SignSphere: Creative launch roundup

SignSphere is a monthly round up of interesting articles in the blogosphere about inspiration, design, typography, graphic-design and more. If you have anything you want to share please use the contact form to send in information. This month features the many startups of inspirational websites for the creative community. This is SignSphere, enjoy reading.

Launch of Gekko

signsphere april 2009
Gekko gives you personalised hotel recommendations you can trust based on your unique profile and the preferences of like-minded people in the community. Gekko is not a design inspiration resource, but looks great.

  • Launched by a close friend of mine, please support and visit Gekko.

Launch of Flash Tuts

signsphere april 2009
It’s all about quality tutorials for Adobe Flash. Whether you want to learn how to create awesome Flash animations and interfaces, bone up on your Actionscript to create games and apps, or just get started developing with Flash, we’ve got you covered!

  • Visit Flash Tuts for your favourite Flash tutorials.

Launch of Logofi

signsphere april 2009
Logofi, a inspiration gallery that acts like a leaderboard of the best logos. The best get on the website and the best of the best get logofi’s or voted up!

  • Visit this website about logos Logofi.

Launch of Blogfullbliss

signsphere april 2009
Blogfullbliss is designed and maintained by Adrian Balkwill. Blogfullbliss serves as his public blog where I post my random crazy thoughts, ideas, tutorials and more.

Launch of Line25

signsphere april 2009
Line25 is the drawing board of creative web design, a place where ideas and inspirations are drafted out and presented to web creatives through articles, tutorials and roundups of cutting edge website design. Line25 is created and maintained by Chris Spooner.

Launch of Design Newz

signsphere april 2009
Design-Newz is a site that features articles, resources and tutorials written by designers and developers just like you! The folks at Spyre Studios built and currently manage this site Design Newz!

  • Visit Design Newz today for your fresh daily hand picked design news items.

Layer Tennis

signsphere april 2009
Coudal Partners presents Layer Tennis, a design competition played live on internet.

Two competitors will swap a file back and forth in real-time, adding to and embellishing the work. Each artist gets fifteen minutes to complete a “volley” and then we post it to the site live. A third participant, a writer, provides play-by-play commentary on the action, as it happens. A match lasts for ten volleys and when it’s complete, Season Ticket Holders tell us what they think and we’ll declare a winner, so sign up today.

Sign up for Layertennis and follow the design matches on live.

Typeface Anatomy

signsphere april 2009
FontShop released a great resource guide into typeface anatomy. Find out all the terms used for a typeface, recommended readings.

WellMedicated

signsphere april 2009
WellMedicated originally started out as a place by Andrew Lindstrom to vent, rant and moan ad nauseum on the topic of web design, a place to share inspirational findings with other creative individuals.

Robothon09 Conference

signsphere april 2009
Organized by Erik van Blokland and Paul van der Laan Robothon is a type conference in The Netherlands,

Relaunch of Eightyone Design

signsphere april 2009
After months of developing the crew at Eightyone Design released the redesign for their own website, based on fast loading, design, usability and more. Congrats guys great job!

Thinking for a Living

signsphere april 2009
Duane King (BBDK, Inc.) offers you a collection of recommended readings and online links that he has gathered over the years from various reliable sources. Thinking for a Living™ was created for those who believe that while design is a profession, it’s above all a passion.

White Space: How to Get it ‘Right’

signsphere april 2009
A great article by Mark Boulton taken from his PDF book Five Simple Steps: A Practical Guide to Designing for the Web. This article learns you how to add white space in order to get an effective design.

Space is important in layout. Space can be created by content – such as text, images, lists, logos etc. – or it can be created by the space in—between content, called negative space, or whitespace.

Cut&Paste Amsterdam

signsphere april 2009
On the 2nd of April Amsterdam will host the Cut&Past event, an inspiring gathering of design professionals who will compete in a contest about design and creativity. The show is accompanied by a DJ and all will take place at the wonderful Paradiso. The show will also be on livestream, check the website for more information.

Cut&Paste’s mission is to provide channels of visibility and inspiration for designers, both aspiring and established, to reach their existing audience as well as potential fans.

Visit Cut&Paste for the Amsterdam details and check CreativeAmsterdam, via Dutch design blog Fontanel.

@DesignWorkPlan

signsphere april 2009
Finally I turned myself into the Twitter Sphere!

Enjoy reading

Thank you for reading DesignWorkPlan, if you enjoy this content please subscribe to the free RSS feed to get the fresh articles in your favourite news reader.

SignSphere: Creative roundup

Signsphere a monthly collection of inspirational links and resources for typography, design, architecture and more. Do you want to be featured in next months signsphere? Just send your design work to my email adres as specified in my about page. Thank you for sending this months links, enjoy reading.

FF DIN

signsphere feb
I just love FF DIN, a very useful typeface by (Dutchman) Albert-Jan Pool. A remake of the earlier DIN 1451, For years Engschrift and Mittelschrift which was used in our engraving industry. Nowadays FF DIN is found in signage & wayfinding projects around the world. Visit the minisite FF DIN.

The Wayfinding book

signsphere feb
I just ordered the wayfinding book by David Gibson, a complete guide into information design for public places. When I receive my copy I will review the book here.
See here for the full introduction of The Wayfinding Book.

Logo Designer Blog

signsphere feb
Busy man Jacob Cass released another blog, Logo Designer Blog, a blog about logo design, inspiration, tips & resources. With many contributors in this field of experise I believe this will be another great logo design website. Btw ordered the dot-grid-book, read here for more information. Visit Logo Designer Blog.

Design Dosage

signsphere feb
Design Dosage is a design inspiration gallery that features one quality post per day. Each day of the week has a set assigned category. - Icon Monday, - Typography Tuesdaym - Wallpaper Wednesday, - Illustration Thursday, - Logo Friday, - CSS Saturday, - Print Sunday. See for more daily inspiration Design Dosage.

New Veer Marketplace

signsphere feb
Low-priced images for the Veer community, produced by the Veer community. With over 100,000 images Veer is to release a new this marketplace with photos starting at $1,- Visit the marketplace from Veer here for more information.

