Swiss Style graphic design was made famous through the artistic talents of swiss graphic designers, however it also emerged in Russia, Germany and the Netherlands around 1920. The style became internationally known around the 1950's and is now produced by artists around the world. The name swiss style has kept the name and the swiss legacy.
The style pays attention to detail and precision and crafting skills. The font and lettering style used is inventive and shows a new movement of style.
Above are some examples of the style found on Smashing magazine.
ncient pond
Frog leaps
Splash!
Waterjar cracks -
I lie awake
This icy night.
Lightening -
Heron's cry
Stabs the darkness
Sick on a journey -
Over parched fields
Dreams wander on.
Between the Sheets - a blog written by my friend Michelle who wishes to express her love of art and new media through her blog, posting interesting images and videos.
Today Snowboarding and the U.S. Snowboarding riders are seen throughout all types of media and news of the team is communicated in many different forms. Snowboarding has been a quickly growing sport including a growing sport in the Olympics and the team and its members are constantly under the spotlight. However the question some are asking is when did snowboarding become cool? And how did it become cool and increase in popularity? The answer to these questions is found in the part that the media has played in the Snowboarding subculture.
For the most part snowboarding went unnoticed back in the 80’s when snowboarding was about duct-tape boards and neon sweat pants. The media however saw this a new business venture and media types such as Time magazine and local news channels were beginning to expose the sport. Suzuki ads were placed on the sides of a few half-pipes and the word snowboarding was appearing in magazines next to words such as “extreme” “action” and “lifestyle sport”. Snowboarding became attached to the media hype including other extreme sports such as surfing, skiing and skateboarding. Over all of those sports, Snowboarding was the sport that gained the most acceptance from the media.
Snowboarding was soon seen in magazines ads, TV commercials for products anywhere from soda to cold medicine. Snowboarding in the media was portrayed as a young sport, new and refreshing. Snowboarding became cool. The sport was on a rise and exploded around 1997; one year before Snowboarding became an Olympic Sport. The media helped create snowboarding as its own identity and differentiated itself from other extreme sports such as skateboarding. After the Olympics snowboarding competitions were seen on major channels such as NBC and major sponsors began to really spend money on the sport, sponsoring major competitions.
The mainstream media was soon seen as an effective marketing tool, especially for women snowboarders. Women snowboarders were portrayed more in fashion magazines in the start, “One shot in Seventeen Magazine could sell more snowboards than a six-page feature in a snowboarding magazine. Eventually woman snowboarders were taken more seriously and seen as professionals and were recognized in major snowboarding magazines.
Snowboarding magazines help promoting the sport; photo incentives are included into many professional riders’ sponsorship contracts that gives the riders publicity as well as a financial incentive to have their photo in a magazine. Examples of popular Magazines include Transworld Snowboarding, Snowboard Magazine USA and Method. Snowboard magazines have recently pushed their efforts into the online market with online only publications. It has become necessary for the team to use social media networks such as facebook and twitter to reach their audience.
In 1994 Mike Hatchett’s Totally Board came out which glamorized snowboarding and changed the way the public thought about snowboarding. Snowboarding films have played a major part in the progression in the sport. Films are released each season produced by snowboard specific video production companies as well as other companies that use these films as a form of advertising. Videos show professional riders sponsored by companies. An example of snowboarding for commercial use is, The White Album, a film with Shaun White, snowboarding hero that is sponsored by PlayStation, Mountain Dew and Burton Snowboards. Not only are these films used as a form of advertisement by as a way of showing the snowboarding style and new trends of the sport.
Large amounts of money were spent on promotion of the sport and sponsorship deals. Sponsorships of the team include Burton, Visa, Sprint and Putnam Investments, which have created all types of buzz for the team. Olympic Medalists Shaun White and Gretchen Bleiler are constantly in the news for their snowboarding accomplishments and are becoming very popular sports celebrities.
The US snowboarding team has been in the spotlight more than ever as they are doing increasingly better in the Winter Olympics and other international competitions. Many sponsors including Putnam Investments are choosing to join with the team because of the driven athletes and excellence that they stand for and that is what is portrayed to the public through the media.
