Jamie Tao is an art director, designer, and illustrator (among other things) based in Miami. She has a bunch of lovely and imaginative work on her website, such as this one from her batch of personal stuff.

© Jamie Tao

One of my favorite parts of her website is the opening page.

Under what looks like a Polaroid snap of Miami’s man-made grid of lakes, quarries, and a land ripe for strip malls and subdivisions, taken from a descending airplane, Tao writes:

I usually sleep from take-off to landing. I was coming home from one of my recent trips and never really appreciated Miami until I saw it from an airplane. This is home. Welcome.

I agree with Jamie: Miami from an airplane is a sight to see. A flat land divided up into squares and rectangles with various other shapes occasionally dropped in to the grid to break up the pattern. Whether flying in from the swamps of the west or the beaches of the east, Miami from above is a sublime visual spread.

I read Jamie’s passage over and over again as if each reading revealed something I, too, knew but never wrote down or realized. What I realized was this: I never really appreciated Miami myself — my hometown and, for better or worse, the place that helped me become the person I am today — until I saw it from eight hundred miles away.

The Book Design Review recently posted their favorite book covers of 2008. Some of their faves:

I admit: my love for books comes from what’s on the inside and out. Many times one has nothing to do with the other, but damn if having a cool cover doesn’t make a visual creative stop and notice.

The same can be said for DVDs.

The folks at WellMedicated posted their favorite 50 DVD box art designs from The Criterion Collection. Take a gander:

Another confession: I love scanning The Criterion Collection section at VisArt. Each DVD box is like two works of art in one package.

By the way, you can now watch a few films from The Criterion Collection online for only five bucks. We’re living in the future, baby.

A few post-worthy things that have been buzzing around in my head lately.

⇓ A sort of privacy in public
Wendy Richmond writes about “What We Reveal” in the latest issue of Communication Arts. (It’s the Design Annual issue, not online yet.) She touches on one of the things that I love most about New York City.

During a recent television interview on NYI, the host, Sam Roberts, asked me, “Is New York City different from other places?” I responded that for me, a major difference is its extreme density and the intense, unconscious aptitude of its inhabitants that enables us to share our public space. We are able to be close and simultaneously maintain our distance — a sort of privacy in public.

⇓ Because of the times
Bob Dylan write a few words about our new President and the challenges he and all of us as Americans have ahead of us. Obama’s election is “the first step in a long, hard journey for America.”

Dylan writes:

Let us not forget how our founding fathers had no experience in governing a nation, but they succeeded based solely on the fact that they had to succeed.

Sometimes that is really all it takes: such a strong desire for something that you have to succeed. It’s what they call the American dream. Not that we always succeed, it’s that we succeed when we need it most. Today can be a day to be proud to be an American, but also a day for people with a vision to come together and try building a better and stronger America. We cannot fail, but I think that is why we will succeed.

I love that line: Such a strong desire for something that you have to succeed. You can apply that to almost anything: our country, your work, parenting, marriage, etc.

(You may have to become Bob Dylan’s friend on Facebook to read the whole note. I don’t know what’s weirder: that Bob Dylan is on Facebook or that he and I are “friends” on Facebook.)

⇓ My, you have a…
Lovely Package is a recent discovery all about product design. They bill themselves as “the leading source for the very best that package design has to offer.” It’s a constant source of awe and desire.

The first thing I thought about when I saw this poster was yes, yes it does!.

© Frank Chimero

This poster is part of a series of Inspirational Design Posters by graphic designer and illustrator Frank Chimero. He created the series specifically for designers in an attempt to provide a spark of inspiration.

Chimero writes:

The topics range from various truisms I’ve discovered about the field in the past few years to snarky tongue-in-cheek comments. I think we designers spend an awful lot of time talking to ourselves, and I consider this my contribution to the monologue.

Here’s another one of my favorites from the set.

© Frank Chimero

You can see the connection here. This stuff applies to pretty much anyone in a creative profession, including photographers.

I’ve mentioned before that being hired for your style and unique vision is one of the best things that can happen to you as a creative person. When you’re allowed (by yourself or others) to be as creative as possible (which, granted, doesn’t happen all the time) and you realize that following your vision pays off, there is indeed nothing stopping you from doing and getting the type of work you want to do. These posters are just a beautiful reminder of that fact.

© Armando Bellmas

My submission to this month’s Word It over at Speak Up.
The word is middle and there it is.

More Olympus XA2 gold.

© Armando Bellmas

© Armando Bellmas

© Armando Bellmas

I took these photos in April while on assignment and showing my book in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. An exhibition of prints and posters by artist Brian Kiger was tucked in a back room of the serendipitous and delightful Krankie’s Coffee in downtown Winston-Salem.

I recently listened to a fascinating and inspiring interview with legendary designer Vaughan Oliver on an episode of Design Matters with Debbie Millman.

Millman and Oliver talk for a while about his iconic work for the 4AD record label, for which he has designed albums covers for bands like the Pixies, Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, Throwing Muses, Lush, Mountain Goats, and many many more.

Oliver steers the conversation towards the use of photography in his designs, specifically about the Pixies and their album covers.