Georgia on my mind

signsphere feb

Mathew Carter’s graceful serif typeface Georgia is re-discovered by Web Designers. Featured at inspirationbit are 32 web sites that rely heavily on Georgia to display their content.

Visit this great showcase of usage Georgia websites at inspirationbit.

Type Chart

signsphere feb

Typechart lets you flip through, preview and compare web typography while retrieving the CSS.

Finally a great website about the difference between Windows (Clear) Type & Mac Type. Seeing the samples I cannot believe I have been stuck with Windows for so many years. All examples can be used in your own CSS Style Sheet. Check the website TypeChart for more information, via iLovetypography.

Icon Dock

signsphere feb

IconDock is brought to you by N.Design Studio. They know your time is valuable, that is why they offer stock icons in vector and pixel format that you can quickly snap in your projects to speed up the development.

Visit IconDock or visit the blog for more information.

Underconsideration now @twitter

The design firm Underconsideration is now also on twitter, follow the moves by Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit.
See the announcement here and follow at twitter.

20 Corporate Brand Logo Evolution

signsphere feb
Have you ever wonder how the first Apple logo looks in 30 years back? Did you know Volkswagen was Hitler’s idea? Or how the IBM logo changes over the time? Or where the Mercedes-Benz Brand And The Three-Pointed Star logo came from? Check this post at Instantshift.

Minimal design websites showcase

signsphere feb
A website dedicated to minimal designs, although this website if fairly new already several great minimal designs have been added. Submitted DesignWorkPlan recently.
Check the minimal design showcase.

Wireframes

signsphere feb
This is the opening of Wireframes Magazine, in which I invite you to take part. The essence behind this experiment is the simple idea that we as information architects, interaction designers, and user experience professionals all create design documentation in one form or another which makes up a large part of our typical work day.
Visit Wireframes.

Creative Fluff

signsphere feb

Creative Fluff is an eclectic group of young designers, artists, writers, and critics. It is not only our goal, but our pleasure to bring you the latest, oldest, and most interesting news from all realms of creative art and design

PDF Book: Designing for the web

signsphere feb
A Practical Guide to Designing for the Web aims to teach you techniques for designing your website using the principles of graphic design by Mark Boulton. This is a great PDF booklet and will teach everything from start to finish, filled with many tips and insights from Mark Boulton. See more at the website Five Simple Steps, read here for a full review.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized

signsphere feb
The goal of giving form to a complex situation like the credit crisis is to quickly supply the essence of the situation to those unfamiliar and uninitiated. Created by Jonathan Jarvis, Los Angeles based designer.
To see the video see the website crisisofcredit, via fontfeed.

Examples of presenting work/projects

signsphere feb
YouTheDesigner published a great article with examples on how to present your work/projects. It will give you an insight on how to shoot a photo and make your work attractive for a portfolio. Visit the article here.

Dutch Corporate Identity Price 2009

signsphere feb
Dutch foundation Grafische Cultuurstichting is organizing a national contest for best corporate identity. Until the first of March you can send in materials. See here for the full details (Dutch only), via FontShop.

AIGA: Air Force One Graphic History

signsphere feb
What is the story behind the graphic design of Air Force One? Patton investigates the visual identity of the “flying White House.” Featured on AIGA.

Good Design in ten commandments.

As good design cannot be measured in a finite way he set about expressing the ten most important criteria for what he considered was good design.

Visit the good design in ten commandments here, via designnotes.

Enjoy reading!

Thank you for your visit at Designworkplan.com, enjoy reading the above recommendations. If you have anything to share please type a comment or let me know via contact.

Up next the first DesignWorkPlan guest article by Frank van Leersum about signage and architecture, please subscribe by RSS if you like the content. Thank you.

SignSphere: Design & Inspiration November 2008

SignSphere is a montly collection of inspirational design, typography, icons resources. This month there are many great articles published from a full review of the NYC Subway typeface, the icons collection of the winter games in 2010, a new mini-site from fontshop, pantone colored sneakers and much more. If you want to submit news to SignSphere, please send me an email via the contact form. Thank you and enjoy reading.

The (mostly) true story of Helvetica and NYC Subway

SignSphere
A fabulous article by Paul Shaw for the New York subway graphic system. In a dept review of the sign system, choose of typeface and creation of design manual this nine pages essay describes everything. I have enjoyed reading this article but was looking for some examples of the sign manual, searched Google and found some images of the sign design manual at Flickr.

NYC Transit Authority graphics system

SignSphere

  • Visit the article by Paul Shaw at Aiga and take a look at this Flickr set of the original NYC Transit Authority graphics system—designed by Massimo Vignelli and Vignelli Associates in 1970.

Minisite FF Trixie

SignSphere
Dutch type teacher and designer Erik van Blokland released with FontShop the minisite about his typeface FF Trixie, since its release in 1991 Trixie was one of the few good workable typewriter typefaces available.

Erik van Blokland finalized the typeface Trixie with two new variants: FF Trixie Rough, and FF Trixie HD, available each with Light and Heavy weights. At the minisite you are able to see the typeface fontfonts and the new typefaces have much more detail than the original. In the images you can see the effects of the analog look and feel of Trixie, Erik was kind enough to send me the masthead (at the top of the page), text designworkplan, thank you very much for sending it to me.

Example of usage FF Trixie

SignSphere

Vancouver 2010 Pictograms

SignSphere
Via Iconglobe I spotted the newly designed pictograms for the Vancouver Olympic Wintergames in 2010, as part of a complete brand identity.

Olympic and Paralympic Games designs have a long tradition of creativity and excellence

The designers review of Books

SignSphere
A new website about books for the creative minds, written by designers. With designers reviews books the authors review (expensive) design books and allows you to buy or find related information about the books online.

Although there are several good design websites that occasionally have book reviews, there didn’t seem to be a single place online where you could get constant updates and reviews of new (and sometimes old) design books.

Thoughtpile

SignSphere
Thoughtpile a website where visitors are allowed to share thoughts about specific (green) topics, users can submit ideas and the most discussed idea will be featured in the Thoughtpile. Crowd thinking and creating ideas and solutions is becoming more and more popular.

  • Visit Thoughtpile and share your thoughts and ideas.