Link to Sean White youtube video -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1j63gt_uGE
The U.S. Snowboarding team’s website is very dynamic and straightforward. One of the website’s major strengths is how it is easy to navigate around the site and the layout is very user friendly. It is a very attractive website with many videos and other highlights that is a way of interacting and engaging the audience. The list of upcoming events and highlights are very informative for the user and keep viewers updated. Being a Graphic Design major I find the website particularly aesthetically pleasing and a very well done website that appeals to the target audience of young people.
I particularly like the Athletes section on the website. All of their pictures are featured and makes the viewer become more aware of the athletes themselves and makes them more easily identifiable.
The U.S. snowboarding team also has a twitter and facebook page. These forms of media are necessary in promoting and generating awareness. The twitter updates its audience on events and the athlete’s personal lives, creating interest in a quirky way to engage the audience. With 1,650 followers, the twitter site is growing in popularity!
The facebook page portrays many albums, mobile uploads and videos of the team and their travels. There are many promotions taking place trying to gain more traffic to the sight and more interest in the team. One promotion currently taking place is a signed snowboardcross poster up for grabs to be one as long as the facebook site breaks 5,000 fans by November 20th.
Another status is, ‘The secrets of Olympic Snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis/Beauty on the go’. An article from fitness magazine on facebook creating buzz and attracting a female audience on the beauty secrets of a successful athlete. This is exciting and advertises for women athletes, getting them involved in the sport just as much as men.
https://twitter.com/ussnowboarding
http://www.facebook.com/ussnowboarding
"new logo creates a gap between company and its customers"
Consumer-driven design works for some products, but not for corporate branding. It was a horrible idea to go to the general public for a design contest in the first place. The move from the automatically identifiable and universally recognizable GAP logo to the run-of-the-mill financial/techy gradated blue box and sans serif type is awful. They could almost be two different companies, one a fashion company, the other a financial institution or software company. One says "familiar" the other says there's a "gap" between you and us.
The separation between the name and the blue box says it all. If the text represents the company and the blue box represents the customers, the one on the left shows unity of purpose while the one on the right says we're bigger/better/more important than you. GAP in all caps stands for something else and removes the connotation between the meaning of the word and the company name. Title caps Gap says exactly that, leaving the Webster's Dictionary definition in tact.
http://boards.core77.com/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=22645
http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2007/07/17/king-tubby-meets-the-aggrovators-at-dub-station/
http://popwreckoning.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/bob-marley.jpg
http://www.shadowandact.com/?p=29427
Sean Collins is an aspiring photographer, recently graduated from University of Maine. I met Sean in central park while he was visiting NYC with two of friends and we began talking. While still at school Collins got his first internship working for Converse. He found through his career center at school that Converse was hiring for interns, so he applied immediately.
In a bid to ensure their packaging is not thrown away, watch manufacturer Nooka has partnered with design brand SiliconeZone to produce a rather unusual product: Packaging that you save and use to eat out of. Nooka's new gem box is microwave-safe and harkening back to the days when the impoverished would save jam jars to use as drinking glasses, though the cooking-grade silicone used here is decidedly more hi-tech.
Nooka's even going to start putting recipes up on their website. Sure it sounds a little weird at first, but you can't say the thinking isn't out of the box....
Surprisingly, only 10% of blind people are Braille literate; but among blind people holding down jobs, 90% of them can read and write Braille. In other words, Braille literacy is clearly the way to go for those seeking self-sufficiency.
To draw awareness to Braille literacy, Leslie Ligon designed the Braille Alphabet Bracelet, a simple way to learn the system. The Cooper-Hewittconferred the People's Design Award on Ligon's bracelet earlier this month. "I'm delighted that the public has chosen to honor the Braille Alphabet Bracelet, which looks good, communicates without a glance and feels great too!" said Cooper-Hewitt Director Bill Moggridge.
Ligon is selling the Braille Alphabet Bracelet here.
