Recently a prospective new client asked us some rather pointed questions about the nature of what we provided as brand designers, the difference between branding and marketing, as well as some other rather insightful queries. This client wa [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, January 30th, 2012
Categories: Articles, Branding, Design, Tips | No Comments »
Time and time again when we present websites and online projects to clients we are met with blank stares and questions when we begin talking about the more technical aspects of what we do. From these questions we have developed a few exampl [...]
Posted by: Tyler Wilman on Tuesday, December 20th, 2011
Categories: Design, Education, Learning | No Comments »
Recently the Government of British Columbia presented one of our valued clients with its 2011 WelcomeBC Day Award, in recognition of their innovative website developed by Yours Truly, the talented team here at Industrial Brand. But never mi [...]
Posted by: Keltie Munro on Wednesday, November 16th, 2011
Categories: Awards, Design, Industrial Brand, News, Vancouver, Websites | 1 Comment »
Twitter offers opportunities that yield thoughtful, well crafted, delightful experiences masterminded by real people going out of their way to turn the mundane into something special.
Posted by: Dana Deschene on Tuesday, September 6th, 2011
Categories: Design, Interaction, Movie, Pop Culture, Social Media, Technology | No Comments »
CreativeMornings is being brought to Vancouver, by our very own Mark Busse. CreativeMornings is a breakfast lecture series started in New York by Tina Roth Eisenberg (@SwissMiss) for creative types happening the first Friday of each month. [...]
Posted by: Matt SamyciaWood on Wednesday, August 17th, 2011
Categories: Design, Education, Inspiration, Vancouver | No Comments »
The ligature: music to your eyes or an outdated typographic nuisance?
Posted by: Dana Deschene on Wednesday, June 8th, 2011
Categories: Design, Fun, Industrial Brand, Learning, Pop Culture, Technology, Typography, Uncategorized, We love | 2 Comments »
An edited version of the following article was published on DesignEdgeCanada.com on June 7, 2011: Walking into the Interlink Conference felt a bit like witnessing two worlds collide. Half the audience was the hardcore designer set, with th [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, June 7th, 2011
Categories: Design, Education, Events, Inspiration, Learning, Vancouver | No Comments »
The following article was published on DesignEdgeCanada.com on June 2, 2011: Web design veteran Shawn Johnston was frustrated by a lack of local forums for progressive conversation and collaboration aimed at propelling the web from a new i [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, June 7th, 2011
Categories: Design, Education, Events, Interactive, Learning, Vancouver | No Comments »
An overview of An Event Apart, the design conference for people who make websites.
Posted by: Sylvia Rigakis on Tuesday, May 10th, 2011
Categories: Design, Education, Events, Inspiration, Interaction, Interactive, Learning, Social Media, Technology, Websites | 1 Comment »
There’s something happily surreal about sipping on your morning coffee and reading the newspaper when you stumbled across a story about a client’s success story. Very nice indeed. A few years ago we designed the logo, brand iden [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, February 1st, 2011
Categories: Design, Industrial Brand, News, Vancouver | No Comments »
Our firm is entering its 15th year, and despite being frequently hailed as successful design industry veterans, my partner Ben and I often feel like we have much to learn—both personally and professionally—hence our recently joining The [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010
Categories: Associations, Design, Events, Learning | No Comments »
Design is in chaos, and leadership is sorely lacking. It’s time for those with the ability to take the reins of power and haul the industry into the modern world.
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010
Categories: Articles, Associations, Design | 1 Comment »
Over the years as a design director, design association executive, and design instructor, I’ve been asked by innumerable potential students about the merits or shortcomings of the various local design schools. It seemed time to put these [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, October 15th, 2010
Categories: Articles, Design, Education, Learning, Tips | No Comments »
“The 1000 Journals Project is an ongoing collaborative experiment attempting to follow 1000 journals throughout their travels. The goal is to provide a method for interaction and shared creativity among friends and strangers.” (1000jour [...]
Posted by: Nikole Japuncic on Tuesday, June 15th, 2010
Categories: Art, Design, Inspiration, Reading | No Comments »
Last year our brand identity project for Yaaway was featured in BIV’s special AdPages issue in an article called Logos Stick written by Jill Lambert. This year we are proud to have some of our work and opinions featured by BIV again, [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
Categories: Articles, Design, Industrial Brand, News, Reading, Tips | No Comments »
Matt recently wrote a great article about why he was excited about the upcoming Icograda Design Week Vancouver 2010 conference. This week Icograda released this animated promo video about the theme of Design Currency created by Rethink, Gia [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
Categories: Associations, Design, Events, Inspiration, Vancouver, Video, We love, animation | 1 Comment »
I believe there is always room for every person to grow, personally and professionally. But as an Art Director (and father of a two year old) my ‘spare’ time for a conference is very limited. I have been in this industry for 15 years an [...]
Posted by: Matt SamyciaWood on Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Categories: Associations, Awards, Design, Education, Events, Learning, Vancouver | 1 Comment »
Jim Rimmer died last week and I really wasn’t sure I wanted to post anything online after writing a tribute post for my recently deceased friend Leo Obstbaum. Losing people takes the wind right out of your sails. Then I found the foll [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
Categories: Design, News, Typography, We love | No Comments »
We just finished a new identity and marketing campaign for a development project called District South Main for our client Amacon. The first teaser advertisements just hit the streets and the initial website has launched and is now acceptin [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, August 27th, 2009
Categories: Design, Marketing, News, Vancouver | 3 Comments »
If you didn’t catch the grammatical error in the title of this post (or the many in the photo for that matter), read on… Unlock the latch and propping open the lid of my secret chest of pet peeves and you’ll see that nothi [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Monday, July 27th, 2009
Categories: Design, Education, Marketing, Tips | 1 Comment »
Icograda has formally announced Design Week 2010 to be hosted by GDC in Vancouver with official event profile information on their website.
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, June 15th, 2009
Categories: Associations, Design, Events, News, Vancouver | No Comments »
All designers should have learned this so long ago that it’s already been forgotten and therefore in need of a refresher so I offer you The 10 Commandments of Dieter Rams. His design, and design principals, have influenced a generatio [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009
Categories: Design, Education, Inspiration | No Comments »
I recently learnt about this company whilst watching Extreme Makeover Home Edition. The e-log has a foam core skinned in real wood. Compared to regular log homes, e-log is cheaper, better for the environment and better insulates your home. [...]
Posted by: Matt SamyciaWood on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
Categories: Architecture, Design, Sustainability | No Comments »
Big news in the web world as Typekit was launched last week. For those of you who missed news of the launch, it serves to bridge the copyright issues associated with the CSS3 Property @font-face (hotly debated issue among foundries and deve [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
Categories: Design, Interactive, Learning, Websites | No Comments »
From time to time I visit the site Lovely Package. Today I was delighted to see someone doing something different with egg packaging. Designer Si Thorpe designed the packaging for an ethically minded egg company, who specialize in organic, [...]
Posted by: Matt SamyciaWood on Friday, May 22nd, 2009
Categories: Design, Packaging | No Comments »
M&S (Marks & Spencer) turns 125 tomorrow. My mum who lives in Leeds (where M&S started as a single market stall) is off to a special event tomorrow at M&S, so I thought I would check out the corporate site for more info. I u [...]
Posted by: Matt SamyciaWood on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
Categories: Branding, Design, Inspiration, Marketing, Websites | 1 Comment »
Bill Buxton is so cool. He’s Canadian, a massively talented designer, and arguably the world authority on interaction and usability design. What’s not to like? Oh, Buxton does work at Microsoft as their Principal Researcher, but [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
Categories: Design, Inspiration, Interaction, Learning, Technology, Video, We love | No Comments »
The latest issue of Design Edge just hit the streets and features our own Mark Busse on page 14 in the Newsmakers section! For those of you who don’t know (and that’s not many), Mark has been instrumental in reviving and enliven [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Thursday, April 30th, 2009
Categories: Design, News | No Comments »
It’s certainly no secret that we’re huge fans of GDC, the national design association in Canada, and the various events they produce. So, I’d like to encourage any and all creative professionals that work within the commun [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, April 30th, 2009
Categories: Associations, Design, Events, Inspiration, Vancouver, We love | No Comments »
Last night I visited the the brand new Vancouver Convention Centre for the first time. While there I took special notice of the convention centre’s new identity and its applications. At first I must admit the logo baffled me a bit as [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
Categories: Branding, Design, Inspiration, Vancouver | 6 Comments »
April 27th is World Graphic Design Day, and the Canadian design community celebrated with GDC announcing new sustainability definitions and principles for its members at the National AGM in Winnipeg on April 26th. This is a huge leap forwar [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
Categories: Associations, Design, News, Sustainability | 1 Comment »
‘Click Here’ is seen everywhere on the net and is often used to indicate where there is a link. As interactive designers we need tools in our tool belt to differentiate links from regular text and reliance on inserting content o [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
Categories: Design, Interactive | 2 Comments »
You’ve gone to school and learned about proper design theory. You can identify fonts from a mile away, know your analogous from your complimentary colours and even your dreams line up to a grid. Now you’ve turned to the web but [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Tuesday, March 10th, 2009
Categories: Design, Education, Learning | No Comments »
Ever used the WhatTheFont website to determine what a font is? You see a picture and just NEED to know what that obscure font is. Well what happens if you’re out and about and see one on a restaurant menu, or an ad on the bus? Well gr [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Wednesday, February 11th, 2009
Categories: Design, Fun, Interactive | 2 Comments »
Today I received an email from an old friend who is a beverage marketing consultant who has been working on a beer brand identity with a design firm in Kelowna. I’d not heard of them, but their online portfolio contains some good work [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, February 4th, 2009
Categories: Branding, Design | 7 Comments »
I have just learnt of the company Future Systems. The founder Jan Kaplický died earlier this month but leaves behind a most impressive portfolio of both architecture and product design. Two pieces of work that are well worth a mention are [...]
Posted by: Matt SamyciaWood on Tuesday, January 27th, 2009
Categories: Architecture, Design, Uncategorized | No Comments »
That’s right, someone has gone there. Star Wars Yoga. Rad!
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009
Categories: Design, Fun, Pop Culture, We love | 1 Comment »
It’s like Communication Design class all over again. Take a peek at these sexy pieces for the Grammy’s “Celebrate the Music That Made Us” campaign. The portraits of select artists (Rihanna, Stevie Wonder, Coldplay, [...]
Posted by: Steph Co on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009
Categories: Art, Design, Inspiration, Music, Typography | No Comments »
Dutch design firm SPRANQ has developed a new typeface that incorporates their concern for the environment. Ecofont is a typeface similar in look to Vera Sans, but resembles Swiss cheese in its makeup. The aerated font uses 20% less ink to p [...]
Posted by: Alex Leynes on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009
Categories: Design, Pop Culture, Sustainability, Typography | No Comments »
I totally dig this movie Poster. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a story of a man who is born as a 70 year old, and grows younger through his life; essentially aging in reverse. The movie posters are, for the most part, generic and a [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Monday, January 12th, 2009
Categories: Advertising, Design, Inspiration | No Comments »
Industrial Brand’s new identity design was recently honoured by being featured in the Galeria section of International Council of Graphic Design Associations’ website.
Posted by: Mark Busse on Saturday, January 10th, 2009
Categories: Design, Industrial Brand, News | No Comments »
Our old friend Gary Hustwit, who brought us the feature-length film Helvetica about typography, graphic design and global visual culture, is putting the final touches on his newest documentary project, Objectified—this time a fascinating [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, January 5th, 2009
Categories: Design, Film, Inspiration, Movie | No Comments »
As the “Big 3″ automakers scramble to stay a float, one company is rethinking the electric automobile. XP Vehicles Inc. have developed an electric car based on the Mars Lander technology that would make it the first inflatable c [...]
Posted by: Alex Leynes on Sunday, January 4th, 2009
Categories: Design, Sustainability | No Comments »
I love books — beautiful books not the ones with shabby covers. I must admit that sometimes I buy a book for its cover rather than for its content. I don’t lend my books easily, they look too cool on my shelves. And I love Penguin [...]
