Sublime and reminiscent of botanical prints, the plates from Ernst Haeckel’s Kunstformen der Natur (Artforms of nature) (1904) are a treasure trove of color and design.

(more…)

The re-emergence of the popularity of grid systems, in web and print design, harkens back to the advertising design of Josef Müller-Brockmann. Müller-Brockmann began his career in the 1930′s,  perfecting the Swiss Grid System and clearly defining his work as an artform unto itself. More interesting to me is his use of positive and negative space, almost Gestalt-like, with backgrounds and foregrounds melding into one another.

(more…)

Consistently a source of inspiration for me are the woodblock and watercolor prints of Henri Rivière. His lithographic series “Thirty Six Views of the Eiffel Tower,” inspired by Hokusai: 36 Views of Mount Fuji, are an unusually detailed representation of life around Paris during the 1800′s and the building of  the Eifel Tower. This series captures a period of time in French culture so precisely and definitively that I consider it historic as well as artistic.

(more…)

Containing 100 geometric pattern fonts for Mac and Windows, Geometric is a book which gives designers a mountain of resource material. The book comes with a CD containing the 100 pattern fonts – the most extensive pattern font collection available from any foundry.

(more…)

It’s rare to find a contemporary book with such clarity which details the details of typography. This book serves as a handy desktop reference book yet is chocked full of details for a more in-depth study of typography.
(more…)

If you’re old enough, you’ll remember this childhood Golden Book. I stumbled onto a website which sells out-of-print books like this, as Random House no longer keeps this classic in print. There are dozens for sale on-line. They just don’t make ‘em like this anymore!