President Obama pencil topper. Olympic Mayor Daley. Parachuting Rod Blagojevich.(Acrobat PDF) Mayor Daley Parking Meter.(Acrobat PDF) Paper sculptures by illustrator and animation artist Joe Fournier.
posted by mattdidthat on Aug 2, 2009 - 4 comments

Beautifully designed, quirky, colorful late 19th-century "artistic" and "gaslight" printing at Dick Sheaff's ephemera pages. [via, via] [more inside]
posted by mediareport on Jun 8, 2009 - 11 comments

Can't talk, too busy looking at Andy Smith's art and typography
posted by Brandon Blatcher on Feb 18, 2009 - 7 comments

You've got some sugar in your eye: 100 Cereal Box Covers
posted by Brandon Blatcher on Dec 18, 2008 - 27 comments

A complete archive of French magazine L'Officiel de la Mode, from 1921 to 2008. It's a treasure trove for fans of fashion, photography, advertising and design. [more inside]
posted by jack_mo on Nov 14, 2008 - 16 comments

Lars Veldkamp. I happened upon Lars through his Flickr sets, in particular Typocalypse.
posted by netbros on Oct 23, 2008 - 12 comments

The Gerd Arntz Web Archive collects graphics from the career of the man who - in creating over 4000 Isotypes for social scientist Otto Neurath in 1930s Red Vienna - can make a serious claim to be the inventor of the modern stick figure. He attacked the corruption of German society as the Nazis rose to power, then joined Neurath in an attempt to create a transnational visual language that bore later fruit in Otl Aicher's 1972 Olympic pictograms and the AIGA passenger/pedestrian symbol signs. [via Mark Larson and Austin Kleon]
posted by mediareport on Jul 7, 2008 - 9 comments

Doodles, Drafts and Designs: Industrial Drawings from the Smithsonian. Including crayon tests, the original telescoping shopping cart and more. [via the horse's neck]
posted by mediareport on Feb 11, 2008 - 7 comments

For your consideration: the entries of the New Yorker's Eustace Tilley redesign contest.
posted by youarenothere on Jan 25, 2008 - 19 comments

Gems of Penmanship, Penman's Leisure Hour, Ninety-five Lessons in Ornamental Penmanship, The Champion Method of Practical Business Writing and other Rare Books on Calligraphy and Penmanship from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Lots of neat tidbits. [via mlarson.org]
posted by mediareport on Feb 24, 2007 - 12 comments

Design Times Square: The Urban Forest Project "brings 185 banners created by the world’s most celebrated designers, artists, photographers and illustrators to New York’s Times Square. Each banner uses the form of the tree, or a metaphor for the tree, to make a powerful visual statement. Together they create a forest of thought-provoking images at one of the world’s busiest, most energetic, and emphatically urban intersections." Including work by Milton Glaser, the Walker Art Center, and many, many others. Via Speak Up.
posted by tpl1212 on Aug 29, 2006 - 9 comments

The Alvin Lustig Archive - "Alvin Lustig's contributions to the design of books and book jackets, magazines, interiors, and textiles as well as his teachings would have made him a credible candidate for the AIGA Lifetime Achievement award when he was alive...Lustig created monuments of ingenuity and objects of aesthetic pleasure." The archive collects over 400 examples of his book, architectural, and ad-design work (see also AIGA's list of Lustig's Top-10 designs). Via HOW magazine...
posted by tpl1212 on Dec 20, 2005 - 5 comments

Bad Design Kills The world is steeped in bad design. As designers we see something every day that makes us cringe or shake our head in disgust. But bad design does more than offend the eye of the designer. It facilitates a poor public perception for what our industry does and at the same time it lowers the perceived value of our services.
posted by ColdChef on Oct 25, 2005 - 65 comments

The Mandala Project by artist Genevieve Gauckler will make you happy. I promise. (For more happiness, also see The Emperors, L'Arbre Généalogique, and everything else.)
posted by taz on Oct 11, 2003 - 3 comments

The Visual Telling of Stories Archive is a database used to train illustrators and designers. It's a deep, rich resource spanning centuries, and a very fun site to explore. I enjoyed puzzle pictures, the section on poses which includes a wife's grateful gestures and the Neapolitan language of gestures, a group of woodcuts of Boccacio's women from 1473, the hidden language of sex, and far too many other things to cite.
posted by madamjujujive on Apr 18, 2003 - 13 comments

The Art of M. Wartella. His work has been featured on magazine covers and other indie zines. Follow the adventures of Dinky Dog (QT recommended) created by "November Jones, the poor Hungarian surplus lard salesman who invented the "Dinky Dog" character in 1914." Or "Make a hacker out of a slacker".
posted by KevinSkomsvold on Jun 21, 2002 - 5 comments