ejnord.com | design blog of eric nord

Both Ace Jet 170 and grain edit turned me on to these groovy 1970s postal stamps.

I have always been partial to the engraver style of stamps that dominated postage until the 1960s. There was a time when stamps rivaled banknotes for their unrelenting attention to detail and balance. And then the 1960s happened. It was a revolutionary time for the field of graphic design. But judging from my collection, it seemed like stamp design went downhill in the 1960s.

Now I realize that much of this view of mine stems from the fact that my collection is primarily U.S. stamps (inherited from my grandfather). But I am now enlightened. Stay tuned for more stamps, American and otherwise.

At first glance, Type. A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles, Vol. 1 looks like a type nerd book on steroids. Oh, and it is. But the real selling point of this book is the fact that it moonlights as a unprecedented source of stock art, consisting of rare specimens from 1628-1900. Dude, that’s a long time ago. Taschen has digitized — what appears to be — the ENTIRE collection and placed it in an online repository. A keycard in the back of the book gives you full access to these relatively high-resolution scans.

And don’t be fooled by the cover… it’s not all letters and numbers. This book is very heavy on what the title labels “graphic styles”. There is a plethora of borders, ornaments, flourishes, accolades, filets, scrolls, cartouches, etc. This is design gold right here.

Volume 2 review coming soon!

http://unbiasedwriter.com

A neighbor of mine asked me to create a clean and stylish layout for his new web publication.

I started with Derek Punsalan’s Grid Focus WordPress theme as my base, and then tweaked it beyond casual recognition. In spite of the dramatic redesign, code changes were minimal and I was able to finish the project in about 24 hours.

I also created the icon and logotype.

But, yes, I did sleep.

On Flickr

Kevin paints pictures with his photographs. Nuff said.

When it comes to interactive design, Area 17 is like the Rosetta Stone or the Magna Carta.

To some, the A17 site might come off as just another sterile, bourgeois interface. But this information architecture is breathtaking. It is an embodiment and a microcosm of all the core principles and practices of interactive design.

A17 has done the most with the least. The magic of their site is certainly not its originality or specific innovations. The magic is in bringing it all together in a single site, and in establishing a harmonious relationship between potential content and an existing website structure. This site is a web publishers dream!

In designing its site, A17 architected a grid layout that adapts to fit any and all content. Yet the layout is TIGHT. A left-hand gutter alternates between being a place for notes/messaging or housing a navigational menu. The grey headline area moonlights as an image holder. The target areas vary between layouts of two, three, and four columns — effortlessly. Content can be stacked side-by-side, or top-to-bottom.

When analyzing the site from the owner/publisher perspective, it seems like there would always be a place to put that extra something — an image or a quote — and yet the site never feels empty. In short, the possibililities are endless! What freedom! The A17 site is like a Rubix cube with nothing but perfect combinations.

The secret here is the grid work. In architecting this grid, A17 considered the site as a whole. What works for the innermost individual pages, also works for the main page… and every page in between.

Here is a sneak peak at a new project I am working on.

On Flickr

I shot this through a window that was scratched up. It’s funny how cameras often don’t pick up scratches on lenses or windows.

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Artwork by Eric Nord