March 2012
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February 2012
10 posts
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The Truth by Ira Glass
This was too good and too honest not to repost. Originally posted by youbroketheinternet. Enjoy.
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Behind the Photographs: An Interview with...
Interview by Cory Michael Skaaren
Tim Mantoani has for the past five years been creating portraits of some of the world’s most noted photographers holding onto their favorite of the photos they have taken over their careers. Neil Leifer’s image of Muhammad Ali standing over a knocked-out Sonny Liston, Harry Benson’s epic photo of The Beatles having a pillow fight and Steve McCurry’s famed...
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The Volkswagen Logo Deconstructed
This is fantastic. Reposted from No Context.
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An interview with Lincoln’s Director of Design Max...
By Cory Michael Skaaren
Young. Talented. And then there’s the accent. Automotive designer and Australian native Max Wolff, Lincoln’s Director of Design, is leading the transformation of Lincoln’s lineup of luxury vehicles.
As the luxury automotive brand plans seven significantly refreshed or new vehicles over the next three years, Wolff and his team will be key to creating world-class luxury...
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An Interview with Daniel Davis of Steam Crow for...
Interview by Cory Michael Skaaren Steam Crow is a Phoenix, Arizona studio that designs, illustrates and creates astonishingly good monster goods. Established in 2005 by artists Daniel and Dawna Davis, the firm is dedicated to making amazing and odd goods with a spooky-cute vintage aesthetic.
Read the full interview at Design.org
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January 2012
13 posts
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5 Magazines for the Modern Graphic Designer in the...
By Cory Michael Skaaren
Contrary to popular belief, print is not dead. In fact, to the modern graphic designer, print as a format might be more important than ever. Despite the many advantages of the web, print still does one thing better, it doesn’t over load us with complete shit. Print magazines have a finite amount of space and they are expensive to print. These two factors alone...
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Skaaren Design 2011 Interviews: Redux
Here are the interviews from the visual communication world we did in 2011.
Enjoy.
1. “Forty” Questions: an Interview with James Archer Interview by Cory Michael Skaaren
2. An Interview with Elliot Kotek Actor, Writer and Artist Interview by Cory Michael Skaaren
3. The “Illustrative Designer” Paul Howalt Interview by Cory Michael Skaaren
4. Shawn Smith of...
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5 Games for Graphic Designers
By Cory Michael Skaaren
As Designers we spend a lot of time thinking about solving client problems. So much so we often experience the dreaded and feared “creative block.” Now, everyone has their own way of dealing with this common malady, but there is nothing wrong with having a few games on hand just in case your usual remedies don’t work. Here are my recommendations: 1....
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Managing Clients and Their Responsibility
By Cory Michael Skaaren
All relationships start out clean. They only become complicated as people rush into business without properly discussing each party’s responsibilities. In the world of visual communications, I really blame designers for the majority of these occurrences. Clients are always going to want things faster and cheaper, and they will always want to be back seat designers if...
December 2011
3 posts
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Brand Cookbook 5: Powabunga
Brand Cookbook 5: Powabunga
The following post is the fifth in a series of what we call “Brand Cookbooks” – also known as “Mood Books” or “Personality Books.” We call it a Brand Cookbook not just because it gives us a better chance of trademarking the name, but because we believe that in order to cook something successfully one needs to gather all the ingredients first.
The image above, and...
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Interview: Shawn Smith of Shawnimals for...
Shawn “Shawnimal” Smith, the visionary behind Shawnimals, began to develop his distinctive style of art as a kid obsessed with cartoons, comics, video games, and drawing pictures. Not satisfied with simply drawing his favorite cartoon and comic book characters, he felt compelled to create his own, inspired by all that he loved.
Shawnimals products run the gamut including plush...
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App: The Legacy of Steve Jobs
Fortune: The Legacy of Steve jobs By Cory Michael Skaaren
Although the App is basically a collection of Fortune magazine articles that they have written over the last 30 years, it still is worth the hefty price tag for an app.
Just when you thought everything that could be said about Steve Jobs has been said, Fortune magazine comes along and packages 3 DECADES worth of information about...
November 2011
6 posts
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Three Traits of a "Good" Designer by Cory Michael...
There is often a lot of talk among the “design elite” about whether or not one can be taught to be a “good” designer. This debate could very well be the oldest in visual communication history, and one that seems to always begin after a “talented” designer comes into contact with an “untalented” designer.
The good news is YES, you can can teach...
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Book Review: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson by Cory...
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
We all knew Steve Jobs was a hard-to-work-with asshole. We all knew he had a charming side. We all knew he was brilliant. Where the debate comes in was HOW he was brilliant. It seems clear to me Isaacson’s book wants us to believe that Steve Jobs was born with a singular purpose. And that purpose was to, as he put it, ‘put a dent in the universe.’
What’s truly...
October 2011
9 posts
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Halloween Illustrations
This is a collection of illustrations I have done for the men’s culture blog www.thedignifieddevil.com for their Halloween articles.
