Once again, I asked my fellow graphic designer’s on Twitter if they would be interested in submitting what they feel to be their best or favorite printed design project. Here’s what they’ve got to show for it…
In no particular order, 29 beautifully crafted print designs with a brief statement, creative process and/or inspiration for the projects written by the designers.
Brian Hoff (me) | Center City Magazine Cover
“The October 2005 issue focused on the night/party life of Philadelphia — The goal was put City Hall in a fantastical, party atmosphere.
I over emphasized the beautiful glow the city naturally embellishes once the sunsets with neon lighting effects created in Photoshop and utilized a photo (by yours truly) of City Hall as the center point for which the city lives and breathes.”
» http://www.brianhoff.net
Menachem Krinsky | BMW Poster
“[The goal] was to come up with a more artsy feel for BMW, rather than the more typical, metallic looking feel they always do.”
» http://www.menachemkrinsky.com
Kyle Steed | “Big Typography” Poster
“[...] The quote “what we do in life echoes in eternity” was a great theme to design around. It brings a lot of thought and depth to the design. I used the “Rockwell Sketch” font for the typography. I really find this font attractive the larger it is. I blended the font into the background and used a subtle grunge brush on top of them to give it a more vintage feel.”
Design Shard | October 2008 Calendar on Smashing Magazine
“The calender needed to embody Autumn as this was the theme i was aiming for. Even though autumn is cold, I wanted to depict it as being beautiful, with natural beauty; this is why I combined the woman’s face with wood textures and leaves of autumn by Max Stanworth of Design Shard”
http://www.designshard.com/
Anca Foster | Smooshhh branding/packaging project
“…While I was processing ideas and doing the thought process for the beverage branding, there was a basketball game on TV, and Smush Parker was playing. He has my favorite name out of all basketball players, and was laughing about how cute it is…and then the idea for the branding clicked — I will name my brand Smoosh!”
Janine Wilkins | Bridal Boutique business cards
“[The client] wanted to appear professional, sophisticated, and feminine. The bannerstand (not shown) and business cards were designed for an upcoming bridal show and future events. I incorporated professional photography, lace and marble patterns, and striking colors into the design to help the client achieve the look she wanted.”
CMD+Shift Design | Corporate Party Invite (4th of July)
The exterior is very clean and simple with the fireworks pattern on the back and the firms logo and KABOOM in big Meta Plus lettering on the front. When you open it, the horizontally formatted card becomes a long time line of the party that your invited to experience.”
» cmdshiftdesign.com
Brainchild Collective | Hero Head Poster
“[...] The Hero Head piece is inspired by my creative process itself, all the colorful imagination and organic “data” running through my mind that outputs to a finished concept. The crumpled paper and tape representing the inevitable discarding of ideas as not good enough. I felt as though that process was a beautiful design in itself and I tried to illustrate that here.”
Just Creative Design | Gruen Brewery annual report
“This annual report design was a continuation of the Gruen Brewery brand. I had to create the whole identity for the beer including the bottle (the bottle top seen on Year in Review page), the logo (the two kangaroos) and the whole identity (colours, style, image, etc)…. this was then continued onto the annual report design. The beer is targeted to the the boutique beer market (25+ year olds). You can see the full beer design here.”
» http://justcreativedesign.com
Laughing Lion Design | Poster Illustration
“The illustration is part of a series of buildings in Dublin, my home town.”
» http://www.LaughingLionDesign.net
Niki Brown | Party Invitation
“I just recently moved to Boston and decided to throw a going away party before I left. Since I don’t eat meat, I decided to design this invite for a “Bring Your Own Meat” party. I wanted to incorporate humor into a very simple design. The party was a blast!”
» http://NikiBrown.com
R27 CreativeLab | Origami book jacket
“I wanted to use the influence of Asian Art by using the vibrant colours and the idea of folding through the use of images. I took the abstract approach as we’ve all seen the great designs you can achieve through the process of paper folding on many occasions…”
» http://www.r27.co.uk
Steffen Rusten
“The project was to design a press kit for a local band as part of a music promotion class I’m taking. I decided to go with a newspaper style theme with a jacket holding the contents of the press kit. The inspiration behind this was to make it literal-type press kit (in the style of something that could be seen in the press).”
» steffen.co.nz
Creative Aces | Poster/Magazine Cover
“[...] Inspiration can be summed up by the event Chairman; “the cars & boats are the stars”. Being surrounded by these incredible automobiles and classic boats was truly inspirational, as well as breathtaking.”
