“It is like being given a coloring book that your brother already colored in,” said Michael Bierut, of the design firm Pentagram in New York City. A passport, not unlike a scrapbook, gets its allure from gradually accruing exotic stamps, with the blank pages holding the promise of future adventure, he and other designers said. But they find that the new jumble of pictures detracts from that.
“There is also something a little coercive about a functional object serving as a civics lesson, even a fairly low-grade civics lesson,” Mr. Bierut said. (via)
(Editor’s note: I really hate how the US passport looks like on the inside…like something Kenny Powers might have designed.)
If disco-glitz supermarket Super Tamade is my favourite place to grocery-shop at midnight…
…a 5am shopping hop is more likely to see me at Oda — a catering-oriented cash-and-carry vast, empty and satisfyingly austere — in the Kizu market.
What I like at Oda is the austerity not only of the aisles themselves, but also the look of the generic catering cans containing lotus, chestnut, crabs, green leaves.
There’s a whole world of packaging design parallel to the consumer one, aimed at caterers.
Rather than the mammary Mammon of brand (which is all about repetition, recognition, irrational worship, synergy with advertising), catering design aims to communicate as quickly and clearly as possible what’s inside the can.
Catering design therefore strikes me as much more sane design — design from a parallel world we might one day inhabit, but currently don’t.
It’s the no-frills world of wholesale, not retail. It’s for “experts” (restauranteurs, people who get up early to get fresh produce at the nearby fish, bean and tofu market), and yet these “experts” require the simplest imagery imaginable: a picture of a leaf, a white background, the absolute minimum of text…
…the cheapest price possible, bulk sizes, and no relaunches, no competitions, adverts, fancy printing, free gifts, jingles, extra packing or wrapping. It’s plain as dawn, wholesale is halfway to communism.
Wabi-Sabi: for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers - Wabi-sabi suggests that beauty is a dynamic event that occurs between you and something else. Beauty can spontaneously occur at any moment given the proper circumstances, context, or point of view. Beauty is thus an altered state of consciousness, an extraordinary moment of poetry and grace.
Teenage Engineering. The site and products are amazing.
I’m hiring a Jr. Designer to work alongside me at Timbuk2 in San Francisco. I’m looking for someone that’s comfortable designing for both the web and print. I’ve gotten a ton of applications already but I’m asking that you please apply through the link. You can send me a follow-up e-mail afterwards if you like: seeker AT youmightfindyourself.com
This is a really fun environment that respects design and creativity. If you have the skills (and the portfolio to back it up) this is your dream job!
Have windows? Liquid chalk markers for the win.
The Virtues of "Staying Up Late" by Michael Beirut 
One week after I graduated from college in Ohio, I moved to New York with my new wife Dorothy and began working as a design assistant at Vignelli Associates. It was 1980, and I was the lowest employee on the totem pole. Working in a design office in those days was different. I never touched a computer. As I recall, the office didn’t even have a computer. In fact, we didn’t have a fax machine.
I spent most of my days putting thinner in rubber cement and taping tissue paper over mechanical boards. Every once in a while I would get to do a mechanical myself, usually following the direction of one of the more experienced designers. I was working in New York City for a designer I idolized and I was the happiest person on earth. It so happened that we got an apartment that was three blocks-literally, a 135 second walk-from the Vignelli office. Work started at 9:30 a.m. I usually got up at around five minutes to 9 and still had time to pick up a doughnut on my way in.
Dorothy, on the other hand, had a corporate job downtown, in the World Trade Center to be precise. She had to wake up before 6 to be at work at 8. I literally slept three hours later than her every morning. Every night Dorothy would go to bed at around 10 p.m. I was still wide awake, and our apartment was so small it drove me crazy. I had a key to the office. So I got in the habit of tucking my wife in every night and going back to work to start another shift, which often would last from 10 to 3 in the morning.
This went on for four years. Anything I’ve achieved in my career I credit today to those four years. I loved working late at night. I worked on office stuff, and I worked on personal projects. I played music really loud and drank Mountain Dew. I would design anything: invitations for my friends’ parties, packaging for mix tapes, one-of-a-kind birthday cards, and freebies for non-profits.
When Massimo Vignelli noticed I had extra time during the day, he started giving me extra work. Things that would have taken two days only took one, thanks to the night shift. The more work I did, the faster I got, and the better I got. It never occurred to me to ask for overtime. 25 years later, nearing 50 with three kids (and the same wife), I can’t tell you the last time I was awake at 3 in the morning, intentionally, at least. So my advice to anyone starting a career as a designer? Stay up late while you can. It pays off.
Michael Bierut
Partner, Pentagram Design New York
“We want Boba Guys to look, feel, and taste the same everywhere it appears. This not only applies to graphic design and communications, but also crosses over into presentation and perception.” (via)
(Editor’s note: Been a fun ride so far. My dream job.)