PANTONE Sneakers

SignSphere
Today is the last day that you can pre-order special PANTONE SeaVees Sneakers, use the code on the website in the onlinestore to get yours! The collection will be in stores Spring 2009.

  • Visit this website to find the information about PANTONE Sneakers.

iPhone App: Font Viewer

SignSphere
OSXWerk released one of the first iPhone apps for font lovers, this free app allows you to select MACOSX fonts and enlarge the typeface. You have the ability of type text and display it in the selected typeface.

It would be very interested to see more type related iPhone apps coming. For instance what I would think will work great is a iPhone version of WhatTheFont. You make a photo of a typeface you are interested in, the iWhatTheFont will recognize the typeface and can view it online or buy the specific typeface.

Please share your ideas or suggestions of type-related iPhone Apps?

  • Visit the website of OSXWerk for more information about FontViewer iPhone App.

Not for paper

SignSphere
Not for paper is a website dedicated to bring you some of the most exciting design work for screen. Work best realized away from a printed surface.

Fuel your creativity rebrands

SignSphere
Adelle Charles manages the great design & inspiration website Fuel Your Creativity, she publishes frequently articles for a wide design audience. Recently FYC rebranded with a new logo and website layout. Congrats Adelle for this great achievement.

Write in Helvetica

SignSphere
If it would work I want one, my handwriting is terrible, so writing in Helvetica would be just great. Visit the website for more information about this pen writing tool.

Is Graphic Design Art?

SignSphere
There has been much talk about this website, Is Graphic Design Art?. When I first encountered this question I was intrigued by the fact people think about graphic design as art. In fact most people think graphic design is art. Lets take a look at the definitions.

Graphic Design: The term graphic design can refer to a number of artistic and professional disciplines which focus on visual communication and presentation.
Art: Art is the process or product of deliberately and creatively arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions.

Submit your news

SignSphere is a montly collection of design related and inspirational topics, use the contact form to send in your materials. Thank you.

SignSphere: October 2008

Signsphere a monthly collection of inspirational links and resources for typography, design, architecture and more. Do you want to be featured in next months signsphere? Just send your design work to my email adres as specified in my about page. Thank you for sending this months links, enjoy reading.

Introducing my new corporate signage website

signsphere october 08 design inspiration
Baumann Sign is the name of my new corporate website (at the moment Dutch only). For quite some time I haven’t had the time to implement the new corporate signage website for my company. We are a signage & wayfinding company in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Designing & producing signs for office buildings, parking facilities, public buildings, hotels and more. We are specialized in create unique signage systems through the use of well thought out design in combination with color, architecture and typography. Our main goal is to create signs & wayfinding systems that work in the environment and lead visitors in the right direction. As a wayfinding product I designed a sign system called SignSwitch, a flexible signage system with a touch of design using materials such as stainless steel in combination with colored acrylic.

Please take a look at our signage projects page to see some of the things we have done in the past. Please let me know what you think of the design of the website, your comments are highly appreciated.

Use of DesignWorkPlan Arrows collection

signsphere october 08 design inspiration
Logo Designer Kathy Moore used various icons from my arrow & icons collection as a basis for the logo design of South Logan County Rural Health Care Network. Great work! Thank you for sending your materials.

The reason I chose the circles with the arrows is that I needed to represent the community as a whole and the healthcare community coming together. I liked the idea of having the arrows intersect to represent that connection. Sustainability is a major goal for our project so the circles help to express that because circles are often representative of something that goes on and on. Overall, the graphics I used from your site couldn’t have been more perfect to represent the project and the goals of it and all of the members were very happy with the final product. Kathy Moore

Re-design of InspirationBit

signsphere october 08 design inspiration
The long awaited re-design of InspirationBit, a faboulus website about design, inspiration, art, photography and much more, written by Vivien. The re-design is great work, I really like the way she has put up the website, the focus on the content and thoughts on navigation. At the homepage at the top you will find the three latest articles with below that the latest featured article. At the bottom of each page you will find a huge footer containing everything you want to find at InspirationBit. The website is scalable, with a wider screen the tree on the left will have a bigger impact on the design. A nice drawing and looks great aswel! The color usage is purple and green which is a colorful yet professional look. The content of InspirationBit is just superb, posts are really thought out well and giving a in-dept look on the articles topic. Take a look at InspirationBit and tell us what you think!

You know you’ve achieved perfection in design, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away. Antoine de Saint-Exupery

  • Visit InspirationBit or comment on the new design in this article. Do you want to know more about Vivien then subscribe to InspirationBit.

Launch of Typerepublic

signsphere october 08 design inspiration
Typerepublic is an independent type foundry based in Barcelona (Spain). Founder and principal designer Andreu Balius has designed (and designs) an exclusive collection of typefaces to be distributed throughout this website.

Source Creative: Inspiration

signsphere october 08 design inspiration
An English design company who publish their design work on the website. They update their website a few times a month with new creative work. A inspiration to look at the design work they accomplish.

Japanese Icons

signsphere october 08 design inspiration
Via iLT I discovered this page, the website is completely written in Japanese, so cannot read anything. But the icons are superb. Nice balanced and beautiful designed.

Largest LED advertising screen: Podium

signsphere october 08 design inspiration
Via The Inquirer I found this image of the biggest ever build LED advertising screen. Size? 100 x 20 metres, that is huge! Build by Dubai-based construction company Tamee and will be placed on a office building at the Kingdom’s Majan district.

Visible at a distance of 1.5 kilometers, the magnificent screen on the façade of Podium is designed by the L.E.D. technology. This curved façade will be a powerful medium for advertising, messaging and art. Highly-reflective tinted glass will be utilized to achieve astounding visual quality, as the massive screen gives off an elegant bluish sapphire glow.

  • Visit the website of Tameer for more information about this LED screen

Name that Pantone code:iPhone App

signsphere october 08 design inspiration
In one word, what a faboulus app for your iPhone. I recently got mine and can’t stop working with this tool. It contains the complete PANTONE® color books, so you can quickly search through PANTONE® solid coated, PANTONE® solid uncoated, PANTONE® Goe™ coated, PANTONE® Goe™ uncoated, Web Safe Colors, HTML Colors. The real power of this app is the snap-shot function. Take a photo with your iPhone and select the color, voila ColorExpert will tell you the PANTONE color. I’ve checked it with several colors and it matches almost everything correctly. Beautiful!

