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The art of James White

Inspiration: Logos from CanadaYesterday

Here is a round-up of some fine Canadian logos, grabbed from one of my favorite websites, The Canadian Design Resource. Canada has a wonderful history in terms of identity design with simple and iconic logos, most of which remain quite timeless. Listed above are:

1.  Canadian Metric Movement
2. Westbeach
3. Okanagan Spring Brewery icon
4. Montreal Alouettes
5. Potash Corporation
6. Marlborough Hotel
7. Delta Acceptance
8. Art Gallery of Ontario
9. Toronto Images Festival
10. Northwest Territories
11. Ville de Sainte-Laurent
12. Green party

We live in a time when logos seem very polished and over-produced, a logical side-effect given the technology we now have, however most of the above stand the test of time. I am especially fond of the Potash Corporation, Northwest Territories and the Green Party logos. Beautiful in their simplicity, and I don’t say that only because I am Canadian :)

Inspiration: Retro-FuturismusDecember 3

Here is some vintage science fiction inspiration coming from Germany. Retro-Futurismus concentrates on illustrations from German science and technology publications from the early 1970s. The site is broken up by artists, including Klaus Bürgle, Erik Theodor Lässig, Günter Radtke and more.

“The main motivation of our project is to demonstrate to readers from Germany & Austria the wealth of visionary thinking in these countries during the past.”

Brilliant forward-thinking conceptuals. Check out Retro-Futurismus for more.

Signalnoise and Animal Crossing: City FolkNovember 30

Being a big supporter of Nintendo for most of my life, it’s no big surprise that I fell under the spell of Animal Crossing. I clocked many hours playing the original Game Cube version, and am currently harvesting my peaches on the newest installment, Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Wii.

I got the idea this weekend to design some shirts for my little dork to wear as he ran around town planting flowers and talking to animals. And what better shirts to wear then ones sporting the logos of designers who’s work I enjoy? Super nerdy, I know :)

Please pardon the quality of these shots, it’s the best I could do getting a capture from my television.

The Signalnoise logo

Joshua Davis‘ owl logo

Scott Hansen

Gasoline Morning for Sweet Content ‘09November 26

I was asked by Evgeny Kiselev to contribute to the 2009 designer calendar entitled Sweet Content, so I finished off this piece I call Gasoline Morning. I’ve been working on the crystalline facets of this piece for a little while now, experimenting with some geometric shapes taking aim at mimicing a diamond cut.

The calendar will feature some amazing talent such as Peter Jaworoski (The Hejz), Malota, Merdanchik, and many more, showcasing six russian artists and six international artists. I can’t wait to have this hanging on my wall.

Check out the promo page for Sweet Content right here.

WolvesNovember 26

Time for some metal. This piece is influenced by some of my favorite metal acts spanning many sub-genres of the sound.

Metal has had it’s ups and downs in terms of design over the years, but I love the ambient brooding nature some bands are taking their work over the past few years. The style is pretty prevalent on labels such as Hydrahead and Ipecac, and I first started noticing it with bands like Pelican, Isis, The Red Sparowes and Boris.

The use of natural elements, such as landscapes, ocean, trees, mountains, etc mixed with brooding architecture and form perfectly captures the essence of this new breed of sound.