataloging — an inspiration for anyone who appreciates everything in its right place, and accessible to share.

Naz Hamid’s personal website
For a long time this domain linked to other online homes for Naz. During the pandemic it started to evolve. Now it is a new destination unto itself. Thoughtful details abound.

A bearded dude in an orange hat
The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation is clapping back in support of their emblem on social media. Some chuckles in the replies / via Brand New

Designing Women
An enlightenment project exploring the impact of women in design. I particularly enjoyed all the profiles. Just digging into the resources. / via Daniel Benneworth-Gray’s Meanwhile newsletter

Jason Forrest’s career chart
Followed the path to Jason’s site from the Eames quotes and I can get lost for days on his personal site. The career chart on his about / contact page offers a snapshot of his work and passions—a lovely bit of visualization.

Charles Eames on design
“Design as a plan for arranging elements to accomplish a particular purpose.” Jason Forrest calls out a few other choice tidbits from this Design Q&A video with Eames. / via DJ

Valentine Moon Pie packaging
I dig that the box for these can be cut up into 10 individual Valentine cards. / via Brand New’s Friday Likes

The 2023 Type Trends Report by Monotype
There are waves of vibe that crash into our visual shores through type. Monotype always collects keen perspectives for a surf report. / via Brand New

Unsung Heroes
Here’s a great place to dive into Scott Bom’s personal website that has the best buckets of navigation and a fresh coat of paint. Be sure to delve into Documenting for a stream of inspiration and type releases. (But all sections are filled with goodness)

Smith & Diction’s Pitch Deck
All wrapped up nicely in a Figma presentation with tangent links to moodboards and samples.

Book covers by Pino Tovaglia, mid 1970s
I'm in dire need of a large stack of colored paper. / via a Present & Correct tweet

A deep dive into the RIDGE wine label
I've always loved these labels, with their understated design and use of Optima. Nice to learn the backstory and understand the system in place.

An interview with Geoff McFetridge about the interfaces in “Her” and then some
Seems like a good time to re-watch “Her.” Though the movie is almost 10 years old, its view of AI and interfaces is quite prescient. Scene: Firing up the OS for the first time.

More images of the interfaces in “Her”
Including a really nice sketch

I want to go to Sweden and have some fries
And a burger. Delighted by this identity by Kurppa Hosk. Also, I want to play Wipeout again. / via Brand New

Design System Advent Calendar
I trust whatever insight Dan Mall shares about Design Systems will be actionable and extremely valuable. (I also dig this format as it seems like it won’t be overwhelming!)

Kazam Magazine
Speaking the Eames Institute, they have a (virtual) magazine to share stories about people, projects, and ideas that are shaping a better tomorrow. I kinda wish it was a real magazine, had an RSS feed or both!

Why Japan’s internet looks very different
This video by Sabrina Cruz is dense and mind-blowing from multiple angles. (I've been working on Japanese websites of late.) As Andy Baio notes, the addendum is well worth a visit.

Just say no to logo
An appeal for a better design vocabulary from a favorite professor from OSU, Paul Nini. Get to know the difference between a logo, brandmark and then some. / Thanks DJ!

The Library of Congress: Dietmar Winkler
Reminding myself of the trove that is the Library of Congress site, thanks to Antonio of AisleOne.

Lotte Chair by Sarah Hossli
Simple design to help folks get in and out of the chair. / via Dezeen

The new Verge
I quite like how the new Verge logo overlaps and intersects featured images. Their refreshed design and intent is described in this post. Not sure about the commingling Tweets and articles, but I applaud experimenting.

Paul Rand’s Logo Presentation Books
A trove of logo concept books from Rand. Many of these identity studies weren't approved. Still great to peruse.

The beautiful signage of Comédie-Française
Theater wayfinding inspired by pulleys and ropes which are used to change sets on stage. More photos on CL Design's site

Visions Not Previously Seen
Barbara “Bobbie” Stauffacher Solomon mixed Swiss graphic design principles with West Coast Pop art stylings, essentially creating supergraphics, and in doing so shaped the history of design. / Revisiting this link for inspiration

Emma Bers
Dig the life and humanity of Emma’s graphic design. Bonus interview on It’s Nice That: If I’m Not Having Fun I Scrap It.

