THERE IS A WHOLE HEAP OUT THERE
HERE IS YOUR START...
September 2009—Version 4.0
Collected and loosely organized links to design related information, work and resources.
Michelle Bowers Assistant Professor of Typography and Design, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and Director of Education AIGA Boston. Contributions and comments by friends, colleagues, current and past students, professional designers, illustrators and artists. Please email me if you have suggestions or additions.
DESIGN BLOGS, INFO AND NEWS
underconsideration.com Produced by Armin Vit, Question, push, analyze and agitate graphic design and those involved in the profession. My favorite sections of the site are Brandnew which discusses corporate and brand identity and Speakup. Important and relevant design discussion. Armin's new book Graphic Design Referenced is awesome.
designobserver.com This blog is produced by William Drenttel, Jessica Helfand, Rick Poynor, and Michael Bierut, who are highly informed commentators on design, politics, and the state of the world. Again…serious design discussion.
cranbrookdesign.com Many good articles and discussion topics. Thanks to Arjen for all his hard work on the site.
Walker Art Center Design Blog Excellent design blog by the Walker's inhouse designers and Andrew Blauvelt.
aiga.org The professional association for design. Exchange ideas and information. Amazing resource and organization.
TED ideas worth spreading. The world's most fascinating thinkers and doers speak on Technology, Entertainment, and Design.
Designology Landor's Salon Series. Videos and podcasts.
designiskinky.com It has been around for a while but I do still go here to check out the new hot work and trends.
fecalface.com More hot design and illustration.
joshspear.com A solid trendspotting blog
ffffound.com users post and share their favorite images found on the web. wow beautiful work.
Dexigner Delivering design related news, events, competitions, and resources. Dexigner also provides a design directory and weekly newsletter.
visualthesaurus.com creates word maps that blossom with meanings and branch to related words. Encourages exploration and learning.
backspace.com/notes This blog on social design issues is created by John Emerson. The blog has an excellent definition of "universal design," among other useful items. Design + Activism.
rhizome supports the creation, presentation, and preservation of contemporary art that uses new technologies in significant ways.
covers Holy cow book covers! Covers is dedicated to the appreciation of book cover design. Updated several times a week. Blog is maintained by Fwis, a design firm based out of Brooklyn, NY and Portland, OR.
thedesignencyclopedia.org clearinghouse of resources and information about the broad practice of design. Has a special section devoted to archiving student thesis projects and articles that have not been otherwise published.
visualcomplexity.com Information design heaven. I die. A resource space for anyone interested in the visualization of complex networks.
del.icio.us To find out what other people are looking at on the web.
grain edit is focused on classic design work from the 1950s-1970s and contemporary designers that draw inspiration from that time period.
posterpage.ch Rob Wanner’s poster site, chronicling international poster design. What a massive amazing archive!
printestering.org interesting printmaking miscellany. Very good resources on their links page.
BibliOdyssey A blog gathering some of the most remarkable rare book illustrations, manuscripts, lithographs and prints. There is also a book documenting most of the site content: BibliOdyssey: Amazing Archival Images from the Internet.
thingstolookat Nice blog - collections of mostly historical design work.
flavorpill Chicago art, design and cultural events and info.
Keep up with the best in the Midwest.
core77.com articles, discussion forums, event calendar, hosts portfolios, job listings, a database of design firms, schools, and services
bigperk.com More links to designers, artists and resources.The GreatWorld of Film, and other trivial affairs. Saw Jib Hunt on here.
magmabooks.com MAGMA BOOKS the resource for quality art and design books.
America Is F*cked...(Graphically at least) Aaron Draplin telling a story about a sign. Heritage and aesthetics are important.
THREADLESS - submit your designs or buy. ok, I know this is a t-shirt site. But damn they got hot design. I am addicted and have way too many t-shirts.
Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum Smithsonian Institution NYC
sustainability.aiga.org The AIGA Center for Sustainable Design. A great resource for designers who care about the environment.
designnotes.info
Blog by designer, writer and educator Michael Surtees.
designboom.com Interviews, links, commentary, contests, etc.
designerslibrary
designspongeonline.com Two
good craft, interior design and art blogs. Make pretty stuff!
creativity-online.com Advertising industry links, articles, news etc.
QBN.com —always changing
RogerParker.typepad.com Roger Parker provides a practical blog for the working designer.
iso50.com - nice work and good blog.
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/semiotic.html
Semiotics for Beginners by Daniel Chandler.
http://community.livejournal.com/graphicdesign/
Not even kidding here. A lot of students on this forum looking for an honest
crit. The crits are usually constructive and very tough as well.
uppercase design magazine and blog out of Calgary.
