This is a great critique by Bret Victor of the “vision” of the future that Microsoft trotted out in their recent popular video.

Victor:

My problem is the opposite, really — this vision, from an interaction perspective, is not visionary. It’s a timid increment from the status quo, and the status quo, from an interaction perspective, is actually rather terrible.

This matters, because visions matter. Visions give people a direction and inspire people to act, and a group of inspired people is the most powerful force in the world. If you’re a young person setting off to realize a vision, or an old person setting off to fund one, I really want it to be something worthwhile. Something that genuinely improves how we interact.

Victor’s arguments really make Microsoft’s look into the future seem dull and unimaginitive.

Fascinating.

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A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design – via Daring Fireball

The poster has been created by artist Justin Erickson, who will also design posters for the other films in the series. Sadly this poster won’t be available to buy anywhere and there will only be ten physical copies made with five going to those involved with the screening and five will be given away at the screening. The first three people through the doors will receive a copy each and the remaining two will be given away as competition prizes through Twitch Film. So if you’re not at the Toronto screening you’re out of luck I’m afraid.

Love it.

Many times an agency will mock up a design direction in order to get a client to sign off on it. Once they have it approved they’ll approach me with their rough idea and want me to flesh it out into it’s final form. This type of project usually means I’ll be leveraging both my design and illustration skills to pull it off.

This project will take you through the entire creative process I used to pull off this illustrative logo design, from shooting my own photo reference material to refining my vector artwork with precision.

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Logo Illustration

Smashing Magazine has collected a ton of resources for your typographical and fontological needs.

Really cool.

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50 Helpful Typography Tools And Resources

From the Typekit website:

“Just add a line of JavaScript to your markup, tell us what fonts you want to use, and then craft your pages the way you always have. Except now you’ll be able to use real fonts. This really is going to change web design.”

Sounds pretty cool. Simple, flexible, and cool.

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Typekit

It’s extremely important that Logos are created with versatility in mind. As the main component of a company’s corporate identity, the logo acts as the cornerstone of their visual brand. This means it must be reproducible using a huge variety of formats and processes while maintaining the integrity of the logo as it is utilized. Logos may be printed on anything like small business cards and pens to extremely large billboards and signage. They need to work well using traditional print methods like offset lithography and screen printing for T-Shirts, as well as other things the buyer may want like rubber stamps, stickers and embroidered golf shirts. Of course, it must also look fabulous on screen for use on websites and other pixel based media. It’s a good idea to test your logo file at a monitor resolution of 72ppi at an inch or so wide to see what issues may pop up.

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6 Things to keep in mind when designing a logo (iStockphoto.com)

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A Tale of Two Mice | THE RUSSIANS USED A PENCIL

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Illustrative Lettering 3 – Fa La La La

A terrific resource for design professionals. Tips for both the technical side of the biz and the people side.

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Hack 2 Work | Core77.com

Of all the things that could have drawn me into football when I was a wee lad, it feels a bit odd to admit, the team logos on the helmets were the most magnetic.

There was something about the colors, the compactness of the images, and the way that they not only differentiated who was playing each other on the field, but also instantly communicated the identity of the team.

But I’ve never thought critically about the logo choices before, nor how they could be changed to be even more effective.

But Ken Carbone’s post over at Fast Company does just that. He selects the best designs, and the worst, and then he tries to improve the bottom three: The Patriots, The Buccaneers, and the Redskins.