This blown open lotus shows how a little color goes a long way to making an impact. I like how the tiny bit of pink at the tips, bright yellow center and grayish green shadows make this white lotus pop. Photo by zenjebil at sxc.hu
Open Lotus
Book Cover Inspiration: Oprah's Summer Reading List
Oprah's summer reading list has some books with interesting design. I love the color and decorative text on Dreaming in Hindi. The extreme cropping and ghostly white text on the light gray background make the Columbine cover moody and appropriate. I like the order and structure of Plan Bee. And for Admission, gotta love the 'A'.
Color Inspiration: Vintage Wallpaper
These pieces created from vintage 70's wallpaper were a surprise to me. It's not all avocado and mustard yellow. There are actually some unusual and creative color combinations that would work well today.
All pieces from Drawflowers Etsy shop.
Initial Caps
Decorative initial capital letters, like art, serve a purpose: to bring beauty and provide a resting point for the eye on the page. I don't get to use initial caps often but I can appreciate them as the beautiful objects of art that they are.
True North
In a sea of color and complex backgrounds, True North snack packaging stands apart. I like the neutral color scheme, creative and playful nut arrangements and minimalist typography. These design elements combine to create a solid, interesting and consistent identity.
Seattle poster
This Seattle city neighborhoods poster shows how inventive one can get with just typograpphy. Ork Posters also has other city neighborhood posters available.
Incidentally, Seattle is on my mind because I'm going there tomorrow. I'll be back to writing here in about a week when I get back.
Naissance
I like the striking black and white vector shapes of Naissance's splash page. The grayish blue adds subtle depth.
CS4's Rotate View Feature
Right up there with my other favorite Photoshop and InDesign features is the new CS4 Rotate View feature. Rotate View is an invaluable tool that allows non-destructive rotation of an InDesign spread or an image in Photoshop. It's great for CD/DVD digipak designs, complicated multi-fold brochures, really anything that needs to be rotated temporarily.
Photoshop
Photoshop's Rotate View feature allows free rotation to any angle. This is especially convenient for visually straightening crooked photos before cropping. To use the Rotate View feature:
- Open an image in Photoshop and select the Rotate View tool (it's the hand with the rotate motion).
- To freely rotate the image, click on your image and drag the image in the direction you'd like to rotate it. A compass appears and shows both true north and the current rotation.
- To rotate your image an exact amount, enter the amount in the Rotation Angle box.
- To clear the rotation, click the Reset View button.
InDesign
InDesign's Rotate View feature is limited to 90° CW, 90° CCW and 180° rotations. To use the Rotate View feature:
- Open a document in InDesign and select View > Rotate View and choose 180° or one of the other angles. In the Pages panel, the rotated page or spread will display a little symbol next to it, confirming that spread is rotated.
- To remove the rotation, select View > Rotate View > Clear Rotation. The Rotate View command is also available on the fly out menu on the Pages panel.
Another huge CS4 improvement is Photoshop's sharp preview at any zoom size. It's not always as perfectly sharp as advertised, but it's so much better than before and another of my favorite CS4 features.
The Book of Dead Philosophers
I first noticed the cover design for The Book of Dead Philosophers because the size was so unusual. I don't usually see books that narrow and it really stood out to me on the shelf. The book within a book concept is clever and the whole design is very creative with white space, perspective, proportions.
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