If your interested in reading the articles:
Article 1: Navigating All Saints Day A Gentleman’s Guide to Halloween Written by Greg Smith Art by Cory Michael Skaaren
Article 2: Dead Men Walking Zombies and the Male Culture Written by Greg Smith Art by...
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Good Design is Dead by Cory Michael Skaaren
I first heard the saying “Good is Dead” in the fall of 2001 while listening to a lecture by Chip Kidd. The legendary designer was giving a presentation to promote his new book, The Cheese Monkeys. Ten years and untold number of client engagements later, “Good is Dead” means even more to me now than it did back then, and here’s why…
This means that we have an...
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Dieter Rams: The Apple in Apple's Eye
If the definition of a gentleman includes being not a braggart, then Deiter Rams is definitively a gentleman. If you’ve ever interacted with or admired the design of an Apple product, then you’ve touched an evolutionary descendent of a previous era of legendary industrial design efforts. So what’s the connection with Dieter Rams? He’s the man responsible for the first iteration of prescient...
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You Cannot be Smart and in Love at the Same Time:...
A great presentation has the soul of a well-made documentary and the intelligence and artistry of a well-defended court case.
Designers are a rare breed of problem solvers. They see shapes, forms, textures, typography and colors where most people only see billboards, magazine pages, or television ads. This means designers are born with a certain kind of superpower that makes them great visual...
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Steve Jobs in his Own Words
Elegant. Simple. Intuitive. Graphic. These are descriptions not applied to technology until Steve Jobs dazzled the world with the Macintosh, the iMac, the iPod, iPhone, iPad and more. He understood the purpose of design on a visceral level and not only transformed the way designers work, but elevated public awareness that design is not merely an aesthetic marketing device, but the heartbeat of...
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Revisiting Steve Jobs
How to write anything about Steve Jobs? I intentionally didn’t write anything yesterday because I didn’t want the moment to cloud my judgment. Being a designer my entire adult existence, Steve played a huge part in my life. I was in college when Steve returned to Apple the second time. For me it was serendipitous timing. Here I was learning how important design is, and there was...
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Steve Jobs 1955-2011
presented without comment…
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Get Your Head in the iCloud
Much like the paperless office, the modern Designer has been promised a seamless, cloud-based and worry free computing experience for years. Well, october 12th we finally get it.
Apple has been laying in the weeds for decades building a hardware network and software ecosystem that you can take with you, use, have work, and not have to think about. Starting with the first iPod all the way back...
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A Book Every Designer Should Read By Jon Eckblad
Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man by Marshall McLuhan
Ever wonder why everybody’s turning into the equivalent of gossipy teenage girls? The answer’s in this book. Written well before the Internet Age, McLuhan predicts—unjudgmentally—the death of the individual and the reduction of the world into a “global village,” a term he coined and which you have probably heard. Technology is...
September 2011
18 posts
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Maus Trap by Steven Heller
No other “comic book” has been as honored in literary and cultural circles as much (and deservedly) as Art Spiegelman’s Maus (I + II). It was the first comix memoir to be covered in The New York Times Book Review (“Cats, Mice and History: The Avant-Garde of the Comic Strip” by Ken Tucker), the first to receive a Pulitzer Prize — and Maus is heralded as the...
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Brand Cookbook 4: The Dignified Devil
The following post is the fourth in a series of what we call “Brand Cookbooks” – also known as “Mood Books” or “Personality Books.” We call it a Brand Cookbook not just because it gives us a better chance of trademarking the name, but because we believe that in order to cook something successfully one needs to gather all the ingredients first.
The image above, and the descriptions below, is in...
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The Incredibly Lengthy Process Of Designing A...
Cereal box design is something of a legend, with bright colors and slogans that can hypnotize both kids and adults. What you might not know is the lengthy creative process that goes into this product design. As you’ll see below, even a small change can take a year and cost millions of dollars.
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Week in Review: In Case You Missed Anything
The week in review just in case you missed it!
1. INTERVIEW The Men from UNKL By Elliot Kotek
2. DESIGN ARTIFACT I Love New York By Milton Glaser and @Issue Magazine
3. CASE STUDY Kono Magazine by Cory Michael Skaaren
4. DESIGN QUOTE Design Quote By AGFA Design by Cory Michael Skaaren
5. INTERVIEW The Illustrative Designer: Paul Howalt by Cory Michael Skaaren
Thank you for all the kind...
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The Men from UNKL: Designer Toys
Boasting such lines of vinyl toys as the HazMaPo, TinPo, JunPo, SUG and UniPo, each with a back-story almost as rich as the Devil himself, and all with the primary mission of protecting their human friends at all costs, UNKL has quickly asserted itself atop the U.S.-designed toy chain.
With a new line of Hazmapos (Series D1) on the Devil’s radar, time was taken to find out some of the secrets...
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