Graphic ExchanGE Design

signsphere october 08 design inspiration
A graphic design website that shows showcases of inspirational designs. Graphic ExchanGE covers many different design topics, but this page is full on (laser) engraved design graphic, on different materials with superb taken photos.

The visual history of 11 successful blogs

signsphere october 08 design inspiration
Over the years blogging has become more popular than regular websites, this post from Royal Pingdom compares the design of 11 successful blogs from the start to the current design. Interesting readings.

Environmental Graphic design

signsphere october 08 design inspiration
In this post from +KN Kitsune Noir the author writes about the importance of environmental graphic design. The examples are of great design and serve their purpose.

Zabox: Design News

signsphere october 08 design inspiration
Yet another voting design news website has been born: Zabox. So why is Zabox different than the other design news websites? It is a bit more focused on just design than other news websites. I submitted a story recently and I will post my findings in a future article.

zaBox is a design related social bookmarking website, focused on offering its users design news, tutorials and resources in a spam-free environment.

Viscom Fair Frankfurt

signsphere october 08 design inspiration
One of the largest media fairs in Europe will be hosted in Frankfurt this year. With over 260 exhibitors in various fields of print media, visual communication, singage, digital signage and more will bring you their latest information. It will be a great fair, although the exhibitors list is quite the same as last year in Italy. I really enjoyed the Italy fair… So anyone is going to Frankfurt? Let me know and we can meet there.

Viscom frankfurt 2008 will be opening its doors at the Exhibition Centre Frankfurt from 30 October.

  • Check the website of Viscom for the latest details, programms and more.

Enjoy reading

Thank you for your visit at Designworkplan.com, enjoy reading the above recommendations. If you have anything to share please type a comment or let me know via contact.

SignSphere: September 2008 Inspiration

SignSphere is a monthy inspiration resource of creative resources found in the blog-o-sphere. This months edition is full of type related goodies, tools and fun with type, enjoy. Most interesting this month are the startup of Lettercult & Daily Creattica. Bringing more design inspiration to the world! When you have something you want to share, please send me a email with your design information. Enjoy reading!

Search Amazon for type related books

SignSphere september 2008
A nice search tool to search for typographic books at amazon, it uses a interesting way to present the bookcovers, the covers form the search word you typed. Great tool.

  • Go to Amaztype for more information about this book type search tool.

Search Twitter for type comments

SignSphere september 2008
More type related searches in the world of twitter. Typesites released a search tool that crawls twitter posts for type related keywords. A nifty tool created by Kyle Meyer.

Typegraphunnies

SignSphere september 2008
Type can be fun, at Typegraphunnies there is a huge collection of type jokes. Warning only for type junckies!

Design your Heineken

SignSphere september 2008
The guys from Fitzroy send me this url, here you are able to design your own Heineken beer bottle. A superb tool that allows you to easily add text or images and have your own designed Heineken beer. Awaiting mine…

Creattica Daily

SignSphere september 2008
Creattica Daily, a site of daily news and links for creatives and designers. They cover a broad range of creative inclinations from graphic to product design, interactive to motion, advertising to articles.

20 hand written fonts & resources

SignSphere september 2008
Adelle has compiled a list of free fonts in the category handwritten, this article is a great resource if you are looking for handwriting fonts.

Vot.eti.me

SignSphere september 2008
A new digg pligg voting design inspiration website, Vot.eti.me has a easy to use interface and is a great resource for finding design related information. I believe this website has been created because of the sell of designbump. Good luck with Vot.eti.me! Small note, make the logo a direct link to the homepage. Thanks.

Divitodesign Redesign

SignSphere september 2008
Dutch blogger Stefan Vervoort just redesigned his website DivitioDesign, with more functions like community news, interviews and wordpress themes. Check out the website.

How to write an effective design brief

SignSphere september 2008
Jacob Cass from JustCreativeDesign wrote a very interesting post about a design brief, which items are important when informing a client, ideas behind a design and more.

TypeisArt

SignSphere september 2008
Type is Art is a wonderful tool that allows you to create art with type. With the type on screen you are able to scale, rotate and create a design you like. Have Fun with Type is Art!

  • Visit Type is Art and create your own art with type!.

New blog from Erik Arjaluoto (ideasonideas)

SignSphere september 2008
Eric Karjaluoto is a designer, serial entrepreneur, and author of numerous articles on design. Now he started his personal weblog with short ideas/articles with a more casual read than Ideas on Ideas.

44 tools to help you in your design work

SignSphere september 2008
A huge resource with design tips, inspiration and everything you need when designing. A comphrensive list organized in a coherent structure. Read more at Designer Daily.

Lettercult kick off

SignSphere september 2008
A great new website about letters The Custom Letter Cult.

LETTERCULT IS OUR ATTEMPT TO HIGHLIGHT ARTISTS & designers doing remarkable work with Custom Letters. This group includes type designers, letterers, sign painters, graffiti artists, stone carvers, calligraphers, poster artists, and graphic designers. Just people. Who make letters.

Everything is okay…

SignSphere september 2008
Via Grainedit I found this resource, a faboulus yet simple yet very effective innovation. I really like the idea of adding information about a situation. It started out as a design idea but at the moment it is becomming a cult of everything that is ok or not ok!

5 reasons your business needs a blog

SignSphere september 2008
Blogging started out as a personal thing for computer nerds, nowadays it is a vital part of business online and offline. From my personal experience, my blog designworkplan has gained more visitors than my corporate website, read this wonderful post from Randa Clay.

Speckyboy: 15 free fonts

SignSphere september 2008
Free fonts are always handy when designing, Vincent Schwidder (colorlab) just send me this link from SpeckyBoy who gathered 15 free fonts to use in design. Worth taking a look at.

  • Visit Speckboy for the complete list of 15 free fonts, thanks Vincent, visit his websiteColorlab.

