Showing posts with label bad design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bad design. Show all posts

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Evolution of Car Logos


Did you know that the Cadillac emblem was inspired by a family crest of a nobleman who later turned out to be a fraud? Or that Volkswagen was Hitler’s idea?
Grab a fresh cup of coffee and take a look at the fascinating stories behind the logos of some of the most popular cars in the world, thanks to Neatorama.



That's Right,

HMK

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Miller Goodman Rubberwood Blocks



Me want: ShapeMaker!

Muchas gracias to the smart folks over at Thinking For A Living, a great new design site that's really worth checking out.

That's Right,

HMK

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Daily Drop Cap

That's Right. The Daily Drop Cap. An ongoing project by typographer and illustrator Jessica Hische. Each day (or at least each WORK day), a new hand-crafted decorative initial cap is posted for your enjoyment and for the beautification of blog posts everywhere.




To use a Daily Drop Cap on your site or blog, follow the instructions in each post and read about the usage limitations. Enjoy!

That's Right,

HMK

Sunday, August 30, 2009

IKEA - WTF?


What The Font?

I just signed the IKEA, Ikea, Please Get Rid Of Verdana! Petition with this comment - you should too!

"C'mon IKEA, you guys are better than that! Verdana's a web font and dull as a fake Swiss Army Knife. Please stay classic and bring back Futura!"

More outrageous details: IKEA Sans replaced by Verdana.

Go sign it: Ikea, Please Get Rid Of Verdana! Petition.

That's Right,

HMK

Thursday, July 30, 2009

100 Years of Design Manifestos

Woodcut by Frans Masereel

Since the days of radical printer-pamphleteers, design and designers have a long history of fighting for what’s right and working to transform society. The rise of the literary form of the manifesto also parallels the rise of modernity and the spread of letterpress printing.

Here are a few excerpts:

"We stand on the last promontory of the centuries!... Why should we look back, when what we want is to break down the mysterious doors of the Impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. We already live in the absolute, because we have created eternal, omnipresent speed."
1909 The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism, F.T. Marinetti

"Architects, painters, sculptors, we must all return to crafts! For there is no such thing as "professional art". There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman. The artist is an exalted craftsman. By the grace of Heaven and in rare moments of inspiration which transcend the will, art may unconsciously blossom from the labour of his hand, but a base in handicrafts is essential to every artist. It is there that the original source of creativity lies."
1919 Bauhaus Manifesto, Walter Gropius

"I believe that typefaces are valuable, powerful, and beautiful cultural tools, worthy of legal protection and deserving of the price they bring in the Western marketplace. Moreover, a gift of typography makes good on a unique body of skill, knowledge, and passion."
2006 Free Font Manifesto, Ellen Lupton

Dig: 100 Years of Design Manifestos!

That's Right,

HMK

Gracias to the smart folks at: Back Space.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Worst Rebranding Ever!


I didn't think it was possible to make anything worse than a Pizza Hut pizza, boy was I wrong!

Man, this is so incredibly lame I don't even know where to start - the first thing that came to my mind was:

Your logo in 30 minutes or it's free!

That's Right,

HMK

Thanks to idsgn.com.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Vintage Bicycle Logos


I've been putting some milage on my bike lately, a great way to exercise both body and mind. So, with bikes on the brain I thought I'd share this small gruppo of truly awesome classic type and script-based old bicycle logos, many of which are still in use, courtesy of One+One=Three.

Gotta love those Italians and their attention to detail, simplicity and elegance regarding food, wine and foot ware, but also for the top shelf engineering of their bikes and their brilliant identities as well.

Ok, got some brainstorming to do - time for a quick 45 minute ride!

That's Right,

HMK

Friday, July 25, 2008

Why America is F*#@ed...


Just one of the reasons why America is F*#@^ed, graphically anyway...

From The forthcoming Draplin Project.

That's Right,

HMK

Friday, May 30, 2008

How To Create A Butt Ugly Website


From the moment a visitor hits your site to the time they exit, there are plenty of effective techniques to not only annoy them, but insure that they'll never come back.

In this dead on piece, Alec Rios identifies 28 points to remember during a website development and how to execute them properly.

Here are a few gems:

Use as many random colors as you can. It doesn’t matter if they look good together or not, just make a rainbow. Eat some skittles for inspiration.

Play background music automatically. Everyone in the world likes the exact same music as you, so feel free to play some automatically. Don’t allow me to pause it or anything, though.

Use HTML tables. Forget CSS. Travel back in time and use some HTML.

Use at least five different fonts. The more variation, the better. Be sure to include a few fancy, cursive, illegible fonts. Don’t make it look like you had a scheme of any kind.

