Trademark™ is the work of designer Tim Lahan, who has swooped in and taken the top spot amongst all the graphic design work I’ve seen so far this month. And a bigger nod to his new web design, which is simple, really well structured, and clever. A middle finger to Mr. Lahan, because there are some design ideas that I was using for the re-design of this site that are already at work on his page. And I really need to finish that re-design, because this piece of crap has never worked for me. My problems aside, Lahan’s work makes his page design almost moot, because it’s just that good. Witty, well executed, simple, and just a little weird, this stuff is right up my alley. It is the building block of my alley. The phrase “my alley” sounds like some dirty prison slang. Seriously though, Lahan’s work is fantastic enough that I would probably ask him to be my friend. Hell, I would probably give him a nickname. Diesel. His nickname is Diesel.
Tim Lahan

Texas designer Ben Barry is messing me up with his great sense of color, style and communication. I even noticed that he’s gotten his hands dirty with a bit of backend web coding. As someone who spends a lot of time figuring out how best to implement designer’s ideas as virtual space, I really appreciate any designer who will dive right into the code regardless of his skill level. Shit almost brought a tear to my eye. But these peepers were too busy absorbing the retinal delights that make up Ben’s portfolio to worry about weeping. There is some damn fine graphic design here.

Ben Barry

I lived in Florida for a couple of years when I was younger, down Miami way, and the only thing that I can remember about it is that drivers would swerve to try and hit pedestrians and people would pay me a lot of money to remove reptiles, amphibians, spiders and scorpions from their outdoor trashcans. Overall it’s not a bad memory, but it’s not great either. That’s fine. There are a lot of people who aren’t me that love Florida. I’m a little more fond of America’s schlong since coming across the illustration work of Mark Malazarte. Dude lives in Tampa, but is originally from the Philippines, and is part of the Calavera Comics crew. That’s a talented group of misfits and rebels if ever I’ve seen one, which I have, like all the time. Mark’s illustration work dazzles my eyes because of his tight type control and color palettes, especially when throwing down with his illustrative counterweight Alexis Ziritt. Since Mark’s website isn’t up and running, yet I’m just gonna throw you into his Flickr stream. Sink or swim, bitches.

Mark Malazarte

This is not normally the realm of subject that I post about, but Drawn! led me to the blog of Oswald Iten this morning where I became engrossed for over an hour. Iten is going through the movie 101 Dalmatians (animated, not the live-action abomination) frame by frame and analyzing the use of color in the film. It’s a seriously in-depth look at color theory and composition in 101 Dalmatians, and boils down to lessons you might never have learned without shelling out some major dough. I’ve watched this film plenty of times in the past, and have noticed a small number of points that Iten talks about, but most of his discussion is miraculously eye-opening. I’m gonna have to drop Dalmatians in to my Netflix queue immediately, and then spend some quality time pouring through it. And another weekend is lost.

Color in 101 Dalmations

One of my favorite things in coming across artists and designers is when I find one whose work inspires me, astounds me, what have you, and the artist in question is still in school. Do you even know what that means? It means that they’ve got the rest of their lives to get better. It also means that they generally haven’t been weighed down by the millions of conventions that plague the creative world. And on top of all that they probably haven’t been rejected enough to really give a shit what anyone else thinks yet. That last one is a pro and con. But such is the untainted, potential-filled, already wonderful work of Toronto’s Jan Avendano. Her patterns and doodly, scribbly illustrations make me all kinds of glad. I’m really into her complex pen work most of all. As someone with almost zero patience I am always amazed by anyone who can draw in so many lines and curves. I’m usually thinking about the next project before I’m halfway through the first. But this isn’t about me, it’s about Avendano, who’s work is great. Great, god dammit, and it’s only gonna get better.

Jan Avendano

Dear Mom,

Hello from camp. I am having a good time. I meeted a boy name Pieratt. He is fun. He makes good pictures. He do not talk about himself much, but his pictures are so good. He let me look at his secret treasures. We are friends. I like swimming here. I do not like the tomato soup. I like the cookies you sended. Please send more.

Love,
Me

p.s. Here is Pieratt

I’m on a roll with the design posts it seems. Travis Stearns, the brain behind Mint Condition, gets to be the third in a row of killer designers I’ve mentioned. His work is more along the usual vein of illustratorial work that I feature, but the type and design are so fresh and so clean clean. He’s good with muted and bright colors, sketchy lines, hand-drawn fonts, and all the other designer tricks in and out of vogue. In other words, he’s got skills. I’d let him design me a tattoo and a wedding invitation. I don’t think there’s anything that he would come up with that I wouldn’t nod my head and grin about. For some reason it makes me think of A Tribe Called Quest. Idea: Travis Stearns makes an animated video for a Tribe song. Just put me down for a consulting credit, Travis.

I Am Mint Condition

Richmond, VA’s clothing design firm Ser-vice shook my eyes and my soul this morning. Who knew that I would actually like a printed t-shirt. For years I have worn white t-shirts almost exclusively, because they’re simple, and I don’t have to spend any time thinking about my clothes when I wake up. Yet even now, I sit here thinking about rocking the Ampersand Tee, or the one with the mountains on it. I can already feel my life getting more complex. Check out their stock and see how you’d like to redesign your chest. Sometimes I write things and they sound completely different than I though they would.

Ser-vice

Also a little more on the design tip is the portfolio of Bulgarian designer Kaloian Toshev. Although I’d like to talk about his illustrations, he has a solid portfolio in most of the design arenas that you should also wrap your peepers around. His illustration work is very vector-based, which usually makes me sigh or possibly throw something, but he’s got more subtlety than most. He layers in the shadows like most, but keeps a little messy linework in to keep things dynamic, and then spices it up with overlayed texture, and just good general chaos. Even the color combinations are a little savage. Really, what’s not to like?

Kaloian Toshev

I realize that I’ve been kind of slack on the design side of the content, and it probably falls into the same category as web design. I don’t mention a lot of it, because I’m really picky. I’m really picky, because I would expect better from myself (I doubt I could produce better most of the time, but I would expect better). Coming across the portfolio of Dan Sheffield (aka The Bad Lab) today I definitely didn’t think that I could do better. He’s got such a strong use of color and pattern. And his type is killer on top of that. Simple, direct, and visually intriguing imagery, coupled with wit and great color. I know there aren’t any formulas for perfection, but that’s at least the equation for damn fine work. I don’t really give out compliments higher than that.

The Bad Lab on Flickr