WEB AND MOTION DESIGN
motionographer.com Motion graphics
thecreativeleague.com motion portfolio database, photographer database, a free job listing board, AND a sweet sweet blog about design/art/whatnot. thanks Camm!
artofthetitle.com The art of title sequence. WOW.
http://createdigitalmotion.com/ Heather's favorite blog. Webzine and community site for VJs and other producers of moving images. The focus is on ahead-of-the-curve tools, DIY techniques, emerging trends, advanced software and experimental interfaces.
FWA (Favourite Website Awards) recognizes the latest and best cutting edge site design.
Mark Boulton web design blog. Specializing in functional and elegant design acquired through rigorous problem solving. Excellent CSS and grid tutorials.
webstyleguide.com (Yale Style Guide) Solid info.
Loop AIGA’s Journal of Interactive Design Education.
alistapart.com Kind of techy at times, but some solid articles. explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices.
webmonkey.com Great tool for web developers of all levels.
typetester.org This is a great tool for testing out sizes and colors for screen-based fonts.
w3.org The World Wide Web consortium. Online tutorials, and the latest in web compliance. A great resource for beginner and advanced web designers and developers. http://validator.w3.org/ validation tool checks your XHTML + CSS to see if it's in compliance. It also provides a comprehensive list of where the problems are so you can fix them.
browsershots.org Want to know how you're website looks all over the world on different browsers? Browsershots checks compatibility and provides a VISUAL schematic of how a webpage shows up across several platforms and browsers. great tool for visually testing your site.
http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/ Tool to create your own beautiful data visualizations (some are typographic) driven by algorithm.
philrenaud.com/57 Some of the nicest sites you will see on the web today.
Digital Kitchen film production, experimental design and motion graphics. Camm is the man.
SHILO Go Tom go! holy crap.
Mode Project great guys at this chicago based studio.
psyop.tv/ —I think it's safe to say these guys own the East Coast in motion graphics.
smalldesignfirm.com/ Amazing interactive work spanning projection, experimental interfaces, and tangible media for exhibits..
cssremix.com If you want to be a web designer in this day and age you better learn how to build sites that look like this. Clean design mixed with clean code.
FRIENDS AND RELATIVES
Nazanin Arandi Neelu Made
Natalie Davis Miss Natalie
Joshua Walton Rockwell group
Jason Jones Lifelongfriendshipsociety
Krista Connerly urban intimacy
TYPOGRAPHY
I Love Typography My favorite site for inspiration and resources. Subscribe to the weekly e-newsletter-you will be glad you did. Type geeks unite.
typophile.com Mega resource. Get a short interactive lesson in how to design typefaces as well as get your type ideas critiqued. Try the Small Talk Generator: "Hi, have we met? I happen to be an expert on kerning ornamented italics" Fun for the whole type geek family.
myfonts.com Search by style, designer or company. Nice redesign of the site...great work Nick!
linotype.com Contemporary to classic fonts. Also don’t forget to download a FREE copy of Linotype Font Explorer to replace that crappy Font Book software that came with your mac.
fontshop.com Founded by Erik Spiekerman, this is a great source for fonts, including those developed by FontShop (FontFonts) and independent foundries. Type gods.
fontstruct A free font-building tool!! Super fun and useful. Lets you easily create fonts constructed out of geometrical shapes, which are arranged in a grid pattern, like tiles or bricks. Thank you Stephen Coles!
http://www.stcassociates.com/lab/fontbrowser.html
Online active font browser. Somehow it knows what fonts you have loaded on
your machine and can view them. Cool.
Veer.com Puts out many smaller type foundries work. Device, Fountain, Jukebox, etc. Plus the biggies like Adobe and Font Bureau. Plus you can buy cool type geek merch like t-shirts, and Umbrella Type's - Umbrella.
emigre.com Emigre is the original underground digital type foundry. Purchase back issues
of Emigre's famous magazine and learn about new fonts and design issues.
typography.com The Hoefler Type Foundry was founded by Jonathan Hoefler, who was later joined
by Tobias Frere-Jones. They are type gods. The most functional and beautifully
crafted typefaces. I wish I could afford them.
houseind.com House Industries specializes in digital typefaces and illustrations that draw on pop culture. I am coo coo for these boys.
playplayplayplay.com Experimental typography at its best, if I must say so.
Helvetica the Film HELVETICA the most ubiquitous typeface in the world.HelveticaYouTube Trailer
Typeface the Film Although the heyday of wood type was more than a century ago (think “Wanted” posters and circus broadsides), its revival and preservation carries on today. Typeface, chronicles this effort by documenting the Hamilton Wood Type Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, which houses one of the premier wood-type collections in the world and runs letterpress workshops for designers and artists from across the country.
