Patterns

I've been thinking a lot about patterns lately and their ability to liven up clean clean swiss swiss design. Generally I avoid cluttered, decorative design and patterns have, most often, until now fallen into that category. I've been paying attention to the way patterns can enhance otherwise clean designs. In a pattern the combination of different elements of art/design come together to impart a mood or a vibe to a design.
This cover for a book of poetry (from The Daily Heller 10.27.10 / Vintage Irish Graphic Design) looks upbeat and lighthearted because the pattern uses bright colors, "fast-moving" lines and floating bubbles. It's a pattern like this that I imagine using amongst other type, illustration or photography to enhance the overall feel of a design.

Color! A History

Print Magazine's latest blog post, "The Wonderful Color Wheel: Part 1" is a brief but fascinating look at the history of the color wheel. While I had assumed the Color Wheel was a much more modern invention by elementray school art teachers, it is actually a very old (according to the blog, as early as 1686), fairly scientific study.
What is even more fascinating than the way these scientists chose to organize the color spectrum, is the presentations of their findings. Old school infographics.
All of the "color wheels" on the post are lovely unions of typography, illustration and of course color.
These old color wheels are really fun to look at. While this may seem an oversimplification of the post, these color wheels, in their history, have transcended scientific representations of information and become art. We should all be so lucky to design something that has such a lasting impact.