Overview of changes in global corporate identity

SignSphere september 2008
Via CreatticaDaily I found this resource, a complete overview of corporate identity changes for mayor companies in the last few years. This resource is just a wonderful list! I would suggest to bookmark that reference guide, it will always come in handy.

What’s new in corporate identities, and worth attention? Who did it and why? Fact and opinion. We tell stories of worldwide strategic interest, creative excellence, and leadership intent (or the regrettable lack of it), when we can find the story and properly credit the CEOs, planners, and designers

  • Visit Identityworks for this huge list of corporate indentity changes

More to come

Stay tuned for more inspiration to come, comming up: How to design Airport Signage, a new collection of type in the wild I’ve collected and more. Subscribe to the free RSS feed to stay updated on the latest information from DesignWorkPlan.

Quick Search /
The Sign Design Society Event: Defining a City
April 6th, 2010

An extensive review of The Sign Design Society event ‘Defining a City - How an informed choice of materials can influence a design and define the values of a City’ by guest author Hayley Branston.

Inspiration: Design Magazines and blogs from The Netherlands
February 3rd, 2010

A roundup of Dutch blogs and magazine about design, graphic design, typography and technology. Some of the blogs in the list are in Dutch and other in English language. Enjoy this list of the Dutch Design Scene and share your favourite Dutch Design blog in the comments.

[Review] The Smashing Book
December 29th, 2009

A full review of the Smashing Book, a book by the crew from The Smashing Magazine about design and web-development. Read about its contents and what the book is all about.

Happy holidays, comment for water
December 24th, 2009

Happy holidays by designworkplan, the future is here 2010 and how can we contribute to the planet where one in eight people don’t have access to safe, clean drinking water? Comment at this post and I will donate to charity: water.

Typography for your iPhone & iPod touch
December 18th, 2009

A review of the great and addictive Font Game by ilovetypography and reviews of typography related app available for your iPhone / iPod Touch.

Seminar review: Sign09 Vienna
December 7th, 2009

Seminar review of the signage and wayfinding event Sign09 in Vienna organized by IIID and SDS, this article is an overview of speakers that day included Tim Fendley, Stefan Egger, Nic Banks, Helut Ness, David Gibson and more. Topic of the day: City Identity and wayfinding.

SignSphere: Inspirational design
October 19th, 2009

This months edition of SignSphere hosts a list of environmental graphic design websites, UX design, information design visualization and more. Enjoy reading!

Will iPhone apps change the future of city wayfinding?
October 13th, 2009

How to navigate in an unknown city? What tools should you use to orientate and explore the city? This article steps into the basic principles of city navigation with examples of iPhone navigation apps. Will you use your iPhone for city exploration?

I’m back with a huge load of photos!
October 8th, 2009

designworkplan releases a huge load inspirational photos into the flickr stream, with topics such as environmental graphic design, signage, wayfinding, type, typography and much more. You can use this photo collections as reference guide in your work, designs and your interests.

Free tool: Symbol Signs collection
June 15th, 2009

A professional designed collection of symbol signs, free available for download as a OpenType font. A collection of common used symbols in signage & wayfinding design, by Sander Baumann.

Book review: The Wayfinding Handbook
May 7th, 2009

A review of the book by David Gibson about information design for public spaces, The Wayfinding Handbook. A great book with details about design signage and wayfinding systems, how to use typography, color and information design and design signs for the public.

Typography: Citroën rebrand with custom corporate typeface
April 6th, 2009

Citroën introduced a rebrand for their visual communication. With a new logo and custom corporate typeface are they ready to beat the financial crisis…? The typeface is a combination between Futura and Gill Sans which makes it an attractive typeface. Let me know what you think!

SignSphere: Creative launch roundup
March 30th, 2009

This months edition of SignSphere hosts a huge list of startup of design & inspiration websites! In this list you will find the latest information for design, tutorial websites and redesigns, enjoy reading.

Font Series: Arial is everywhere
March 24th, 2009

Font Series: The last few months I have gathered photos of my environment with a lens to everything that relates to the typeface Arial. And here is the photo showcase: Arial is everywhere!

Outstanding examples of architectural signage
March 17th, 2009

Guest article by Frank van Leersum about the relation between architectural design and signage, five outstanding examples on how typographical elements can work as architectual elements in the overall design.

Signage & Wayfinding blogs
March 10th, 2009

A extensive list of signage and wayfinding blogs, these blogs will bring information about signs, digital signs, wayfinding strategies, design and more. Please share your favourite signage design blog, thank you.

SignSphere: Creative roundup
March 1st, 2009

SignShpere, a collection of the finest and more interesting resources & design tools. This month various type tools and resources, startup of new inspiration websites and much more. This is the signsphere of February 2009, enjoy reading.

Signage and color contrast
February 23rd, 2009

Color in sign design is one of the most important factors, to create signs that work together it is advisable to create a color scheme. This article will explain the usage of a color wheel with various examples of high and low contrast lettering.

Review: WhatTheFont for iPhone
February 15th, 2009

WhatTheFont is released for iPhone & iPod Touch users, you can shoot and photo anywhere and use this iPhone App to find out what font you are looking at. The WhatTheFont iPhone App uses the myFonts engine to recongize a font and allows you to buy the font from the shop. Read the review and find out if you want to use this iPhone App.

Design: Metal pylon signage
January 12th, 2009

Design series for an metal pylon signage. In this article you will find information on designing and building an large metal pylon signage with illuminated signs. This metal pylon signage is placed in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Please share your thoughts on the design, thank you.

2009: What’s next →?
January 5th, 2009

What are your good plans for 2009? What do you want to change in your life? In this post is a visual presentation of my circle of life, which I life by. Please let me know your plans for 2009!

SignSphere: 2008 Highlights
December 29th, 2008

Best of Best in 2008 from DesignWorkPlan. The past year has been a blast, blogging has though and brought me many things (good things!). It has been a pleasure to write articles for you and the comments and interaction between me and the readers has been superb. Thank you! See this post for a collection of best of DWP. Stay tuned 2009… Here we come!

