In recent years, Yves Béhar has emerged as one of the most important industrial designers on the contemporary scene. Through his San Francisco-based design and branding company fuseproject, the Swiss-born Béhar has shown that a futuristic, hi-tech approach to design can be deeply humane. The fluid forms and innovative function of his products are impressive enough, but it’s Béhar’s interest in the human experience and positive social change that give his objects real meaning. In this interview, Béhar chats with Kevin Kelly about his recent work for the safe sex campaign NYC Condom and other acclaimed projects, and shares his vision for how design can help shape our future. (more…)

Adobe Systems and the people at Cut & Paste have joined forces to present “See What’s Possible.” All manner of designers, photographers, and animators are invited to submit an animation or motion graphic video no more than 15-seconds in length that speaks to the theme: “Photoshop: See What’s Possible.” A panel of judges will select the five winners, who will all receive a licensed copy of the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection. Of the five finalists, one will be voted the Grand Prize Winner, a title that comes with $20,000 and mentions in Adobe’s corporate marketing materials and programs.

Submissions will be accepted up until March 15, 2008, and the winner will be announced on April 4, 2008. You can check out some of the competition in the online gallery. Complete rules and registration forms are available here.

Nicholas Felton is a freelance graphic designer living and working in New York City. His editorial works have appeared in PRINT, Wired, Good, Metropolis and numerous other big name publications. And his personal annual reports are a certified internet phenomenon. The reports can be found on his personal site, feltron.com, and they’re really worth checking out. Nicholas also maintains a professional site associated with his studio, megafone.

In this interview, Nicholas expounds upon both his personal and professional work. He also offers advice to upcoming freelancers, and shares his thoughts on humor’s role in design. Thanks again to Nicholas for chatting with us.

How do projects like the Feltron Annual Reports and Hello China, Goodbye Nepal relate to your professional pieces? Do you use your personal projects to test ideas and designs?

Well I’d like to think that I’m constantly testing new ideas and designs, whether it be for personal or professional assignments, but with the personal projects the luxury is that I get to be the “decider” as well as the “maker”. What is really important about these projects is that they showcase my strengths, which I hope stirs up assignments which are a natural fit for my interests & abilities.

You’ve produced editorial artwork for several magazines, including PRINT, Metropolis and Wired. How are those projects different from say, designing a logo or a typeface?

In a lot of ways, they’re actually very similar. I approach every project systematically, and develop a set of rules that will help me make something consistent and interesting. With a typeface I’m considering all the angles, lines and transitions which will create a kit of guiding principles that direct every decision. The same is true in a logotype or a diagram or a publication, I try to develop a system that is robust and interesting enough to carry all the parts of the design in a successful manner.

The Obsessives layout for Print Magazine ldescribes a week of consumption through metrics including food, drink, utilities, media and more.

As a freelance illustrator and designer whose enjoyed quite a bit of success, what advice do you have for others who are hoping to follow a similar career path?

You have to stay busy. If you’ve got a day job and you’re not doing freelance or personal projects at night, you’re not doing enough. If you’re working for yourself, and not working on the weekends, then you’re basically standing still. Experience and a solid body of work takes time to accumulate, and there’s only one way to get there.

Infographic for Metropolis displaying all of the LEED certified buildings in the United States and throughout the world.

You seem to like working with charts, graphs, maps and the like. What is it about those things that you find visually interesting?

I do love working with information graphics. They are these remarkable constructions that can be widely understood and, at the same time, rapidly communicate reams of information.

How did you get to where you are now? What did you study in school? Have you always been a freelancer? What skills have served you best?

I studied graphic design at the Rhode Island School of Design. After graduation, I worked for a few years in advertising, learning some valuable lessons about branding and marketing that the typography classes in school didn’t prepare me for. Eventually I built a small portfolio of my own work and began collecting enough clients to support my practice. In hindsight, my advertising years were (more…)

Stefan Sagmeister has created a blog in support of his new book, Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far. The site wholeheartedly encourages members of the public to share the lessons they’ve learned in their lives so far, but of course, there’s a catch. (C’mon, it’s Sagmeister.)

Laziness is Bad for the Soul by Kristina Critchlow

Messages can be presented using almost any medium, just as long as they are “written down beautifully.” So far, advice, such as “Sometimes believe what you read.”, and opinions, like “Laziness is bad for the soul.”, has been transmitted using everything from yarn to body hair to fish. I’m willing to bet this project is only going to get more interesting as time marches on. Stay tuned.

via the HOW blog

While I was in school, and for a few years after graduation, I carried a digital camera with me pretty much everywhere I went. If I saw something interesting, odd or inspiring, I’d snap a photo, and because of this habit, I eventually came to possess a pretty extensive catalog of visual references.