Designs by Vaughan Oliver

Oliver worked with photographer Simon Larbalestier on most or all of the Pixies albums. Oliver declares Larbalestier “the fifth Pixie” because his photography, especially his personal work, jives so well with the band and the essence of their music.

Photos © Simon Larbalestier

Vaughan the goes on to talk about collaborating with photographers:

Generally when I work with photographers I give them a lot of space. Half the job is done if you choose the right photographer. And then I’ll kind of work with that photographer, identify aspects of [their] work that I like, that I think fits with the music.

A lot of photographers that I’ve worked with have one foot in the art camp, have one foot in the commercial camp, and they have a lot of kind of personal work. Where are you going in your personal work? Where would you like to go next with it? Can you see it relating to this music?

I’m not [the] kind of an art director that stands over the top of a photographer and looks over his shoulder and directs him, but has the confidence in the first instinct to go with that photographer’s own aesthetic.

Getting hired for our aesthetics, instincts, and vision is what each of us strives for no matter what kind of art we create. Awesome.

Find out more about designer Vaughan Oliver, listen to the interview on Design Matters with Debbie Millman (which is a great show you should be listening to every week anyways), and view more work by Simon Larbalestier.

And of course, always listen to the Pixies.

Penguin Books commissioned illustrator Michael Gillette to create fourteen covers for its upcoming reissue of Ian Fleming’s James Bond books.

Book cover illustrations by Michael Gillette

At The Penguin Blog, Penguin Books Senior Copywriter Colin Brush writes:

The centenary of Fleming’s birth was clearly a good time to revisit the Bonds and cover them in a package that says, yes these are fun, but also makes it implicit that there’s no reason not to take them seriously. Most importantly, they should look like books worth owning.

Poster-sized prints of these covers would also be worth owning. The colors, the different Bond women, the almost psychedelic typography meets pop art quality — reminds me a bit of the old Wes Wilson posters of the psychedelic sixties.

Book cover illustrations by Michael Gillette

In an interview at the James Bond fansite MI6, Gillette talks about his inspiration for this project.

I’ve always been inspired by pop art and pop culture. This was a job where I could indulge that to the hilt. I was trying to distill all the things I’d enjoyed about Bond and impress those times in to the various women and the typography – psychedelic posters, Saul Bass, Milton Glaser, films, pop music, it’s all in there.

Each of these illustrations is unique and titillating. These new editions are worthwhile for both the classic stories and the soon-to-be-classic covers. See them all at The Penguin Blog.

Mark Porter turns us on to the stylish and progressive design of the 1960s magazine Town. He writes:

Under art director Tom Wolsey, [Town] had a golden few years in which it set the template for an entire visual language. It had all the style and energy of the better-known magazines, and a unique – and very British – personality of its own.

Check out these covers. Minimal design and a distinctive use of photography:

courtesy of Mark Porter

things to look at has a few scans from the pages of Town. Again, great photography and art direction:

courtesy of things to look at

courtesy of things to look at

In his post Porter writes:

If you’ve never seen a copy of Town, beg, borrow or steal to get one. Marvel at the virtuosity; despair at the brilliance; and then channel the energy. There’s so much there that it still gives off sparks!

Read more about Town at magforum.com.

I recently read Keith Gessen’s debut novel All The Sad Young Literary Men and loved it. This passage from the first chapter — “Keith: The Vice President’s Daughter” — takes place in November of 2000:

The night of the election Jillian and I stayed home and watched the results come in, and ate fancy pizza, and blogged away. When they called the election for Lauren’s father, I asked Jillian to marry me — it was corny, it was psychologically obtuse, but I couldn’t think of a better way — and she said, “Yes.” She put on the ring I had bought her and added to her acceptance: “Especially now that we’ll have an environmental President who’ll assure a future for our children.” I kissed her.

When they called the election back, we sat there together in disbelief. The diamond dangled on her finger like a fake.

If you’re so inclined, read the novel’s Prologue on Gessen’s n+1 website. Good stuff. And that’s only the beginning.

Another stimulating thing about this book is the cover: a minimal design and intuitive illustration from the wildly creative minds at The Heads of State. Check it:

Because you love good writing, read Gessen’s book. Because you love good design, visit The Heads of State portfolio. You won’t go wrong with either one.

Poster by MODE for AIGA Charlotte

AdCharlotte.com points us to a super-cool poster the folks at MODE designed for an upcoming AIGA Charlotte event with designer Stefan Sagmeister.

Sagmeister is on the road plugging and talking about his book Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far and will be doing just that here in Charlotte on April 21, 2008.

About the poster:

For [Stefan Sagmeister's] lecture tour stop in Charlotte, the AIGA was in need of a poster promoting the event. Inspired by the spirit of social discovery in Stefan’s book, MODE asked various individuals around the city to share some of their own personal maxims, which were captured in their very handwriting. The individuals were chosen at random and photographed over a 10-day period at 30 different locations around the city. They represent a variety of ages, social statuses, races, professions, religious beliefs, and life experiences. The final piece was elevated to greater social level and beyond design circles, having a reciprocal relationship between the city of Charlotte and Stefan.

Cheers to designer/photographer Maxim Vakhovskiy for the great photos.