Posted by: Mathilde Salvert on Friday, December 12th, 2008
Categories: Design, Illustration, Inspiration, Printing | 1 Comment »
Almost a month ago, we launched our new identity: new logo, new website and blog, door sign, nice t-shirts and jackets, a big paaarty….and when you think it’s all over, here it comes: an amazingly long list of financial document [...]
Posted by: Mathilde Salvert on Friday, December 12th, 2008
Categories: Design, Fun, Interactive, Music, Pop Culture | No Comments »
Readers who watch Friends, you might know what my title means. For the past few weeks Todd and I have been working on furnishing his new place. Not only has this move given me an opportunity to fuel my interest in interior design, but also [...]
Posted by: Steph Co on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008
Categories: Design, Fun, Inspiration, Tips | No Comments »
The LA Auto Show is home to the largest west coast display of cutting edge vehicular design and engineering. Every year the show opens its design challenge to any automaker that feels like they are up for flexing their creative muscle. This [...]
Posted by: Alex Leynes on Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
Categories: Design, Events, Illustration, Sustainability, Technology | No Comments »
As a Partner and Design Director at a thriving studio, I tend to spend more time bringing in new business, dealing with clients or taking care of administrative duties more than actual design and production these days. Par for the course I [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, October 31st, 2008
Categories: Design, Industrial Brand, Music | 1 Comment »
Smashing Magazine has posted their latest picks for 50 Beautiful Blog Designs. In their words: In the showcase below we present 50 beautiful blog designs that literally stand out — either through their layout or through their design or th [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Friday, October 24th, 2008
Categories: Design, Websites | No Comments »
You don’t have to look too closely to see logos or products in films: yellow Asics in Kill Bill, Audi in Iron Man, etc… Design group Antrepo created these interesting posters, re-interpreting recent blockbusters through the lens [...]
Posted by: Mathilde Salvert on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
Categories: Branding, Design, Events | No Comments »
My day started today by finding out that I had accidentally saved a crop of a website design yesterday. In the perfect storm of backup redundancies not working (including the most important one – my brain) I was left with one of two opti [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
Categories: Design, Learning, Software | 1 Comment »
Just a little teaser: we took down the old logo on the front door the other day. Hint: if the suspense is killing you and you can’t wait for the new website, or to get handed a new business card, do a drive by.
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Thursday, October 9th, 2008
Categories: Design, Industrial Brand, Inspiration | No Comments »
During the research and planning phase of an upcoming GDC event—Practivism: Practical methods for radical sustainability in design—I came across Alyssa Walker’s article Conventional Wisdom: Eight Ways to Save Design Conferences. I [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, September 26th, 2008
Categories: Associations, Design, Events, Learning, Sustainability, Vancouver | No Comments »
After months of work in secrecy, the design team at VANOC has revealed the new graphic identity system and sport pictograms for the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. VANOC’s Design Director, Leo Obstbaum, said “The sport illustra [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, September 18th, 2008
Categories: Design, Vancouver | No Comments »
We just received an intriguing promo from the Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver) for their current exhibit titled, Clip/Stamp/Fold 6 The Radical Architecture of Little Magazines 196X-197X. The exhibition is based around the explosion of o [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Thursday, September 11th, 2008
Categories: Architecture, Design, Events | No Comments »
Buenos Aires isn’t the first place I think of when I consider type foundries, but Studipos has some brilliant fonts. Check em out.
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, August 29th, 2008
Categories: Design, Typography, Websites | 2 Comments »
The winners of the 12th annual Webby Awards were just announced and the Graphex 2008 website, designed and developed by Industrial Brand Creative, was chosen as an Honoree out of more than 8,000 entries in 70 categories. To be selected amon [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, August 22nd, 2008
Categories: Associations, Awards, Design, Industrial Brand, News, Websites | No Comments »
We’re proud to have recently designed the new brand identity and website for Jakes Construction. A contracting company that started fifteen years ago with one man named Jake, this family-owned company grew to be one of the largest con [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, August 22nd, 2008
Categories: Branding, Design, Industrial Brand, News, Websites | No Comments »
Let’s face it: Gary Hustuit’s documentary Helvetica was a runaway hit. I certainly didn’t expect so many designers and non-designers alike to get so goofy about a film about a typeface. Building on his success and reputati [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
Categories: Design, Film, Inspiration, Movie, News, We love | No Comments »
We’ve enjoyed collaborating with our friends at Mercury Filmworks as their design team for many years and were proud to develop and launch their new identity as part of their 10 year anniversary celebrations. Using elements of the pre [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, July 28th, 2008
Categories: Branding, Design, Industrial Brand, News | No Comments »
UPDATE: We just learned that this brand identity project has been accepted into the upcoming Communication Arts Design Annual. Woot woot! We recently worked on a fascinating branding and interactive design project for an online video sharin [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
Categories: Design, Industrial Brand, Websites | 1 Comment »
Keeping up with the craze over the new Batman movie, I thought I’d add to the hype by posting this nicely designed poster. The chorus of ‘hahaha’s’ written to form the bat symbol is a neat detail. Props to Warner Bro [...]
Posted by: Steph Co on Friday, July 18th, 2008
Categories: Art, Design, Movie, Pop Culture | 1 Comment »
Stuck for colour inspiration? McSweeney has a great list of HEX colours that sound dirty. Sometimes it’s the small things in life but I always get a kick of coding a site with a background colour of #EFF0FF. I’m so mature…
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Friday, July 4th, 2008
Categories: Design | No Comments »
A hearty congratulations to IBC Brand Director Matt SamyciaWood for being awarded the MGDC certified professional designer designation by The Society of Graphic Designers of Canada [GDC]. Considering Matt has a Masters of Design and has bee [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, June 27th, 2008
Categories: Associations, Design, Industrial Brand, News | 1 Comment »
This past Friday marked the launch and public debut (party!) of our client CondoVue’s website, and essentially, their business. For us, it’s terrific to finally be able to show off the identity we did for them earlier this year. [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Monday, June 23rd, 2008
Categories: Design, Websites | 1 Comment »
Applied Arts Magazine announced its latest list of winners today, and Vacnouver’s Rethink Communications cleaned up. As usual. 44 of their submissions were chosen as winners—including the Graphex 2008 invitations they designed for G [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
Categories: Associations, Awards, Design, News, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Recently I attended the Rock Awards hosted by the Vancouver Island Chapter of GDC in Victoria. And what a night to remember. After a delicious locally grown organic meal, the room went dark and was filled with the deep, ominous sounds of a [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
Categories: Associations, Awards, Design, Events, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
I’d totally wear this t-shirt, if only to dare strangers to start a dialogue and perhaps debate whether design really any more honest than advertising. Would you? Is design really honest?
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, June 16th, 2008
Categories: Design, Fun | No Comments »
There is one thing I know all designers love; freaking sexy business cards. Here’s a site that will definitely get you thinking about redesigning your own card or at least get you itching to do something.
Posted by: Steph Co on Friday, June 6th, 2008
Categories: Art, Branding, Design, Inspiration, We love | 1 Comment »
So, just how do you get a really great creative idea for that next DM piece? Juice it. But is it organic? (via Liquid Treat)
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Friday, June 6th, 2008
Categories: Advertising, Design, Fun | No Comments »
After reading this article from Times, I went straight to my pantry, opened up a new can of Pringles and saluted Mr. Baur for his accomplishments. Thanks for thinking of others who prefer to have their chips uniformed.
Posted by: Steph Co on Thursday, June 5th, 2008
Categories: Design, Fun, News | 2 Comments »
While perusing the net, I came across this poster for a recent Stefan Sagmeister event. It was interesting to see another variation of the same affair. I must say, the poster design by D8 is one of the better ones I’ve seen. Props to [...]
Posted by: Steph Co on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
Categories: Art, Design | 4 Comments »
Steve did a good job summing up our experiences with his review of the 2008 HOW Design Conference, which I enjoyed, so I won’t double our efforts describing the event here. But as I hear myself responding to so many questions about ho [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, May 26th, 2008
Categories: Design, Events, Tips | 2 Comments »
Milan, 20.04.2008 – Wolda, the Worldwide Logo Design Annual, announces the distinguished panel of 30 independent judges that will select the winning entries for its ‘08 inaugural edition, see www.wolda.org/judges. This unique three- [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
Categories: Awards, Design, News | No Comments »
Yup. You read that correctly. Rogue graphic design star Stefan Sagmeister will be giving a presentation in Vancouver as part of GDC’s Salazar Student Design Awards at 6 pm on Friday, May 9th at the Roundhouse Arts & Community Cent [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, April 25th, 2008
Categories: Associations, Design, Events, Vancouver | No Comments »
I have a confession…I just used drop shadow on a project. AND I made the logo bigger. And to make it worse… last week the studio used Comic Sans. And the worst part of all this, there are good solid design rational behind all th [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Monday, April 21st, 2008
Categories: Design, Fun | 3 Comments »
You’ve seen all of these photos before, but have you seen them rendered in Lego? Have you? (via Geekology)
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Thursday, April 3rd, 2008
Categories: Art, Design, Fun | No Comments »
Arcade Fire is fairly awesome. We play them often at the studio. And their videos are often pretty darned cool, like this version of “Neon Bible” recorded live in an elevator. But nothing tops this interactive video for “N [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
Categories: Design, Fun, Inspiration, Interactive, Pop Culture, We love, Websites | No Comments »
I could easily just post a link to the MoMA’s online exhibit “Design and the Elastic Mind” and say COOL! Actually, yeah, let’s do that. This site is as cool as the exhibit it showcases. [kudos KB for the heads up]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008
Categories: Art, Design, Inspiration, Interactive, We love, Websites | No Comments »
I came across this ladies (Maryellen McFadden) flickr account. It contains some amazing classic poster design and other imagery. Check it out, click here
Posted by: Matt SamyciaWood on Monday, March 31st, 2008
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Thank You Motion Graphics has officially launched their new site. Todd Smith, our guest contributer for IBC blog is working overseas in Denmark, producing pieces for MTV, Visa, Sony Ericsson, and a host of other clients that no-one in North [...]
Posted by: Steph Co on Friday, March 28th, 2008
Categories: Design, Illustration, Websites | No Comments »
My wife, who doesn’t even eat lamb, sent me a link to a company called Edible. Divided into sections: Insectivore, Herbs & Spices, Aphrodesiac, Carnivore, Herbivore, and Apothecary, the company scours the earth for the rare, the e [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Thursday, March 27th, 2008
Categories: Design, Food, Marketing | 1 Comment »
If you haven’t visited TAXI Design Network lately, I suggest you to check their designtaxi.com commemorative 100th issue. It’s pretty good fun actually. You could spend hours clicking away, reading about their history, having a gi [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, March 21st, 2008
Categories: Design, Fun, Websites | No Comments »
We’ve used FunctionFox‘s TimeFox web-based time and project management tools for years and love it. Their new TimeFox Premier release has added handy functionality such as task management, to-do lists, calendar and scheduling to [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, March 21st, 2008
Categories: Design, Learning, Reading, Tips, We love | No Comments »
 I'm left out of many of the new mobile features because I haven't shelled out $500-$1000 for the newest phone (and again in a year, and another year etc). On top of that, the environmental impact of discarded cell phones is an increasing concern.
Enter the <a href=)
Change in the cell phone industry seems to be speeding up rapidly these days. Seems I can’t hang out with friends these days without everyone pulling out their phones comparing features. I feel a little left behind rocking my ghetto M [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Thursday, March 6th, 2008
Categories: Design, Sustainability | No Comments »
After much feedback, evaluation, planning—including a healthy dose of debate and discussion—the all new GDC.net website has launched at long last, with a section devoted to the GDC BC Chapter. Having served with a number of my GDC colle [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Saturday, March 1st, 2008
Categories: Associations, Design, News, Websites | 1 Comment »
The first time I watched the title sequence for Showtime's "Dexter" I liked it, after I started watching the show, I fell in love with it.
Posted by: Ivan Cruz on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
Categories: Design, Film, Inspiration | No Comments »
With some time to spare and a little bit of curiosity I found “New Vintage Type” a book that I am now in need of getting my paws on. So how did I find this gem of a book?
