beyondwords | a blog for professional writers, editors, and designers

Posts Tagged ‘Design’

Design for Women’s History Month

Sunday, March 7th, 2010

Rosie March is Women’s History Month in the US, and the Design a Poster About Women’s Issues contest from GOOD and The Daily Beast is a great way for designers to get involved.

The goal of the contest is to bring awareness to three critical issues facing women across the globe — human trafficking, childhood marriage, and childhood obesity — through public-awareness campaign posters that use design, photography, illustration, collage, or typography.

All entries must be emailed by midnight (PST) Friday, March 12. Winners will be announced on Monday, March 15 and featured on Good.is and The Daily Beast. For more information, visit GOOD’s contest website.

Tags: contest, Design, poster
Posted in Design | No Comments »

Winterhouse Awards for Design Writing & Criticism

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

AIGA has announced its call for entries for the 5th Annual Winterhouse Awards for Design Writing & Criticism. A program of AIGA, the Winterhouse Writing Awards provide an opportunity for both professional and student designers. The Awards were founded to recognize excellence in writing about design and to encourage the development of young voices in design writing, commentary, and criticism.

There will be two awards granted, the writing award and the education award. The writing award is open to writers, critics, scholars, historians, journalists and designers and is given for a body of work (three separate works of writing). The education award is open to high school, undergraduate or graduate students and is for a single work of writing about design.

Writing entries can be about any design discipline or form, including architectural, environmental, fashion, graphic, industrial, information, interactive, product, and strategic.

You must be a US citizen and under the age of 40 to submit entries. The submission deadline is June 1. For more information, check out the criteria, submission guidelines, and FAQs.

Tags: AIGA, contest, Design
Posted in Design, Writing | No Comments »

Student perspective: Design jobs

Friday, February 26th, 2010

If you are a student or just starting out in your career, then you definitely need to check out the Design Jobs series from Andrea Zagata.

You might remember Andrea as the designer behind the creative leave-behind we featured last fall. Andrea is also a journalism senior at Michigan State University, and she recently shared her perspective on searching for a design job in a four-part series.

First up—putting together a design application packet from cover letter to clips. Need help choosing your best work? Andrea shares how to cut your clips in part two.

Once you’ve sent your application packet to potential employers, it’s time to get ready for interviews. Andrea offers insight from her experiences as both the interviewer and the interviewee.

The series wraps up with a guest blog from MSU alum and freelance graphic designer Daniel Thai on networking, showing how connections made face-to-face and online can lead to freelance work and valuable contacts.

The Design Jobs series offers a lot of valuable advice, even for non-designers, so be sure to check it out along with the rest of Andrea’s I Shot the Serif blog.

Tags: Design, interviews, jobs, networking, portfolio
Posted in Career, Design | No Comments »

Design Inspiration: Madison, WI

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

Here are some of my favorite photos from my recent trip to Madison, home of the University of Wisconsin.

left to right, top row to bottom 1). The Wisconsin State Capitol building, with pink lighting for Breast Cancer Awareness Month; 2). The iconic tables and chairs at the Memorial Union Terrance; 3). The State Historical Society of Wisconsin; 4). The dome entrance at the Student Union (home of Der Rathskeller); 5). Detail of the domed ceiling at the entrance of the University of Wisconsin Student Union Building. The Badger mascot is part of the detailed design; 6). Detail of a historical building downtown; 7). Machinery Row - a bike shop near the lake on Williams Street; 8). A brew pub marquee downtown; 9). Detail of a painted tile on a building downtown near State Street; 10). Marquee for the Orpheum Theatre.

Tags: Design, inspiration
Posted in Design | 1 Comment »

Design Inspiration: Milwaukee

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

Last week I spent four days in Milwaukee, Wis. for the NACUFS national conference. The city unexpectedly exceeded my expectations – river and lake front properties, art, architecture, and nightlife, there isn’t much more one could ask for right in the middle of the mid-west.

Design-wise, I found the striking contrast between modern design and Victorian architecture very interesting. Some highlights:

Left to right, top to bottom: 1). Modern art glass sculpture at Milwaukee Art Museum; 2). Exterior of Milwaukee Art Museum; 3). Typography wall art at Midwest Airlines Center; 4). Victorian building downtown; 5). Detailed light on the building; 6). Historic marker; 7). Hilton City Center Hotel, built in 1928, art deco style interior; 8). Milwaukee Public Market signage.

