It’s hotter than hot outside, so settle in and get comfortable because we’re sharing our most popular articles from the past month.
From Sagmeister’s Frida Kahlo-inspired glasses to Austin Kleon on Debbie Millman’s What Matters series, the creative thinking and inspiring posts we saw this past month are unmatched. In fact, July has some tough competition with this past June.
What Matters: Austin Kleon
“Austin Kleon is the New York Times bestselling author of a trilogy of illustrated books about creativity in the digital age: Steal Like An Artist, Show Your Work!, and Keep Going. He’s also the author of Newspaper Blackout, a collection of poems made by redacting the newspaper with a permanent marker. His books have been translated into dozens of languages and have sold over a million copies worldwide.”
-Debbie Millman
Read more here.
Five Album Cover Designers To Follow On Instagram
“If you’re a desktop Spotify user like me, you might’ve noticed that the platform recently added the album cover art next to the song titles on your playlists. Not only did I realize how much I genuinely love album covers with this update, but I also realized how much they say about the music without saying anything at all. The typography is outstanding, the photography is often full of emotional tendencies, and the colors, oh man, the color choices say more than words could ever. “
-Chloe Gordon
Read more here.
&Walsh Designs a Set of Emoji Celebrating Our New Hybrid Work Lifestyle For Slack
“Well, it turns out that, starting today, we’re going to have a few more emoji options on our hands. Jessica Walsh, the founder of creative agency &Walsh, recently partnered with Slack and created a new set of emoji for the workplace hub. The exclusive emoji pack found inspiration in the relatively new manner in which we work, aka, the hybrid work lifestyle.”
-Bill McCool
Read more here.
Articulate Sans Is A Legible Typeface For Everyone
“Articulate Sans, designed by Milk, is a typeface that is helping optimize legibility in any size, weight, or format without compromising character so that these texts can more easily be understood and appreciated by everyone and anyone.”
-Chloe Gordon
Read more here.
The Daily Heller: Barbara de Wilde, From Book Jacket Designer to Bookstore Owner
“Beginning in 1991, Barbara de Wilde became known for designing hundreds of splendid and memorable book jackets and covers at the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group as well as Simon and Schuster, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, The Penguin Press, W.W. Norton and others, until she ran out of creative steam. “
-Steve Heller
Read more here.
Stefen Sagmeister Designed Götti Switzerland’s New Eyewear Line Inspired By Frida Kahlo’s Eyebrows
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“Sagmeister’s design found inspiration in the overexposure of the artist, Frida Kahlo, realizing that when a celebrity of her stature becomes popular, their old haunts become a tourist trap for the city they’re from, not to mention all of the memorabilia and souvenirs that comes with it. He came to discover this during his last sabbatical in Mexico City, where he encountered vibrant art, architecture, and design, all with Frida Kahlo’s presence and influence fluttering close by.”
-Chloe Gordon
Read more here.
Adobe Launches Substance 3D Collection, Empowering The Future Of 3D & Creativity
“To support the next generation of 3D artists and creators, Adobe realized its missing link and, as of today, is launching the Substance 3D collection. This suite of tools will help designers assemble 3D models, materials, and lighting in a 3D scene. Not only that, but it includes texturing tools and stylized photorealistic images so that designer’s works can genuinely come to life.”
-Chloe Gordon
Read more here.
The Daily Heller: She/Her/He/Iconic Picto Language
“Madrid-based designers Sonia Diaz Jimenez andGabriel Martínez García(known jointly as Un Mundo Feliz), are prolific authors of books on, about and promoting graphic activism. Most recently they have created, collected and made available a wealth of clever polemical “Pictomontages,” or “Pictos,” in two books, Woman Sans (Mincho Press) and Protest!: Pictogram Activism to Change the World (Hoaki Press). These Pictos are “based on the ISOTYPE pictorial language system; they are a set of reusable elements that formulate a common vocabulary for visual activism.”
-Steve Heller
Read more here.
The Pride Flag Gets Another Inclusive Update, This Time For the Intersex Community
“That latest evolution comes at the hands of designer and founder of Intersex Equality Rights UK Valentino Vecchietti, incorporating Morgan Carpenter’s 2013 intersex flag design that features a yellow background with an unbroken purple ring at the center. The yellow and purple colors have a long association with the intersex community—not gendered stereotype colors like blue and pink—and the purple ring represents wholeness.”
-Bill McCool
Read more here.
Reveal’s Branding Is The Antithesis Of A Typical Tech Company’s Identity
“Reveal, the software platform that allows companies to compare their client intelligence and spot opportunities for growth securely has recently rebranded. The London-based design agency, Ragged Edge, is the studio behind the refresh, and they created a design system that reimagines the way businesses operate, and even incorporates the look and feel of a secret society.”
-Chloe Gordon
Read more here.