Posted by: Claire Alexander on Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
Categories: Branding, Design, Fun, Inspiration, Typography, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Yesterday was a beautiful day here in Vancouver. Blue sky, fresh snow on the mountains, some sun….. it was pretty inspiring, but today it was back to the gray overcast sky that is stereotypically associated with Vancouver. Enter a pre [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Wednesday, February 20th, 2008
Categories: Design, Photography, We love | No Comments »
Personally, when I see a little cow out in the field I don’t immediately think of veal, but now maybe I might. Today, I came across a site devoted to “depiction of animals that act as though they wish to be consumed” calle [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
Categories: Design, Food | 1 Comment »
Thirty years after the movie thriller ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ hit the silver screen sQuba is the first car that can actually ‘fly’ under water. “Dive it again, James!” If the situation gets too hot for the secret agent he’ll go [...]
Posted by: Matt SamyciaWood on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
Categories: Design, Technology | No Comments »
IBC was honoured to design and produce the website for GDC’s Graphex National Design Awards this year. The competition has been judged and the winners will be announced on March 28th at a formal awards gala on March 28rd at the pres [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Saturday, February 16th, 2008
Categories: Associations, Design, Events, Vancouver | No Comments »
This blog has sure gone stale, hasn’t it? I wonder if we have any readers left? We sort of suck, you’re right. Anyway, I’m still blogging, which is ironic as I used to be the lame infrequent blogger at IBC. Here’s a [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, February 7th, 2008
Categories: Design, Film, Fun, Pop Culture, Typography | 1 Comment »
Every year Design Within Reach, purveyors of sweet, expensive modern furniture hold a contest to see who can design the coolest chair out of the champagne corks left over from new year’s drinking binges. Grand prize went to Miwa Kle [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Wednesday, February 6th, 2008
Categories: Design | No Comments »
When our writer friend Dave Delibato came to us and asked for an ultra-clean portfolio website to showcase his advertising work, we went for a totally minimalistic approach. Not much to it, but it works! Check out www.davedelibato.com.
Posted by: Mark Busse on Saturday, December 15th, 2007
Categories: Design, Industrial Brand, Websites | No Comments »
Long gone are the days of guilt-free ridonculously extravagant gift-giving. Not that I’d like a return to over spending and under thinking gift giving, but it seems that the pendulum has swung too far the other way. We’ve become [...]
Posted by: Claire Alexander on Friday, December 14th, 2007
Categories: Design, Inspiration, Learning, Sustainability, Tips | No Comments »
Thanks to the swag bag at Graphex 2008 Judges Night I find myself ogling Kwantlen University College’s Graphic Design for Marketing 2007 Degree Show Catalogue (what a mouthful). Being that the show happened over six months ago, I gues [...]
Posted by: Claire Alexander on Friday, December 7th, 2007
Categories: Design, Education, Inspiration, Learning | No Comments »
Another funky website launched by Industrial Brand Creative recently. This time for a custom jewellery company created by sisters Tania and Penny Gleave called Lemon Park. The photos are by our good friend Sven Boecker.
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, December 5th, 2007
Categories: Design, Industrial Brand, Websites | No Comments »
Word has it that the Graphex 2008 commemorative binder is totally WOW! The binder was given out as a welcome kit to the judges and so far it’s been very well received. Don’t you just love the laser etched bamboo cover? We do. Th [...]
Posted by: Claire Alexander on Friday, November 30th, 2007
Categories: Associations, Awards, Design, Events, Industrial Brand | No Comments »
Last night, November 21st, 2007, Jeff Harrison and Rethink Communications won a prestigious Lotus Award in the category of Best Design Poster for their design of the GDC Graphex 2008 Call For Entries poster. Well done guys!
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, November 22nd, 2007
Categories: Awards, Design, News | No Comments »
From Adweek: After 54 years, the Cannes Lions are finally adding Design. At the 55th International Advertising Festival next June, Design Lions as well as a Grand Prix will be up for grabs, but there are caveats. Product, Web and architectu [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, November 14th, 2007
Categories: Awards, Design, News | No Comments »
We worked with the owners of Kanto AV Systems to establish a name and brand platform from which to launch a line of flat screen tv mounts, accessories and iPod speaker systems to a consumer audience. We strove to create a fresh, friendly an [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
Categories: Branding, Design, Industrial Brand, News, Packaging, Websites | No Comments »
We are happy to announce the launch of UBC’s School of Architecture’s new website. The site offers students, faculty and alumni the ability to upload content and comment on other’s work. We think the custom Flash Tag bar s [...]
Posted by: Haig Armen on Friday, November 2nd, 2007
Categories: Architecture, Design, Interactive | No Comments »
I can’t recall how, but recently I came across the Canadian Design Resource. Bascially, it’s a simple blog with some terrific examples of all things deign that also happen to be of Canadian origin. While not a comprehensive reso [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Monday, October 29th, 2007
Categories: Design | No Comments »
IBC recently won a Silver Award in the IAPHC International Gallery Awards for the Metallic Experience campaign we created for Hemlock Printers featuring the art of the legendary Bob Masse. Ha ha, metallic wins silver…ironic.
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, October 17th, 2007
Categories: Awards, Design, Industrial Brand, News | No Comments »
London was buzzing for the last two weeks of September. Everywhere you looked, on every street corner there seemed to be something about design. The city was filled with museum exhibits, public art and storefronts with interactive installat [...]
Posted by: Haig Armen on Monday, October 15th, 2007
Categories: Articles, Design, Interactive | No Comments »
It’s common knowledge (among those who know me) that I love Cuba. My wife and I were married there. I may not entirely agree with their politics, but the Cuban people are amazing—perhaps the warmest and most enjoyable culture I̵ [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, October 11th, 2007
Categories: Associations, Design, Illustration, Reading, Travel | No Comments »
In the UK, where I’ve been for the past couple of weeks, pay rates for design freelancers are up in many cases, particularly when it comes to digital disciplines, according to DesignWeek’s second annual survey. Overall, pay incr [...]
Posted by: Haig Armen on Saturday, October 6th, 2007
Categories: Articles, Design | 3 Comments »
I am not a designer. I am…well…something else. So everything I know about UI and Human-Computer Interaction has been learned the hard way: spending countless hours using software and websites and wrestling with a UI so bad I wanted to g [...]
Posted by: Andrew Ball on Saturday, October 6th, 2007
Categories: Design, Learning | No Comments »
GDC/BC Presents: Design Speaker Series #1 – Logo Savvy Book Launch Thursday October 18th, 2007 @ 7–10pm at Emily Carr Institute Theatre, Granville Island, Vancouver. Ever wonder how some of the world’s top brand identity firms go [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, October 5th, 2007
Categories: Associations, Design, Events, Vancouver | No Comments »
While in London for their design festival I visited an interesting interactive installation at the Beyond the Valley showroom. The installation was put on by SHOWstudios, who’s Head of Interactive Ross Phillips I met at the iDesign co [...]
Posted by: Haig Armen on Thursday, October 4th, 2007
Categories: Design, Photography | No Comments »
GDC’s Graphex 2008 National Design Awards were recently announced with a deadline for entries of November 23rd, 2007. Designed and developed by Industrial Brand Creative, the website features an animated Flash interface with dynamic c [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, September 27th, 2007
Categories: Associations, Design, Industrial Brand, News, Websites | No Comments »
What I love most about Photoshop on the iPhone is the functionality. Adobe has really thought of everything. Designers, prepare to throw your laptops and towers away. The iPhone is really all you need.
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Monday, September 17th, 2007
Categories: Design, Pop Culture, Technology | No Comments »
I have to say it’s great to be in London. This city is hopping! It’s a interesting contrast to the laid-back Vancouver vibe I’m trying to get accustomed to. Maybe it’s the jetlag talking, I’m sure it will wear [...]
Posted by: Haig Armen on Sunday, September 16th, 2007
Categories: Design, Events | No Comments »
Egg Strategy‘s new blog, called The Dozen, is an eclectic take on innovation, branding, media, strategy and research. Designed and developed by the web team at Industrial Brand, this blog is already becoming a “go to” re [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007
Categories: Design, Industrial Brand, Websites | No Comments »
Trinity Western University (TWU) launched their contemporary new Spartans Athletics logo today, designed by the team at Industrial Brand. The new logo, meant to symbolize modern day warriors, has been well received by faculty, students, alu [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007
Categories: Design, Industrial Brand, News | 4 Comments »
Serifs, sans serifs, baselines, kerning, leading, rhythm, contrast, readability, hierarchy. These are all concepts that trained graphic designers who specialize in print are well aware of, but seldom applied to the web. Why is that? For a s [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Sunday, September 2nd, 2007
Categories: Design, Typography, Websites | No Comments »
Not sure how I came to find this site really (I think I was googling something entirely unrelated and it caught my eye). Anyway, Retro Thing is a terrific site dedicated to vintage gadgets, gizmos and books. Perusing though the entries is l [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Friday, August 31st, 2007
Categories: Design, Technology | No Comments »
“If design is a continent and its disciplines tectonic plates, we live in seismic times;” So begins Kevin McCullagh’s article on Core77 titled Riding The Flux: Design is changing in myriad ways. Are you? It’s not eve [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, August 28th, 2007
Categories: Design | No Comments »
You will never need to tear your hair out wondering if you left the iron on ever again. Jack Godfrey Wood’s Whole House-Off Switch is a single button that can turn off of the unnecessary power in the house –lights, tv, etc.̵ [...]
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Friday, August 17th, 2007
Categories: Design | 1 Comment »
These silkscreened posters by Jason Munn, the man behind ‘The Small Stakes’, make me want to rack up a really big visa bill…
Posted by: Sarah Reid on Thursday, August 16th, 2007
Categories: Art, Design, Music, Pop Culture | No Comments »
We are happy to announce the launch of MEJA.ca, a site that we’ve developed for Marceau Evans Johnson Architects. The site is built on a WordPress content management framework that allows the company to update their online portfolio o [...]
Posted by: Haig Armen on Wednesday, August 15th, 2007
Categories: Architecture, Branding, Design, Industrial Brand, Vancouver, Websites | 2 Comments »
Check out this Gangsta rap-style video about graphic design by Kyle T. Webster. (
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, August 13th, 2007
Categories: Design, Fun | No Comments »
Not sure how or why, but for a little while I’ve been fascinated with the apparent lack of modern design in funerary monuments and other things like urns, crypts and even coffins. I’m not talking about some crazy high-tech video [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Thursday, August 9th, 2007
Categories: Architecture, Design | 3 Comments »
Rumor has it that there will be announcement by GDC of a second screening of Gary Hustwit’s documentary Helvetica in Vancouver on August 7th, but for those who can’t make it you can always watch this celebration of Cooper Black [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, July 25th, 2007
Categories: Design, Typography | No Comments »
A cool little demonstration of information design in action: a behind-the-genius peek at Michel Gondry mapping out the video for the Chemical Brothers’ Star Guitar
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Tuesday, July 24th, 2007
Categories: Design, Music, We love | No Comments »
We’re very proud of our partnership with the Fraser Valley Regional Library (FVRL) and their brand new identity system we launched for them recently. One of the oldest and largest library networks in Canada, FVRL came to Industrial Br [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, July 20th, 2007
Categories: Branding, Design, Industrial Brand, News | No Comments »
From Visual Complexity: “Using information design principles and graphical techniques, the 85+ recorded covers of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” is mapped in relation to the original recordings by the band. [...]
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Sunday, July 15th, 2007
Categories: Design, Music | No Comments »
Lately there’s been a lot of talk about Edward Tufte. Who is he? Is he the only designer with a roadie. If you have yet to read any of his books you will find depth and clarity in his explanations of information design that simplifies [...]
