Did you know that?

Yeap it’s officialy quiz night here at Vagpod. No, wait! don’t get your drinks yet! Actually yesterday evening I was reading a book about graphic design and I came across some interesting historical facts which I’ll share with you. Now go and get the booze

:

• The term Graphic Design was introduced in the USA by Dwight Wiggins in 1927.
• The famous London Tube map, (more or less) as we see it today, was designed by Frank Beck around 1908.
• Guttenburg created the first printing press by adapting a wine press in 1440-1450.
• The typewriter was invented in 1865.

The return of the Scirocco?? NOT!

Okay just to set things right:

This is a true SCIROCCO! (the mkII model of the series)

and this is NOT a Scirocco:

Unfortunately Volkswagen has named their new hatch as Scirocco But does it have any relation to the one and only and true Scirocco? I guess not!

A Ducati for your pocket

It seems that the trend nowadays is motoring and large companies in general that have nothing to do with computer products to collaborate with companies that produce electronic and computer products. We already have seen the Ferrari-Acer 4000 laptop and the Sony Ericsson K800i Ferrari Edition, not to mention the Prada – LG KE850 mobile phone.

Perhaps it coincides with Sandisk’s decision to sponsor the Ducati racing team, but the Italian firm already gave the green light on Sandisk to put Ducati’s logo on a specially designed 4GB USB disk.

The design is extraordinary and very stylish, the product reminds of a racing motorcycle’s fuel tank and when the USB adapter is inside it reminds the exhaust as it comes out from the back of the bike’s tail.

In terms of capacity, 4GB is today’s standard and with 20 MB/sec speed … it is not mentioned anywhere if the 20MB/sec is the writing or reading speed, they are different on ALL USB sticks. Definitely IF 20MB/sec is the writing speed it is very fast!

So you got a package of exquisite design that produces superb looks, a standard capacity that is enough for the average user and the Ducati logo on!

What’s the price for such an gadget of desire? It retails about $124.99 = (80.25 euros)! Yeap you’ve read that one right! Other 4GB sticks with approximately the same performance retail at 16.00 euros ($24.92). Also for around 60.00 euros you can get the OCZ ATV 16GB USB stick with superb writng speed (all prices are at the time I’m writing this). I’m mentioning the OCZ product because it is the one I’m using on an everyday basis and in my experience it is really fast, plus it can carry 16GB of data, we’re talking about whole graphics project folders here! And all that for half the price of the Sandisk-Ducati.

So you gotta pay that nice piece of plastic a bit too high if you want it with a Ducati logo on!

Making reference material useful

How many times don’t you find your self keeping all over the place photos, advertisements, paper clippings and such things, with the excuse that they could be reference materials on future projects?

I know I do and this only helps me to cram my desk with piles of paper bits that never ever get used in the end.

The same applies when saving photos and images from the web on your computer. First you can never find them when you really need them and second, you never remember that you have them!

Lately I found this article with some helpful tips:

My first website :)

Today is officially the launch of the first website I ever made for commercial purposes. Still very basic in design, the site doesn’t do much except from presenting the digital printing shop I’m working for, but it is a huge step forward from what I’ve created so far, which was fairly basic.

The graphics were all done and sliced in Photoshop and while I’ve attempted to keep the Photoshop exported html,

Peugeot design contest 2008

I’ve just received a newsletter in my inbox announcing the Peugeot Design Contest 2008.

It is the 5th edition of the, now annual, contest sponsored exclusively by Peugeot, giving chances to talented (and not talented) designers all over the world to basically show what they’ve got and apart from the cash prizes there’s some chance that one can get a position in some automotive design studio, which is far better than any cash prize…. well not any really

This year’s contest briefs us to “IMAGINE THE PEUGEOT IN THE WORLDWIDE MEGALOPOLIS OF TOMORROW”.

And the candidates should design with the following four aspects in mind: environmental awareness (therefore V10 and V12 gasoline drenching supercars are an instant failure ), social harmony, interactive mobility and economic efficiency. Also one must keep Peugeot branding cues and styling in mind.

The deadline for this one is the 20th of July 2008, so get sketching and/or modeling ASAP!

Good luck!

The contest’s official site is here

Logo Design Trends

By surfing around I’ve found this interesting article over at logoorange.com which illustrates and explains the trends for 2007 in logo design.

It is a really interesting read, explaining more towards the visual aspect rather than being a theoretical marketing text.

If you’re involved with logo and/or branding designs it’s deifinitely really worth to check it out.

Also visit logoorange.com for more interesting design related articles.

Design is…

I saw this somewhere but, I really can’t remember where…

Anyways it said: “Design is… dead! Just do what they tell you.“

Fabulous! And so true! 1000000% correct! Every boss feels like being a designer!

I’m going to make a t-shirt with this on!

There were more sayings about design like this one, but this one was the most pragmatic of them all!