Basically, every day he would take the top headline and create an illustrated poster to express it, even if he was on vacation or sick. I think that is dedication and a great challenge, especially on slow news days or slow thinking days. I think as designers we should all found ways to challenge our outlook on the world and how we express it on paper on a regular basis.
Here are a couple of examples from headlines we will all recognize:
One of my favorite quotes from Steven Heller's story is the basic rules the artist had for himself.
"... Use as few elements as possible. Reduce the story to its simplest visual form. Don’t over think it. Don’t overwork it. Use as few colors as possible. Use flat color. Use color as a representative element. Don’t use gradients. Use typography as the central visual element whenever possible. Use Gotham Bold or your hand. When needed use Tungsten Bold as a condensed face. Other typefaces can be used sparingly for parody. Use bitmap and vector graphics. Rip the levels out of photographs. Keep it interesting. Use humor. Use parody. Use satire. Use visual puns. Stay neutral. Be bold. Don’t be afraid.”
While I am not sure if all of those are ideas that every designer should live by, especially outside this project, I think they create a good outline particularly for designers who are still very much in the learning process. As I have learned, doing illustrations can be very overwhelming when your skill-base is still limited, but I think remembering to take the story do its simplest visual form, while still being interesting, can help eliminate some of that pressure I often feel when I sit down to create a design.
This is great. I heard about a similar project where a professor required his students to do something for 100 days straight. He said most the students would give up, but the real challenge is to push past the hard days and keep going!
ReplyDeleteThis project reminds me of Julie and Julia for some reason. I only wish he had kept a blog rolling and we were let in on all of the emotional drama that taking time to create these posters every day caused for him. I feel like I would either burn out, or learn that I can constantly keep surprising myself. So do you have plans to try this?
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome. I wish I could get myself to do something like this, but I know I would fail after like 3 or 4 days. I really like the secret police quarters thing. And I am obsessed with that pink from the "Casey closed" poster.
ReplyDeleteThis project is so smart. So, so, so smart because ... he let the BBC do part of the work for him! I saw a project that was a year's worth of redesigns on the same poster, and I have no idea how that designer did it. But the variety here is just phenomenal ~AND~ culturally relevant and guaranteed to get a reaction and understanding from the viewer. Great find! Oh my gosh. I need to spend some time with his site.
ReplyDeleteAwesome idea with definite dedication. It's important to keep simplicity in mind when doing something such as this, or any design for that matter, but sometimes I can't seem to find the simplicity for a certain design. I have to disagree with a little bit of that quote though, even though I love it, because flat color can be sometimes very boring. I think that I may have this mindset due to Vox always wanting some type of texture? Ha. Ingrained into our brains...
ReplyDeleteWow, all of these are really different and totally reflect the headlines in a simple but dramatic way. Awesome.
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