Posted by: Haig Armen on Thursday, July 12th, 2007
Categories: Design | No Comments »
To correspond with the 50th anniversary of that oh-so-serious font Helvetica, the Vancouver chapter of the GDC is hosting the Vancouver premier screening of the film by the same name, Helvetica The Film. But wait, there’s more! For th [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Wednesday, July 11th, 2007
Categories: Design, Events | No Comments »
Feeling a little lazy these days, and fat. As a result my thoughts have been to sitting around, and what better way to do it than in something called the Fatboy. Fatboy is a modern take on the old school bean bag. Feeling extra stylish, go [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Friday, June 29th, 2007
Categories: Design | 1 Comment »
This is good stuff for a Friday, and just in time for the weekend theatre bingers: The Hollywood Reporter announced the nominees for The 36th Annual Key Art Awards. In their words: This year there are 34 award categories, covering film post [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Friday, June 22nd, 2007
Categories: Art, Design, Film | No Comments »
A recent article in New York Magazine about Edward Tufte begins “Edward Tufte is most likely the world’s only graphic designer with roadies.” But Tufte is certainly much more than a graphic designer, which is sort of the point [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Saturday, June 16th, 2007
Categories: Design, Inspiration, Learning, We love | No Comments »
Surrealalien.de has come up with an interesting idea: wallpaper that warps around your doors and wall hangings. The concept: “Our product dissolves limits between architecture, wallpaper and hangings, with the wallpaper functioning as [...]
Posted by: Leigh Peterson on Friday, June 15th, 2007
Categories: Architecture, Design | No Comments »
I prefer to prepare for travel by reading fiction set in or about the places I intend to go, but aside from travel reference material, have never used texts of the non-fiction variety. Having just returned from my trip to France, I just got [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Friday, June 15th, 2007
Categories: Architecture, Design, Travel | No Comments »
.. of Mark Coleran.
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Thursday, June 14th, 2007
Categories: Design, Film | No Comments »
Congratulations to Vancouver-based Ion Design for their recent work with sustainability initiatives. Their One Good Idea contest challenged companies and individuals to come up with a good idea that reminds people that even small steps can [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Sunday, June 10th, 2007
Categories: Design, News, Sustainability, Vancouver | No Comments »
Our former design apprentice Steph Tekano, who now works with the talented group at Suburbia Studios in Victoria, recently designed packaging for a brand of flour-free bread called Healthy Way Bread for Dempster’s. Nice one Steph!
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, June 8th, 2007
Categories: Branding, Design, Packaging | 2 Comments »
That was the mantra of Airstream founder Wally Byam, but in 2000 architect-designer Chris Deam gutted a vintage trailer to create a booth for the International Contemporary Furniture Fair. Turns out DWR, purveyor of iconic furniture, liked [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Wednesday, June 6th, 2007
Categories: Design, Travel | No Comments »
Mark’s post on the London 2012 logo reminded me about Vancouver’s new limited edition 2010 Olympics license plate, which sucks. Enough’s been said here and elsewhere about the logo itself, but this license plate is more ev [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Tuesday, June 5th, 2007
Categories: Branding, Design, Vancouver | 1 Comment »
I’ll gladly admit that I’m no coder, but Coda is a cool application. Text editor + Transmit + CSS editor + Terminal + Books + More all in one window.
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, June 5th, 2007
Categories: Design, Technology, Tips, We love, Websites | 1 Comment »
Hey, I know, let’s have a contest where we offer next to nothing to designers and see who we can convince to submit spec ideas for our (small) company which we can then sift through and critique endlessly as we hunt for that elusive & [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Thursday, May 31st, 2007
Categories: Design | 2 Comments »
The GDC BC Chapter is hard at work with the final preparations for the 2007 edition of the Salazar Student Design Awards. Rumour has it that the entry deadline has been extended to June 6th, 2007, so if you’re a design student or rece [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
Categories: Associations, Design, Events, Vancouver | No Comments »
A hearty congratulations to IBC Senior Designer Kevin Broome for being granted professional designer designation by The Society of Graphic Designers of Canada [GDC]. A finer or more deserving MGDC you’ll likely never meet.
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, May 11th, 2007
Categories: Associations, Design, Industrial Brand, News | 4 Comments »
Our talented friends at VFS have teamed up with Adobe and Intel to create a terrific new website for the Real Idea Studio, an online community that extends the reach of Adobe’s Student Filmmaker program at Cannes. The site, based on the V [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, May 10th, 2007
Categories: Design, Film, News, Websites | No Comments »
Having been involved in the Digital Design and Digital Design Programs at VFS for a number of years now, it’s a source of pride when our design students really “get it”. Check out this impressive motion graphics project do [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, May 4th, 2007
Categories: Design, Education, Film, Typography, Vancouver | 1 Comment »
Here’s an interesting site called Design Directory with the claim it was “made by designers for designers” which looks interesting as a resource centre. It’s primarily a link farm, but it’s got all the expected [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007
Categories: Design, Tips, Websites | No Comments »
A little recognition goes a long way. A while ago we designed the Heavy Petal blog for our friend Andrea. We like to use her as an example of someone dedicated to regularly posting to her blog and for maintaining a consistent editorial styl [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Monday, April 30th, 2007
Categories: Design, Websites | 1 Comment »
The world is filled with knock offs and copies, often called “homages” to a genre, style or designer, but let’s face it: they’re rip offs. But is that so bad? Does it render them irrelevant? Not really. In fact, when [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, April 11th, 2007
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Here’s something that I bet you didn’t know: 240 pencils can be made from the ash of an average human body. Somewhat morbidly appropriate for a post-Easter weekend, Nadine Jarvis designs products made out of cremains.
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Tuesday, April 10th, 2007
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Stickers! Invoices! Leaflets! T-shirts! They have it all! I’m not sure these people are clear on our whole “beyond graphic” argument. Neat that they have little kids for designers and let them do their work at the beach th [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, March 30th, 2007
Categories: Design, Fun, Websites | 1 Comment »
Blu Dot, US-based maker of decent designer furniture has some cool content on their site. Specifically, they are collaborating with independent filmmakers to create weird short little films. It’s an interesting brand extension for sur [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Wednesday, March 28th, 2007
Categories: Design, Film, Fun | No Comments »
When designing for print, being millitant about typos and other errors is critical, but then in the heat of the usual panic to get things delivered on time there’s often great opportunity for clients or others to overlook glaringly ob [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Wednesday, March 21st, 2007
Categories: Advertising, Design, Marketing | No Comments »
Brilliant as always, Marian Bantjes’ Limited Edition Cover for Wallpaper Magazine.
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Monday, March 19th, 2007
Categories: Design, Illustration, Inspiration, We love | No Comments »
We do a lot of identity and branding design here at IBC, but it never fails to be a rewarding moment when the first bit of mail arrives in a client’s newly designed envelope – especially as it is usually payment for the project! [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Sunday, March 18th, 2007
Categories: Branding, Design, Industrial Brand | No Comments »
It started as a joke during the research phase of a current project, but we were just informed that our t-shirt design Puma Vs. Unicorn has passed the Threadless submission phase and is now up for voting in the public sphere. Help us make t [...]
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Thursday, March 15th, 2007
Categories: Design, Industrial Brand | No Comments »
Clement over at Crit has an interesting post about the graphic designer stereotype along with this rather humourous cartoon. If all we’re doing is copying from the Germans while sucking back caramel latt és perhaps the debate on rena [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Wednesday, March 14th, 2007
Categories: Design, Fun | No Comments »
If you’ve never had the rare privilege to hear Canadian poet, typographer and author Robert Bringhurst speak in person, here’s your chance. He’s a captivating speaker – sort of like Dr. Hunter S. Thomson mixed with a [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Saturday, February 17th, 2007
Categories: Design, Typography, We love | No Comments »
Minimalism comes in many forms, glass blowing is a medium that is often dismissed as being ornate or organic and spontaneous. That’s why the work of Anna Torfs struck me as unique. There’s an elegance and calm to her work that h [...]
Posted by: Haig Armen on Friday, February 16th, 2007
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Every once in a while you find something so cool you want to keep it a secret but I just can’t bare it any longer. I’ve been using an amazing plugin for Illustrator for the past 8 months called Scriptographer. Scriptographer all [...]
Posted by: Haig Armen on Thursday, February 8th, 2007
Categories: Design | No Comments »
There’s no telling what you’ll find if you just rummage under the hood of Apple’s OS X. If you’ve got a mac, chances are you probably haven’t yet found the Quartz Composer. Its a cool possibly geeky way of gene [...]
Posted by: Haig Armen on Wednesday, February 7th, 2007
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Helvetica is arguably the greatest font to ever fill a text box, not to mention that it is currently the only font that qualifies for a star on Hollywood Blvd. But sometimes even the best gets tired and overused and you need something to cl [...]
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Tuesday, February 6th, 2007
Categories: Design | No Comments »
“VisualComplexity.com intends to be a unified resource space for anyone interested in the visualization of complex networks. The project’s main goal is to leverage a critical understanding of different visualization methods, acr [...]
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Monday, February 5th, 2007
Categories: Design, Inspiration, Technology | No Comments »
If you ever get stuck working in your basement studio while everyone else is out enjoying the sun, or need a little mid-winter pick up, then Adam Frank’s Reveal light is for you. The light which can be mounted on a wall or placed on a [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
Categories: Design | No Comments »
So I’m walking through the Bay on the weekend and see their new campaign graphics for the Olympics. HBC is a leading supporter of Canadian athletes…with boners? How did this get approved? How did the management at The Bay not no [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007
Categories: Design | 2 Comments »
Come make your voice heard and your vote count at the GDC BC Chapter’s Annual General Meeting on February 1st as the GDC celebrates its 50th anniversary. As a special bonus, join us for refreshments at the Canadian premiere of Shared [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Saturday, January 20th, 2007
Categories: Associations, Design, Events, Vancouver | No Comments »
As we at IBC plan our next Industrial Revolution it seems others have begun their own. Here’s a supreme piece of motion graphics that describes a paradigm shift .
Posted by: Haig Armen on Saturday, January 20th, 2007
Categories: Design, Inspiration, Learning, News, Technology | No Comments »
Trends in graphic design can really suck, but they exist. Nothing seems new anymore and there’s no way to predict what will become popular. As brand identity designers, it is best to be as aware of them as possible so you don’t [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, January 19th, 2007
Categories: Branding, Design, Tips, Websites | No Comments »
This morning I Rasterbated. Try it, you’ll like it.
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Wednesday, January 17th, 2007
Categories: Art, Design, Fun, Technology | No Comments »
Here’s a professional development workshop all print designers in Vancouver shouldn’t miss: Ten Things Print Designers Need to Know hosted by GDC and Hemlock Printers. From prepress tips & tricks, to variable digital printi [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Saturday, January 13th, 2007
Categories: Associations, Design, Events, Interview, Printing, Vancouver | 3 Comments »
Yup, it’s that time of the year again – time to build an 8 foot sculpture out of canned food at Canstruction Vancouver this coming March 4-11th, 2007! Hot off taking top honours two years running we’re throwing out a chall [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Wednesday, January 10th, 2007
Categories: Canstruction, Design, Inspiration, Vancouver | No Comments »
From Pentagram’s blog: A new identity designed by Pentagram for iconic New York retailer Saks Fifth Avenue launches on January 2, 2007. After the jump, partner Michael Bierut describes the process behind the development of an identity [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Sunday, January 7th, 2007
Categories: Branding, Design, News | No Comments »
I recently came across a pretty good design blog by New York Art Director Troy Finamore with some interesting thoughts on graphic design, branding and advertising such as this nice little post called Morals and Ethics in the Design Communit [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, January 4th, 2007
Categories: Design, Reading, Websites | No Comments »
There’s nothing quite like starting off the new year with a little post-apocalyptic anarchy care of Brian Wood‘s beautifully rendered graphic series DMZ, in which the U.S. has plunged back into civil war, and Manhattan serves as [...]
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2007
Categories: Design, Illustration, Reading | 1 Comment »
We didn’t make the list, but Communication Arts’ 2006 50 Essential Bookmarks is a great resource for design and advertising fodder.
Posted by: Mark Busse on Sunday, December 31st, 2006
Categories: Advertising, Design, Learning, Tips, Websites | No Comments »
There seems to be an entire culture surrounding moleskine notebooks, to the point where there are galleries on the net displaying the contents of people’s moleskines. Behold the perfect gift for the moleskine-obsessed loved one: elect [...]
