Nicholas Blechman is the Art Director for the New York Times Book Review, and his website features a number of well-designed covers, books, and illustrations.
Illustrator Marion Deuchars has a new book out—Let’s Make Some Great Art—which takes a similar approach to the small volume she created a for Cass Art a couple years ago. Designed for artists of all ages (though clearly evoking a childlike sensibility), Let’s Make Some Great Art features spreads for different creative techniques to create art, from using the Rorschach ink blot technique to create faces to using stencils and spray paint to create cave-like paintings. An admirable reminder for all of us to get off the computer and use the techniques and tools we once explored as kids.
Visit the microsite to learn more about the book, or her collection of videos (including the delightful video of two british boys narrating and drawing a fantastical story for over an hour).
Here is a wonderful video of illustrator Christoph Niemann at a recent Creative Mornings talk, describing his creative workflow over the course of his 9-hour workday. I especially enjoyed when Niemann described his famous “I Lego N.Y.” series, “Lego is about abstraction, it’s about the limitation of all these right angles…And I always loved the idea of making really simple ones, sometimes making things out of two or three pieces. That’s where the idea came to make these abstract sculptures, because to me, the lego is like a three-dimensional pixel drawing.”
Jelles Martens created these color studies with simple geometry. Though they are highly reductive and minimal, they’re still striking in terms of form and color combinations. To see more of Martens work, visit his website or his flickr stream.
Arian Behzadi is a Biological Sciences major at UC Davis, but creates these incredible collages outside the classroom. While Behzadi finds the “parallels between art and the sciences” are integral to his work, these studies also evoke a certain era of film and fashion, with large swashes of color creating a more evocative composition. To see more of Behzadi’s work, visit his flickr page.
Layer Tennis: Friday afternoons are my new favorite time to sit back and watch a match of two designers/illustrators play a game of layer tennis—a back and forth exchange (with commentary by another designer) of designed compositions (“layers”) made in a Creative Suite weapon of choice. I’ve particularly enjoyed Mark Weaver v. Scott Thomas, Khoi Vinh v. Nicholas Felton, and today’s Frank Chimero v. Kate Bingaman-Burt.
Presentation by Khoi Vinh on digital news and user experience.
Jay Fletcher, of Charleston-based J Fletcher Design, believes that “nothing is routine and everything is an opportunity to shine.” His portfolio certainly reflects his ethic, for his well-rounded work—from illustration, to typography, to logomarks—is applied to everything from posters to annual reports. Well worth the visit to his website to see more.
Paul Tebbott is a UK-based designer who creates compelling illustrations of solid geometric shapes and patterns, all within a wonderfully muted color palette. To view more of Tebbott’s work, or to purchase one of his posters, visit his website.
(Via Grainedit)