Here’s a special addition to my magazine collection: GRAPHIC is a bilingual design magazine published in Seoul, South Korea. What’s wonderful is that they take many liberties with the creation of each issue and are fearless with their treatment of type and image.
Inside you’ll see copy flipped and turned on its head; an issue that is spiral-bound while another is glossy with a book jacket that folds out; type that seem a little close to the edge but seem to work well that way.
This goes in hand with the style that GRAPHIC emulates—the style that originated in Switzerland in the 1940s or so—which is what makes it such a treasure.
Anyway, go to their site and flip through. They’re having a sale of the four issues I got!
Often the hardest part about being in any creative field, I think.
(via quantumpie)
Some months ago I unearthed my baby book. It contains a bunch of info such as my parents’ first thoughts about me (“Mama and Papa thought she was a baby boy. She’s heavier than her brother and sisters”), my favourite toys (“Squeeze ball, turtle, rattle, stuffed toys”), and my first words (“Papa, baba”).
The interesting stuff is the pages with my drawings, which were all done in 1998 when I was about 4. This was my very first sketchbook!
From all the misspelled names, you can see how much I struggled with writing the letter ‘Z’. Something else I noticed was that I was very fond of drawing tables, chairs, beds, triangles, stars, suns, and stick people with big heads and very short limbs.
On the second image you’ll see that my mom stuck a small envelope on the page labeled, “Hazel’s First Haircut”, which occurred on February 15th, 1995. My baby hair is still in there, by the way. Is that creepy or what?
As opposed to going out to buy a calendar for the new year, I decided to make it into a little side project to design one for every month of 2012.
To ring in the new year, I introduce to you this clean, unobtrusive January calendar which you can download and print out on plain, letter-sized paper (or colour paper if you’re feeling adventurous).
Ten points goes to those of you who know which typefaces I used! Hint: I use two of them on my blog theme. Am I becoming too predictable? (yes.)
I was feeling unusually crafty yesterday evening and came up with a way to repurpose an old book as a cover for my new eReader.
My last eReader broke from being crushed under a few textbooks so you could say this was born out of paranoia coupled with a desire to be frugal instead of spending $20+ on the covers they sell in stores (which look terribly bland, by the way).
Here’s how I went about it:
Find a small hardcover notebook with an elastic band. Mine was actually an old weekly calendar from Chapters which just so happened to be the perfect size to hold my Kobo.
Be sure to test that the device is snug when held by the elastic band. Finding the right fit is the most important step! Second most important is finding a stylish cover.
Examine the binding. By doing this you’ll see how the pages are attached to the hardcover itself. I noticed that in mine, the pages inside the book are held up by the front endpaper (the red paper in between the first page and the cover).
Say a small prayer to the bookbinding gods and rip the front page from the front endpaper. Just close your eyes, brace yourself, and rip! Kind of like waxing.
Cut through the cloth holding the pages together. You can easily rip it with your hands but it’s neater with scissors and feels less blasphemous that way.
Do the same for the back. Say another prayer to the bookbinding gods and tell yourself that you’re ripping up a book for a very good reason.
Cut the front endpaper. This is to hide the unsightly look of the spine. Be sure it’s long enough to bridge over the spine. Using an x-acto knife, a ruler and a cutting mat would probably be helpful at this stage.
Glue the front endpaper to the back endpaper. I used rubber cement to stick it on but other types of glue will work too.
Cover the gaping wound and be sure it closes easily. Don’t make the same mistake I did by gluing the endpaper to the spine! It won’t trigger the end of the world but it’ll be a bit stiff.
Tuck in your eReader and give yourself a pat on the back. Aww, look how cute it looks!
Advice to Sink in Slowly is an ongoing series of posters designed by graduates for the purpose of passing on advice and inspiration to first year students.
Although illustrators and designers are the people creating these posters, a lot of the posters also apply to those outside of art school, such as “Eat Breakfast”, “Remember to Breathe”, and “Casual Sex is Overrated”.
One of my favorites is Frank Chimero’s advice zine which you can print out to keep in your pocket for when you’re in doubt.
(via Brain Pickings)
