DIG Graphic Research

This site is run by DIGroupArchitecture's Graphic Studio. With an onslaught of social media and news feeds available, it has been important for us to create something more relevant to our employees and their lives. We use this blog as a real time record of projects, people, and imagery that influence our decisions during the design process. Subjects range from web design and development to branding, printing, and environmental signage.

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Another nice infographic, this time on the creative process by Data Storyteller, RJ Andrews. Apparently Corbu skipped lunch, Frued smoked 20 cigars a day, and Balzac was a coffee fiend. Found via infowetrust.com.

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Via Visual.ly and ArchDaily - A nice infographic on the relationship between building materials and architecture. To see the full graphic, click here. 

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From Universal Everything, this is hypnotizing and enjoyable. Especially around 2:30 when he sheds his geodesic dome in place of something resembling Studio Gang's Aquatower, or Galaxy Soho by Zaha Hadid. Then again at 6:00 when he starts liquifying. 

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Well this certainly has potential, and reflects how graphic design and imagery is increasingly influencing our lives. This search engine acts as a curator of sorts, taking a user's input and returning images that have already been deemed visually powerful by others. Right now it is only drawing from a few sources, but I can see how it has enormous potential to change the way we search for inspiration on a given subject. 

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Jonathan Moore

We're currently using Jonathan Moore's TUMBLR theme "Origin West" for DIGBLOG. His personal blog has some good insights into the design world, and an overall narrative of how design can change the world for the better. We find blogs like this are always helpful for inspiration when needed. 

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Inspired by our last post on the work of James Soares, we came up with this as a backdrop for one of our client's websites. It's a base layer of cubes generated in illustrator, copied over and over, with a metal texture overlay and gradient fill. 

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We are working on a new website for an engineering firm, and started the arduous task of filtering through some of the templates available out there (we're using wordpress for this one). One of the current trends in good web design is the ability of a site to adjust to different browser sizes and devices (called 'responsive' site design). The best websites we find work well with the full bleed backdrop across all browser sizes. This can create a problem with certain photographs, as they are so specifically proportioned to include the entire image. As a response, patterns, textures, and layering have become more prevalent (and more stimulating given our ability to vary opacity between objects). Images generated as seamless patterns offer great promise in replacing single colors and simple gradients on websites. This is what led us to these patterns on Spires, a website showcasing the work of designer James Soares. His website is a template from Squarespace called Forte. 

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On the heels of the Anderson-Wise website by Chris Malven. Wow. 

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Anderson-Wise Architects, by Chris Malven. Really clean portfolio. Responsive, full bleed.

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This is a very familiar portfolio template, but customized elegantly with a few notable improvements. 

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Image of the Studio: A Portrait of New York City Graphic Design

An exhibition that aims to offer a shared portrait of what it means to be a New York design studio in 2013. Image of the Studio is on view October 1-28, 2013 at the 41 Cooper Gallery at Cooper Union.

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Olivier Staub Photography and Cinematography. Really nice. It takes some getting used to, but places a really nice balance between title and imagery, and for a site with a lot of photos it creates a nice hierarchy of navigation. 

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More layered navigation from Antro Creative Agency.

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FF Mark - The scroll parallax is really popular now, but people are starting to push it further, using creative overlays, transitions and video that are incorporated in each scroll action. 

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The European Design Leaders is an exclusive/élite club. Its purpose is to provide a valid and comprehensive index of the most creative studios and agencies of the continent. Defining who qualifies to become a member is based on a process as objective as possible.

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Really great navigation from Andreas Kleiberg by Bleed. I particularly like the newslog. 

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Nice Manifesto from Bleed.