Welcome to the blog of Johannesburg creative agency Nicework. A fine selection of the best creative ideas, art, design and advertising.
Since Monday is a difficult day to be inspired, here is a quote by the marvelous Milton Glaser, which suggests that good graphic design is not only about creativity but also perseverance.
“I move things around until they look right.”
Milton Glaser explaining Graphic Design in an On Curiosity Interview.
Pop Chart Lab designed this clever poster that outlines basic typographic terminology, including serifs, hooks, diacritics, spines and ligatures. Click here to buy the print.
I’m not one for motivational posters but I really liked this print by Megan Matsuoka inspired by a Henri Matisse quote. Here is a little more information about her project:
“As a result of wanting to boost my creativity, I embarked on a journey of creating 100 Posters in 100 Days. Using inspirational quotes as my basis and applying typographic treatments to highlight the message – this poster is a reflection of one of the results in my series.”
Kathy Keatley Garvey, a UC Davis Communications Specialist in the Department of Enomology, took this amazing photograph of a bee stinging a person’s arm. That goo-like trail attached to the stinger is actually the bee’s abdominal tissue. What a gruesome way to die. Read Kathy’s story about capturing the image.
Image © Kathy Keatley Garvey
via: twisted sifter
Marija Jaćimović and Benoît Detalle created this awesome stop frame animation over the course of 3 weeks for the RSA/Nominet Trust film competition. The animation is based on a talk called “Food Rules” that was given by Michael Pollan at the RSA that champions organic food production.
Here’s a TED Talk by Jonathan Harris on the web’s ‘secret stories’. I saw this video about two years ago and I still love watching it. You are strongly encouraged to take yourself over to We Feel Fine and play, but make sure you’ve got a good hour or two to spare. In fact, just close all your other tabs and do it right now.
1. Assuming you know what the customer wants
2. The “I know what features to build” flaw
3. Focusing on the launch date
4. Emphasizing execution instead of testing, learning, and iteration
5. Writing a business plan that doesn’t allow for trial and error
6. Confusing traditional job titles with a startup’s needs
7. Executing on a sales and marketing plan
8. Prematurely scaling your company based on a presumption of success
9. Management by crisis, which leads to a death spiral
via: swiss miss
Jessica Hische is a letterer, illustrator and designer working in San Francisco. We found this great quote by her and thought it was worth a share:
“Support designers so that they can make a living of what they love most. Buy their products if you like them. Otherwise it kills creativity!”
Graphic designer Frank Chimero gave an excellent talk on “The Shape of Design” at the Build Conference, which is a boutique design conference where interesting, talented web practitioners from all over the world come to share ideas, techniques and inspiration. This is a great quote from his talk. We highly recommend you watch the whole thing.
“To really think about design, you need to learn and think about everything other than it. Design is a vessel: the most important part is what it holds. As makers of things, the work gets better from outside influences, and gives us clarity about the purpose of the work: to inform, to persuade, and to delight. We’ll spend some time ruminating on what it means to delight our audiences, think of different ways to do so through mechanisms like storytelling, and realize that the real benefit of making anything is to nourish lives.”
Appetizing book design by viction:ary for Eat Me. I love that they made the books look like giant ice cream sandwiches. Eat Me explores how eating has become a way to communicate and engage, as well being an indication of cultural values, lifestyle, artisanship, criticism, aspirations and imagination. The book showcases packaging design, art, social events, identity projects, restaurant designs, culinary implements and products inspired by food.
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