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.

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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.

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One of the Typophile folks is selling his stunning collection of wood type blocks. This collection includes an array of unusual fonts, including historic, fancy, gothic and 20th Century modern wood blocks. You don’t find collections this vast very often and hopefully someone will purchase it in its entirety. Click here to learn more about this historic collection.

On Saturday, January 24, 2009, The Times appeared in its new incarnation. The new broadsheet design (maybe we call it “retro”) harkens to its past and leaves today’s info-byte/tabloid skimmers with something to sink their eye teeth into. Though the typographic re-think leaves me cold, I do like the fact that the new tabloid inserts denote that speciality they were meant to have, and it’s like opening the Sunday paper when I was a kid.

Matching PMS color when using digital printing can range from frustrating to impossible. Ask your digital printer if they have printed sheets from their equipment with all PMS colors. Then match your client’s PMS colors to the digital PMS colors.

Or if you have the time and money, try a proof of your client’s first project by setting up a sheet with a myriad of business cards, logos – whatever – all using similar PMS colors to what you’ve chosen. Then, once you have the proof, you can choose the most accurate PMS combinations for your client. And the re-RIP fee is generally between $15 – $25.

Every other year or so, I design & print my own holiday cards. Above are a few of the previous years’ entries.