Posted by: Leigh Peterson on Thursday, December 21st, 2006
Categories: Design, Pop Culture | No Comments »
If you find yourself with some extra time over the holidays, and a hangover, you might grab a couple champagne corks, wire and foil out of the blue bin and maybe win yourself $1,500 from Design Within Reach. That’s right, all you budd [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Wednesday, December 20th, 2006
Categories: Design, Fun, Marketing | 1 Comment »
For those of you that buy print and spec paper on a regular basis, it can be a daunting tasks to determine what grades are available for your project. And waiting for the paper spec rep to show up or return your call isn’t much help. [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, December 19th, 2006
Categories: Design, Printing, Tips, Websites | No Comments »
You know when your friend does something better than you? You have such respect for them and are so proud of them, yet still have this quiet pang of jealousy. That’s how I feel about my talented friend and GDC colleague Marian Bantjes [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, December 18th, 2006
Categories: Art, Design, Inspiration, We love | No Comments »
A couple of years back there was a mass reclamation of perfectly preserved lumber that had been submerged up to 50 years ago in transport through rivers; useful, but modern design now has a way to get a little more profit from that which li [...]
Posted by: todd smith on Sunday, December 3rd, 2006
Categories: Design, Learning, Pop Culture | 1 Comment »
Stumbled on The Playground this morning which is an experimental site presented by Rick Valicenti. (of 3ST among others. Anyways the premise of this site is to “to create an alphabet of 26 characters illuminated not to start a sentenc [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Thursday, November 30th, 2006
Categories: Design, Inspiration, Typography, Websites | No Comments »
After having a busy week of blogging I was going to try to take today off but ran across John Maeda’s site – The Laws of Simplicity. It has basically the content from his new book, surprisingly called The Laws of Simplicity, in [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Friday, November 24th, 2006
Categories: Design, Inspiration, Learning, Reading, Websites | No Comments »
Adobe has released a new website dedicated to exploring colour called Kuler. (get it…. colour…. kuler… colour…. kuler…) You can use it to explore colour combinations online and of course download an app to use [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006
Categories: Design, Fun, Learning, Tips, Websites | No Comments »
Ikea has done it again. Here’s a wicked site for their closet systems. [kudos Mike for heads up]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, November 15th, 2006
Categories: Design, Inspiration, We love, Websites | No Comments »
When stock photography agencies aren’t folding into the now giant Getty collection, they are trying to gain the upper hand and wind the hearts, and dollars, of the image-buying hoards. Over the last several years Masterfile has gone f [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Friday, November 10th, 2006
Categories: Design, Marketing, Photography | No Comments »
The latest rage for iPod gadgets is the vibrator attachment (or so I’ve heard.) the OhMiBod, the iBuzz and the Audi-Oh iPod Vibrator have all come out with iPod attachments that vibrate in synch with the music you’re listening t [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Friday, November 10th, 2006
Categories: Design, Fun, Inspiration, Music, Technology | 1 Comment »
If you are planning to take over the world one meeeeleeeon dollars at a time, then you’re going to need this evil chair. Only $4500.00 CDN. Thanks to our good, yet diabolical, friend John M for this one!
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Thursday, November 9th, 2006
Categories: Design, Tips | 1 Comment »
Vancouver lithographer Metropolitan Fine Printers has a new toy – and I like it. Imagine being able to pick out bad sheets as they are printed and guarantee that your customers only ever receive the highest quality product? asks Man R [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, November 8th, 2006
Categories: Design, Printing, Technology, Vancouver | No Comments »
I admit it, I check the CSS on about 60% of the websites I visit. (huge props to the Developer Toolbar for Firefox on this one!) And while looking through piles of XHTML, CSS, Javascript and whatever else you encounter is education and usef [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Tuesday, November 7th, 2006
Categories: Design, Fun, Inspiration, Technology, Websites | 3 Comments »
I recently came across this rather interesting study on label placement in forms. By measuring saccadic activity and saccades times (eye movements) to evaluate the usability of search forms, they were able to determine ideal positioning of [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Tuesday, November 7th, 2006
Categories: Design | 2 Comments »
This year’s Design Thinkers conference kick off party featured the Canadian debut of the FIFFteen Exhibit at Resistor Gallery in Toronto’s funky College Street district. Celebrating 15 years of the FontFont type library co-found [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, November 6th, 2006
Categories: Design, Events, Typography | 1 Comment »
After a few days of reacquainting myself with flash (aka banging my head against a timeline 8 hours a day) I stumbled upon this great animation. It’s been around for a while but well worth another visit. I would love to know if any mo [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Monday, November 6th, 2006
Categories: Design, Fun, Inspiration, Technology | No Comments »
I just stumbled onto this great reference page put together by a “webmaster and web developer”. On it are links to all the resources he (or she) uses in the course of their work. It’s stuffed full of handy dandy links, too [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Friday, October 27th, 2006
Categories: Design, Tips, Websites | 1 Comment »
In 1971, Nike founder (though it was then callled Blue Ribbon Sports) Phil Knight hired a design student to create a logo that ‘suggested movement’. He wasn’t blown away by her ideas, but deadlines were approaching and he [...]
Posted by: Mike Withers on Thursday, October 26th, 2006
Categories: Design | No Comments »
With a tip of the hat to Crocodile Dundee (THIS is a knife!) and The Simpsons go to Australia (I see you’ve played knifey spoony before!), I present to you, the ultimate knife! (via Miho @ Mira)
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Wednesday, October 25th, 2006
Categories: Design, Pop Culture, Technology | 1 Comment »
It’s Monday morning and I had a bunch of cool blog postings I thought of over the weekend (stay tuned for a good game of bus chicken) and some cool ones I found this morning, but this one is HELLA-cool! (and I don’t use that wor [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Monday, October 23rd, 2006
Categories: Design, Film, Fun, Inspiration, Learning, Photography, Technology | No Comments »
Sometimes I never think to turn to places like Adobe for resources other than things related to the software of theirs we use, but I just came across their Design Center Think Tank filled with intelligent and thought provoking articles on t [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Saturday, October 21st, 2006
Categories: Design, Inspiration, Reading, Technology | 1 Comment »
A curious interview with Nike’s Tinker Hatfield where he contends that what you draw or design is really the culmination of everything you’ve ever seen or done. In his case an innovative and controversial Georges Pompidou Centre [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, October 20th, 2006
Categories: Architecture, Design, Inspiration, Interview | No Comments »
First of all, congrats to fellow Canadian Simon Lamarre on the launch of the Volvo C30. It’s not everyday you get to design a car let alone one that looks as cool as this one. It’s also not all that often that you come across th [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Tuesday, October 17th, 2006
Categories: Design | No Comments »
The potential pitfall of education about the female body in the media can sometimes fall on deaf ears because overexposure of the message. The kind folks at Ogilvy produced this ad for the Dove Real Beauty Workshop for Girls. Puts things in [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Tuesday, October 17th, 2006
Categories: Advertising, Design, Film, Marketing | No Comments »
Forget drop shadows, neon and the jitterbug, Web 2.0 is the new craze. If your website isn’t 2.0 then you’re behind the times. Wanna see if you’re up to speed? Use the Web 2.0 Validator to see if you’re the hippest c [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Thursday, October 12th, 2006
Categories: Design, Fun, Technology, Websites | 1 Comment »
In 1993, then 22-year-old Markus Freitag and his brother Daniel designed a messenger bag out of recycled truck tarps. Flash forward to 2006 and the company has built their flagship store out of 26 stacked shipping containers.
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Wednesday, October 11th, 2006
Categories: Architecture, Design | 1 Comment »
I stumbled upon these ads for Fearfest at Paramount Canada’s Wonderland. One would be hard pressed to argue that they aren’t effective, but are they in good taste?
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Tuesday, October 10th, 2006
Categories: Design, Events, Pop Culture | No Comments »
Pantone has finally released their much anticipated PANTONE PAINTS + INTERIORS system of over 3,000 paint colours. I want to paint a wall at the studio PMS 130 Orange. Cool.
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, October 9th, 2006
Categories: Design, News | No Comments »
The London Design Festival just wrapped up. With a mandate to “celebrate and promote all things design”, and from the looks of the website, must have been an amazing event. I came across this installation called Bridge by artist [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Friday, October 6th, 2006
Categories: Architecture, Art, Design, Inspiration | 1 Comment »
There’s been plenty of negative press lately surrounding the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee. It’s about time we heard some good news, isn’t it? Well, here’s some great news. VANOC has just released a pub [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Saturday, September 30th, 2006
Categories: Associations, Design, News, Vancouver | 2 Comments »
Check out the AIGA’s recently released 50 Books/50 Covers winners. Some fantastic design singled out from the 900 entries submitted this year. We’ve blogged about the AIGA Design Archives before – it’s a great resour [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Friday, September 29th, 2006
Categories: Associations, Design, Inspiration | No Comments »
I see no other end for this invention but bruises, blood, and misery, but since no-one really bought into moonshoes way back when, it was neccesary to revisit the notion of defying gravity while enhancing your cardio. Now, the only effort r [...]
Posted by: todd smith on Thursday, September 28th, 2006
Categories: Design, Fun | 1 Comment »
Recently Kevin did a great interview with with Carmen von Richthofen and John Furneaux, Executives with the Association of Registered Graphic Designers about the issue of spec work and the damage that can be wrought by such practices. Calle [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, September 27th, 2006
Categories: Design, Interview, Learning | No Comments »
If you haven’t seen them already, check out these amazing examples of communication design. Icaro Doria is the Brazilian artist behind these world flags that feature various statistics related to each colour in the country’s fla [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Wednesday, September 27th, 2006
Categories: Advertising, Art, Design, Inspiration | No Comments »
Our good friends at RGD Ontario are hosting what they’re calling “a stimulating, interactive thinkfest” and it looks like an event not to be missed. DesignThinkers 2006 features keynote speeches from industry experts such [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, September 26th, 2006
Categories: Associations, Design, Events, Inspiration, Learning | No Comments »
Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, September 22nd, 2006
Categories: Design, Film | 1 Comment »
Here’s a blast from the past. A few years ago we retired our old website, but it’s still there, hiding on our server. Today I was poking around it just for sh!ts and giggles and re-discovered a recipe for preparing squirrel take [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, September 20th, 2006
Categories: Design, Food, Industrial Brand | 1 Comment »
It seems so obvious to use glass to recreate the effect of water drops splashing. How it’s done maybe isn’t so easy, but who cares when you can buy it! These beautiful pieces comprise a collection called Soft Explosion by sculpt [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Wednesday, September 20th, 2006
Categories: Design | No Comments »
In full 2.0 fashion, 37 Signals has officially declared that “Reflections are the new drop shadow”.
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Friday, September 15th, 2006
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, September 15th, 2006
Categories: Design | 2 Comments »
Billed as a “live digital design battle”, Cut and Paste looks like an amazing good time. If you’re located in NYC, Chicago, LA or San Francisco it’d be worth checking out. If you’re also a talented digital desi [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Thursday, September 14th, 2006
Categories: Design, Events | No Comments »
So Germany did not win the World Cup. No, they were ousted by Italy in the semi-finals. But Germany does have Thomas Nagel. And he is coming to Vancouver to talk to us about design inspiration and typography on Thursday September 21 at the [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, September 13th, 2006
Categories: Associations, Design, Events, Inspiration | No Comments »
Once again Apple has released a few new toys but it’s time to turn back the clock. Remember those old Apple computers we all had in our elementary schools (well at least I did!). About the only thing they were good for was playing bri [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Tuesday, September 12th, 2006
Categories: Design, Guest, Pop Culture, Technology | No Comments »
Jacque Fresco designs the civilizations of the future; and in the process, he defines how the human race will need to change in order to get there.
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Tuesday, September 12th, 2006
Categories: Architecture, Design, Film, Technology | 1 Comment »
For the 2006 London Architecture Biennale Jason Bruges Studio created a unique wayfinding system consisting of pink weather balloons and strategically placed pavement graphics to guide visitors, draw their attention to surrounding buildings [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Wednesday, September 6th, 2006
Categories: Architecture, Design | No Comments »
Hillman Curtis does a lot of electronic design (web, movies, motion) including some wicked short movies for Rollingstone, Adobe and MTV. Of particiular interest are the shorts on Milton Glaser, Paula Scher, Stefan Sagmeister, David Carson,
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006
Categories: Design, Film, Guest, Inspiration, Websites | No Comments »
While we may all innately “want” to be good, what we do as designers is most often in the service of our clients who want to sell something. Simple really. But what if that “something” causes harm? Is our design bad [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006
Categories: Design | No Comments »
With new community sites popping up all over net for a grad project, the students of EMD12 designed and built a site to discuss and critique design work created in the program called The Langara HUB. Start to finish the project was done in [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Monday, August 21st, 2006
Categories: Design, Guest, Technology, Vancouver, Websites | No Comments »
From Robert Wurth of Freshly Squeezed Design: So, what do you do when you’re an internationally recognized, successful band with millions of dollars in CD and concert ticket sales? If you’re the Barenaked Ladies, you slap an ind [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, August 21st, 2006
Categories: Design, News, Pop Culture | 2 Comments »
kindnessandhumility.com has possibly the smoothest and simplest navigation around, and not to mention, some great work!