Book review: Identity 2.0
December 17th, 2008

The design firm Total Identity published a new informative book named Identity 2.0, in this book the authors describe many subjects from branding, marketing, visual communication, to sustainability, drive, passion and more. A great book to get inspirated behind the philosophy about design & branding.

iPod Nano 4GB Xmas give away
December 15th, 2008

As a huge thank you for the great support from all DesignWorkPlan readers, you have a change of winning a iPod Nano 4GB for Xmas! Thank you all for reading DWP and adding your voice to the discussion, highly appreciated! Take a look at this post how you can win this iPod Nano 4GB.

Beautiful and inspiring Designers Quotes
December 8th, 2008

Famous design quotes that gets you thinking, create inspiration and shares their vision on design, brand, typography and more. In this article is compiled various lists of famous designers and also a feedback from fellow bloggers, quickly read and share your design(ers) quote.

SignSphere: Design & Inspiration November 2008
November 24th, 2008

SignSphere a monthly collection of design & inspirational resources, this month featured in SignSphere a essay about the NYC Subway Sign manual, the release of mini-site FF Trixie by Erik van Blokland, introduction of Vancouver 2010 Pictograms, PANTONE Sneakers and much more. Enjoy reading.

Announcement: Winner Letterrijk book
November 21st, 2008

Thank you all for the huge support regarding the article about typeface Rijksoverheid and the 1 Logo brand identity. I have enjoyed reading the inspirational discussion, comments, emails and interaction that has been leashed with the publication of the article! Much appreciated! Check this post to see if you are the winner of the book Letterrijk…

Dutch government introduces corporate typeface
November 14th, 2008

On Thursday the 13th of November the Dutch government introduced a custom typeface designed by Peter Verheul. The Rijksoverheid typeface will function as the bread letter of the government and all of its visual communications. Releasing this typeface is part of the project 1 Logo which will bring the Dutch government 1 logo and 1 identity.

Book Review: Signage systems & Information graphics
November 5th, 2008

A book review about the great sign & design book from Andreas Uebele, Signage systems & Information graphics. In this professional resources Uebele describes various stages of signage design, planning and management. Also listed with many sign projects from around the world. This is a truly professional sign graphic book, a must have.

20+ iPhone Apps every designer should know
October 28th, 2008

A huge list of 20+ iPhone applications that changed the way you work as a designer. This list shows usefull iPhone apps for managing files online, send business cards, convert colors and measurements, calculate and more.

SignSphere: October 2008
October 23rd, 2008

October SignSphere resources, an article about typography, design and inspiration. Each month DesignWorkPlan publish an article with resources to design related and interesting websites. Check this months resources with new and exciting links to share.

Font Series: Rotis is everywhere
October 14th, 2008

The font family Rotis (by Olt Aicher) is everywhere to be found. Designed in 1989 the type has a very distinctive look and feel with a high legibility. You can easily spot this type by taking a closer look at the letters ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘s’ and more. Take a look at this photo showcase of Font Family Rotis.

SignSphere: September 2008 Inspiration
September 30th, 2008

SignShpere, a collection of the finest and more interesting resources & design tools. This month various type tools and resources, startup of creattica daily & lettercult and more inspiration. This is the signshpere of september 2008.

Airport Signage: Photo inspiration
September 23rd, 2008

Take a look at a showcase of over 20 different airport signage designs, from cities all around the world. Also in this article detailed information about how to design airport signage & wayfinding systems.

Museo Sans Released!
September 18th, 2008

Jos Buivenga released Museo Sans, a fabulous designed sans font family which is available in ten variations. Starting at $0,- this is a low cost high quality sans font which can be used in various fields of designs & visual communications.

Neues Museum Nürnberg
September 10th, 2008

The Neues Museum Nürnberg (Germany), from a contemporary art collection to modern design. The New Museum showcases the work of important German graphic, product and industrial designers. When you are near the city of Nürnberg Germany the museum is well worth the visit.

A Brand that moves you…
September 5th, 2008

Did you every experienced a feeling that you had to buy more products at a retail shop? I took the plunge and went to the Puma Factory Outlet store in Germany. A visual appealing store designed with detail.

Blog Re-Branded
September 1st, 2008

This blog has been re-branded to a new name and domain name. Design Work Plan, please update your bookmarks and rss feed to the new domain. Read more for additional information about the blog re-brand. http://www.designworkplan.com/

Font Series: FF Meta is everywhere
August 5th, 2008

In this font series I have taken photos of billboards, bottles, books, cars, signage and more where the wonderful typeface FF Meta is used. You can see the power of the Meta Font Family displayed in many different ways, take a look around and tell me.. did you have your Meta today?

Gezocht: All-Round technisch Graveur
July 31st, 2008

Dutch: Vacature: per direkt gezocht een technisch graveur met ervaring voor het graveren, fraisen en lasergraveren an naamplaten, badges, bewegwijzering en andere gerelateerde producten. Gebruikmakend van GravoGraph en MultiCam graveermachines, Adobe Illustrator, iMill en andere graveersoftware, van halffabrikaat naar eindproduct.

SignSphere: July 2008
July 24th, 2008

SignSphere July a monthly collection of inspirational resources with links to design items, technological specs, typography road sign case studies, a video type conference and more.

Which tools do you use to complete your work?
July 9th, 2008

Which (hardware) tools to you use in your daily job as designer / design developer / manufacturer? I’ve listed 10 of my most used items which I use to complete my job. There are several examples of signage listed in the article.

Finally Redesigned!
June 27th, 2008

After weeks of programming and designing the new template for designworkplan.com is finished! I am proud to announce the new look and feel, with new functionalities, new design, more big type, large headlines and more. Tell me what you think of the new design?

Literatuur: Designed for people by FGStijl
June 24th, 2008

Een compleet naslagwerk van interieur architect FG Stijl, de verschillende projecten laten zich kenmerken door design, styling met gevoel voor sfeer en uitstraling. Een inspiratie bron vol met indrukwekkende projecten met oog voor detail.

SignSphere: June 2008
June 16th, 2008

SignSphere is een maandelijkse uitgave met unieke en inspirerende links. Lees verder over nieuwe lettertypen van Göran Söderström, Adrian Frutiger die 80 werd, de fotos van de opening van Nederlands eerste Graphic design museum te Breda en meer.

