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TOP 25 FOUND IMAGES OF 2009. STICK THAT IN YOUR PIPE.
I’m not great at keeping habits. It’s more usual for me to get bored and try something else. One habit that I have kept, is saving images that I find on the web. Mario Hugo wrote a great article on the abundance of ‘unnamed, anonymous’ images on the internet. I totally agree, there’s almost too much inspiration out there. Unlike books that give credit to the artists involved and a background to the images themselves, the internetz most of the time don’t.
Each month I saved on average about 120 images. My main sources were Behance, Graphic Exchange, various Folios of designers and of course the visual orgy that is FFFOUND.
Top 3 designers
Mario Hugo. Smart, often colourless, type heavy design.
Jasper Goodall. More of an Illustrator than a designer, but very big in 09.
Frank Chimero. Uses the internet to his advantage, and a workhorse.
Top 3 Studios
Non Format: Actually creating trends rather than following or tweaking like the rest of us monkeys.
Moving Brands: Not exactly a design agency, but they had a great online presence and some big campaigns this year.
Vault 49: These guys must really charm their clients because their work looks almost untampered with.
Top 3 magazines.
Top 3 fonts.
Serif Gothic (Black)
Knockout (HF&J)
Whitney (HF&J)
I can’t say dragging yourself through the trenches of the internet is going to deliver you quicker to the ‘big idea’, or a concept that will make you king of your class for a few weeks. Personally I’d rather cut it out of a magazine, and draw it out, the old school way. The biggest plus of dropping all this crap to your desktop is that you really can keep a close eye on what is happening right now in the world of graphic design.
Trends die out, grow, become outdated. One cat uses a font really well or a photohraphic technique in a campaign, and next thing you know every hapless designer with a pirated copy of Creative Suite is having a crack.
This is my top 25 for the year. These are images that have really made me think in a different direction. “I wish I’d thought of that!”. There’s posters, packaging, street art, book covers, illustrations, still life, papergraphics you name it.