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Thursday, August 17th, 2006
Categories: Design, Websites | No Comments »
There is a great thread going on right now over at Yay Hooray: Redesign famous logos in web 2.0 format. UPDATE: Create your own 2.0 logo here.
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Wednesday, August 16th, 2006
Categories: Design, Fun | No Comments »
“Recognizing the importance of design is a corporation’s first step to creating great design. The second step is talking to good designers immediately.”
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Wednesday, August 16th, 2006
Categories: Design, Tips | No Comments »
I always tend to venture beyond the local borders when it comes to searching for inspiration, looking to what is big in Japan, or currently rising out of Europe. So it was a pleasant surprise to find myself spending a good chunk of my after [...]
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Friday, August 11th, 2006
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Yeah, yeah…ethos, zeitgeist and all that rot, but imagine being the graphic designer on some of these hilarious, shocking and creepy vintage ads from the past century?
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, August 9th, 2006
Categories: Advertising, Design, Fun, Pop Culture | No Comments »
Remember the infamous 1984 Mac commercial that started it all? I don’t because sadly, I wasn’t born yet, but I do love Lego. Today PodBrix releases their 1984 Playset at 9:00pm eastern time, a current day mock up of that very co [...]
Posted by: todd smith on Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006
Categories: Design, Pop Culture, We love | No Comments »
Check out the animations over at Iconfactory while they are preparing to launch their new website tomorrow. Also, definitely check back tomorrow for some new icons and a matching theme from David Lanham.
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Monday, July 31st, 2006
Categories: Design, Websites | No Comments »
It’s one thing to claim design can change the world, it’s another thing to try to do it. Here’s a powerful collection of posters from around the globe called The Graphic Imperative: International Posters for Peace, Social [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, July 26th, 2006
Categories: Design | No Comments »
The next step in typography has officially been taken, well.. not so much, but it is interesting technology nonetheless. Akishima laboratories has teamed up with Osaka University to create a device that generates text on water using waves i [...]
Posted by: todd smith on Tuesday, July 25th, 2006
Categories: Art, Design, Technology | 1 Comment »
John Stossell gives you 43 seconds on graphic design.
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Tuesday, July 25th, 2006
Categories: Design, Fun | No Comments »
Check out photos from Icograda’s Design Week in Seattle this week. July 12th Regional Meeting, July 13 Over The Fence Seminar, July 14th Lectures and Studio Tours, and July 15th Lectures. Make sure to check out the photo sets called B [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, July 21st, 2006
Categories: Associations, Design, Events, Inspiration | No Comments »
Us designers often have a fickle aesthetic when it comes to houseplants. Thus, you’ll love what Abby over at Kermodi is doing. Not only does she scour suppliers for modern containers, she also singles out the coolest looking plants fo [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Friday, July 21st, 2006
Categories: Design | No Comments »
While we were down in Seattle last week we had the rare opportunity to to see how well known Seattle design firms such as Methodologie, Girvin, Fitch, Hornall Anderson Design Works create their own inspirational design spaces and even Starb [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, July 20th, 2006
Categories: Design, Events, Inspiration | 1 Comment »
When we were planning our trip down to Seattle Design Week, the event organizers recommended hotels out near the University District close the conference. I’m not sure what they were thinking exactly. Other than the convenience factor [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, July 17th, 2006
Categories: Design, Events, Travel, We love | No Comments »
The opening introduction on the Icograda Design Week website says “Design should solve multi-cultural branding challenges, promote peace and stability, balance profits with human rights and create more sustainability.” Lofty goa [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, July 14th, 2006
Categories: Associations, Design, Events, Inspiration | No Comments »
Exciting news from Seattle Design Week as Icocgrada announced the launch of +DESIGN, a program that collects and showcases inspiring design solutions. The concept and design were created by Rob Sweetman and Jeff Harrison at ReThink with dev [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, July 13th, 2006
Categories: Associations, Design, Inspiration, News, Websites | No Comments »
My first day at Icograda’s Seattle Design Week is actually day four for international design students taking part in workshops at the University of Washington led by leading design educators and practitioners on subject matter such as [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, July 12th, 2006
Categories: Associations, Design, Events | No Comments »
Interesting concept for a billboard by McDonalds (the taint).
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Wednesday, July 12th, 2006
Categories: Design, Marketing | No Comments »
Italian designer + illustrator Tokidoki (aka Simone Legno) has teamed up with LeSportsac for a collection of spring bags in his super cute + sexy style.
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Tuesday, July 11th, 2006
Categories: Design | No Comments »
All this week is Icograda Design Week and IBC will be in Seattle covering the event as part of TAXI Design Network‘s international media coverage. Special emphasis will be on the International Conference July 14 and 15, with presentat [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, July 10th, 2006
Categories: Associations, Design, Events, Learning | No Comments »
Check out the new selection of mixtapes at Designer Mixtapes, including one by me.
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Monday, July 10th, 2006
Categories: Design, Music | 1 Comment »
Canada Post has revealed the design of a new stamp to be issued August 16th, 2006 commemorating the 50th of the GDC as well as the contributions of Canadian designers to our country’s economy, culture and national identity – 50 [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, July 5th, 2006
Categories: Associations, Design, News | No Comments »
EgoDesign.ca is the first Canadian, bilingual webzine dedicated to global design – urban, architectural, interior, industrial, fashion and art. Egodesign.ca will provide monthly content, with in-depth reports and augmented by weekly r [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, June 30th, 2006
Categories: Design, Websites | 1 Comment »
According to CNN, web design firms in India are turning to ancient philosophies of vaastu shastra and feng shui to create “balanced” and “harmonious” Web designs. I didn’t realize a website had “chi” [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, June 30th, 2006
Categories: Design, Learning, Websites | No Comments »
FontShop has a few tips for creating a web graphic in which type is the main subject. And in other typographic news: The Elements of Typographic Style applied to the web for a practical guide to web typography.
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Tuesday, June 27th, 2006
Categories: Design | 1 Comment »
Time Breakdown of Modern Web Design.
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Friday, June 23rd, 2006
Categories: Design, Technology, Websites | 1 Comment »
David Carson is rude, boring (and perhaps drunk?). Speaking at an event generously coordinated by Lumen Gallery in Vancouver after Carson cancelled the sold out event at AI, Carson made all the regular statements about being a “self-i [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, June 23rd, 2006
Categories: Design, Events | 2 Comments »
Erik Spiekermann, one of Germany’s best-known typographers and respected designers, has been openly critical of the design concept for the 2006 World Cup, from the mascot to the logo. He told DW-WORLD.DE why it hasn’t been succe [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, June 19th, 2006
Categories: Design | 1 Comment »
If you’ve ever gone to a press check you’ve probably seen stacks of paper that look like they’ve had twenty projects printed on them. Well, they have. They’re called test prints or make-ready sheets, used to set up t [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Thursday, June 8th, 2006
Categories: Art, Design | No Comments »
From our friends and super design duo The Smith Brothers: I don’t know if you’ve seen these yet, but the new sites for Ikea are amazing (well if you’re totally nuts for video like we are), it takes a combination of the cam [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, June 8th, 2006
Categories: Design, Inspiration, Pop Culture, Websites | No Comments »
Designers don’t have many advocates as enthusiastic and highly-placed as Bruce Nussbaum. An assistant managing editor at Business Week, he’s spearheaded the magazine’s coverage of design and innovation for years, and has b [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, June 7th, 2006
Categories: Design, News, Reading | 1 Comment »
We have a fondness for all things abattoir related, like these cool plates from Sprout Home. Imagine a nice arrangement of lamp chops, potatoes and some fresh peas, or maybe some bbq pork? Yes, learn from your place settings, then make a st [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Wednesday, May 31st, 2006
Categories: Design, Food, We love | No Comments »
The TypeDesign Directory is a steadily growing directory and ‘linkfarm’ of European typography and type design related sites.
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Wednesday, May 31st, 2006
Categories: Design | No Comments »
UNIQLO is a teaser site for the japanese casual fashion brand and also the newest work from Yugop.
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Tuesday, May 30th, 2006
Categories: Design, Websites | No Comments »
Beautiful Illustration and design work from Matthieu Appriou.
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Tuesday, May 30th, 2006
Categories: Art, Design | No Comments »
“Jamie Hewlett has not only created a personal mythology with the virtual band Gorillaz, he has also created designs for the direction in which technology and culture are going, the shape of things to come.” Jamie Hewlett is thi [...]
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Wednesday, May 24th, 2006
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Jim Coudal of the advertising, design, and interactive firm Coudal Partners in Chicago will be speaking at the 2006 Salazar Student Design Awards evening on June 1st. He will also present a short, but illuminating movie about what working a [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, May 19th, 2006
Categories: Associations, Design, Events, Inspiration | No Comments »
“The Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity has designated Montréal as “UNESCO City of Design” as part of the Creative Cities Network,” announced today Gérald Tremblay, Mayor of Montréal, and Ben [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, May 18th, 2006
Categories: Design, News | 2 Comments »
Has anyone else noticed the sudden use of speech bubbles in identities and advertisments everywhere? McDonald’s is doing it, Canada.com is doing it, even Mercedes is using them in recent TV spots. It’s a bizarre design trend I j [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, May 17th, 2006
Categories: Design | 4 Comments »
Several years ago I was handed the first take-out cup of coffee with advertising on the insulater sleeve. While some people might be put off by the increasing intrusiveness of advertising, but on a disposable item like this, why not? This c [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Tuesday, May 16th, 2006
Categories: Advertising, Design | No Comments »
Some good ol unapologetic pull-no-punches hardcore motion graphics for a Monday afternoon.
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Monday, May 15th, 2006
Categories: Design, Marketing | No Comments »
I’m repeating myself a little with this post, but I thought it worth another moment of consideration. One issue at the recent GDC AGM in Edmonton that kind of got my knickers in a knot was a presentation by the legendary Walter Jungki [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, May 12th, 2006
Categories: Associations, Design | 2 Comments »
May 4-7th was the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada‘s Annual General Meeting, graciously hosted by the Alberta North Chapter in Edmonton, Alberta. As the President-Elect of the BC Chapter, I was proud to serve as one of the deleg [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, May 12th, 2006
Categories: Associations, Design, Events | No Comments »
Today a little direct mail piece arrived from Nebs. You know, the company that prints all the cheques and other business forms. On the cover is the word “I.D.ENTITY Logo design…the key to your identity”. Curious, I opened [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Thursday, May 11th, 2006
Categories: Branding, Design, Marketing | No Comments »
Recently launched by Michael Erdmann and Todd Falkowsky of the Toronto-based design collective Motherbrand, Canadian Design Resource is a growing online treasure trove of Canadian design products and solutions from old logos to plastic cont [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Saturday, May 6th, 2006
Categories: Design, Fun, Inspiration, Websites | No Comments »
2006 Flashbelt.com is live. Registration is open. 22+ speakers, 22+ sessions, 1 full day video workshop, 3 days (and nights), all things Flash. June 14, 15 & 16 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Spread the word: Tell your co-workers, friends [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, April 25th, 2006
Categories: Design, Events, Technology | No Comments »
I love discovering communication design that crosses cultural boundaries with multiple layers of meaning. Recently I was walking through Chinatown and noticed the marketing materials for a new condo development called East. The Chinese char [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, April 21st, 2006
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Renourish is a resource for the graphic design industry. Specifically, renourish offers definitions, tips, links, information and inspiration to aid in the development of a sustainable and more environmentally conscious graphic design craft [...]
