Changethethought™

“Xavier Encinas is an Art Director and Graphic Designer living and working in Paris, France.
He is the Design Director of Under The Influence (French Fashion Magazine) and The Lab (Canadian Culture Magazine). He is also the founder and editor of Swiss Legacy (Graphic Design blog)”

Xavier recently relaunched his site and made some big updates to his portfolio. There is some top notch design work happening throughout and any designer is guaranteed to find some inspiration happening within.

written by Christopher | tags: France, Graphic Design, Paris, Print, Xavier Encinas

“CitID is a project were designers and artists from around the world are encouraged to create a visual interpretation of the city closest to their heart. CitID is a non-commercial project. Our motivation is to create a one-of-a-kind library of designs that will inspire and hopefully create a better understanding of the world we live in.”

This looks like it could be an interesting project that could eventually make for an inspirational book. Submit something from your city today. I am thinking about putting something up for Denver at some point.

written by Christopher | tags: Art, CitID, Cities, Graphic Design, Typography, World

Quirky French studio Akatre has been very busy updating with several new and original works in their portfolio. Akatre was founded by Julien Dhivert and Sebastien Riveron and continues to evolve with experimental and original work. They are definitely a studio to watch as it’s impossible to forecast exactly what they will do next.

written by Christopher | tags: Akatre, Art, France, Graphic Design, Print

Onetime Changethethought Editor Luke Williams has stayed busy since moving to Chicago after graduating from the Maryland Institute College of Art. He has recently been picking up the camera with more frequency to capture some interesting image studies including the one above. I had no idea how creepy tongues could be.

written by Christopher | tags: Chicago, Graphic Design, Luke Williams, Photography

Mark Bloom notified me earlier this week that some updates have been made to the East London/Essex based Mash Creative portfolio including some nice print and branding work.

written by Christopher | tags: Essex, Graphic Design, Mark Bloom, Mash Creative

Gavin Potenza and Elizabeth Meyer have partnered to launch a new studio called Script and Seal with a focus on experimental brand development. They have amassed a small portfolio of work and have already worked for Warp Records, The New Statesman, Oregon State University, AOL, Good Magazine, Redwood Publishing, Men’s Health, and Zoe NYC Swimwear.

written by Christopher | tags: Gavin Potenza, Graphic Design, Portland, Script and Seal

Swedish design and branding studio A-B-D has a small but impressive body of design and branding work including some amazing packaging for Delights of Sweden and store concept work for H&M.

written by Christopher | tags: A-B-D, Branding, Graphic Design, Packaging, Stockholm

Canadian designer, artist, actor, thinker, mentor and pirate Taylor David is oozing with style. His stylized retro-twinged collaging makes for highly commercially viable imagery and if you dare click on his ‘info’ section you will in turn be treated to a highly commercially viable looking kind of a guy with a whole lot of hair.

written by Christopher | tags: Actor, Canada, Graphic Design, Illustration, Taylor David

“Manual is a graphic design and branding consultancy based in San Francisco. Our approach is tailored to every project and is always grounded in clarity, simplicity, and beautifully crafted design.”

Manual is not playing. They have an exquisite body of work that would make any graphic designer salivate.

written by Christopher | tags: Branding, Graphic Design, Manual Creative, Print, San Francisco

Wanderlust has released a series of posters for Earth day 2010. The posters are selling for £30.00, £15 of which will be donated to Oxfam and Doctors Without Borders. There are 7 posters in all under the theme ‘wanderlust’ showing each of the 7 continents ranging from Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, to South America.

The posters are absolutely beautiful works of modern art but for me personally, even with the money going to charity, I just can’t afford one at the moment even though I would love to hang them in my studio. But if you can afford to pick one up, I highly recommend it considering that half of the total sale is being donated to charity which is practically unheard of.

written by Christopher | tags: Earth Day, Graphic Design, Posters, wanderlust

Artem Gridin doesn’t have any information about himself at his website but what he does have is some very nice poster work with a rather unique and playfully experimental take on typography.

written by Christopher | tags: Artem Gridin, Graphic Design, Posters, Russia, Typography

“The Double You Theory is an ode for individualism, freedom of expression and creativity. We can be more than we let ourselves to believe. The Double You is an initiative for making the unimaginable.

We believe in the spur of the moment, breaking the form and expanding our horizons. We believe in making life more colorful and fun.”

Well okay then. As a part of this ‘initiative’ The Double You has been hosting a design challenge with a grand jury award prize of $2000 that concludes on May 5th. There are some interesting images coming out of the challenge so far and for a decent cash prize, supported by what sounds like a positive network and message you might as well throw your hat in the ring if you are feeling up to it. Visit the Double You site for more information about entering the design challenge.

written by Christopher | tags: Competition, Illustration, Posters, The Double You, Typography

Barcelona design firm Heystudio has updated their Flickrfolio with some impossible-not-to-like work including this poster for the Lapsus Graphic Showcase Exhibition. They have been on a roll this year and last with continually impressive simple, clean, colorful and beautiful graphic design work.

written by Christopher | tags: Barcelona, Graphic Design, Heystudio, Posters, Typography

If you have not familiarized yourself with the lifetime works of luminary graphic designer Josef Müller Brockmann, Alki1 has assembled a nice Flickr set featuring some of his more well known pieces. I was totally consumed by Brockmann in my senior year of college while studying graphic design and was particularly obsessed with his Musica Viva posters. His work has continued to be a big source of inspiration and while working for Nasir Kasamali, I was surprised that even he carried a Brockmann book in the small library at his Luminaire furniture store in Miami. After discovering the book then 4 years out of college, I was once again obsessed all over again with Brockmann’s work. You can definitely see his influence on the current trends in design.

written by Christopher | tags: Akzidenz Grotesk, Graphic Design, Josef Muller Brockmann, Typography

“Forest is the multi-purpose studio of Joel Speasmaker, located in Brooklyn, New York, working in the areas of graphic design, art direction, publishing, branding, web design & development, illustration, and various curatorial projects. Joel previously published The Drama magazine, served as art director for Anthem magazine and was comics editor for Swindle. Currently he self-publishes The Small Book series, and contributes Think Faest by Forest for Faesthetic magazine.”

Joel has some exceptional typography and branding work in his portfolio and has made a friend out of some very timely and watchable brands.

written by Christopher | tags: Brooklyn, Forest, Graphic Design, Joel Speasmaker

Eduard Mateo, Jordi Oró and Joel Barber have relaunched the Medusa Team studio website with a bright new look and an updated portfolio featuring their multidisciplinary project work. It’s bright, trendy and colorful and it looks like they are having a good time doing what they love. Good for you guys, go get ‘em.

written by Christopher | tags: Graphic Design, Illustration, Medusateam, Motion Graphics, Spain

London-based design consultancy, Modern Publicity was established by Ken Leung, the founding Art Director of Monocle magazine. The MP portfolio is relatively small but puts in an impressive showing for branding work with some highly considered print pieces. There is a wedding invitation in their portfolio that was one of the most impressive I have ever seen.

written by Christopher | tags: Branding, Graphic Design, Modern Publicity, Monocle, Print

I stumbled upon Sydney based Like Minded Studio’s Behance portfolio today and it looks as though there might be a few bits of work there that I didn’t see at their website. Like Minded is headed by the exceptionally talented illustrative typographer Luca Ionescu whose work I have always admired.

written by Christopher | tags: Illustration, Like Minded Studio, Luca Ionescu, Sydney, Typography