I don’t carry a camera with me anymore, for a couple of reasons. For starters, I already lug around a laptop, a phone, keys, my wallet, sunglasses and sometimes an iPod. It’s a ridiculous amount of gear, and frankly, the camera just isn’t making the cut these days. But the real reason why I stopped taking pictures is because, more often than not, the images just weren’t all that compelling after the fact. Taking a photo was too easy, and as a result, I grew lazy.

And so I appreciate UNphotographable, a website created by Michael David Murphy. The pages of UNphotographable contain written descriptions of images that, for one reason or another, could not be captured on film. The great majority of the accounts are provided by Murphy, but I believe a few were produced by others. Here’s an example:

This is a picture I did not take of a woman standing on an overgrown median of the Van Wyck Expressway early on a Saturday morning, early enough that there was one sliver of sunlight making its way across the road, and she was caught in both the light and tall grass, bent at the waist, picking herbs or salad greens from between discarded fast food containers and old tires, incorporating a wild, pinwheeling movement with each pick, her arms swinging up like scythes, alternatively holding a fistful of greens high in the air, as if each leaf were a triumph, as her opposite arm swung down to pick anew.

In a world where images, especially bad images, seem destined to proliferate, I find this (more…)

The NYC Department of Health and Yves Behar of fuseproject have joined forces in an effort to encourage safe sex in New York City.

The coalition recently unveiled a brand new look for the NYC condom, as well as a high-design dispenser, which will debut in 200 New York City venues in the coming weeks. Both the condom’s packaging and the dispensers were created by Behar, who believes the new designs will promote awareness and increase acceptance.

According to Behar, “Good design can help bring condoms out of the closet. The brand’s friendly design and the dispenser’s approachable shape convey openness and acceptance. They say condoms are nothing to be embarrassed about.”

Since the NYC Condom was introduced last year on Valentine’s Day, the Health Department has distributed more than 36 million condoms. That’s twice the number given out annually before the City launched its own brand. Some 900 local businesses, clinics, and non-profit organizations now distribute the condoms free-of-charge.

It’s an interesting program, and all signs seem to indicate that it’s working–more proof of the power of design.

The good people over at HOW are currently seeking submissions for the 2008 HOW Promotion Design Awards, and according to them, “There’s a category for every design occasion, from wedding invitations to pro-bono projects to client promotions.”

One Best of Show winner will receive a free trip to the 2009 HOW Conference, where he or she will be honored in an awards ceremony. All winners will have their work featured in HOW’s October 2008 Self Promotion Annual.

All entries must be postmarked no later than March 21, 2008. The official rules and entry forms are available here.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade, you are no doubt familiar with Google’s logo. It’s a deceptively simple mark. In fact, it almost seems non-designed. Of course, that’s not actually the case. Not at all.

Ruth Kedar is the designer responsible for the logo, and in an interview with WebProNews, she talks at length about her process and the goals of the project. She also discusses the details. For example, she has this to say about the color choices:

The colors evoke memories of child play, but deftly stray from the color wheel strictures so as to hint at the inherent element of serendipity that creeps into any search results page…

Wired has more about the logo, including sketches of some of its earlier treatments, and Kedar again provides commentary. Together, these pieces make an interesting read. The Google logo has perhaps become more ubiquitous than any other mark, and the story of its genesis paints an interesting portrait of a certain period in web and graphic design history.

The American Design Awards Semi-Annual Design Contest is under way. In fact, the February 15, 2008 deadline for submissions is rapidly. There are twenty-two categories in which one can compete, and graphic and web designers both international and domestic are encouraged to submit their work.

The competition seeks to promote ethical and fair design practices, so those who choose to take part in the competition should keep the following guidelines in mind: 1) Do not display pricing on a website; 2) Do not take part in spec contests; 3) Do not undervalue time; 4) Do not copy anyone else’s design work; 5) Do not use templates for a quick and easy fix; 6) Do not work without a working agreement; and 7) Do not “steal” clients.

Winning designs will be posted on the American Design Awards website. Winners will also receive a personalized certificate, promotional merchandise and other prizes.

Complete guidelines and entry forms are available here. More information about fair and ethical design practices is available here.

Jorg Colberg of Conscientious and Miguel Garcia-Guzman of Exposure Compensation asked a handful of prominent photographers, curators, editors and gallerists to select a portrait and describe what makes it great.

The Stewart Sisters, 7th Grade. Photographer: Judith Joy Ross.

The responses they received are both enlightening and ambiguous. Take for example these words from Timothy Archibald about the above portrait taken by Judith Joy Ross:

The girls are being photographed, communicating with the viewer, being self aware and being all of these things and more, nothing is very dramatic, nothing heavy handed, but the end result feels utterly profound. The result seems to be a picture of these girls, but then seems to be communicating something universal as well.

More images and all of the written responses can be found on Colberg’s site.

via kottke