blog GAMIL: an insider look at design » graphic design

Top 50 Design Blogs named by The London Times

britt — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:51:23 +0000

Yesterday, The London Times named their list of top 50 Design Blogs. Of the millions of blogs out in www land, the blogs chosen have focus’ on interior, product, and graphic design. Check them out for last minute Christmas gift/decorating inspiration or just for the need to see new and beautiful things and places.

Some of my personal favorite blogs made the list including…

#40 Chez Larsson a Swedish blog written by Benita Larsson on Design/Organizing/DIY blog

#36 Oh So Beautiful Paper Invitation/Stationary/Everything else paper blog written by Nole in Washington, DC

#31 Making it Lovely Chicagoan Nicole Balch, a woman who LOVES pink everything, writes about her house to home renovation style & journey

#2 Design*Sponge Brooklyn writer Grace Bonney features reader projects, artists home interiors and so much more

WordPress Open Source CMS Wins Award

britt — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:30:15 +0000

A couple weeks ago, WordPress (WP) was awarded the Overall Best Open Source CMS Award from the 2009 Open Source CMS Awards. You can read WP’s response to the award on their blog here.

We Joined the WP train a couple years ago when we started blog Gamil, and have since learned how powerful it can be as a CMS system. Congratulations WP we agree, you’re awesome!

Below are a few sites we designed with WordPress CMS.

ABOVE: Our portfolio site is powered by WordPress

ABOVE: With WordPress SPARKcon festival website was able to organize 50+ events & details leading up to and during the festival

ABOVE: WordPress was chosen for Triange Technology Executives Council website, because it is a great Open Source CMS

ABOVE: We chose WordPress for Blue Flame Tattoo’s website because of the ease to update the artists galleries

Robyn Hitchcock, I Often Dream of Trains in New York DELUXE Edition

britt — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:47:15 +0000

I Often Dream of Trains in New York DELUXE EDITION

Gamil Design worked with Yep Roc and Robyn Hitchcock to create a deluxe CD package for a limited Deluxe Edition of “I Often Dream of Trains in New York”. The classic looking CD package unfolds and transforms into a phenakistoscope, or moving picture machine. Original CD and DVD artwork can be viewed as animations through the included viewer. Gamil developed and produced the package concept, design and artwork. Each part of this deluxe package was made in the USA. This Deluxe Edition can be purchased at Yep Roc!

Robyn Hitchcock Deluxe Edition

Robyn Hitchcock Phenakistoscope Assembled

Check out the video below that Yep Roc put together showing the phenakistoscope in action!

Blue Flame Tattoo gets a new website

britt — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:34:22 +0000

Blue Flame Tattoo came to Gamil Design wanting a new website that was simple yet decorative, and able to accommodate large galleries for each of the artist. We designed a custom Wordpress theme which includes a homepage slideshow. Check out our portfolio site for more information on the project. or check out the new Blue Flame Tattoo website.

Away We Go Movie Poster and Trailer

britt — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:34:48 +0000

Away We Go Movie Poster

A couple years ago Beth wrote about the yU+co title sequence for The Bee Movie. Well it is about time for us to take note of another movie that has beautiful Typography and Illustration. I saw the Trailer for “Away We Go” a month or so ago, and it has been on my mind often. I absolutely love the movie poster (above) with the mix of photography, illustrated background, and Hand-Lettered Type.

Away We Go comes out in Theaters June 12, 2009.

(below are stills from the Trailer)

That Special McDonalds Feelin’

beth — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 23:03:45 +0000

This signage for the brand new McDonalds, on the corner of Boylan and Peace Street in Raleigh, pretty much sums up my own mental turmoil upon going there. MMMM…fries…no, it’s bad for me….mmmmmm…no I should support local businesses…french fries mmmmm…no!…mmmmm.

The Evolution of Brands

ty — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 22:26:13 +0000

In the United States our history is represented by brand not blood. The great lineage’s of power are the likes of Coke, Ford and Wal-Mart. In antique stores and ol’ timey restaurants, nostalgia is represented by old promotional signs that never were meant to be collectible. With that in mind, sales is sales and even brands that rely on being ‘old reliable’, update for the times.

When it rains it pours...in a cute dress

Sometimes its sad when they take your pickle away but hey, they have been shrinking it for years.

Have you seen my gherkin?

Sometimes it gets to modern for my tastes… too san-serif-euro not enough juice.

too Madison Ave not enough Indian River...

and I never have liked Pepsi and now it has a loose end. What does it men when your yin/yang gets ‘young’.

Change we wont drink.

Be eco-friendly…with your font!

beth — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:31:00 +0000

Maybe your printer’s toner cartridges are recyclable. Fortunately ours are. But regardless of that, we use a lot of unfriendly ink, and it costs a lot too! Always at the forefront of green efforts, the Dutch, and more specifically, a company called Spranq, created an eco-friendly font called Ecofont. Because there are holes pervading each letter (originally based off of Vera Sans), the font uses 20% less ink than standard fonts. It’s a free download too! Now, if I can think of something to use it for beyond the sterotyped movie marquis type, I’ll be golden (and green)!

via Cool Hunting

Naughty or Nice?

beth — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:22:42 +0000

Check out what your Christmas will look like this year! A fellow Raleigh design agency, R+M (and also friends!), put this fun li’l setting together. No matter whether you are deemed Naughty or Nice, you’ll surely be able to blow some time finding the hidden Christmas gems.

Twitter…more powerful than Motrin.

beth — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:00:15 +0000

The pain reliever, Motrin, lost a major bonding opportunity by poking fun at new moms who use baby slings and other “close to the body” carriers. A new online and magazine ad was pulled Monday with an apology on their home page due to thousands and thousands of twitter comments by outraged moms and blogs around the world analyzing the intent of the ad. From there, the big guys then had to pay attention and report on it as well. Check out Advertising Age article on it.

Designed by Taxi to possibly follow (or knock off) the look and humor of “The Baby Owner’s Manual,” the ad, instead sounds like a snide and snarky “I’m too cool to be a mom, but I do have a baby,” woman who generally looks down on the very idea of bonding or closeness. One line in the ad even uses the “s” word, the one word definition of cynicism: “Supposedly it’s a real bonding experience…”

I’d bet too that Motrin has incured the ire of every baby carrier brand out there, as the ad is flat out insulting to them. We all know many many ergonomic studies are done, safety studies and R&D development in order to design baby slings and alleviate or reduce fatigue and pain from repetitive hours of carrying a baby (a wriggling extra 10-20lbs) each day. The ad negates that honest intention and declares the slings themselves as the reason for back pain.

And, yes, Mom’s are “supposedly” a huge market. But the ad could only appeal to that niche market segment, as motherhood is everything to mothers but not really an empathetic or understood state of being for others. So the only people who truly understand the ad are pissed off. AND, the ad was supposed to coincide with International baby wearing month! Now that’s funny.

Ultimately, it’s an interesting study— what makes sense to a design team might not hit the target market the same way. And the incredible power of social media will amplify the resulting consumer tantrum to a level that makes the ad agency wish they’d never left the house.