Harmonious colors by Alberto Sevoso

I've had these images saved in this post for a couple days now, because I'm trying to figure out why I love them so much. They are the typographic work of artist Alberto Sevoso. I can't tell if they are watercolor, collage or both, and I couldn't tell you even remotely what they say, but I chose to write about them because I'm drawn to the colors, layers and complex handmade feel.

I will try to explain why I think these colors are harmonious. I know they are harmonious because they create a very pleasing effect, but I'm not 100% sure why. In the first image, there are many reds and the most saturated color on the page is reddish-blue (purple). As a wisp of a detail in the corners of the composition is yellow, the complementary color. I'm a huge fan of yellow and purple in compositions, and I see here that it's stronger overall when one of the colors is dominant. Also playing off the dominant purple color are the many tints of red that appear to disappear into the depths of the page.

In the second image, orange is the dominant color and the lighter blue tint peeks out from the background to complement. The purple and yellow are also playing around with each other in this one, and I just realized that all of his compositions have this great neutral base that makes the more vibrant colors shine. Well, love it! Have no idea what they say but love it!!!

High Priority: The Land of Typographic Bounty

For those of you in need of an infusion of typographic inspiration, take a look at this slideshow of 'High Priority' artwork from New York Magazine. Hey guys, why don't you do this anymore? For a few years, design director Luke Hayman and art director Chris Dixon selected a designer to do a typographic illustration of the top 5 things to do in New York City that week. Every week was a new superstar designer, and they had an open competition for artwork submissions.

Now in the listings section of the magazine there are featured cultural events, but in each individual section. In the art section, an exhibition is featured; in the theater section, a new play, etc... that's fine... if you want to be BORING!!! Giving a new amazing designer the freedom to create artwork each week adds to the creative energy of the culture section. Especially since many of the designers are in New York! Bring High Priority back!!

There are too many to choose from, but here are a few of my faves:
For the challenge the artwork had to be black, white and red ONLY. Stephen Doyle was the only exception to this rule.

Louise Fili

Barbara deWilde

Martin Venezky

Stephen Doyle

Chip Kidd

Yulia Brodskaya double-take

I have artistaday.com installed on the iGoogle homepage, so that the first thing I see each day is the artist the site chooses to feature. Probably once or twice a month I love the art so much that it captures my fleeting internet-surfing attention and makes me click. Yulia Brodskaya is an artist discovery that I am so excited to find because of her passion for typography, paper and making things with her hands. Her work is 3-dimensional, eye-catching and incredibly precise.

All images published with consent of Yulia Brodskaya

Gosh I love this one - recycled card (created with recycled cardboard)

Her clients include Starbucks, GQ, Wired, Nokia, and my favorite is this one for New Scientist:

To me the most impressive aspect of Yulia's work is that she graduated with a masters in Visual Communications in 2006 (University of Hertfordshire, England) and has been deeply involved with paper-cut illustrations long before they became the new craze. For designers working in the past decade (or three), it seems like it would have been an uphill battle to get handmade work accepted by clients. Since we may have just concluded this era of everything-shiny-and-new, we should be seeing many more illustrators and designers picking back up the pencil and creating things that remind us of our simple human roots and wholesome values. See all Yulia Brodskaya's work here.

Why New York Magazine will always be my favorite... as long as they cut it out with the fur

For many years that I've lived in New York City (seven so far), I have subscribed to New York Magazine. It's a weekly ritual of tearing through the juicy articles, well-thought-out design and of course the too amusing approval matrix. I have to point out however that the amount of fur on the pages of the fashion issue made my skin crawl. Regardless of my personal aversion to wearing fur, I just can't quit this mag for putting fur in one article (I tried). Anyways, why do I love New York Magazine? I will do some brainstorming on that here:

1. They love New York as much as I do
2. They hate New York as much as I do
3. They appreciate the characters walking on the street, the real estate deals, financial world acquisitions and political scandals more than I do
4. The restaurants reviews are mandatory for making decisions on what new place to check out or recommending a place for a friend
5. The Lookbook (where they stop a random exquisitely/absurdly dressed person on the street and pepper them with questions)
6. This typeface:

Thank you Typophile.com
I think it is a version of the font Vinyl

Eye Magazine features New York Magazine in an article on art direction and how print publications are holding up compared to web-based media. 'At the heart of the magazine is the relationship between words and pictures and the way they are used to tell a story.'

'The magazine was founded by Clay Felker and Milton Glaser in 1968 as the first ‘city magazine’... Adam Moss was appointed editor in March 2004 and hired Luke Hayman as design director soon afterwards. ‘Adam Moss has brought a specific tone of voice to the magazine,’ says design director Hayman. ‘It’s complicated and nuanced: sophisticated, intelligent, funny, serious, self-depreciating. The art direction tries to reinforce that. A huge part of the look of the magazine is due to photo director Jody Quon.’ Eye Magazine #61

Mediabistro also has a great interview on the redesign. When Jody Quon was asked about the challenges of putting together a killer magazine on a weekly pace, she explains: 'You know, the more you are asked to do, the more you accomplish. The busier you are, the more productive you are. And I think, as much as it can be difficult at times, we are even happier that way.' Wait, I love her. That's really true! I heard someone say about President Obama, 'If you want something done, ask a busy man.' Now HE'S got a lot on his plate. I can't complain about my workload at school at all when I think about his job. Jeez...

The redesign of the New York Magazine was genius. The attention to quality and detail is apparent on every page, and consistent every week. My favorite was when they had a cover design contest and I saw my former teacher from Parsons, Evan Gaffney's designs. He didn't make the cover but they did a spread of all the runners-up and his were incredible. Check out some of his book cover designs here.