hey, jude

Being an Alumni of Mssissippi State University's Graphic Design Program, I contiue to swell with pride at the many awesome things that are happening there. Students and teachers alike are being recognized nationally for their outstanding work. Just this week, two MSU GD people were featured in HOW online's Top Ten Graphic Design Sites for Designers section. The student, Rob Toombs, interned under me at Mad Genius. It's really exciting to see the great things he's doing now. But today, we're going to talk a little about Jude Landry, an assistant professor who is continually recognized for his design work. Not only was Landry featured in the Top Ten, but he's also recently been named a Young Gun by The Art Director's Club. Viewing his bold and varied design book, it's easy to see why.

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hello class, my name is ms. awesome

Continuing on the last post's chalkboard theme, I thought I'd share another awesome artist of the dusty arts. Brooklyn's Dana Tanamachi is a true wizard on the blackboard, bringing beautiful typography to life with texture and depth.

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public school, in session

Stop Motion Digital Magazine Cover from Adam Voorhes on Vimeo.

Public School is a collective of designers and photographers in Austin, TX doing some amaaaziing work. Among the collective is Mississippi State Graphic Design Program alum Will Bryant, who teamed with photographer Adam Voorhes to produce this really, really cool animated "magazine cover" for Bluetooth's Signature publication. Voorhes describes it below:

"For this project I collaborated with illustrator Will Bryant to create a stop motion animation for Bluetooth's publication 'Signature.' We incorporated the cover copy and the logo into the illustration and filled the cover with Will's signature style. I love seeing a cover done organically, let alone being able to display it as an animation!

To post it here I added a track by Animal Collective. Check out their site here http://fat-cat.co.uk/fatcat/artist/animal+collective"

> more public school

i <3 doodle, too

This is one of my fav discoveries this year...well, it was passed along to me, more than discovered. In any event, I'm pleased to pass along the love of Doodle Everyday, a blog that features an amazingly well-realized sketch every single day. The artist responsible for the prolific outpouring of brilliant little ideas is Lim Heng Swee from Malaysia. I'm not sure what Malaysian food is like, but I want some of whatever they're cooking. This work is stellar.

> ilovedoodle.com

bear hug

Eduardo Bertone's designs for Bear Flag wines are a truly exciting and new take on the recently dull world of wine bottle designs. Using hand-drawn illustrations with vibrant color and some inventive die cuts, he creates little works of mod art.

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fresh vintage

Australian by way of UK designer Timba Smits is doing some really interesting stuff with vintage style and textures, mixed with contemporary street taste. The retro/kitsch thing can get a little old, but Timba seems to find ways to keep it fresh by going even MORE retro than most designers do. He is employing lots of texture and hand-drawn elements which give his work an authenticity that is beyond just being retro-ish. I'm way impressed and more than a little envious of his formidable skills. Must be all the Vegemite.

> See WAY MORE of Timba's stuff

typecasting

London's I LOVE DUST is at it again, building amazing looks with type and space. Check out their site. They are so good it hurts.

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delicious vinyl

via Gizmodo

GGRP, a wonderful sound production studio I've had the honor of working with in the past, released maybe the coolest, buzziest self-promo piece I've seen all year. It's pretty genius, really. The package transforms into a record player, with which, you can play the enclosed demo. Awesome. It does make you wonder...what other things around your house would act as a record player if you stuck an needle on it?

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organic cookies make you smile

Botanical Bakery has completed an incredible rebrand with the help of DBD International. They've slyly used the implied lips from the logo to playfully give the product title a sense of action, each in their own colorful voice bubble. The design is whimsically bohemian, mixing vibrant hand drawn art elements with sophisticated typography. But the real brilliance is that the design is fully dependent upon you seeing and interpreting their new logo. And when you are re-branding, any additional looks at the logo are like coins in the meter of the customer's mind.

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my heart leapt

Moxie Sozo presents a stunning line soap packaging for Leap Organics, featuring the dynamic illustrations of Charles Bloom. The typography perfectly complements the colorful and evocative environments and creatures depicted. Truly, one of the best packaging lines this year, as featured on TheDieLine.com.

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lifted spirits

New York designer Louise Fili brings us a brilliant work of sweeping vertical design. The details present here are breathtaking: from the sweeping glass that is tinted delicately by the liquor to almost read as steel in certain light, to the delightful foil flourishes, to the floral pattern on the reverse side of each label, each element is with purpose and beauty.

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Courtesy The Die Line

beer as a religious experience

 

Student designer Jess McGeachin brings us a transcendent design courtesy of lovelypackage.com.

Designer Jess McGeachin says it best:

“Westmalle Tripel is a Belgium beer brewed by monks of the Westmalle Abbey. It is sold as a not-for-profit product with all surplus donated to charity.

My concept behind this packaging was very much driven by religious imagery, inspired by the Abbey that the beer is made in. The iconic arch of a stained-glass window is reflected in the typography, bottle and carry pack of the product. The packaging is designed to allow light through to further emphasize the intended aesthetic.”

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eight arms to hold your attention

In one of the finest examples of design I've seen this year, the fine folks at Proximo Spirits have truly created something that dredges up an ancient, mythical feeling: excitement. This media kit, photos courtesy of consistently satisfying dieline.com, proves that top-to-bottom excellence in branding consistency not only exists, but thrives in deep, dark places of the creative collective. Bravo.

pasta deco

I can't begin to tell you how stoked I was to see this one. Designed by Alex Creamer, a student at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK, this amazing package for NYC Spaghetti is just plain brilliant. Which is why, of course, I loathe him.

courtesy dieline.com 

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reinterpreted classics

More fantastic student work. How do these guys do this? Seriously.

Mikey Burton's thesis project while at Kent State, these book covers are pretty amazing, capturing the spirit of the stories in fresh ways.

"An integrated branding campaign based around the illustrative reinterpretation of classic book covers directed toward junior-high-school students. You can check out more of the bits and pieces here. Done while at Kent State." - Mikey Burton

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