Archive for March, 2009
Thanks everyone for suggesting topics! Very much appreciated. Some interesting (and unexpected) requests for Anatomy Of… subjects. I’ll start with the one that got the most “votes”: my own logo.
I launched this site in 2003, primarily to separate the client work from my more experimental projects.
To do so, I felt that I should put my own name to it instead of coming up with another obscure word, like ximeraLabs, as a domain name. I found out that muller.com was already taken, and not wanting to settle for anything less than a .com domain I realized I was forced to tack something on to “Muller” to be able to grab a suitable .com domain…
After some brainstorming I settled on hellomuller.com — I used to answer the phone like that (“Hello, Muller (speaking)”), so it sounded natural and above all, it was easy to remember. Right. Now that the name and domain were taken care of, it was time to focus my attention to designing a logo.
Continue reading…
I recently rediscovered the amazing work of Robert McCall, an artist who pretty much defined the space-age optimism in his paintings. Most people will probably recognize the beautiful paintings he made for Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (which has been another big influence on me), but the first time I saw his work was in a book called Our World In Space, written by Isaac Asimov and published in 1974. It is one of those books — typical of the late 60s and early-to-mid-70s — that looks at the future of man in the universe, dreaming of extensive space exploration, vast man-made habitats in a very optimistic way, still believing that mankind was sure to conquer our solar system in the 21st century.
My dad was a huge science fiction fan and so amongst his collection of novels with weird artwork (remember, I like 5 or 6 years old) I’d stumble across this huge book with this anonymous space man on the cover (the image at the top of this post). He looked like an astronaut, but not like the ones I’d seen on TV or in magazines. This guy, and all the other illustrations in the book were of a reality that still needs to be invented, and yet it was all explained in detail how these scenarios would play out. I’d spend hours looking at those pen drawings and paintings, crudely recreating them later with Lego (which weren’t the only things I’d try to build, Hector from Saturn 3 was another favourite).
Today we live in that 21st century, the magical year of 2001 has long gone, and we’re still stuck on our planet. The only things we now shoot into the universe are lifeless machines. Hopefully, one day those paintings will become a reality — but until then we’ve got the work of Robert McCall.
• Battlefields — Dear Billy part 3 of 3
• No Hero #4 (wrap cover)
• Crossed #4 (wrap cover)
• Wolverine #71
• Ultimatum #3
• Amazing Spider-Man #588
• Hellblazer # 253
• Hotwire #2
• Hellboy — The Wild Hunt #4 (of 8)
• B.P.R.D. — The Black Goddess #3
• Fantastic Four #565
- Designing some ligatures before I go to bed. #
- Really enjoyed Quantum of Solace. Great titles by MK12 and lovely (if gimmicky) typography on the location cards by Tomato. #
- Going to watch Quantum of Solace now and eat lovely cakes Mrs. M got from Carluccio’s. #
- Just got some really slick organic 3D renders from @timmuller for a thing we’re working on. #
- Outside, the sun is shining. Inside, I’m creating site mock-ups. Not that I’d do anything different otherwise really. </nerd> #
- Sunday nostalgia trip 2: http://tinyurl.com/dzbp7s #
- Sunday nostalgia trip: http://tinyurl.com/dag43o #
- Ehh… Did the BBC homepage get rid of the colour customization? I want my orange back! #
Its been a while since I wrote an “Anatomy of…” post, so instead of choosing something myself (I have some ideas) why don’t you tell me what project you’d like to see dissected?
Anything goes — except Kleber projects, because those are team projects and not my own.
Reply in the comments or via my Twitter feed!
- having Sunday lunch at Canteen. #
- Strathmore’s Whos Who has reviewed my information and accepted me for inclusion in their SPAM LIST! #
- Working on 3A Toys. #
- Goodmorning/noon my twitter daahlings. #
- Give us a job! http://tinyurl.com/c8c387 #
- Downloading a bunch of public domain SF films from the Internets Archive. #
- RT @kevincoffey: bloody genius http://www.ronwinter.tv/drums.html #
- H.A.R.M.O.N.I.C *whistles* #
- DC’s After Watchmen micro site( http://tinyurl.com/bslv7g) is quite nice. Too bad the rest of the DC site looks like an afterthought. #
- That was some very nice sushi. Even for a takeaway. #
- And thats it for today! #
- (And also “Hi” to all the other followers) #
- Hello to all my new Twitter followers by the way! #
- Din Next looks quite nice: http://tinyurl.com/bhtwxp #
- Too bad I can’t make it, because the lineup looks great http://kldesignweek.com/ #
- Adding images to the new Kleber CMS. Lovely. #
- Good morning. Lets start the day with some BASS! shall we? #
- Type (2) — Digits http://tinyurl.com/agnlby #
- I watched The Official UK Top 40 tonight on a whim. Glad to see nothing has changed since 1998: its still all crap. But with different names #
- RT @ivanbrandon: spread the word: exclusive advance review of viking #1 http://is.gd/mJKr #
- Last night, I crushed the dreams of 200 people in under 10 minutes. #
- Mmm fresh coffee from the local cafe #
- Time to crush some people’s dreams. #
- WANT: http://tinyurl.com/desvtv #
- I’m putting an internet in my internet so I can internet while I internet. #
“I consider my workspace a resource – I’m surrounded by books, comics and toys. While I’m not actively flipping through books for ideas, this helps create a relaxed atmosphere to work in.
Also, rows of items might spark ideas for colour schemes.”
(From Computer Arts issue 158)
In Computer Arts 160 (out now) the Brief Encounter section has an extensive feature on how Kleber designed and developed the global news site for rock demi-gods AC/DC. Rock on!
Got a flat bench in the office (this one) which we use to display books and other stuff (and make space in the overflowing bookcase) — and its a nice way to present books and stuff. Here’s what we’re currently reading & looking at:
— Dorfsman & CBS, Richard Hess
— Branding, Mono Design
— Mapping: Graphic Navigational Systems
— Akira Club, Katsuhiro Otomo
— Pulphope, Paul Pope
— Restart: New Systems In Graphic Design, Emily King & Christian Kusters
— Swiss Graphic Design, Richard Hollis
— How To Be A Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul, Adrian Shaughnessy
— Helvetica Forever, Lars Muller
— Design Is One, Massimo & Lella Vignelli
— Helvetica – Homage To A Typeface, Lars Muller
— The Medium Is The Massage, Marshall McLuhan
— IdN v16n1 – Craft issue
— Grafik – March 2009 issue
— Stray Toasters, Bill Sienkiewicz
— Comic Book Tattoo (I know! We designed it and I still haven’t finished reading it)
Type (2) — Digits, originally uploaded by helloMuller.
Still working on the typeface. Finished work on the digits. I’m still deciding if I want to create an uppercase set as well, or keep it as a bespoke lowercase headline font…