I DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT D* BUT I KNOW WHAT I LIKE

*DESIGN _ another blog by daruma studio

[vignellicenter]

Found in the archives! 

Unrealized DC Metro map designs. Although Massimo Vignelli, while at Unimark International, designed the signage for the Washington DC Metro subway in 1968, he didn’t design the map (which was designed by Lance Wyman). 

But we recently uncovered a variety of ideas mocked up on these presentation boards. We also found some original sketches for the signage! Stay tuned!

[transitmaps]

Historical Maps: Washington DC Metro Concept Maps by Massimo Vignelli It’s well known that the signage and wayfinding system for the DC Metro was designed by Massimo Vignelli while at Unimark. It’s less well known that Vignelli Associates (the company Massimo founded after he left Unimark) put in a bid to also design the system map. 

The above are early exploratory concepts for the “Diagram of Lines”, as Vignelli preferred to call the map, probably dating to 1973. They range from sparse and minimalist to completely abstract, and definitely represent a very different approach to the thick, playful route lines of the eventual official map, designed by Lance Wyman.

Although Vignelli didn’t end up winning the contract for the map, he still had a huge effect on the way it looks today. Wyman originally planned to insert icons inside the circular disks that are used to denote stations on the map, but Vignelli argued that such an approach ran contrary to his (already approved) signage system. The WMATA board listened to Vignelli, and the icons were deleted from the map forever. 

[design-is-fine]

Wilhelm Deffke, cover artwork for magazine “Maske” 1926. Magdeburg, Germany. Via Nosbüsch Stucke

[idontknowmuchaboutdesign]

“David Bowie is” exhibition catalogue, by Barnbrook.

“The studio worked directly with the curators and editors of the David Bowie Is exhibition to formulate the design of the exhibition catalogue, which became the starting point for the show’s entire identity. A set of graphic symbols, each inspired by a key moment in David Bowie’s career, are used throughout the book. These are juxtaposed with variations of the David Bowie Is phrase to give a clear bold feel. Barnbrook also worked with the photography department of the V&A to create clean, modern photographs of the exhibition objects. This catalogue quickly became one of the V&A’s best selling catalogues of all time.”

[idontknowmuchaboutdesign]

British Rail, Gerry Barney, Design Research Unit, 1964.

“When you do a line of lettering with the characters the same height, the “o”s can look too small, so they’re always made a bit bigger. In the BR [British Rail] symbol, the lines aren’t all the same thickness: where the angled bars meet the horizontal ones they will appear thicker at the join, so they actually widen slightly going out. But that comes from lettering, where you have to pay attention to the counters; the spaces that are left, not the thing you’re drawing. They work together.” - Gerry Barney in “The untold story of the British Rail logo”. Read the full article here.

Images from the book “British Rail Design” by James Cousins, published by the Danish Design Council in 1986. Scans found here.

[idontknowmuchaboutdesign]

Soviet Era Space Race graphics.

Found here.

[idontknowmuchaboutdesign]

IKKO TANAKA

Born in Nara, Japan in 1930, Ikko Tanaka created a style of graphic design that fused modernism principles and aesthetics with the Japanese tradition. As a child he studied art and as a young adult he was involved in modern drama and theatrical study groups. In 1963 he formed Tanaka Design Studio where he worked for corporations such as Mazda, Hanae Mori, Issey Miyake and the International Garden and Greenery Exhibition. 

Text from Design is History

[idontknowmuchaboutdesign]

Wilhelm Deffke: The father of the modern logo

By the early 1930s, German designer Wilhelm Deffke was one of the most prolific logo designers in the business, having produced nearly 10,000 corporate symbols. Yet Deffke was never a household name: Like all designers who stand for a company or a brand, he didn't typically sign his work.

He co-founded the Berlin advertising agency “Wilhelm Werk” in 1915 with his partner Carl Ernst Hinkefuss after a stint with the pioneer German industrial designer Peter Behrens. There, for more than 30 years, Deffke practiced the precisionist art of graphic reductionism, influencing subsequent generations to transform literal objects and characters into stark, symbolic, sometimes comical logos.

Some of Deffke's designs are still in use today, including the wittily conjoined twin geometrical figures for the cutlery giant J.A. Henckels. Another, less popular design is Deffke’s deft refinement of the ancient swastika, which one of his former assistants claimed was later usurped by the Nazis when they repurposed the symbol in 1920.

Text from “The Atlantic”