Herb Lubalin

Wow. Such a long hiatus. In the time where I wasn't posting here, I was moving out of home and having my tonsils out and getting a new job and all these other things. But I have been learning! And have finished university for the year, with a very nice 5 and 6 for the two subjects I completed. I'm here to post about Herb Lubalin. I am posting about Herb Lubalin because I accidentally came across his work twice today.

The first time was when I reblogged some work of his on my Tumblr.

The second time was when I recommended that a friend of mine use Avant Garde Light for a video he was making, and looked it up on Wikipedia.

The joke about ITC Avant Garde is that it only looks good when I says "AVANT GARDE", and I'd have to agree that this is true. I guess the reason that it looks it's best when it says "AVANT GARDE" is because it was made by Lubalin for a magazine called "Avant Garde".

He's a pretty amazing guy and I really just admire the prolific quality of the work he produced. I don't know a lot about him, but I know that he did a lot of work for magazines, and he created some of the most clever and incredible logos I have ever seen.

Eep!

I was forced to forget about doing this while I attended to things like uni assessment and corporate branding. I will be back so soon, I have been researching like crazy with no time to input anything!

Justin Blyth

I recently found the work of Justin Blyth which I really, really love. It has this M.I.A. (circa Kala) vibe that I totally dig, as well as a little bit of Podhajsky, which you can never really go wrong with. I love design and art that is all about psychadelia and manipulating shapes or colours to be that, but I also love collage-y work. Geometric shapes are so en vogue lately so I know it's nothing new to be using them, but it doesn't stop work like Blyths from being really good, and really effective, and really visually interesting.

I wish I had more of a hold on manipulating photographs and what not so that I was able to create more work with a basis like this, but I guess it's something you have to have a total eye for which I don't entirely think I do yet.



I think my favourite of his work is this one for Porter Robinson, who I assume is a musician of some description. I love the use of found photographs (in anything) and how it's been manipulated so effectively here without detracting from the pre existing colour scheme and image. It's such an interesting way to create visual stimulation that is powerful but not overpowering.

I really think his typography is a work of art as well, I'm not sure if he designed the typeface himself but it reminds me so much of Neville Brody, who was one of the pioneers of typographic design in terms of creating crazy typefaces that had never really been thought of before.

Leif Podhajsky

I've been milling over this idea for a really long time now and I decided that I need to start seperating my interests in design from me chronicling my life. I'm sure there are so many people who just dgaf about what's going on in my life and just want to see cool shit. I am also right in the middle of my first year of a graphic design bachelor and really need to focus on educating myself instead of merely appreciating work. I am doing this in the hopes that my knowledge will expand and I'll consequently produce better and more interesting work.

My first post is about my favourite artist designer of right now, Leif Podhajsky. All my friend understand my absolute appreciation of his work and how I idolise him and his aesthetic. He has influenced a lot of my processes and designs lately and I feel like right now he is one of the most important people I should recognise before I get started on who else I love. Leif isn't the reason I want to do graphic design but he is the reason why I feel like I can do this. His simple but stupidly effective style, especially uses of colour and shape, are so influential and to be honest I feel like right now it's become a movement in graphic design (on a small scale) that I really hope I am thought to be a part of.



My favourite works by Leif are part of the Coagulated Physique series, but his video work is incredible as well.

His whole process appears to be pretty simple which I think is why it's so effective, I just wish I knew how to use Photoshop well enough to manipulate photographs so seamlessly.