My favorite from the site, Bazooka Joe by Ben Fowler

Street art or guerilla marketing, whatever you want to call it. I like it. I’ve been contemplating a new Street Art campaign for Breezy Creative Design onto the city streets of Chicago, It’s been in the brain vault for some months now. Just as I was feeling re-inspired, I stumbled onto WarrenPeace as I was catching up on some design articles online and one link led to another.

Some info: WarrenPeace is a public art project with the purpose of involving city residents into an interactive exhibit, something everyone can have fun with. Anyone interested can join and create a unique rabbit with their own personal design style. Rabbits are to be placed in shop fronts or around and urban areas. Find out how you can get your hands on one for free and extend the project past the city of Leeds, England by contact him via contact@warrenpeace.co.uk.

The rabbits are free of charge, you just have to show Warren what you plan on doing with it. But why a rabbit you say.. Well Warren’s street are is primarily composed of rabbits, so a rabbit was his logical choice. I like the idea of street art popping up in strange places, sort of how a rabbit pops up from underground. The 2 might go hand in hand.

See more below and get involved.

Bazooka Joe in full

Shop front Exhibit Ace

Black N Gold by James Downing

Don't Drink Kids by Alexandra Nightingale

See more on the site.

New layout for logo and navigation still based on the 12-column grid

I’ve had this new navigation logo and link layout on file for a bit and have finally decided to implement it.

The new layout is based on the same 12 column grid system the website is based on, with some minor necessary tweaks. If you can remember, the logo was accompanied by it’s logotype of Breezy Creative Design set in Helvetica and the logo’s blue color. I always thought the logo was strong enough to stand alone (see the logo concept here) and actually looks better as it currently stands, so I removed it. Readers can still find my website name as a working link, Breezy Creative Design next to the navigation links set in typeface Georgia italics at 18pt.

I feel the new navigation and logo layout provides an overall better balance and presentation. What do you think? If you have time, share your thoughts on the comment section below. Do you like the new layout? Does it have better balance? Your thoughts are appreciated.

Apple introduces the next generation of MacBooks with the new 11 inch Air

They’ve done it again! See the new Apple MacBook Air Video at the website.

Some details about the next generation of MacBooks; It’s the first ever Macbook at 11 inches and starts at $999. One of the best features for the new MacBook is the Multi-touch trackpad, which they decided to go with instead of a touch screen. Apple designs based on ease of use and having to reach out and have your hand out for a touchscreen was just not comfortable, I agree.

Great product by the look of things, bravo apple!

The Ork posters take well known cities and divide neighborhoods through typography, Seattle above

If you are into posters, typography and dig your city, then you will like or atleast appreciate the work of Ork Posters. The medium sized posters are based on unique grids that provide the poster cities with a nice structural feel, while braking the mold with over and undersized typography. It’s printing technique is a little different than the average poster, due to them being screen prints. In case you were wondering, screen prints are made by using a stencil process that is superimposed on a fine mesh screen. Ink is then squeezed through the screen onto the paper to create a slight depth and grainier/artistic lines. Just a note, screen printing originated in China and popularized in 1960′s USA by Andy Warhol with his popular depiction of Marilyn Monroe.

It’s nice to see your own neighborhood, the typography used to represent it and other places you have been to in your city.

If you are interested in purchasing a print for cities like Chicago, New York, Boston, LA or more, head on over to OrkPosters.com. City posters start at $22 and Body organs at $17.

The website is nice too by the way, Huge type always looks good.

Architectural and engineering developments by Fazlur Rahman Khan in the 1960's

The 1960′s downtown Chicago area was faced with an expanding population and a high demand for office space. Downtown buildings were being filled as soon as they were built, and space was running out. The average building construction height was limited to 30 stories due to the lack of advances in architectural engineering. Because building offices and apartments were rented out, the increased costs of building higher that the standard 30 levels proved too costly. It was uneconomical because constructing floors past the standard level required structural frameworks to be strengthened and stiffened to combat increased wind resistance.