14 Logo’s in 14 minuten
June 5th, 2008

Elke ochtend als je opstaat kom je logo’s tegen, douche, toilet, etenswaren en meer. In dit artikel is mijn ochtend logo ritueel afgebeeld. Doe mee en maak je eigen brand awareness artikel.

Inspiration: Top 25 Annual Report Designs
May 29th, 2008

Find out the complete 25 most interesting annual report designs. Examples of great design, type usage in combination with exceptional photos and creativity.

56 Free Arrow Symbols & Icons
May 21st, 2008

56 professional edited arrow symbols & icons, free for download and to use for personal or commercial projects. These collection of arrows will help to create your signage & wayfinding design.

Business Card Design
May 16th, 2008

Via Brian Yerkes is er een artikel over visitekaart ontwerp van bloggers, bekijk vele verschillende business card designs en doe ook zelf mee!

ANWB Bewegwijzering: Fietsrouteborden
May 14th, 2008

Sinds het begin van deze eeuw zijn er vernieuwde fiets route wegwijzers geplaatst door heel Nederland, een nieuw ontwerp en nieuw ontwikkeld lettertype door Gerard Unger.

SignSphere: Mei 2008
May 8th, 2008

Een collectie van links samengesteld om te inspireren op het gebied van cultuur, typografie, design en meer. Dit is de mei 2008 collectie, veel leesplezier.

Literatuur: A guide to Environmental Signage
May 2nd, 2008

Een zeer uitgebreid naslag werk door Deense ontwerper Per Mollerup over grafisch ontwerp, typografie gebruik in bewegwijzering, routing en meer. Met vele pratijk cases. Een echte must-have.

Amsterdamse Bos
April 28th, 2008

In en rondom het Amsterdamse bos is sinds 2004 een opvallende bewegwijzering geplaatst. Gebruikmakend van verschillende materialen, kleuren en lettertype gebruik is het een fraai geheel. Ontwikkeld door Bureau Mijksenaar.

WTF: April 2008, The Winners!
April 24th, 2008

The answer to the popular WhatTheFont Type contest, did you win? Thank you for participating in this great font contest!

WTF: What the Font? Raad en win!
April 16th, 2008

Doe mee met deze lettertype wedstrijd ter promotie van het Nederlands ontworpen lettertype en maak kans op een laser-gegraveerde naamplaat. Inschrijving sluit woensdag 24 april om 24:00.

Citymarketing: Iamsterdam
April 11th, 2008

IAmsterdam is een duidelijke uiting als marketing promotie van de stad Amsterdam, verschillende andere Europese steden volgens deze trend.

SignSphere: resources april 2008
April 9th, 2008

Een maandelijkse serie collectie van links naar resources over typografie, design en meer.

Het Parool gerestyled
April 3rd, 2008

De dagelijkse krant Het Parool heeft recentelijk een restyle gehad, een vernieuwd ontwerp gebruik makend van lettertype Meta Serif en Strada.

Stalen sculpturen en Architectuur
April 2nd, 2008

Een serie over stalen gebouwen en constructies vervaardigd uit RVS. Opmerkelijke architectonische gebouwen.

Best of Q1
April 1st, 2008

Een overzicht van de meest populaire artikelen op segd.nl, tevens een statistieken lijst voor traffic, feedburner en meer.

Helvetica font gebruik
March 29th, 2008

Een van de meest bekende lettertypen, Helvetica vele ontwerpers hebben een haat/liefde verhouding met dit lettertype. Gebruik jij de Helvetica nog?

Boek review: Guide Sign Graphics
March 25th, 2008

Guide Sign Design is een boek met afbeeldingen en teksten over bewegwijzeringsprojecten over de wereld, met nadruk op Japanse bewegwijzering is dit een inspirerend boek over bewegwijzering ontwerp en routing.

Design Case: Shell tankstations nieuwe bewegwijzering
March 17th, 2008

De Shell Tankstations worden voorzien van nieuwe bewegwijzering met als uitgangspunten o.a. moderniseren van de visuele communicatie, kosten efficiëntie en meer klantvriendelijkheid creëeren.

MUSEO: een semi-slab serif font
March 16th, 2008

Jos Buivenga een Nederlandse font designer komt met het het gratis font MUSEO, een semi-slab serif font. Een font met eigentijdse uitstraling, leesbaar en toepasbaar.

Pictogrammen en bewegwijzering
March 7th, 2008

Een aantal voorbeelden van pictogram/icon/symbolen gebruik in bewegwijzering en routing, bekijk de verbodsborden en andere pictogrammen.

Global Trends in 2008
March 6th, 2008

Bekijk en geniet van de laatste trends voor 2008, de hottest gadgets, laatste ontwikkelingen op kleurgebied, lettertypen, marketing en meer.

Gratis font: FF Unit™ Rounded Bold
March 5th, 2008

Een leuk lettertype gratis te downloaden via FontShop.com, het font FF Unit™ Rounded Bold is een karakterstiek lettertype te gebruiken voor verschillende doeleinden.

Foto inspiratie om de geest te verruimen
March 4th, 2008

In deze series over foto een bron van inspiratie om je geest en lichaam even tot rust te laten komen en te genieten van de momenten waarin je terug naar jezelf gaat om de energie en inspiratie opnieuw de vrije loop kan laten gaan.

Newzald: het nieuwste serif font van Kris Sowersby
March 2nd, 2008

De nieuwste aanwinst Serif: De NewZald van Kris Sowersby. Een fraai vormgegeven lettertype met oog voor detail, te gebruiken als headline maar ook zeer leesbaar weergegeven in een kleine letterhoogte.

Gevelbelettering en architectuur
March 2nd, 2008

In deze series bespreekt segd voorbeelden van gevelbelettering als extensie in architectuur. Met fotos en verschillende voorbeelden en technieken.

Boek review: The Fundamentals of Typography
March 1st, 2008

Een boek bespreking over het fundament van font gebruik in verschilllende soorten media als print, web, routing en bewegwijzering. Een goed beginnersboek waarbij alle aspecten van font gebruik wordt besproken.