*Because I was such a busy bee at the conference, photos of the museum and sculpture are courtesy of stock.xchng.hu.

Tags: architecture, art, Design, inspiration, Milwaukee
Posted in Design | No Comments »

Pepsi Throwback brings back more than logos

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

I was shopping recently and noticed that the logos on the packages of Mountain Dew and Pepsi looked a little familiar – kind of like it did when I was a kid.

Today I decided to do some digging and found out that not only is the branding a “throwback” to the days gone by, but Pepsi has swapped the high fructose corn syrup for real sugar.

Pepsi has also launched a multimedia web site for the Throwback brand, including videos, blogs, a Twitter feed and widgets and wallpapers for fans to download. They’ve also partnered with Nascar driver Jeff Gordon, whose racing car features the classic Pepsi logo.

You can find more information on the branding and taste at these links.

Official Facts about Pepsi Throwback & Mountain Dew Throwback

Remember How Pepsi Tasted in the 60s? It’s Back

Pepsi Throwback’s real sugar taste thrills panel

Tags: branding, Design, Pepsi, Throwback
Posted in Design | 3 Comments »

Design Inspiration: Toronto

Monday, April 6th, 2009

I was in Toronto, Canada last week for a social marketing conference at the University of Toronto. We had lovely weather and I enjoyed snapping photos of fun signage and cityscapes. Here are a few of my favorites:

canadagallery

1). I love the big red typography for the Art Gallery of Ontario; 2). In-store display at Eaton Center featuring the names of notable Canadians; 3). The Yonge Shopping District near Eaton Center; 4). A cool name and typography for a steak restaurant; 5). Oddly enough (or maybe not), a fair number of pubs featured forest animals on their signs. All followed by “Firkin.” This was my favorite; 6). A street sign in Chinatown near the University.

Tags: Design, inspiration, signage, toronto, typography
Posted in Design | 2 Comments »

Guest Blog: Design Inspiration, Lisa Shaw – Part 2

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009

beyondwords would like to welcome back guest blogger, Lisa Shaw. Lisa earned a degree in Professional Writing from Michigan State University and a certificate in book publishing from the University of Denver. Lisa is currently teaching English to students in Busan, South Korea. This guest post is the second in a two-part series of design inspiration.

Be sure to check out Part 1 of Lisa’s guest post!

Simple and colorful — if there was a theme to the bulk of my pictures from South Korea so far, that would probably be it. Design inspiration can come from anywhere, and I’ve found that lately, mine has been coming from shapes, colors, and more natural elements. So, here are some of my top picks! Topping my list is definitely the snapshot of the lotus flowers in the doorway to a historic temple. The contrast of pink and green against the shadowed room, the curve of petals, and the aged detail designs on the door itself…

ls2_11

1). ocean wake after our ferry pulled out of the terminal on its way to Geoje Island;

ls2_2

2). lotus flowers in the doorway of one of the halls at Bulguksa (historic Buddhist temple) ;

tunnel

3). on a walking tour of Busan, we passed through the Daeti Tunnel;
(more…)

Tags: Design, inspiration, PW@MSU, South Korea
Posted in Design | No Comments »

Tropicana redesign goes south

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

I was shopping at my local Meijer sometime back, when I noticed that Tropicana Orange Juice was sporting some new packaging. I’ll admit it – I even liked the new, modern design. Fast-forward a few weeks, I’ve been reading some design and branding blogs, and it seems the hard-core Tropicana fans are not loving the new look.

Here are some interesting reads on the subject:

Tropicana Squeezes Out Fresh Design with a Peel

Tropicana Discovers Some Buyers Are Passionate About Packaging

Pepsi Takes the Tropic Out of Tropicana

Perhaps it’s because I wasn’t married to the original design that I find this all a little crazy. Tropicana says they wanted to generate attention for the brand, though I don’t think this is what they had in mind. Clearly, their consumers are comfortable with consistency. I find this snippet from Tropicana’s President particularly interesting:

It was about refreshing and modernizing,” said Tropicana president Neil Campbell. “The entire orange juice category has been in decline for some time. We wanted to create an emotional attachment by ‘heroing’ the juice and trumpeting the natural fruit goodness.”

Emotional attachment indeed. What are your thoughts?

Tags: Design, tropicana
Posted in Design, News | 7 Comments »