Coming up...

What is brand architecture? How do you design to make a product easily recognizable, communicate a powerful brand and be a part of a system that would still be possible to expand? More coming soon!

Behance Portfolio Reviews

Hi everyone! I'm very happy to let you know I will be presenting my portfolio during Behance Portfolio Reviews in Krakow on May 17th.

I was invited by Design Hunters to take part in this marvelous event and I'm very excited to meet other designers and creatives. And everyone else who happens to be there, too :)

For those of you that will be in Krakow, come and see me speaking live about my designs (and see the fabulous works by other designers as well) in Kompany at Berka Joselewicza 21 in Krakow. The creative boom starts at 6 pm.

You can read more details on the event's Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/events/322062887862478/

See you there!

Long time...

...no see.

Hello! I'm very sorry for not posting anything new for the last couple of weeks. I've been really busy working on fantastic projects I'll be posting new info about very soon.

For a quick note: I've been interviewed in the Radiofonia radio last week. I'd like to thank Ewa Rewieńska for inviting me to share a little bit info on typography, teaching design and design process when working on my posters. It was great! On top of being great, they're playing fantastic music.

You can listen to Radiofonia on-line here:








See you soon in the new post!

Let there be light. Hommage à Górecki

Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, the great Polish composer (1933–2010), was internationally renowned for his symphonies and chorals. The term "spiritual minimalism" is often used to describe his works. According to Wikipedia, spiritual minimalism was  

a term used to refer to a number of late-twentieth-century composers of Western classical music, whose works are distinguished by a minimalist compositional aesthetic and a distinctly religious or mystical subject focus.

If you'd like to read more about Górecki and his work, go here. If you'd like to listen to some of his masterpieces, go here or here.

Back to the poster...

I designed it for a competition commemorating Henryk Mikołaj Górecki. Digging deeper into his biography and work, I thought that using light seemed a perfect fit to show his approach. As in my other posters, I was trying to use as little graphic design means as possible, so the whole design was based on photography that was retouched. I believe this gives the viewer the sense of something physical that wasn't created in a computer program from start to finish, even if the photography is modified to some extent.

Light became a material building the whole structure of the poster. The idea came to me after analyzing the shapes of the letters in composer's last name. It was possible to create a message of the light going "through" the name of the composer and therefore create notes on the musical staff.

The other thing I wanted to communicate was a metaphor of music coming to existence through the inspiration (that some believe comes from God).

Click to see more pictures from the making-of:

Coming up...

What is spiritual minimalism? How could this phrase translate into visual language?
More coming soon!

Why so serious? Designers can have fun!

Hello! I've just noticed that most of my recent posts have been strongly focused on design in its pure form. Information design, typography and logo design are things I'm totally passionate about but hey, it's not about being so serious all the time!

That said, let me give you some eye candy: a very special personal project I've been working on for the last two years. Finally, I made my dream come true and it's here, so I'm going to share a little bit of it with you. What's it all about?

Playing with fashion, image and having lots of fun. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce...

Artavaganza! 

 

There's more eye candy, so read more after the fold!

Designing a system of documents, part I

As I promised, today's finally the day when the next post comes live. Apparently, getting it all together took me a lot longer than I expected, but it's finally here! This post is going to be the first of the series of post explaining why I believe a well-designed document could not only be a matter of aesthetics, but sometimes can help you in your everyday life. This is also a presentation of my Master's degree thesis from 2009 when I was a student under professor Jan Nuckowski at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow.
Ready?

Let's go, then!
Click to read more after the fold:

How to design a document?

The next post is going to be the first of the series of post on the subject of information design. I'll be showing you my approach to designing a system of documents. But can you really design a document? And, even if you could, why would anyone do that?
More to come soon!

#Update (30.03.2012): Apparently, lots of crazy (but fun) things are happening right now, so I wanted to apologize to all of you that I have kept you waiting for so long. I'll be updating the blog tomorrow, so come and visit!

My logo published in LogoLounge: Master Library vol. 4: Type

I'm very happy to let you know that my logo was published in the new book by Rockport, LogoLounge: Master Library vol. 4: Type. I just got the book, so I wanted to share a little bit of my joy with you :)

Click through to see the published logo and read about the design.

Coming up...

Taming the Japanese dragon: Fujitsu case study

This project dates back to the ancient 2008, when I was still a student. I got lucky to work for Fujitsu Poland on designing a series of adverts for Nature Science and a brochure promoting their new software for chemists.

Materials Explorer, as it was called, was meant to be used as a specialistic tool helping chemists model the chemical reactions. And tons of other things I had no idea about.

I was not the only one working on this project. Actually, I was ½ of the team, the other half was my friend Kuba. You can see his copywriting portfolio here.

What was our design goal and what have we learnt?
Click to read more!

Coming up: taming the Japanese dragon

How to design an attractive and visually appealing material containing extremely specialistic knowledge? And, at the same time, make it work with the whole corporate identity system behind?

More to come soon!

One idea, two solutions: designing a logo family

Today's post is going to be a quick guided tour on the subject of designing a logo family.
I'll be showing you how the design process looks from the inside and how design solutions could differ, but still come from the same background.

Click to read after the fold!

Coming up: one idea, two solutions

How to design a logo family by finding two different solutions, but still have one idea behind them?
More to come soon!

Making letters shine: 100 years of futurism

When I was a student, I always dreamed of finding my own way as a designer.

I looked up to my friends, envious of their brilliant ideas and working really hard to come up with something that would be truly mine. Something I could feel was my own way when thinking of posters.