Show no professionalism whatsoever. Don’t make your website look professional, don’t act professional. Just be a kid.

Don’t pay attention to your visitors. Completely ignore them. Don’t answer email, don’t accept feedback, nothing.

Force me to register. People think that registering will keep visitors coming back. It won’t. So keep making people do it.

Never update your website. Outdated information is in this year.

And if for some odd reason you want to create a good website, simply do the exact opposite of all this.

Check out all 28 points over: HERE.

That's Right

HMK

Thanks to The Design Observer

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Herman Miller: Discovering Design


Discovering Design is a destination for individuals to learn about the evolution and history of mid-century American modernism—the people, products, places and ideas that formed an important design era. The target audience is broad and ranges from the architecture and design communities to students and potential customers of Herman Miller furniture.

Dig it: Herman Miller.


That's Right,

HMK

Thanks to the smart folks at Communication Arts.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The Real Thing


Alice Rawsthorn waxes on intelligent, elegant and appropriate examples of design that make you feel better just by being there.

There was a time when Coca-Cola's packaging was as irritatingly fussy and over-complicated as its competitors'. No more. Coke unveiled the engagingly simple new Coca-Cola Classic can last summer, after junking the neurotic illustrations on the old cans in favor of the beautifully scripted "signature" that's been its corporate logo since the 1880s.



Really appreciate the clean, subtle and "classic" use of Gotham.

Read the whole thing over at the International Herald Tribune: Alice Rawsthorn on Quietly Good Design.

That's Right,

HMK

Sunday, March 02, 2008

P is for Paula


New York’s first public pay toilet finally opened last month in Madison Square Park. The exterior sports a poster designed by Paula Scher, featuring the identity she developed for the park.

The toilet is self-cleaning and costs a quarter to use, and is conveniently located just across the park from the Pentagram office.

That's Right,

HMK

Thanks to the smart at Pentagram.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Call The Design Police!


Ahhhhh! Help! Call the Design Police!

It happens all the time. You're minding your own business, enjoying the day and then it happens. You see a poster for an event or product that's so amazingly uninspired, half-assed, lazy and just flat out bad, that it makes you mad. More eye polution crap produced by either a clueless overruling committee or one of the numerous uneducated and talentless wanna be self proclaimed designers that believe more is always better.

(Dude, just because you know how to use a mouse and you have a collection of FREE and nasty bastardized fonts does not mean that you're automatically qualified to be a communication designer.)

So you stand there, asking questions out loud and to know one in particular...

WTF?

What were they thinking?

Somebody paid good money to some JV, Helen Keller School of Design graduate to produce this piece of crap?

Who chose those colors and fonts?

Is that suppose to be a logo?

Ever heard of kerning, hierarchy, or legibility?

Enter the Design Police and their 5 different templates of stickers that'll apply to just about any design mistake people can make.

I got mine - now please, go get yours and help stop the madness of the NTAC!

Join the cause for smarter, better design and get your stickers over at Design Police.

That's Right,

HMK

Thanks again Freddy!

Monday, December 17, 2007

Que, Wieviel? Nein!


Ah, the power of 9. Did you know that you can create any letter with a 3 x 3 base unit grid?

And now, thanks to the generous folks over at ABC Button: Der Button, you’ll not only be able to see the power of 9 via some buttons in action, but you can also grab the typeface that was influenced by the buttons for absolutely amazing low price: Nada!

That's Right,

HMK

Big gracias to Michael Surtees, lots more insightful design related items over at his cool blog: DesignNotes.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Hand Job


I just ordered my copy of designer and fellow type freak Mike Perry's new book Hand Job - a catalog of type.

Check It out Here.

That's Right,

HMK


PUBLISHED BY PRINCETON ARCHITECTURAL PRESS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

London 2012 Olympics Logo


Of the 3178 comments (so far) from the BBC.co.uk site regarding the London 2012 Olympics Logo, here are a few of my favorites:

"Who the hell is supposed to be inspired by this load of old twaddle!?"

"I work in the advertising field, and have seen some pretty bad concepts in my time, but this one takes the biscuit."

"Looks like a cross between underpass graffiti and a Sex Pistols album."

"It looks like a broken swastika"

"Oh dear. Things aren't going well at all, are they?"

'I have seen pools of vomit on Undergound platforms which are more creative, artistic and representative of the city of London."

"This is a really disappointing logo, it is utterly uninspiring and says nothing."

"As soon as i read the headline "the 2012 logo revieled", as said.. I bet it's ****. What a coincedence..."

"argh, my eyes. the burning. argh."

"Bin it!"

And for the record, it cost the people of the UK £400,000.00 or 797,459.31 U.S.


Dang, and I thought the Valero logo was uninspired, dated and flat out lame...

That's Right,

HMK