I came across this inspiring site yesterday which extensively documents the past posters of the Olympic games. It’s amazing to see how the graphic style of the country hosting them comes through in the designs. The standard in the collection is pretty high by and large, but a couple of years really stand out… Mexico – 1968, Munich – 1972, Russia – 1980 to name a few.

Apologies for being off the radar for the last while. Christmas was hectic and I moved into a new office space in the new year and to be honest, I have just been a lazy shite about updating this blog. So, first up, an excellent poster series by Exergian. Website & blog. Shop for the series here.

I was lucky enough to see George Lois speak at a design conference called Offset last week. I was familiar with some of his work (Esquire mainly) but not all of what he presented on the day. The man is a serious inspiration to all designers out there. Ideas. Ideas. Ideas. He repetedly stressed the importance of ideas in graphic communication. No cheap tricks using flash-in-the-pan styles, make sure all graphic solutions have a heavy weight idea at their core. Proper order. Too much shite, trendy design out there these days with no substance in my opinion. I am itching to get my hands on his new book. I'd say it's an impressive read, similar to Tibor Kalman's book or Sagmeisters.
His site: http://www.georgelois.com/  where you will see much of his work and you'll find a link to his book. One other interesting point I never knew, the man's mentor was Paul Rand. Right place, right time!

This is such a smart idea
Have a goo here for more: http://cardoncopy.com/one/index.html

Came across this treasure trove of book cover designs all on one site. I've only had a quick mooch through it so far, but there's bloody heaps to get inspiration from. Very comprehensive catagories to choose what angle you'd like to navigate through all the information on the site too. Two thumbs up.
http://bookcoverarchive.com/

I was looking for Herb Loobalin’s recently, my studio mate Rob has a copy. It is something else, page after page of impressive typography and illustration. Right up my street.
So, I decided I wanted a copy of my own, I looked online and to my shock and dismay, it cost $140 on Amazon. Faaaak that for a lark. Silly cash.
For those of you whop don't have a that kind of cash to throw around, here is a decent Flickr album dedicated to the book. http://www.flickr.com/photos/nkeppol/sets/72157618401843508/with/3541861878/
Happy oogling.

Supergraphics!!? What the fook? Is this yet another designer-wanky term?
Yep, that's exactly what I thought when I heard it first.
Well, I was showing my ignorance and it has been around for quite some time, since the 60s in fact. Its definition is actually a very straight forward and simple one: very large, usually brightly colored, graphic images of simple design. Something I buzz off a great deal for my work, but never knew it actually had a name.
So how did I come across this topic? Unit Editions is how. This English production company gave a talk at Offset this year, which unfortunately I missed. Turns out thesy gave an amazing talk on Supergraphics and plugged their new book in doing so:
http://www.uniteditions.com/archives/supergraphics-the-book-pre-order-and-get-5-off/
Judging by their previous book they brought out, I'm going to make sure I get my paws on a copy!
Finally, here's a comical link to a DIY Supergraphics kit from the 70s:
http://www.canadiandesignresource.ca/officialgallery/miscellaneous/supergraphic/

Unit Editions, is an English publishing house I have mentioned on this blog before (Supergraphics post). I had a gander for them on Flickr last week and a few really interesting results popped up. A ridiculous amount in fact! Check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uniteditions/  and you'll have an idea of what I'm on about. Lots of creative brain feed there.

Yusaka Kamekura's book caught my eye as I looked through the treasure trove of photographed books. I've attached a few of the images to this post, the rest are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/uniteditions/sets/72157621829514897/with/3791810759/

It seem like everything Andy Mangold comes up with is pure gold. I've been looking through his site and I really cant fault a single project. Smart, original, fresh ideas all produced exceptionally well. He reminds me a little of Alan Fletcher’s approach to design. Well considered work that can be appreciated by the masses, not only designers! A veign of thought I strongly believe in.
The site: http://www.andymangold.com

This is gonna be a quicky post. The work is bloody good and can speak fo itself. Check out his site to see his rake load of amazing animations. http://jblyth.com
His photos: http://www.justmissedus.com/
Blog: http://www.them-thangs.com/
Be warned, you will loose days going through the blog!

Heralding from the UK, Olly is probably best known for his iconic and memorable film posters. His series of black and red posters were a massive hit a few years ago when they first came out. Itching to get this man on board for a project of some description in the future.
Site: http://www.ollymoss.com/index.html

A short and snappy post. Malika Favre is a French freelance illustrator that works with Airside. Amazo stuff.
The site: http://www.malikafavre.com