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Friday, April 21st, 2006
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Though originally published in STEP Inside Design Magazine in September 2005, Jupiter Images has republished this interesting article on designers who blog titled, “Designing Inside the Blog: Oz Speaks!”. Definitely worth a read [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Wednesday, April 5th, 2006
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Our buddy Eric over at IdeasOnIdeas.com has put into words what I’ve been trying to communicate to students for years. Effective design of any sort is borne of “messing about”, sketching and thoughtful writing. Being able [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, March 30th, 2006
Categories: Design, Reading, Tips | No Comments »
dear, home decor + gifts on South Granville brings you a unique selection of high quality, funky and often quirky home decor items and gifts. When I need a gift, I know there is plenty of expressive and offbeat stuff to inspire me, and the [...]
Posted by: rae paziuk on Thursday, March 30th, 2006
Categories: Art, Design, Fun, Inspiration, Vancouver, We love | 1 Comment »
Jason Gaylor is a very kind graphic designer. He makes beautiful Photoshop brushes, and gives them away for free! Why? Jason says: “he does not mind people using them as it’s a contribution to the community and spreads his work. [...]
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Wednesday, March 29th, 2006
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Lead, wood, and laser: 30 years of the book design & typography of Glenn Goluska. The Vancouver Museum and The Alcuin Society are presenting a free event featuring book designer, typographer and sometime letterpress printer Glenn Golus [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, March 28th, 2006
Categories: Design, Events | No Comments »
If you’re a designer it’s unlikely your aesthetic sensibilities cease when you go home. Apartment Therapy, whose tag line is “Changing the world, one apartment at a time.”, is currently running their 2nd Annual Small [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Tuesday, March 28th, 2006
Categories: Architecture, Design, Inspiration | No Comments »
Font for fences developed by Autobahn. [via wooster]
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Monday, March 27th, 2006
Categories: Art, Design | No Comments »
Remember when all logos had to be swooshes? Those days are behind us (thankfully) but there are still many trends in logo design. Shapes for instances. A very popular shape design for some time now has been the round cornered square or squr [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, March 23rd, 2006
Categories: Design | 2 Comments »
I love looking a symbolic language and considering the various connotative interpretations that could be applied, but I must admit this one caught me by surprise. Heat waves do look like bacon! Now if they made those handryers smell like ba [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006
Categories: Design, Fun | No Comments »
Congratulations on your recent acquisition of a Graphic Designer! To maximize your experience with your new designer, there are several guidelines that you should keep in mind when communicating with your new Graphic Designer…
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, March 21st, 2006
Categories: Design, Fun | 1 Comment »
Easily one of the most informative and unique presentations at this year’s Flashforward 2006 in Seattle was given by designer and digital artist Jeremy Thorp of Blprnt Design. A former geneticist and rock star, Thorp will be presentin [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, March 20th, 2006
Categories: Art, Design, Events, Inspiration, Technology | No Comments »
Craigslist redesigned by The Design Fab Five Seven for SXSW 2006.
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Thursday, March 16th, 2006
Categories: Design | No Comments »
This just in: less is more.
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Thursday, March 16th, 2006
Categories: Design, Fun, Learning, Marketing, Tips | 2 Comments »
There’s a new design magazine in Canada called Design Edge that just launched in February with up-to-the-minute news, a national job board, events calendar, contests, links and resources. Its companion e-mail bulletin is published eve [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, March 15th, 2006
Categories: Design, Learning, Reading | No Comments »
Don’t forget to RSVP before March 15th for the Graphex Gala dinner and awards ceremony. This special event honoring the best in visual communication across Canada will be held March 24th at the glamorous Vancouver Club. More details f [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, March 14th, 2006
Categories: Associations, Design, Events, Vancouver | No Comments »
My fashionista friend and design columnist JJ Lee convinced me to have a new black suit custom made by Modernize Tailors. It’s the first tailor-made suit I’ve ever purchased and as I experience the myriad of choices such as fabr [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, March 14th, 2006
Categories: Branding, Design | 4 Comments »
We have always been very clear with potential clients, and very vocal on this blog about the issue of spec work. Other local design blogs such as ideasonideas and the GDC blog have also taken up the torch recently exposing the process for w [...]
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Tuesday, March 14th, 2006
Categories: Associations, Design | No Comments »
You know that you are a true design geek when you are listening to Doyald Young recount the moment in 50′s Paris when Adrian Frutiger showed him the early drafts of a font called Univers, and you have goosebumps on your arm.
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Friday, March 10th, 2006
Categories: Design, Inspiration, Learning | 2 Comments »
We’re big fans of designer Charles S. Anderson and have been on the receiving end of many a French Paper promo featuring his work. Hell, a couple years ago I even made a special trip down to Bellingham to see the Halloween decor he di [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Wednesday, March 8th, 2006
Categories: Design, Pop Culture, We love | No Comments »
DesignEducation.ca is a compendium of the best design resources available on the Web based on founder Gustavo Machado’s teaching philosophy: to share everything that he knows with the community. The site contains more resources than I [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, March 7th, 2006
Categories: Design, Tips, Websites | No Comments »
Nearly everybody has used or at least heard of the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia.org, but now there’s a design-focused Wiki encyclopedia called The Design Encyclopedia. Brought to you by Armin Vit and friends at Underconsideratio [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, March 6th, 2006
Categories: Design, Websites | No Comments »
Interested in studying for a graphic design degree at a university design in Canada, USA or UK? Here’s a pretty comprehensive list of schools offering 3 and 4 year undergraduate programs.
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, March 3rd, 2006
Categories: Design, Learning | No Comments »
Flashforward 2006 is underway with capacity crowds filling the Convention Center in Seattle, Washington. Primary sponsor Lynda.com‘s Lynda Weinman opened the proceedings with a warm welcome, proclaiming “The Web is back” w [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, February 28th, 2006
Categories: Design, Events, Inspiration, Technology | No Comments »
CANCELLED BY CARSON The Art Institute of Vancouver is pleased to present a special public seminar with international design icon and typographer David Carson on Thursday, March 2 at 6:30 p.m at the school’s campus in Burnaby, BC. UPDA [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, February 23rd, 2006
Categories: Design, Events, Inspiration, We love | No Comments »
Tonight (February 23, 2006) is the GDC BC Chapter‘s “Town Hall” style annual general meeting held from 6:30pm – 10:00pm at Vancouver Film School’s Web Cafe on the corner of Hastings and Homer. All GDC members a [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, February 23rd, 2006
Categories: Associations, Design, Events, Vancouver | 1 Comment »
If the Design Exchange in Toronto really is about “Promoting the value of Canadian Design” as it claims, then one has to wonder what the hell they’re doing. In collaboration with the Department of Canadian Heritage, they h [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, February 17th, 2006
Categories: Design, News | 2 Comments »
If you’re a design student graduating in 2006, find out if the judges love you at the Salazar 2006 Design Competition. Call for entries and cool posters by Capilano College design students Christopher Freeman and Aldea Wood will be re [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, February 16th, 2006
Categories: Associations, Design, Events | No Comments »
Solar Initiatives from the Netherlands has created the first full motion postage stamp in commemoration of the Olympics using lenticular technology. This goes way beyond those Cracker Jack prizes that we used to get as kids. Amazing.
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Thursday, February 16th, 2006
Categories: Design, Learning, News, Pop Culture, Technology | No Comments »
IBC are proud members and supporters of the BC Chapter of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC) and are thrilled to announce the launch of the BC Chapter’s Blog. The blog, developed by IBC, was designed to open a more tangi [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, February 15th, 2006
Categories: Associations, Design, Industrial Brand, Inspiration, News, Tips, We love, Websites | No Comments »
Stumbled upon this manifesto by architect Michael McDonough while researching illustrators for a design project. From Number 7: The power to create things and impose them on the world is a privilege. Do not abuse it, do not underestimate it [...]
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Wednesday, February 15th, 2006
Categories: Architecture, Design, Inspiration | No Comments »
Tattoos are so common place now, it almost seems cliché to get one. However, if you love body art, they are a great way to express yourself – until you decide you no longer like the image of a naked goddess riding a dragon down [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, February 14th, 2006
Categories: Design, Fun | No Comments »
Developed by Jeff Han and his friends at New York University’s Department of Computer Sciences , Multi-Touch Interaction Research, this is prehaps the coolest touch screen monitor ever. I wonder if they’re Mac-compatible? :-) Vi [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, February 13th, 2006
Categories: Design, Technology, We love | No Comments »
I have been on a sort-of cupcake bender lately, trying to create the perfect cupcake recipe to add to our kitchen blog. Along my search I came across Johnny Cupcakes, one of the coolest brands I have never heard of. The mysterious Johnny Cu [...]
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Monday, February 13th, 2006
Categories: Design, We love | No Comments »
A revival of espadrilles with a little help from twelve of the greatest international graphic artists. The String Republic
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Monday, February 13th, 2006
Categories: Art, Design, We love | 1 Comment »
Sneaky unbranded newspaper advertising disquised as advertorials are becoming more common. This one for McDonald’s was in my local newspaper today carefully formatted to match the page grid, but with Lorem Ipsum for the copy! With gib [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, February 6th, 2006
Categories: Advertising, Design, Marketing | No Comments »
We’ve created some pretty daring Direct Mail campaigns for clients in the past, using tricks like unusual envelopes and printing techniques to get the audience to actually open and read the darn things. This is a big challenge with DM [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, February 6th, 2006
Categories: Advertising, Design, Marketing | No Comments »
I think friendly monsters would be a great addition to Los Angeles’ population. Who knows, maybe they could be the new tiny-dog + celebrity phenomenon. Inspired by Jeff Soto’s work, who wouldn’t want to be friends with hap [...]
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Wednesday, February 1st, 2006
Categories: Design, Film | No Comments »
I’m sorry. In the interest of not seeming petty I’ve avoided mentioning this, but I can keep quiet no longer. I HATE the new Canada.com identity. It’s the worst example of a re-brand I’ve seen in ages. The new candy- [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, February 1st, 2006
Categories: Branding, Design, Websites | 1 Comment »
Created by Unirrelevant, here’s a great fan made video celebrating 30 years of Apple, showing their progression through the ages. [Kudos to Piers at PSFK for the link]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, January 30th, 2006
Categories: Design, Inspiration, Pop Culture, We love | No Comments »
Israeli typographer and artist Obed Ezer thinks the English language is boring; that there is a freshness in other languages that we need to keep alive in our shared culture. One look at the way in which Ezer manipulates the Hebrew text, an [...]
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Wednesday, January 25th, 2006
Categories: Art, Design, Inspiration, Interview | No Comments »
Regular readers will no doubt recognize the name Mike Goedecke as the Founder and Creative Director of Belief from the past references in these pages. While in Vancouver this week to speak to a sold out crowd at an ACM SIGGRAPH event, Goede [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, January 20th, 2006
Categories: Design, Inspiration, Interview, We love, Websites | 1 Comment »
A collaboration between Urbanmedium and DJ Spider, The Heavy Ammunition Project” is a limited edition mix of urban sights and sounds from the streets of LA. Love the Che Troopers. Eye Candy Galore!
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Tuesday, January 17th, 2006
Categories: Art, Design, Music, Pop Culture | 1 Comment »
While recently visiting my buddy Piers at his office in New York, he ran off excitedly returning with a few small soft-cover books called The Royal Magazine. Holy man is this ever up my power alley. Their website claims the publication is a [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, January 16th, 2006
Categories: Design, Inspiration, Pop Culture, Reading, We love | No Comments »
Our friend and fellow designer Chris Gee at ThePreparedMind.com recently found himself sucked in hook, line and sinker by the new Nike iD system of do-it-yourself customization kiosks in his local Nike Town store. He was so excited and move [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Saturday, January 14th, 2006
Categories: Design, Marketing, Websites | No Comments »
We refer to the term Communication Design often in our business, but what about design as communication? Well, Shot Code seems to have created a very cool way of making it easy for people with camera phones to access (marketing) information [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Wednesday, January 11th, 2006
Categories: Advertising, Design, Marketing, Technology | No Comments »
Vancouver ACM SIGGRAPH is proud to announce its first presentation on motion graphics with Mike Goedecke, writer and director of the short film UNTITLED:003-EMBRYO which will makes it’s Canadian debut at the January 18th event. Follow [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, January 11th, 2006
Categories: Design, Events, Film, Inspiration, We love | No Comments »
In this season of Top Ten Lists, Typographica has released the first of two installments of their “Favorite Fonts of 2005″. What, no Comic Sans?