Stock fotos via EveryStockPhoto
February 26th, 2008

Stock fotos zijn voor geproduceerde fotos voor professioneel gebruik in routing, bewegwijzering en bijvoorbeeld het printen van project folies voor visueel aankleden van kantoorpanden.

Het gebruik van fonts in bewegwijzering
February 26th, 2008

Serie 1 van vele over de toepassing van fonts/lettertypen in routing en bewegwijzering. Lees de verschillen tussen bepaalde lettertypen en tevens diverse voorbeelden van bewegwijzering en toepassing van fonts.

Foto Inspiratie
February 26th, 2008

Foto inspiratie van bewegwijzering en routing systemen, visueel zichtbaar met vele fotos en uitleg over de bewegwijzering. Bekijk deze foto inspiratie reportage.

Font nieuws en inspiratie: TypeNeu
January 21st, 2008

Nieuwste platform voor lettertype & font geintereseerden. Een online community met discussie over fonts, links, voorbeelden, gratis fonts en meer.

Via: AisleOne, Interview met Robin Uleman
January 16th, 2008

Via de website AisleOne is het interessante interview met Robin Uleman geplaatst. Een diepgaand interview over inspiratie, lettertypen, kleuren, grafisch ontwerp en meer.

Zwart: het nieuwe Wit
January 14th, 2008

Het gebruik van kleuren in bewegwijzering en grafisch ontwerp zijn essentieel om de benodige uitstraling te vinden. Deze week de kleur zwart, maar is zwart wel een kleur?

Garamond versus Garamond
January 11th, 2008

Het mooie lettertype Garamond, hoe is het ontstaan en welke varianten zijn er momenteel, lees verder Garamond vs Garamond, de Garamond de psygologie van een lettertype.

Sign Design Competitions
January 10th, 2008

Wat is het mooiste of grootste project gerealiseerd in 2007? Is het goed genoeg om mee te doen met een sign design wedstrijd? Kijk en doe mee!

ING House: Winter Inspiratie
January 9th, 2008

Winter 2007-2008 pronkt aan de Amsterdamse Zuidas het kantoorpand ING House, deze winter voorzien van ijs sterren uitgevoerd in LED verlichtingsarmaturen. Een fraai uitgevoerde externe bewegwijzering.

GreyScale Basic: Font Modern
January 8th, 2008

Lettertype GreyScale Basic, een zeer strak & modern vormgegeven lettertype. Gratis te downloaden en te gebruiken in grafisch toepassingen en bewegwijzering.

Inspiratie: Hoe start ik het nieuwe jaar?
January 7th, 2008

Hoe start ik 2008? Hoe krijg je inspiratie? Afgelopen zomer heb ik het uitmate interessante boekje de Creatie Spiraal gelezen van Marinus Knoope. Doorloop de 12 stappen en begin je eigen creatiespiraal.

Font Series: Fontin Sans
January 4th, 2008

Lettertype Fontin Sans, een gratis te gebruiken font ontworpen door Nederlands font designer Jos Buivenga.

Introductie: designworkplan
December 31st, 2007

Signage & Environmental Graphic Design een nieuwe website met informatie over bewegwijzering, routing, grafisch ontwerp, architectuur en meer. Met een regelmatige update blijft u op de hoogte van het laatste nieuws.

Sign Sphere: Introductie
December 31st, 2007

Sign Sphere: De weekelijkse update van meeste interessante links naar artikelen over bewegwijzering, architectuur, vormgeving, design en meer.

Signage & Wayfinding Design: Chris Calori
December 30th, 2007

Een complete gids voor het creeren en vervaardigen van bewegwijzering en grafisch ontwerp door Chris Calori, Signage & Wayfinding Design.

Vrijdag Fonts: Introductie
December 29th, 2007

Vrijdag Fonts: een serie over de toepassing van lettertypen in bewegwijzering, routing en print media.

Maandag Inspiratie: Introductie
December 29th, 2007

Maandag series, inspirerende projecten voor bewegwijzering, print, routing en de psygologie achter inspiratie.

Sign China, Guangzhou
December 28th, 2007

Van 4 maart 2008 t/m 6 maart 2008 is er een grote internationale beurs te China over bewegwijzering, visuele communicatie wayfinding solutions en meer. Naar verwachting zullen er ca. 60.000 bezoekers dit sign event bezoeken.
SIGN CHINA dedicates to offer an ideal international platform for strengthening communication and cooperation among fellow colleagues of sign industry and promoting […]

Grafische Vakbeurs Hardenberg
December 28th, 2007

Van 12 februari 2008 t/m 14 februari 2008 is er weer de Grafische Vakbeurs te Hardenberg.
De Grafische Vakbeurs Hardenberg is drie dagenlang hét trefpunt waar ondernemers en relaties uit de grafische branche elkaar ontmoeten. U krijgt de gelegenheid informatie uit te wisselen, contacten te leggen, inspiratie en ideeën op te doen en in een sfeervolle, verkoopbevorderende […]

Trophex, Birmingham
December 28th, 2007

Een korte maar interesante beurs in Birmingham over graveren. Van 13 januari tot 14 januari 2008 zal op de beurs een groot aantal toeleveranciers aanwezig zijn.
Trophex 2008 brengt u de volgende onderdelen:

New Products
New Sublimation Techniques
New Engraving Technology
Embroidery Innovations
Free Demonstrations
Add-ons For Your Existing Business
Fresh Ideas
 Free Entry

Via de website van Trophex is het tevens mogelijk een hotel de boeken in de nabijgelegen omgeving.
Meer informatie over dit graveer evenement:

Trophex 2008

FESPA Digital 2008, Geneva 1st – 3rd April 2008
December 28th, 2007

Van 1 t/m 3 april 2008 organiseerd de FESPA in Geneve Zwitserland de Europese beurs voor screen printing, signage, digitalprinting en meer. FESPA ‘Federation of European Screen Printers Associations’.
Meer dan 250 van de ‘s werelds vooraanstaande leveranciers van digitaal print producten en oplossingen zullen op de FESPA Digital Printing Europe 2008 te vinden zijn in Geneve, Zwitserland.
Ben […]

Hello world!
December 28th, 2007

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!