» http://www.issuu.com/jsondy
Adelle Charles | Dust Jacket and Book Cover Design
Veronica Domeier | Domeier Wedding/Engagement Celebration Invitations
“[...] earth tones as the main colors, blues and browns with pink highlights throughout. Naturally flowers had to be part of the design. Going through several more detailed flower designs, I chose to go with the simplest form which ended up being the main element and helped to keep the design simple…”
David Airey | Flyer Design
“One of my favorite print design pieces…It’s a flyer design for a Scottish-based music artist. What pleased me most about this flyer was the improvement I made from the initial idea through to the final piece. I was helped a great deal in an online graphic design forum, and thoroughly enjoyed the critique process. It’s an old design, and I think the kerning could be improved, but there’s an amazing difference from the first draft.”
» http://www.davidairey.com/
Brown Advertising + Design | Burchette and Burchette Catalog
“This project was for a local hardwood floor company who is expanding into national sales of reclaimed, custom distressed hardwood floors targeted mainly to architects and contractors. [...] A 12-page catalog, showcasing their photography and informing customers of their various finishing options as well as specialty items such as borders, medallions and inlays.”
» http://www.brownadvertising.com
Andy Jacobson | Directors Film Company Ad Campaign
“The campaign needed to identify DFC’s unique position of having facilities on both continents with services delivered “seamlessly”. Our execution brings both continents together into “one-world”, with the most critical information provided who to contact directly.”
» www.andyjacobson.com
Joe Ciaramella | Record Label CD Package
“[...] Since her music is vibrant, electric, bright and loud – I felt the cd package should convey that feeling when first looked at on the store shelves. With the added challenge of this being a double-cd package, I had to balance the two discs with their own look in order to give each disc its own identity.”
» http://www.random-pattern.com/
Prepressology | Shelters of Saratoga Invite
“SOS was looking to have pieces designed for the charity event ‘One Fine Day’, an elegant garden party which included an afternoon of relaxation and rejuvenation in the gorgeous Victorian garden of a local bed and breakfast. [...] the oversized postcard SOS had the ability to attract a persons attention with a colorful front and then display a good amount of information on the back about the event.”
» http://www.prepressology.com/
Angie Bowen | Break Free Poster
“While browsing stock photo images and trying to gain some inspiration when I was stuck with artist’s block, I was hit with the idea for this design. It was a totally new direction for me and one that ended up being very symbolic of both my block and the way out of it. Anytime I’m hit with a creative block, I start experimenting with new techniques and that usually help me through it”
Shanna Korby | Korby Imagery holiday card
“This red wine themed card was designed for the 2007-2008 holiday season and was mailed to clients and colleagues around the world. Some were sent with a bottle of wine, all were sent with personalized notes.”
» http://korbyimagery.com
Oropesa Creative | Beverage Press Kit
“The project was to create a press kit for this alcoholic beverage that would communicate the brand and the uniqueness of the packaging in a compelling way, since we cant send the actual product to editors because of shipping restrictions.”
» www.oropesacreative.com
Tamar Design+Marketing | Republic of Texas Poster
For this poster, Republic of Texas Alternative Arts Series: Chris Duarte, I really wanted to give it a bluesy feel, but with a rock-n-roll edge. My inspiration was an album cover from a 1960′s blues singer, but used a much edgier font.
» www.tamardesignmarketing.com
Mayhem Studios | Agency Roll Call
“[...] One of the most import things is research. Looking on the web/books for your clients competition, type of design that industry is creating and for inspiration.” Then, “I get down to sketching out 5-6 pages worth of quick ideas to get things flowing. Depending on the type of project. I will give anywhere from 2-4 concept samples from the refined sketches.”
» http://www.mayhemstudios.com
Jeff Bazer | Bertino & Associates Brochure
“I got my inspiration from the work they’ve done, very modern, clean lines and elegant and wanted to infuse that into the brochure.”
http://www.jeffbazer.com
Jeffrey Garofalo | JeffreyGarofalo.com
“The client was looking for an invitation that was simple, bold and with some heft. I tried out several solutions ranging from those that turned out goofy like an admission ticket to a film strip that worked well. To add heft, each piece was glued together front and back on heavy card stock and printed offset.”
www.jeffreygarofalo.com
