graphic design, freelancing, illustration, advertising, web design

I was pleased to given a free copy of Area 2 which i was asked if I was interested in reviewing. Even though its a freebie I don’t believe in giving a good review unless I feel it is deserved, but fortunately I really like this book.

According to Phaidon who publish the book:
10 of the most respected figures in the field have come together to select 100 innovative designers, working in media ranging from books and magazines to posters and typography. 100 critical essays introduce each designer and lavish full-colour spreads provide an insight into the visual character of their work.

The book is a real bombardment of inspiration, it reminds me a bit of a fashion catwalk where you see trends being set, which then will trickle down to the high street or in his case other designers. This isn’t a book you can just have a quick flick through, it is huge (over 400 pages) it is packed with design and illustration and is the sort of book you will keep noticing something new in each time you look. I was please to see some of my favourite character designers included too - James Jarvis and Friends with You

You can buy Area 2 from Amazon

I do quite a bit of package design for surface graphics. I have always found finding inspiration for package design online and in books quite difficult, it just seems to be an area which is not as popular as other areas of graphic design. The type of package design work often featured in books is for areas such as cosmetics and food rather than looking at all areas.

On a recent project to design some packaging for some surge protector trailing sockets I was searching for some inspiration one of the best sites I found is a blog called the dieline which is a feast for the eyes in package design. Broken down into different categories the dieline features all different types of package design not just the more popular areas.

I have searched for package design on Flickr before with little success, but what I discovered when I looked again is that I had done the wrong search. A search for “packaging design” rather than “package design” was much more promising yielding nearly 9000 results (not bad!).

I also ordered and received a book from Amazon called Packaging: Design Successful Packaging for Specific Customer Groups (Demographics) which is very good, it splits packaging design down by target age, kids, young adult etc etc. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book as the cover looks quite eighties, but the content inside is good.

What packaging design inspiration sites and books would you recommend?

Last week was a busy one for me. I went down to Birmingham Tuesday and Wednesday to the Spring Fair to look around the exhibition and meet a couple of people. If you have never been to the Spring Fair before (I hadn’t) it’s a large exhibition featuring toys, gifts, kitchenware and cards. You wouldn’t believe the amount of greeting cards I saw. Its obviously a very worthwhile place to go if you are looking to license your own designs both for inspiration as to what is happening in the industry.

I was especially interested in the card exhibition halls to see what sort of designs are being used on children’s cards as this is one of the areas I would like to push my character designs into.

If you are interested in looking round an exhibition like this there are a couple more in the UK this year The Summer Fair in London and The Autumn Fair which is again in Birmingham.