My new job is to design digital menus for various restaurants. It’s nice because it combines two of my favorite things, design and food. I always see amazing looking print menus and am wistful to be working in that medium. Though I am not a print designer, I can be inspired by all of the lovely print menu work out there.
Mule Menu by Scott Hill
The Phoenicia Diner Menu via Art of the Menu
Founders Menu via Art of the Menu
Murphy’s Law Menu via Designspiration.
Mary
As we’re in the midst of the NBA playoffs, I thought it was a good time to post these NBA logo redesigns by Michael Weinstein. I found them a little while back and loved the idea of a league with consistent, well-designed logos. Maybe some day.
While looking for the logos this morning, I also started reading through his actual site, full of historical detail on each team he’s redesigned and images of their old logos. For example, did you know this was the original Detroit Piston’s logo when they were located in Fort Wayne, Indiana?
I sure didn’t. Well without further ado, here’s a few of my favorite NBA logo redesigns by Michael Weinstein, and be sure to check out all of his logos, along with the different team’s past and actual current logos here.
Detroit Pistons by Michael Weinstein
Golden State Warriors by Michael Weinstein
Brooklyn Nets by Michael Weinstein
Indiana Pacers by Michael Weinstein
Los Angeles Clippers by Michael Weinstein
Trevor
My brother, Logan Walters, has been working on a “3DS Recovered” project, where he’s redesigning every Nintendo 3DS game he acquires. Here’s a few of my favorites, and you can see all the ones he’s done so far on his blog.
from Logan Mills Walters
from Logan Mills Walters
from Logan Mills Walters
from Logan Mills Walters
Trevor
I love the look of the old WPA posters. Yesterday, I found that they have a database of nearly 1000 old posters. I think I spet nearly two hours looking through them all. Here are a few of my favorites.
By Herbert Bayer
By Richard Halls
By Arlington Gregg
Mary
I just signed up to use dribbble and it is addicting. I thought I was in the clear after weaning myself off of pinterest, but I was wrong. Dribbble is an endless supply of inspirational design work. I keep telling myself that I’m staying current with trends in my industry and not just staring at the internet.
I stumbled across the profile of Dan Cassaro who curated a project called 50 and 50, where 50 designers illustrated their state’s mottos. Here is a roundup of a few of my favorites.
West Virginia by Bryan Minnich
Arkansas by Zach Graham
New Mexico by John Ashcroft
Michigan by Friends of Type
Mary
One of my first projects in school this semester is to design a transformation card. A transformation card is one where the designer has incorporated the suit into an illustration. Traditionally, the suits had to stay in their normal position, but some artist have strayed from this guideline. I was browsing through some examples to inspire my own card and I thought I’d share my favorites here.
Jack of Hearts by Emmanuel
LA-TEE-Da Transformation Playing Cards via odessa
Seven of Diamonds Print by CMYKelsey
Cat Transformation Deck by John Littleboy via The World of Playing Cards
Mary
I really love Mark Weaver’s work. I first noticed the backdrops he made for ReadyMade Magazine a few years ago. He did a project in 2009 called Make Something Cool Every Day, which is a mantra I’d love to adopt. Here are some of my favorites from that series.
Mary
Like most people, I’d be glad to never see another “Keep Calm and Carry On” Poster again. However, this short history is quite interesting.
Mary
I’ve been attempting to go through The Artist’s Way. One of the ideas in the book that struck me is actively replenishing the bank of images inside your head to inspire your own creativity. I’m going to be trying to do more of this and thus probably posting more design work I stumble across and love.
I found this series of prints of ships in bottles by Claire Mojher on flickr and thought they were too charming. They’d look great at a summer cottage. You can see more of Claire’s illustrations on her blog or in her etsy shop.
The Belle
The Elizabeth
The Petunia
The Lilly
Mary
I am taking a bookmaking course right now and our second book is going to be handmade. I decided to look around online for inspiration and found a lot of awesome books artists have made.
Cutaway by Sarah Bryant of Big Jump Press
I was particularly drawn to the letter pressed books of Sarah Bryant. This one has inserts to make the contained illustrations turn from black & white to color. If you like this, I would suggest checking out the rest of her portfolio. All of her work draws on scientific charts and illustrations, subject matter I can’t seem to get enough of lately.
Readers’ Digest (cake book) by Robert The from Walker Art Center
It’s a book shaped like a cake. What more can I say?
Flying to the Dream by Jenny of Be Happy Now
This is a tiny book of original illustrations.
Pop-up Cook Book from Popular Kinetics
This pop-up key lime custard is a spread from a pop-up recipe book made by Carol Barton’s Sculptural Books Class at the Corcoran School of Art and Design in Washington, D.C. Yum!
Mary