Max Kerning Beautiful kerning animation on the first page. Facebook friend Max while visiting the site.
lettermade.com Project documenting, appreciating vernacular letterforms and typography. Beautiful photos!
Alphabetography more awesome documentation of signage/vernacular letterforms.
historic type.com my colleague Laura Franz's site cataloging signage/vernacular letterforms.
typeradio.org
(there's a podcast..Ms. Heather Shaw)
typographica.org a journal of typography featuring news, observations, and open commentary on fonts and typographic design.
Enschede Font Foundry Dutch type foundry, purveyor a select number of fine fonts.
ourtype.com Offering "fine fonts from Europe," this digital foundry was created by the Dutch typographer Fred Smeijers.
Daily Type a creative project run by several russian type designers.
Basel School of Design Summer Program with Wolfgang Weingart.
t26.com Based in Chicago and founded by Carlos Segura. Hip and fashionable typefaces.
Village a type co-op. The union of eleven young type foundries who decided to go it alone, together.
typotheque.com This site offers fonts designed by Peter Bilak, a Czech designer working in the Netherlands. Peter designed Fedra Sans, the most beautiful and useful typeface in years.
type-o-tones.com This very cool site focuses on contemporary typefaces from Spain.
thinkingwithtype.com Ellen Lupton’s site that is a companion to her book. Includes, articles and teaching materials.
typeCulture.com Visit this amazing portal to the world of typographic research. See cool films on type setting, letter carving, and more. Edited by the independent type designer and educator Mark Jamra.
posttypography.com Read their awesome manifesto!
misprintedtype.com Eduardo Recife, BRAZIL Superfun hand drawn type, collage, etc.
chank.com Professional Typographers love to hate Chank but there are some good typographic ideas here and many free fonts.
philsfonts.com This is a generic clearing house where all kinds of fonts and digital images can be purchased.
typographicposters.com a directory of typographic posters.
DESIGNERS AND ARTISTS
Appetite Engineers Martin Venezky
The Apollo Program Elliott Earls
Thirst Rick Valicenti
Modern Dog Design Robynne Raye and Mike Strassburger
goodisdead Chip Kidd
Midwest Is Best Mike Perry
Barnbrook Design Jonathan Barnbrook
Stefan Sagmeister Sagmeister
Strange Attractors Cranbrook alums, Ryan Frisk and Catelijne van Middelkoop.
mcsweeneys.net Dave Eggers is an author, designer, editor, and publisher who has brought typography back to its roots in the literary page. McSweeney’s Quarterly — each issue/book has a different theme, different design and packaging. And the Magazine The Believer. My fav good read.
davidlynch.com Have I mentioned my love for David?
1000journals.com Look at gazillion images from sketchbooks. Sign up and exchange sketchbooks with artists from around the world.
foundmagazine.com Davey Rothbart’s website – see online found items and laugh your butt off. Submit your own found treasures for the next issue or book.
postsecret.com Companion to the book. Post your secrets.
deviantart.com My beginning art students seem to always gravitate to this site.
turbulence.org Discover new work that employs film and interactive forms toward work that has content or purpose.
Anderson Ranch (Aspen, Colorado) promotes artistic experimentation and growth through workshops and residencies.
codeluxe.com roll over top black lines. it hurts my eyes.
http://www.ndc.co.jp/hara/home_e/ Kenya Hara, just wrote what could possibly be the best book ever written about design: Designing Design
Non Format the creative team of Kjell Ekhorn (Norwegian) and Jon Forss (British).
youworkforthem Michael Cina and Michael Young, Minneapolis.
NLXL Bob van Dijk, Oscar Smeulders and Joost Roozekrans. (The Netherlands). These guys can dance! Ok blog.
Chiba Chiba Frederico Antunes, Brazil
Something Splendid Jona Bellew & James Yencken, Australia
Show posters letterpress and silkscreen:
FRIENDS AND RELATIVES
Dave and Brad's type exhibit dekonstrukt
Andy Van Solkema Visual Hero
COLOR
colorschemedesigner.com This online color selection gizmo is the shiznit! How did I pick color before this?
kuler.adobe.com kuler color selector
Color Forcasting colorassociation.com , Pantone
MAGAZINES
dot dot dot (online) on amazon
STOCK / ARCHIVES: PHOTOGRAPHY, ILLUSTRATION, TEXTURES, SOUND, VIDEO, ETC.
archive.org Bastion of freedom from intellectual property. Amazing free video download collection.
ubu.com As a boundless archive of sound, video, especially of the avant-garde or weird or historical variety
veer.com Photography, illustration, motion, typography lots to look at and maybe purchase.
gettyimages.com Incredible selection. Great for when you are brainstorming on a project: put in a word for a search and you will get images that will get your brain to jump from once concept to another.
http://www.sxc.hu/ Stock.XCHNG - FREE stock photo site.
imageafter.com - More yummy textures.
istockphoto.com - Not the greatest stock photos by a long shot, but its only 3 - $5 for a High Res photo. Not bad.
