Brian Paul Nelson – Branding / Design / Illustration">Brian Paul Nelson

“If you can design one thing, you can design everything.”

That quote above pretty much sums up one of the true icons of design, Massimo Vignelli. As you can see most of his work is heavily defined within the Modernist tradition. He focuses on simplicity through the use of basic geometric shapes and forms.

Vignelli was born in Milano, Italy on January 10, 1931 and studied at Academia di Belle Arti (Academy of Fine Arts) in Milan and then at the School of the University of Venice. In 1957, he came to New York on a fellowship and then traveled to Chicago where he taught at the Institute of Design of Illinois Institute of Technology for 3 years. He also taught at the Umanitaria School of Graphic Design in Milan and at the Institute of Industrial Design in Venice.

In 1966, he traveled back to New York where he cofounded Unimark International and worked with high profile clients such as American Airlines, the Ford Motor Company, Gillette, JC Penney, Knoll, and the New York Transit Authority, who continue to use the trademarks and graphic standards produced my Unimark to this day. Then in 1971, he established his own studio, Vignelli Associates in New York with his wife, Lella where he continues to design to this day. Definitely a living legend.

I recently came across the work of Zurich born designer and painter Richard Paul Lohse and I’m really glad I did. Born in 1902, he became and early pioneer for modern Swiss design in the 1930′s and became just as successful in his fine art career as well. It’s always great discovering such a proficient designer from this time because it brings such a greater depth of appreciation to the field for me knowing where a lot of inspiration of today originated from and what it took for these guys to produce work like this.

Herb Lubalin is by far one of my favorite designers and his typographic expertise has pioneered so many trends and has had a huge influence and source of inspiration in my career. U&lc (Upper and Lower Case), The International Journal of Typographics was first published in 1974 and served as both an advertisement for Lubalin’s designs and a supplemental level of typographic experimentation. Lubalin was the editor and art director for the magazine up until his passing in 1981, but it continued to be published until 1999. To get your hands on an issue, especially one that Lubalin personally worked on is beyond rare, but good news comes to those who wait! Each month Fonts.com will be uploading one volume (a year’s worth of publications) in hi and lo-res scans. It doesn’t get much sweeter than this.

Follow and download the U&lc back issues.

Pretty inspiring documentary of David A. Smith who has become synonymous in the diminishing field of traditional sign-writing. It’s insane how much precision and patience he puts into his work and the results are nothing short of beautiful. This small film takes you behind the scenes to show the techniques and visions that Dave uses for his hand crafted reverse glass signs and decorative silvered and gilded mirrors. Amazing.

“Good design is as little design as possible.” Truer words have never been spoken and by quite possibly my favorite industrial designer, Dieter Rams. To me, Braun produced some of the best industrial product and print design for nearly the last half of the 20th century, which was backed by the brilliance of Rams for more than 40 years. All of these products are perfect in their own right and don’t require anything more to make them functional or aesthetically pleasing, which is why they still look just as great today as when they were produced. Wonder why Apple products look so nice? Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice President of Industrial Design has stated before that he is heavily influenced by Rams and his work. Nonetheless, Ram’s work gets me so freakin’ excited about design each time I see it. Be sure to check out the flickr pages and short documentary below.

Dieter Rams flickr
Braun flickr

via AisleOne

My 18 year old mini dachshund appropriately named Puppy passed away earlier this week and it has been one of the most difficult things I have ever gone through. Besides work, I have been pretty quite on the blog and personal design side of things because being at home I still see him everywhere and it has been pretty tough. He was a brother and a best friend all wrapped in one who taught me more about life, love and happiness than anyone besides my Mom. I’ll never forget all the good times. Memories.

I miss you Puppy. Brothers for life.

Over the years I have acquired a huge taste and appreciation for modern architecture and one of my favorite architects from the field would definitely have to be Arthur Erickson. His website was recently updated with more of his beautiful work which features his wide use of different mediums in ways that really compliment the natural surroundings in which he built. His use of form really envelopes the landscape which makes it seem that the earth was created around his work rather than vice versa. I’ve always loved the photographs of his work because they really capture the essence of each design. Hopefully one day, if I can afford it, I will live in something like what you see above. View more work at Erickson’s website.

Via grainedit.

What better way to start off the Atlas blog than by taking a step back and showing some love to one of my favorite designers ever, Adolphe Jean-Marie Mouron, better known as A.M. Cassandre. He has always been a huge source of inspiration, I am constantly blown away each time I view his work. Seeing that he created such posters as above, well before computers were around just amazes me, especially when it comes down to how he handled type. If only I could go back in time and watch him work. The above images can be viewed along with much more of his incredible designs here, courtesy of www.cassandre.fr.