Atlas — Visual Communication by Brian Nelson">Atlas

From me and my family to you and yours…Happy Thanksgiving!

Herb Lubalin is by far one of my favorite designers and his typographic expertise has pioneered so many trends and has had a huge influence and source of inspiration in my career. U&lc (Upper and Lower Case), The International Journal of Typographics was first published in 1974 and served as both an advertisement for Lubalin’s designs and a supplemental level of typographic experimentation. Lubalin was the editor and art director for the magazine up until his passing in 1981, but it continued to be published until 1999. To get your hands on an issue, especially one that Lubalin personally worked on is beyond rare, but good news comes to those who wait! Each month Fonts.com will be uploading one volume (a year’s worth of publications) in hi and lo-res scans. It doesn’t get much sweeter than this.

Follow and download the U&lc back issues.

For all the serious photographers out there who really enjoy coffee or for all the serious coffee drinkers who really enjoy photography the Camera Lens Mug was recently released in both Canon and Nikon formats. Fully equipped with a lens-cap lid, rubber grip focus and zoom rings, as well as an auto-focus switch you will undoubtedly turn heads with this one.

The Canon runs for $24 and the Nikon for $30. Both can be purchased here.

New York: Portrait of a City is a new book by Reuel Golden, a former executive editor of PDN. Golden’s book collects hundreds of beautiful images from early 1900 to present day that really capture the iconic city over the past 100 years. Its amazing knowing that millions of people have traveled through and lived in NYC and yet that last picture makes it seem like such a lonely place.

Throughout the course of the Olympics there have been some really great poster designs and branding efforts. Most of them however fall on and before the 1980 Moscow games which is where the first three awesome posters above come from. One of my favorite years though has to be the 1972 Munich games which I have posted about before. Luckily the search is over though for pretty much any Olympic poster because The Olymperials showcases every year since 1896.

Above is the poster I created for this year’s AIGA Always Summer Poster show which was held last night with a great turnout. For the event you’re asked to choose a song that reminds you of summer and design a poster around it. I chose the song “Low Shoulder” by Toro Y Moi which can be listened to below. Be sure to check out a larger version of the poster in my portfolio. Prints will be available soon in the Atlas Store.

Toro Y Moi — Low Shoulder

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Purchase song

Pretty inspiring documentary of David A. Smith who has become synonymous in the diminishing field of traditional sign-writing. It’s insane how much precision and patience he puts into his work and the results are nothing short of beautiful. This small film takes you behind the scenes to show the techniques and visions that Dave uses for his hand crafted reverse glass signs and decorative silvered and gilded mirrors. Amazing.

A Collection a Day is the year long project of Lisa Congdon where each day she photographs or draws (and occasionally paints) one collection of items that either exist in her home or studio, or are otherwise imagined. After the year is over she is releasing a book that archives each collection of 2010. Most of her series are of vintage objects which makes it even cooler knowing she has multiple items with similar characteristics. It is interesting to see just how much stuff she has accumulated since she was young. I wonder where she keeps all of it?