Speak Up is run with Six Apart’s 
Let me start by declaring that I am an ardent fan of black letter. I understand its connotations and associations to a certain fascist regime. I understand its importance as the type choice for a certain book printed with movable type many centuries ago. And I understand that, well, for the most part it can unreadable in contrast to Times and Arial. I rarely even use it myself. I've tried, to no avail. Still, black letter typefaces display some of the most innovative interpretations on any given character — the F of Fraktur? Drool! — and, as I noted years ago, it is one of the few classes of type that can span any given industry or audience. So, for me, going through the more than 640 pages devoted to black letter in Judith Schalanksy's Fraktur Mon Amour was like eating ice cream from a bottomless bowl: Delicious and satisfying with sudden cases of brain freeze.
A place is just a place, or so you might think. Be it a city, a mountain, a coffee shop, your favorite store or the trendiest entertainment spot, a place is just a place until you decide to upgrade it into a destination. So go ahead, and think twice before you head out the door on your next outing and think about where you are going. Place? Destination?
The top 15 out of a 26-quip week.
Bryony and I are extremely proud to announce that Women Of Design: Influence and Inspiration from the Original Trailblazers to the New Groundbreakers, a book we worked on for almost a year, is now officially on the market. An arduous but fulfilling task that celebrates the work of some of the best designers, writers, editors and thinkers in the world of graphic design. We have put together a comprehensive one-page preview web site that you can visit for an overview of the book or you can skip the formalities and purchase it from Amazon. We hope you enjoy it, whether you buy it, borrow it, flip through it at the bookstore, or even if you just use the "Look Inside" feature at Amazon.
The top 15 out of a 36-quip week.
To one or two generations — those that emotionally, socially and philosophically came of age between the late 1960s and early 1980s — of not just designers but civilians of all kinds, the album covers of that era, not to mention the music of course, played a monumental role in their cultural and visual literacy, and no album covers were as influential as those created by Hipgnosis. I say created much on purpose, because designed would not do them the absolute justice they deserve. I must admit though, that I am not part of the generation(s) I mention, I was barely born when the infamous inflatable pig took unmanned flight over the Battersea Power Station for the cover of Pink Floyd's Animals, and it was mostly through my big brother's musical infatuation of that era that in my teenage years I saw those album covers in his room: Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, King Crimson, among others. Even without an inkling towards graphic design nor enough advanced age to understand much of anything, the translucent prism of Dark Side of the Moon was irresistible. Still is.
What I love about Spain is the difference between the design coming out of Madrid, which is more rooted in Modernism and corporate identity, with that coming out of Barcelona, which is more avant garde and experimental. Plus, for whatever is worth, I think some of the best graphic design work right now is coming out of Barcelona. They are not in the bookmarks below, but the work of Alex Trochut and his former employer Vasava are simply outstanding. So, just like the last set of bookmarks, this is not a definitive list nor does it intend to be the best-of, just what I have bookmarked. If you would like to add designers or design firms feel free. The more the better.
The top 15 out of a 33-quip week.
Over the course of 2008 I have been almost obsessively bookmarking designer or design firm web sites like I hadn't bookmarked since 1999. Largely to scour the internets for fresh work to show in our upcoming book, Graphic Design Referenced. My bookmark folder has become unmanageable to the point where I stopped looking in it in the past few weeks. So, as a way to parse it in digestible chunks, I have started to divide it by countries, or at least by easily identifiable top-level domains (.com, .co.uk, .de, etc.). I thought it would be fun to share some of the design that has caught my eye from around the world — nothing definitive or all out comprehensive, just whatever I have come across on sites like ffffound, manystuff and others. Here's France.
The top 15 out of a 42-quip week.