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/
For always-enjoyable techno-history and humor, all in simple scans
MATERIALS AND SUPPLIES
DIY (Do it Yourself) network. Projects, tutorials everything you could think of… even how to put your motorcycle back together.
readymademag.com Readymade magazine website. Most DIY projects focus on repurposing everyday objects. Recycling Rocks!
makezine.com Make magazine website. MAKE brings the do-it-yourself mindset to all the technology in your life. Recycling Rocks More!
glodan.com Purchase individual sheets/reams of paper all by paper mill. They will even cut down press size sheets.
printicon.com Excellent source of pre-cut, professional-quality paper for graphic designers.
paper-source.com Kill me now. I could spend every cent I have ever made.Paper and book binding materials. Invitations, envelopes, with matching papers.
katespaperie.com Awesome site for specialty papers and other supplies.
paperdirect.com Lots of ugly pre-printed brochures and letterheads, BUT if you dig a bit some decent, printer-friendly paper, too. Indispensable. This is where I get laser velum.
aikosart.com art, paper and book binding store in Chicago.All Japanese paper – beautiful!
philobiblon.com Bookmaking info: trends, techniques, and tutorials.
rippedsheets.com This awesome commercial site offers laser and ink-jet printable materials (such as printable foils, fabrics, and adhesive surfaces), ideal for making labels.
welshproducts.com Print Gocco – low-cost, low-tech silkscreen system. Ideal for short runs on paper or cardboard. Does print on fabric but it has a handmade feel.
sevengypsies.com Specializes in hardware for paper crafts. Index tabs, holders, binding rings, etc.
Kayrock Brooklyn NY, hand screenprinting
coastalprintworks.com The nation's best silkscreen company, for t-shirts and other wearable merchandise.
inarush.com One-stop shopping for large format, signs, embroidery, and silk screening.
consolidatedplastics.com
harborfreight.com Tools
Tools Tools, Cheap. Plastic
jugs, boxes, lab supplies, and more, much more. There is some cool
stuff on these sites that you cant get at the Home Depot.
modernpostcard.com 500 full color postcards for $129. Submit files/images online. Easy.Business cards too.
lot-ek.com Lot-ek is an architectural group specializing in reclaiming industrial materials. Very cool design of the site too.
Binders and portfolios:
Art Supplies:
Danielsmith.com
Pearlpaint.com
Flaxart.com
Lightimpressionsdirect.com Photo Supplies and archival portfolios/boxes/binding etc.
Dickblick.com
Talasonline.com Archival and Bookbinding
Graphicchemical.com Printmaking inks
Engineerssupply.com
JOBS SEARCH
creativehotlist.com - Job search of course.
I go on here to check out the competition every once
in a while. Gotta keep up yo.
designersalaries.com By Aquent and AIGA
coroflot.com - Another job search site. The talent is pretty saucy on this sucker!
Aquent.com
Job listings and online portfolios.
illustrationmundo.com It's mainly for illustrator's.You can apply for a free listing there (much like on Altpick) and you get a thumbnail and links to your portfolio. Buyers can searh for illustrators through categories or by name. You can also promote yourself on the site by submiting relevent news. There are also good interviews and forums... all sorts of things.
altpick.com The ultimate sources for creative talent.Online portfolios and listings. Resources etc.
designtaxi.com Online portfolios and listings. Resources etc.
core77.com or designdirectory.com - mostly industrial design
- but lots of general design stuff too.
workbook.com Photo and Illustration job listings, stock photo, resources – everything.
aiga.org Post your portfolio and search listings.Check out articles and Resources for Professionals section.
The Art List listing of exhibition opportunities, jobs etc.
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
aiga.org The professional association for design.
Events, articles, competitions, conference info, job listings, teaching resources,
info for clients, etc. etc.
Typesociety.org The Society of Typographic Aficionados (SOTA) is a non-profit, volunteer-driven organization devoted to type, typography, and the related arts. SOTA hosts the annual TypeCon conference every summer! Best conference and workshops ever.
gag.org Graphic Artists Guild
Legal documents to use, online portfolios, insurance, pricing guidelines, etc.
societyillustrators.org If you are an illustrator you have to go to this site and become a member.
GRAD SCHOOLS
RISD (Rhode Island School of Design)
MCAD (Minneapolis College of Art and Design)
SAIC (School of the Art Institute of Chicago)
MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art)
CCA (California College of the Arts)
CAL ARTS (California Institute of the Arts)
VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University)