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Friday, January 6th, 2006
Categories: Design | 2 Comments »
I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid I played with Lego and PRETENDED my creations were robots. I’d make “whirrr, buzzz, clang, beep” noises and march them around until Craig Brock’s bigger Lego-bot wou [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, January 5th, 2006
Categories: Design, News, Technology | No Comments »
What if our favourite uncle were perhaps the most famous graphic designer alive today, having given the world such cultural iconography as the famous Dylan poster and wildly popular I Love New York logo and dozens more? What advice would he [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006
Categories: Design, Inspiration, Learning, Pop Culture | No Comments »
Count down from 60 as you watch the QuickTime movie (11 MB) that Clive Piercy of PhD presented at the opening night of the AIGA Voice Conference in 2002.
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, January 2nd, 2006
Categories: Design, Pop Culture | No Comments »
We are a design team as well as proud bloggers. As such, we’ve discovered many great blogs that cover issues affecting the design, advertising, marketing, PR, photography and illustration communities. After analyzing numerous blogs, w [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Saturday, December 31st, 2005
Categories: Design, Websites | 9 Comments »
We’ve been big fans of what Coudal Partners and Veer have been doing for a long time, so when the two teamed up this summer to make a short feature in their spare time around the studio…wait a second, they have spare time? Who h [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, December 29th, 2005
Categories: Design, Film, Inspiration, We love | No Comments »
If you’ve seen our entries from past Canstruction Vancouver events, you might have wondered how we did it or maybe even how to get involved. If you’re the competitive type, you were probably thinking how you might unseat us from [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Monday, December 19th, 2005
Categories: Canstruction, Design, Food, Inspiration | No Comments »
A popular magazine within art and design circles, Applied Arts’ latest issue includes a tongue-in-cheek article by designer Doug Dolan, VP of Viva Dolan in Toronto. Entitled Lost in Translation: What clients say and what they actually [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Sunday, December 18th, 2005
Categories: Design, Reading | No Comments »
One of our regular reads has long been the quarterly print magazine Graphic Exchange which covers a wide range of topics relating to design and digital media publication. Unlike conventional publications in it’s category, Graphic Exch [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, December 13th, 2005
Categories: Design, Reading, Technology | No Comments »
While so much time and energy in a design education is spent on developing “graphic” skills, it is the ability to think BEYOND mere aesthetics that makes a designer successful. It’s unfortunate that clients often don’ [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, December 13th, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
As foodies we lament the crappy dinner roll. It really ruins the dining experience. Same thing applies to design, marketing and just about anything – why bother being in business if you can’t be proud of your product/service? Se [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Thursday, December 8th, 2005
Categories: Design, Marketing | No Comments »
At last night’s GDC Colours of Cuba event I won a copy of The Designer’s Lexicon. On the random page I flipped it open to I found this: cockroach A colloquial term for display text set entirely in lower case type. I’ll be [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Thursday, December 8th, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
This weekend while doing some image research I came across this 1968 Westinghouse ad. It bears a striking resemblance to the brain navigation in the original Industrial Brand website we launched in 2001. The site and the navigation design w [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Monday, December 5th, 2005
Categories: Design, Industrial Brand, Websites | 1 Comment »
Camoflauge. A magazine about design, not camoflauge. The current issue, sponsored by Vans, will tour and also be featured at the Vans exhibition in Portugal along side the 10 camoflauge hand-painted white slip-on Vans. Download the book her [...]
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Friday, December 2nd, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
What happens when you mix a cute gift shop with a raging typography fetish? The Regional Assembly of Text on Main Street in Vancouver, BC. Nearly everything in the store is hand made by the two artist-owners Brandy Fedoruk and Rebecca Dolen [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, November 28th, 2005
Categories: Art, Design, We love | 1 Comment »
Check out I am mint condition for a great source of visual inspiration.
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Friday, November 25th, 2005
Categories: Art, Design, We love | 1 Comment »
Recently we became aware of the startling similarity between our blog and that of another local company’s. How’d we find out? Well, they called on us to talk about a business relationship. Hell of an introduction! When confronte [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Friday, November 25th, 2005
Categories: Branding, Design, Technology, Websites | 1 Comment »
I doubt architect and designer Verner Panton subscribed to a Less is More philosophy. Instead the Danish artist made a substantial contribution to the More is More ideological movement, with his fantastical interpretations of interiors, fur [...]
Posted by: Jer Thorp on Thursday, November 24th, 2005
Categories: Architecture, Art, Design | 1 Comment »
I just found my new favourite online radio show. Design Matters with Debbie Millman of Sterling Brands is an opinionated and provocative Internet talk radio show airing on the Voice America Radio Network. The show combines lively discussion [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, November 22nd, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Those little moleskin notebooks are cool. You get one and use it for sketches and phone numbers and all that sort of stuff. Humus is an online collaboration produced by two Italian designers, Luca and Mirko of Zerouno Design based on the id [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Friday, November 18th, 2005
Categories: Design, Inspiration | 1 Comment »
The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games has revealed its mascots. Named the Five Friendlies, the mascots include a panda, a chiru (Tibetan antelope), a swallow, a fish and the Olympic flame. Each corresponds to a natural element: earth, sky, sea, fo [...]
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Friday, November 18th, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
If you’ve heard of IDEO, the famous industrial design company, you might also have wondered just how they create one brilliant innovation after another. Wonder no more! IDEO has created a set of 51 “Method Cards” that show [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Thursday, November 17th, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Five of the world’s most respected authorities on communication design will be in Vancouver, BC for the launch of Graphex 2006 National Design Competition. Hosted by the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC), Graphex is a bienn [...]
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Wednesday, November 16th, 2005
Categories: Associations, Design, Events | No Comments »
Don’t ya hate it when you receive a great looking invite to a cool event and think “Wow! Now that’s a terrific homage to a great design master.” Only to realize it is actually an exact knock-off of Piet Zwart‘s [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, November 3rd, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
As a recovering member of the ‘first apartment, must furnish with Ikea’ club, i am biased towards the following blog entry. What if the wildest ideas became the wisest solutions. The challenge Ikea set forth: to test new materia [...]
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Friday, October 7th, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Jakob Nielsen brings us the Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005. They are all pretty obvious, but if you are a designer, you should read this.
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Tuesday, October 4th, 2005
Categories: Design, Websites | No Comments »
This is the man responsible for all most of the cool products we have been obsessing over for years.
Posted by: Brandon Tennant on Friday, September 23rd, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
It's great to consider design coleagues' perspectives about design and life. Sarah Doody is a interactive designer and partner at MessiahMadonna who has put some thought into how [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, September 12th, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Designed by Ross Zietz for Threadless. Every T-shirt bought, Threadless will donate $20 to Hurricane Katrina Relief. $27,120 $48,700 raised so far. Keep it coming.
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Thursday, September 8th, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Cool Hunting is posting a series of 6 Questions with all the upcoming speakers at Semi-Permanent NYC. So far they’ve posted: Skinny Corp., Greg Foley [Visionaire], Charlie White and Joshua Davis.
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Friday, September 2nd, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Most of us that provide graphic design and production to our clients can relate to AdLand's Unspoken Rules of Graphic Design, but the one that really stands out to us is R [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, August 25th, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
The FRONTIERSPACE international design competition put on by SPACEAGENCY invited architects, artists, designers and design students to submit innovative [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Saturday, August 20th, 2005
Categories: Design | 1 Comment »
We all want to grow our businesses and do great work, right? So what happens when your gut tells you to decline work? What guidelines do we have to reference as the potential client dangles the almighty dollar bill in front of us? The GDC, [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, August 8th, 2005
Categories: Design, Industrial Brand, Learning | No Comments »
Relatively speaking, I don’t think we get a massive number of people knocking on our door looking for work, but we do get more than our fair share. It’s not long enough that I don’t remember being fresh out of university a [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Tuesday, August 2nd, 2005
Categories: Design | 1 Comment »
On Wednesday of this week I spoke on branding and blogging at the Future of Publishing Conference alongside Arieanna Foley, Kris Krug, Eric Karjaluoto and Janet Johnson. The panel was moderated by Robert Ouiment of At Large Media. Regardles [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Friday, July 29th, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
“Hey! The colour looks different!” Heard that complaint before? It’s utterly heartbreaking when a client receives the final printed brochure, poster or annual report only to tell you they don’t like the colour. It [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, July 28th, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
As practitioners of communication design, perhaps it is too seldom we consider the consequences of our work. The ever present client pays us for our skill at harnessing visual language to communicate a message and ultimately cause effect, s [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Tuesday, July 12th, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Fred Perry has released the first of their Blank Canvas series, collaborating with young fashion designers Paul and Vinti Andrews. They have created some beautiful graphics for the original slim-fit Fred Perry pique shirt.
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Monday, July 4th, 2005
Categories: Art, Design | 1 Comment »
Every day we see design that makes us puke a little bit in our mouths. Now you can do something about it. Join the battle against bad design.
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Monday, June 20th, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Every year Hyper Island pumps out a new talented crew. To finalize their 90 week program the students have, in their quest for internship, launched their own official website to show the world what they have to offer. Each crew’s webs [...]
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Wednesday, June 8th, 2005
Categories: Design, Websites | No Comments »
The broadcast design and live action studio that brought us the inspirational video Pollinate: Chain Reaction has done it again. This time they’ve launched a new experimental project called Homework with 11 projects designed to spark [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Wednesday, April 6th, 2005
Categories: Design, Inspiration | 1 Comment »
Why is it some type faces get lost at certain sizes? Why are some fonts easier to read at night? Introducing ClearviewHwy, the only type system to receive approval by the US Federal Highway Administration for use in road guide signs. With t [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, March 24th, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Why do letterforms only have to be for making words? Why not make art using type?
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, March 3rd, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Pleix is a virtual community of digital artists based in Paris. The Beauty Kit is cost-effective and brillant idea! Boobs anyone? Beauty Kit
Posted by: Charlie on Thursday, March 3rd, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
I have always been a fan of the VW microbus, so naturally I love the idea of a new model. Check out Verdier’s concept for the new VW Van, and watch the video. It is a bit more hi-tech then it was in the 70′s. [via Wellvetted]
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Tuesday, March 1st, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Design is cool. Cool kitchen gadgets and accessories are really cool! This knife block gives new meaning to the term psycho in the kitchen. I want one. (via Gizmodo)
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Thursday, February 24th, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
The AIGA Design Archives are a record of annual juried selections of design excellence and the work of designers honored by the AIGA. Oh.. and also a good way to spend a few hours on the internet. My favorite so far is the Alice in Wonderla [...]
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Wednesday, January 26th, 2005
Categories: Design | 1 Comment »
Since our business philosophy is to cultivate long term relationships with our clients, these 10 Golden Rules for Getting Great Work From a Design Agency really hit the mark.
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Tuesday, January 25th, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
D&AD is the Europe equivalent of the Lotus Awards. Check out the UK talent.
Posted by: Charlie on Monday, January 24th, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Tired of being served too-milky tea, Onkar Singh Kular has created a series of china mugs in Pantone colours which correspond to the owner’s ideal brew. So whenever you are making tea for someone you will be able to tell from the colo [...]
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Monday, January 24th, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Have you ever been on a bus and overheard someone on their cellphone talking about how drunk they were last night and now they can’t even remember the name of the guy/girl who was in their bed this morning. If this a a regular occuren [...]
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Friday, January 21st, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
Still in its inception phase, Design for Asia is being organized by Liquid Orb and Newstoday to raise money for the disaster in Asia. Get involved.
Posted by: Kevin Broome on Tuesday, January 18th, 2005
Categories: Design | No Comments »
It’ great to see how other designers use typography in their compositions. There is some really cool stuff out there and some real garbage. Check out this online photo gallery with some interesting photos of typography from around the [...]
Posted by: Steph Tekano on Wednesday, December 1st, 2004
Categories: Design | 1 Comment »