Architects and engineers just settled on constructing bulky, small squared buildings.

At this critical point in engineering development entered structural engineer Dr. Fazlur Rahman Khan (1929-1982). Fazlur Khan understood the flaws that were holding modern architecture back, and he took it upon himself to advance the engineering side of construction and help shape the future of architecture and the downtown Chicago area.

Some of the earliest developments attributed to Dr. Fazlur Rahman Khan are the shear wall frame interaction system, the framed-tube structure, and the tube-in-tube structure. These developments in engineering made constructing taller buildings possible. His framed-tube structure saw early implementation in 1964 with the building of the 43 story DeWitt-Chestnut Apartments in Chicago by Fazlur Khan and colleagues while at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). Soon after, the framed-tube structure became the standard in high-rise design.

Dr. Fazlur Rahman Khan developed new structuring systems based on the architectural project. Just some years later after the inability to advance buildings heights in the early 1960′s, Fazlur Khan and chief designer Bruce Graham developed the “strussed-tube” structural system to build Chicago’s 100-story John Hancock Center, a major figure in the structural expressionist style. Soon after, he introduced the “bundled tube” system for Chicago’s 110-story Sears Tower, known as the Willis Tower as of 2009 when naming rights were purchased by London based insurance broker Willis Group Holdings, LLC (just doesn’t seem right though).

Dr. Fazlur Rahman earned many accolades from his pears and the architecture and engineering community, see the many here.

Gap's new logo from modernist to possible clip art

This was THE hot topic of the weekend and I told myself I wasn’t going to post anything related to the new Gap logo. But I am. Gap is a very reputable brand and their branding and promotional always catches my eye. Their style is clean and very minimal, just the type of design I look for when I’m out our perusing a magazine. Each of their printed materials relies on typography to deliver a message, and for the most post, they do a good job at it. Helvetica is their typeface of choice and they use it on everything. I’m not complaining, afterall it is one of my favorite typefaces. Especially when they use large bold numbers, it’s eye catching.

But honestly, what were they thinking?

A small gradient blue square doesn’t cut it. First of all, modern and minimalistic design is based on cutting down the unnecessary parts of what makes design ineffective. So to use a a gradient contradicts their entire visual identity, including posters, ads and print material. What Gap has done is create a logo from their visual identity and not the other way around.

The new logo reduces Gap to an ordinary, almost generic brand. Got back to the old one Gap, it was much better.

National Poetry Month typographic poster, designed by Cristoph Niemann

I stumbled onto this typographic poster today, thought I should share it with you guys. Here’s a little info on the poster, it was designed by Cristoph Niemann in 2007 and featured Walt Whitman’s poem “As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days.” The featured line: And our visions, the visions of poets, the most solid announcements of any.

Full poster and poem below.

As I Walk These Broad Majestic Days by Walt Whitman

As I walk these broad majestic days of peace,
(For the war, the struggle of blood finish'd, wherein, O terrific Ideal,
Against vast odds erewhile having gloriously won,
Now thou stridest on, yet perhaps in time toward denser wars,
Perhaps to engage in time in still more dreadful contests, dangers,
Longer campaigns and crises, labors beyond all others,)
Around me I hear that eclat of the world, politics, produce,
The announcements of recognized things, science,
The approved growth of cities and the spread of inventions.

I see the ships, (they will last a few years,)
The vast factories with their foremen and workmen,
And hear the indorsement of all, and do not object to it.

But I too announce solid things,
Science, ships, politics, cities, factories, are not nothing,
Like a grand procession to music of distant bugles pouring,
triumphantly moving, and grander heaving in sight,
They stand for realities—all is as it should be.

Then my realities;
What else is so real as mine?
Libertad and the divine average, freedom to every slave on the face of the earth,
The rapt promises and luminé of seers, the spiritual world, these centuries-lasting songs,
And our visions, the visions of poets, the most solid announcements of any.

The only date I can find for the poem is 1872.