Akinterest
A digital moodboard organized in chapters, and publish a new one whenever the mood strikes by Joshua Blankenship. For when you need some visual vibes in your #moodscrolling #ffffound

Right On! A Documentary on Student Protest
AIGA has a solid deep dive (and video thumbing through pages) of this distilling reports of campus protests. David L. Burke's design keeps the vibe of a zine in a paperback format. It's gorgeous.

Todd Oldham’s Place in the Poconos
As my friend Thor mentioned when sharing this link, "More is more."

Hyundai N Vision 74
I don't think about sports cars too much because I generally couldn't fit in them if I tried, but dang Hyundai's design team is on fire.

Rio Carnaval logo generator
It's fun even if you don't speak Portuguese (microphone access is optional) / via Under Consideration’s review

10,000 years of branding
Explained in 6 minutes by Debbie Millman. Many favorite moments, including this beautiful stretch: "Branding has become a profound manifestation of the human spirit."

Aaron Draplin Wake & Make Challenge
Closed out a day of computers & zooms & needed to do something & didn't want to think about it. This 5 minute type drawing exercise from Draplin hit the spot. (The thing I made isn't very good.)

The greatest output of your careers will be relationships
The list of ”10 things I wish every design student knew“ by Cameron Moll holds up incredibly well over time, but also? Works for every profession.

TVA Multifunctional Computer
JK Captain made gorgeous renders of the desktop terminal in the Loki tv series. / via pb

2022 Brand New Conference
Mesmerized by the dynamic type. The introduction of variables to typography is opening up some many wonderful doors. But this? This is a Whole. 'Nother. Level. More details about the identity.

Whimbrel Stamp Alphabet (and font)
Alex Tomlinson developed a font based on a 1940's Bird Lore magazine and a set of stamps to boot.

IDCA ’72 Posters Program
Feeling very Helvetica flush left this morning. / simple beauty via Carl Collins

National Parks Poster
by Steve Wolf Designs. Dig.

Bjørn Karmann’s Occlusion Grotesque
Typeface carved into the bark of a tree. As the tree grows, it deforms the letters and outputs new design variations, that are captured annually. / via Yewknee

Noto Emoji
An open-source emoji font in multiple weights (and a single color, even the flags). Jennifer Daniel has the deets and download link.

Excel, an overlooked design tool
I've done a pretty good job of making Powerpoint look good, but this is next level stuff. / via Sidebar

The new Condor livery
Brand New has oodles more images, but Condor has a sneak peek here. I would plan a trip just to be a passenger in one of these planes.

The Empire Stripes Back
Armin Vit’s perspective on the Condor branding refresh is a delight to read. (Requires subscription, but _so_ worth it if you've interest in branding.)

A great thread about music visualization
Sometimes Twitter's algorithm reveals good things. Like these tweets from Andrew Benson and the replies.

The Fox is Black is back
Bobby Solomon had a great blog about creativity and culture that was a favorite destination for many years. It lives again today as a thoughtful and densely awesome newsletter.

An open source collection of Design Principles
Collections of guiding thoughts from the likes of John Maeda, Apple, IBM, Fisher Price and 160+ others. A trove. / via @rjkwon

Swee kombucha packaging by Below
I like to imagine a future where all ingredients are listed like this, but realize it'd be impossible. Lovely work by Below studio. / via @manfredhwf

11 retro coffee makers
Pretty sure my parents had the SEB Model 980, which would look awesome on the counter today. These and more from a book titled ”Soft Electronics“ out in May from Gestalten. / via Sidebar

Milwaukee Transit Passes
The Letterform Archive holds about 300 tickets in their collection thanks in part to a donation from type designer Tobias Frere-Jones... and they’re gorgeous.
