This “Can you find the mistake? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9″ graphic has been floating around the social media websites for a while now.  I have no clue where it originated, but it’s very clever.  It took me a while to find the the mistake after the initial first glance.  I was like, “where the heck is the the mistake?”  It’s funny how the human mind is tricked. I think because of the series of numbers all in different colors, you overlook the obvious and try and find an issue way more complicated than it really even is.

They also bolded the word “mistake”, that’s another good point – you know that’s why your eyes jumped straight to it right after you read the first line. This would be a great example for a typography class. Just in case you’re still trying to figure out the mistake, the word “the” is repeated twice.  It’s okay, we know you’ve probably had a long day and/or didn’t have your coffee just yet.

If you really got a kick out of this, check out these other great mind benders, optical illusions, and brain teasers.

Graphic design has undergone a lot of change in the last 100 years.  They only just started using computers in design back in the late 80s, or early 90s.  But besides the technical side of things, society has changed a lot over the years as well.  We have had endless technological advances in product design, health standards, science, and even general common knowledge.  We’re living in an informed generation, where you can learn anything in a matter of a minute spent searching Google.  Here are 15 retro / vintage print ads that might come across the wrong way by today’s standards.  I hope you get a kick out of these flashbacks from the dark ages.  Some of them are hilarious, others quite offensive by today’s standards.

That’s definitely a realistic reenactment of what happens after blowing tabacco smoke into a pretty woman’s face.  About 5 Tipalets for 25 cents.  Not 5, but about 5.  Just in case we throw in an extra half, or 4, or 6, or 3.  Read the rest of this entry »

Just when you thought that reCAPTCHA couldn’t get any more annoying or trying on your patience, they went ahead and started using Papyrus font. What’s next, Comic Sans!? Wow.  This got me thinking about the all time worst fonts to use in your design work.  VideoJug beat me to the punch.

Courtesy of VideoJug, here is a list of the top 5 fonts that you probably should never, ever use – whether you have the slightest bit of designer in your, or even if you’re a soccer mom making a flyer for your daughter’s girl scout bake sale.  These are the five worst fonts ever, and definitely the most over-used fonts of all time:

#5. Arial - There are so many cooler sans serif choices, like Avenir, Myriad, or even the always favorite Helvetica.  Arial is oh so played out.  It’s still kind of usable (on minor website text links and  things like that) but try to use something better. Read the rest of this entry »

A logo is a huge part of branding and corporate identity.  The goal of a logo is to be memorable enough that it differentiates one business from every other one.  It could just be logotype, with a slight clever twist on, or off of, one of the characters in the brand’s name.  Or, a good logo design might integrate a hidden message within.  A top logo design makes nice use of negative space, and also has the ability to be used in part or in full as design elements within other pieces of the company’s branding and marketing pieces; whether those be printed colateral (business cards, letterheads, envelopes, tri-fold brochures) web design, or even interactive and video production uses.  A logo design can sometimes also work in more than one color, maybe even in black and white.  It could be slapped onto anything, and doesn’t get lost due to having text that is overly small, or an odd shape that doesn’t work well with certain layouts.  The typography could be clean and corporate, or it can also be complex and distinctive to the brand.  Would a company who manufactures dish detergent want to use a font or typeface that screams “alien space invaders”? Probably not, but then again there is always sometimes a rare exception.

Here are some of the most popular logo designs on the Behance network. To learn more about each design project and more about each artist, just click on any of the thumbnails below. Most of these even show how each designer was able to produce the logo to fit all sorts of uses for the companys’ marketing pieces.  Some even show the design process, from sketch, to producing the mutliple variations, to the final result.

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Do you like Norman Rockwell’s illustrations and artwork as much as we do?  Enter here to win a Free Norman Rockwell wall calendar, for a limited time! Contest ends 12/31/2011

I have always admired the artwork of famous artist Norman Rockwell, but for some reason, never realized that he also produced illustrations and stock art for use in advertisements and marketing materials.  Here are some vintage Norman Rockwell advertisements that feature his unique, photo-realistic illustrative style.  Rockwell’s masterpieces even made the cover of The Saturday Evening Post a number times.  Way before there was Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, or even mainstream digital photography, Norman Rockwell was a true creative.

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