The guys over at The Denver Egotist were nice enough to feature me in their local talent series, Helping Denver Suck Less.

In little more than a year, The Egotist has become THE blog for all things advertising and design in the Denver region, and most importantly, has fostered a growing discourse among creatives in the area.

Thanks for the honor, Egotists!

My recommendations for 2008 — 10 Dos and Don’ts for design success in the coming year.

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As designers, we would be remiss to not investigate the views and beliefs of other designers; in fact, the inherent nature of communication design itself, its present-day subjectivity, necessitates that we at the very least familiarize ourselves with the many different ideas and practices that permeate our profession.

Just as a young quarterback studies film of the NFL greats that came before him, a designer’s education would not be complete without understanding how other designers have met challenges in the past, and what they thought of the results. Personal Views, an unparalleled series of lectures from ESAD, is a fantastic resource for doing just this.

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Illustration from the cover of Pentagram’s 2008 Typography Calendar.

Human beings have been tracking the passage of time for more than 6,000 years. From the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, and Mayans, up to present-day, we have continued to refine systems that enable us to organize the passage of days, months, and years. Calendars help us plan our schedules, record our history, and observe our holidays. But for everything the calendar does, it is perhaps one of the least appreciated pieces of information design in existence, and often times, one of the worst-designed as well.

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There’s a new trend in wine that has nothing to do with the grapes, but it may have the biggest effect on consumer experience in years. The cork — used to plug up bottles of wine for almost 2,000 years – may be on it’s way out, and the ramifications could go far beyond just the taste of your next glass of Pinot.

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In my search for a job (still ongoing…), I’ve literally traveled coast to coast, visiting some of the best design studios in the country. From Duffy & Partners to Go Welsh, I’ve been fortunate enough to meet some of the brightest minds in the profession, and see the places behind the names. For my first segment of Studio Tours, I’ll take you inside id29 – one of my favorite stops from this past summer. A small studio on the banks of the Hudson River in Troy, NY, id29 is proof that good things come in small packages.

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From time to time on twenty5ive I’ll be pulling out projects of mine that haven’t made it onto jimhargreaves.com. The first is from a research project I developed on the subject of one and two-color design, and my resulting discoveries about the absurdity of color ink costs.

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Archive Type, a wonderful type foundry specializing in historic reproductions, has recently released the beautiful Archive Thermo.

Thermo is a deliciously simple Art Deco typeface based on specimens originally found in a 1930s American Typefounders Catalog. A “clean cut, sans serif with geometric proportions” and the “elegance of a human touch,” Thermo is listed as a display font, but also lends itself well to text sizes. The typeface has a svelte legibility and just enough irregularity to add a subtle, handmade feel to the font.

The font contains alternate characters of varying widths that can be freely combined, and best of all, it’s only $20! More images after the jump…

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