Espresso » Design

Graphs with character!

Anik — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 17:33:04 +0000

All graphic designers will tell you the same thing—there’s no miracle solution, no simple way of creating graphs. Either you use Excel—and tear your hair out—or you use the Graph function in Illustrator that hasn’t changed since version 3.0 (and I don’t mean CS 3.0!) But those days are over. Now all you need to design a basic graph is character—make that the right character. The new Chartwell typeface lets you to build graphs using ligatures in OpenType fonts.

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Responsive Web Design

Dimitri — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 16:05:46 +0000

Architecture is a discipline very much defined by its permanence. A building’s foundation defines its footprint, which defines its frame, which shapes its facade. Each phase of the architectural process is more immutable, more unchanging than the last. Creative decisions quite literally shape a physical space, defining the way in which people move through its confines / more

From Street Banners to Shoulder Bags—The Ad is in the Bag!

Anik — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:51:25 +0000

Ads, ads, and more ads! We’re bombarded with close to 600 ads every day, from all kinds of media outlets. For some people, it’s trash; for others, it’s something to be salvaged. Maude Léonard, founder of Atelier Entre-Peaux, counts herself among the salvage camp. Drawing inspiration from her overflowing recycling bin, Léonard came up with Déco-écolo—a line of products handcrafted from shredded print ads. Pencil cases, mouse pads, and shoulder bags number among the items featured in the / more

Catch NYC Fashion Week . . . If You Can!

Claire — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 19:09:28 +0000

Everyone in NYC has been talking about it—Fashion Week started last Thursday! Season after season, the online component of Fashion Week has been growing. You can now live stream almost everything, or better yet, follow the action 24-7 on Twitter. You’re not limited to one venue—you can be everywhere at once! See all the shows, get all the gossip, spy on models backstage and celebrities drinking champagne . . . The only place you have to be is at your computer—or anywhere with a smart phone and a good internet connection!
Search for #fashionweek on your smart phone / more

Sagittarius Rising Pantone 158

Anik — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 17:27:40 +0000

There’s astrology, numerology, and a bunch of other pop psychology quizzes, and now colorstrology—the latest trend in determining your personality type. In colorstrology, each month corresponds to a primary colour and each day of each month to a secondary one. These colours are determined by the sun’s position the day you were born. (I’ll spare you the more, shall I say esoteric details.) Each of these colours has a particular meaning and reveals different personality / more

Pantone’s Colours for 2011

Olivier — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 20:19:45 +0000

Every season for the past 17 years, the colour experts at Pantone have monitored emerging trends from New York Fashion Week and compiled the ten most popular colours in their “Pantone Fashion Color Report.” This year was no exception.

Drawing inspiration from Peru, Turkey, India, and Africa, the world’s most influential fashion designers chose, for spring 2011, an eclectic colour palette that instantaneously evokes these faraway lands./ more

From Quebec – In New York City Design Showcase

Claire — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 18:51:07 +0000

The most ambitious showcase of Quebec design ever to hit New York City will take place September 29 to October 22, 2010 at Bond Street’s Relative Space. This / more

Information Design or The Art of Making Pie!

Olivier — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 17:57:17 +0000

Information design—a practice dating back to the ‘70s—is defined as the visual representation of information or data so that it can be processed quickly and easily. It’s the process of organizing and sorting information to give it meaning and provide context for the user.

Basically, rather than bombarding the reader with truckloads of data, information design synthesizes it—using a bare minimum of words—and goes straight to the point.

In plain English, infographics are omnipresent—we see them in annual reports, magazines and newspapers, travel guides, road maps / more

Negative Spaces

Annie — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:00:39 +0000

A company’s logo is a graphic representation of its identity. It’s in a company’s best interest to have an effective and disarmingly simple logo. This is basic knowledge; it’s not news to anyone.

But simple doesn’t necessarily mean done in a hurry, and given that the logo is the cornerstone of any visual identity, it sometimes takes a lot of work to come up with a really good one.

Here are a few logos that seem simple at first glance, but are actually quite complex. Each one has some kind of double meaning conferred by the use of negative / more

Rock, Paper, Scissors . . .

Anik — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:39:28 +0000

A childhood classic! Paper covers rock, rock breaks scissors . . . But the rules have recently been changed! Now, scissors trump rock because there’s / more