Inspiration: Graphic Design, Part 3

Today is the last post in my graphic design category, and the last regular post in my entire inspiration series! Tomorrow, there will be a related weekend links post, and then the series will be done. Thank you all for sticking with me all this time.

I thought I'd end with graphic design, since this blog is mostly about that after all. I have some design items to show you that I hope you will like. Instead of specific pieces, I have two websites of design to talk to you about, and then some freebies from other sites to share.

First up is Hum Creative, which is Kate Harmer's design company. She does some really stellar work. I'll share a couple things with you, then comment on them all in general, and if you like what you see, check out the work section of her site.

I love these wedding invitations. They're letterpress, which scores big points in my book, and the design is simple and elegant but at the same time, fun and charming.

I love the colors - just white, brown, and turquoise. It's a pretty combination of colors. The use of white space on the folding part as well as the blue envelope (? - I'm guessing it's an envelope) is nice as well, and keeps the design from being too busy. The silhouettes of the bride and groom is a creative idea, as well. I love the way silhouettes look in general, and these are certainly good ones. See more pictures of this project here.

This business card, as part of an identity system for someone involved in music and photography, is excellent, too. (And more letterpress - yay!)

The combination of sans serif and serif typefaces actually works quite well - I think the consistent colors help a lot. The image part of the logo (heart in outline) is also good. It's not too busy, but at the same time, it's complex enough to look cozy and inviting.

One more thing from Hum Creative before I move on... this CD packaging for a band called She & Him. I know nothing about their music so I'm not recommending them - I just like the packaging!

I didn't notice at first that there's both a full size record album and a CD to this design. That in itself is pretty cool - I didn't know anyone was actually still making records. There's something endearingly vintage about that. As for the design, I like it. The freehand, almost cartoon look to it makes it seem cheerful, but at the same time, thoughtful and serious. Here's a closer look at the CD packaging:

The notebook paper looking insert is cool, as well as the envelope. I like the creativity and outside-the-box style of this whole music project.

So what inspires me about the work of Hum Creative? A couple things:

• The balance between clean & simple and friendly & warm.
• The customization of everything. The client wanted letterpress? So be it. A record as well as a CD? Sure! I'd love to get to the place where I can design like that, find a printer who will work with me, and just go for it. That really inspires me.

Now I'd like to let you know about the second website I wanted to share today, Louise Fili, Ltd. It's a design firm in New York City and boy would I love to intern there sometime. Their work is great. It was started (and named) for Louise Fili, a designer who has made it into the Art Director's Hall of Fame. I didn't even know there was such a thing until I read about it on the about page. How neat! I'll show you three things I like from Louise Fili, Ltd., but please check out their website - they've done such a large volume of work!

First up, some bottled water packaging, perhaps the most unique I've seen (Ethos would take second place.) Take a look:

This packaging design is actually more minimalistic than most of what I see on Louise Fili, but it still has a charming, funky air to it. The big droplet of water is eye-catching and I really like the typography of "Aqua Forte." Perhaps the best thing about this design is the empty space where there isn't any design. That gives it a really distinctive look. Also, the fact that the design isn't printed on one of those wrap-around water bottle labels makes it more unique and sets it apart from just a normal bottle of water.

The second thing I want to show you from Louise Fili is a logo and menu combo for a restaurant called Marseille. Here's the logo:

It's certainly well-designed - classy and elegant, but not stuffy or stuck up looking. It's interesting how the logo translates so well to a neon sign (see here), and the typography itself seems to be quietly reminiscent of neon. But what I really like about this logo is how it's applied to menus...

You'd expect to see a lot more decoration in going from the logo on its own to a menu design, but it's not there. The only decoration on the outside of the menu is the logo, and I think that's absolutely brilliant. It takes different forms, all the way from one letter out to a whole word, but each thing really coordinates well. I love that the logo is flexible enough to be translated so literally into the menus. That's some good design.

Finally, I want to show you the cover design for a book by Louise Fili and Stephen Heller (a writer on graphic design). This cover is excellent.

I'd actually be interested to thumb through the pages of Design Connoisseur, but for now, I'll focus on what I can see from the picture: the design. This book contains type from the 20's, 30's, and 40's, and I think the cover has an appropriately vintage feel to it. I like the ornate yet not overwhelming style of the cover. It's very detailed and swirly looking, but there is some nice white space as well to balance out the busyness. I also like the way the lines of the green pattern point towards the title.

Louise Fili, Ltd. inspires me because of...

• The interesting work they do with typography.
• Louise Fili's own accomplishments, i.e. the fact that she designed 2000 book jackets while she was the art director at Pantheon Books. Is that impressive or what?
• The mix of things that are fresh and modern and more timeless looking. The style isn't always exactly the same, but everything is good, solid design. It reminds me that different styles are okay.

Now that I've let you glimpse two neat design websites, I want to share some links to design freebies that you might enjoy.

First, there are some neat freebies to be found on Veer's freebie page.

They have a weekly photo and illustration and a monthly font for download, as well as some desktop backgrounds and screensavers. The typography movie posters are neat. (Saw them originally on How About Orange.)

Also, Fossil has some new desktop backgrounds to enjoy. This one is really cute:

I recently saw something on How About Orange that I thought was really cool. It's called Silk, and it's an interactive website where you can drag your mouse to create pretty abstract silk patterns. Here's a screenshot of the website with one of my silks on it. Try it here!

It's fun to play with, and if you go scroll down on the homepage, you can also download some neat Silk computer wallpapers.

I hope you all liked today's post... please let me know what you think of the design you've seen! I love your comments.