Inspiration

Fonts In Use was launched as a blog in 2010 with the goal of documenting the typefaces employed in well-designed work. This was a great idea, since we've all wondered at some time what type was used in a particular piece. By identifying these, the site provided examples of how to effectively use typefaces. After posting 70 of these, all categorized by typeface, format and industry, founders Sam Berlow, Stephen Coles and Nick Sherman have now opened the site up to outside contributions.

Can there really be rules for those who typically succeed by questioning and re-inventing them? Cedor Pastori recently asked 15 successful creatives to choose just one rule to share for those who'd like to emulate their path to glory. My pick for coolest job? Digital Engagement Associate at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. How sweet is that?

What Design Can Do! sees itself as a platform for architects, graphic designers, product designers, fashion designers and photographers who are committed to using design as a method of finding solutions for global problems such as energy, the environment and income disparity. The recent conference, held in Amsterdam, featured a broad spectrum of speakers, such as Stephan Doitschinoff' (above), Paula Scher, Esteban Ucrós and Honey & Bunny.

Amsterdam-based motion graphics studio Calango is releasing a steady stream of typefaces under the Animography label, which are designed to be animated within After Effects. All the paths, keyframes and expressions are exposed, with the resulting effect said to be appropriate for use in such things as title sequences, TV commercials and presentations. Some free fonts are provided to get you going. It's a worthy initative and makes you wonder why traditional font designers haven't seen this opportunity. The clip below shows the process of using the Binary font.

In the digital age, there remains something inexplicably compelling about pinball machines. Perhaps it's simply the unabashedly sensorial nature of a well-designed game, which immerses the player in a compact universe of sight, sound and tactile feedback. I used to collect old games, with my favorite being a Gottlieb Barnacle Bill six-flipper woodrail from the forties, and I'm convinced that pinball machines are a greatly-neglected American folk art. Sad to say, there is now just one pinball manufacturer remaining, with Stern Pinball doing its best to keep the genre alive. In the clip above, game designer John Borg shows just what it takes to master X-Men, the firm's latest release. Those lucky enough to be attending the International Comic-Con in San Diego this week will be able to get their hands on it while participating in Stern's second annual pinball tournament.

That's right, once again we're treated to a week of all things Adobe, thanks to Adobe UK. If you missed it, Monday the focus was on the creative industry, while Tuesday was all about the relationship between print and tablet publishing. Adobe asks: "Can the two work together? And how can print survive in a world of pixels? Join us as we find out!" The presenters are perhaps a bit too eager to convince us to subscribe to Creative Cloud but the fact remains that this week Adobe is delivering a ton of content, so ignore it at your peril. You can get started here.

Olef Hajek is one hot illustrator these days. His work is to be seen just about everywhere, with Gestalten recently releasing Black Antoinette, a collection of his most recent work. If you're a fan, the good news is that Gestalten has now published limited editions of seven of his illustrations, as shown below.

Type is what you make of it, with every face generating a range of associations and emotions in the viewer. For Andreas Xenoulis, the geometric construction and extremes between the thin and thick strokes of Bodoni signify "good taste, the classic, the elegant, the different." Carrying that a bit further, Andreas decided to create a limited-edition silkscreen print in which a female figure is created entirely of Bodoni characters, with the decision to use silkscreen and gold leaf based on his desire to have the print "reflect the ultimate woman nobility." The result is quite neat, with prints available using different inks and papers. It's worth visiting his area on Behance to check out all the images of the printing process of the poster, a few of which are shown below. Up next, Helvetica Boy?

For more than 20 years the New Directors' Showcase has formed an integral part of the annual Cannes Festival of Creativity. This global mix of directors has a reputation for spotlighting new talent that goes beyond the realm of advertising to include short films, titles, animations, music promotions or simply examples of new techniques. A good example of this is Andrew Thomas Huang's mesmerizing Solipsist, above.

The clientsfromhell.net site is a repository of anonymously-contributed gems from designers sharing the pain of dealing with impossible clients. Most have a comic element, such as the following story about designing menus for a Persian restaurant, which involved a suggestion for the owner. Designer: To be honest, I would change the name to ‘Taco-Dog’ on the menu. Client: What’s wrong with Dog-Taco?