The only thing I can say – looking back – is that there is no special formula. Everything you create as a designer comes from your very own backgrounds, whatever they are – cultural, psychological or historical. Even the fact that someone read you a book goodnight when you were little might matter. Maybe it made this particular book very special? And when the moment was right, pop! you've got it right.

What's the story behind the first of my shining letters posters?
Click to read after the fold!

Could letters shine?

What will happen if I turn the light on? More to come tomorrow!

Redesigning a luxury brand case study: AS Cmielow

How do you redesign a luxury brand? Should you care what the brand's visual identity was before you start being creative and all?

Let's look at how not to lose the brand's core (or soul, if you like) and redesign it, still putting a little bit of your designer mind into the project. Apart from redesign, this post will also be on how to design a sub-brand. Click through to read more!

Coming up...

How to properly revitalize a brand and what's designing an identity system like? More to come tomorrow!

Get inspired! Handwriting in Poland

What always made me think when looking at old handwritten documents was the incredible amount of patience, discipline and practice that was needed to produce such beautiful letterforms.
Funny as it may sound, not everything was always about the speed in which the information is sent and received. Sometimes it served other purposes as well. Apart from being functional, the letters also pleased the eye.

Maria Piechutówna's school report from 1933. The picture taken in Rozwadow Regional Museum

This is not a post on Polish calligraphy, styles or historical background. What I'm going to show you here are examples of beautiful writing and typography in Poland from 18th to 20th century I found in the Regional Museum in Rozwadów. I find them pretty inspiring and hopefully you will, too!
Click below to see more inspirations.

Coming up...

Calligraphy and handwriting are activities that have always fascinated me. When I was a little boy, I often asked my grandparents to show me their school reports, certificates and old documents.

What's Polish handwriting like? More to come tomorrow!

Maria Piechutówna's school report from 1933. The picture taken in Rozwadow Regional Museum

Grid: a subjective guide to designing publication series

There are billions of possible design solutions when designing a publication. Hundreds of thousands of graphic design means you could use. Tens of thousands of text and illustration alignments. Is it possible to find the best solution that would make it actually work?
There is one. Grid.



What is grid? Why medieval scribes needed to use it? What to do if you're not an illuminator from late 7th century and how can you use it? Click to find more!

Why use grid?

Have you ever wondered what designing a system is all about? It might seem strange to some of you that graphic design is also about systems. It's pretty obvious to the others. But why use grid?

More to come tomorrow!

Certificated!

I've just got mail from China International Poster Biennial with a shiny Selected award certificate. I was one of nine Polish designers selected to exhibit in Hangzhou, China, but up until now, I wasn't sure which of the posters I sent was chosen to take part in the exhibition.

It turned out it was the poster I designed for the Central Institute for Labour Protection poster competition back in 2010, Be a shining example. The poster took part in the exhibition in Warsaw in October 2010 and was also exhibited at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow in January 2011.

Click to see the poster chosen for the exhibition.

Win Artavaganza products!

With Artavaganza team, we have just started a St. Valentine's Day competition for all of you creative people where you can win our fabulous neckties from "Tie me up!" collection.

To read more about the contest and its rules, visit our blog at:

http://artavaganza.blogspot.com/2012/01/fall-in-love-with-artavaganza-contest.html

 

Click to see what's in the Candy Box for the winners:

Hoptype

Hoptype is a screen font I designed during Ala ma font(a) workshop in Katowice. The workshop was led by Martin Majoor, Filip Blažek, Marian Misiak, Eben Sorkin and Ann Bessemans and curated by Ewa Satalecka. The typeface is designed especially for iPad applications for children who are not yet fluent readers.

Initial research into interactive books on the iPad showed that design factors I had to consider were:

• the amount of words per line, the length of lines and the amount of lines per page
• the resolution, which is much lower than printed text
• change of direction. With mobile devices, there is a possibility of switching the view from horizontal to vertical by rotating the device. The size of the text changes, so that provides an additional challenge
• harmony of image and text. Since applications use full screen imagery, text must work on a colored background

What was my design approach? Click to see more!

Coming up...

TAKK! RelaxAction in Katowice

Last year's August was a special time for me, for I had the chance to be a part of an amazing team, working on TAKK! (Tymczasowa Akcja Kulturalna Katowice) project in Rondo Sztuki in Katowice.

The idea behind TAKK! project was to engage the people from Katowice to take part in the workshops, concerts, exhibitions and other activities and to provide them with a platform where art, design, photography, literature, comic art and architecture meet.

I was in a team of designers (with Justyna Kucharczyk and Kasia Pełka), working on design workshop for kids. We called it "RelaxAction",  intentionally mixing two words that usually don't go together very well. Or at least most people think so... Click through to read more.

Ala ma font(a) exhibition

As I promised, I'm posting a couple of pictures from the opening of Ala ma font(a) exhibition.
In the following days I'll be introducing you to the basic design principles of my typeface, say a little bit more how it all started and what the results are. There's more to come, so keep visiting!

Ala ma font(a) publication & exhibition

I'm very excited to let you know that my typeface, Hoptype, will be featured in Lapikon, the publication summarizing the workshop focused on designing typefaces for kids, Ala ma font(a). The publication was designed by Zosia Oslislo-Piekarska.

The typeface will also be a part of the exhibition, which opens on January 11th, 2012 in the Academy of Fine Arts in Katowice at Koszarowa 19.

If you'd like to see the publication on-line, click the link below:

http://issuu.com/warsztatgraficznyewasatalecka/docs/lapikon_3_jan_small?mode=window&viewMode=doublePage

After the exhibition opens, I'll be updating you with more pictures and details.

See you in Katowice!