Our 10^th anniversary year has been full of new R29 creative matter, and Creative Matters 25 is no exception. Please download our quarterly newsletter and get the latest work, news, and updates all in a brand new package. It’s still jam-packed with a cross section of work, but now it holds some design and reader updates that are better experienced than explained. So without further banter:

:: Click here to download Creative Matters 25 ::

As with previous Creative Matters, please download the interactive PDF to click your way through via each hotlink, or simply scroll through it page by page (best viewed with the latest version of Acrobat Reader).

Don’t forget to BE IN CHARGE or to take a stroll down memory lane with TEN x TEN anniversary site currently highlighting 2000-2007.

Let us know what you think about our new work or just take a second to say hi. We hope that the last remnants of summer treat you well and we can talk soon,

Rule29

The next interview I’ve been excited about for some time now, even though it came with a fair amount of whining from our special guests (because it was 29 questions instead of five, and it wasn’t a video blog). I’m pleased to introduce to you my good friends and fellow designers, parents, wisecrackers, educators, authors and flat out smart and great peeps, Jenn and Ken Visocky O’Grady. I have been their inspired fan for many years and love their view on education. Their books (both of which I think you all should have in your library – read on for more) should be required reading for all designers. So take a few minutes to read a great interview and get to know an amazing couple.

1: Do you know your first names rhyme?
Jennifer and Kenneth rhyme?

2: How did you two meet?
KEN: When I was a Junior there were these two graduate students that would run crits an advanced class we all had to take. The class was hard. We would work on projects with a two week turn-around time and minimal feedback from the Professor. Then we’d all walk in, pin up our stuff, and get shredded to pieces by these two grad students. A few weeks in they started showing up drunk. The feedback was even less constructive. Students would cry. And then they disappeared. A few weeks after that Jenn was the new grad student running the crits. She still tore us to shreds but at least she was constructive and sober. Everyone would tell me after class that the grad student was checking me out. At the end of the semester I rolled out my best line in the hallway and said “Uh… Do you have any gum?” Yep. She married me.

JENN: I have plausible deniability on checking out Ken in class. He simply lit a project on fire (I kid you not, it involved flash paper—hot stuff), and that caught my attention. I can, however, confirm that his best line was “Do you have any gum.”

3: Where do each of you teach?
KEN: Kent State University
JENN: Cleveland State University

4: What are the strengths of each of your schools?
KEN: There are a few: Kent’s VCD program is huge — Over 400 majors. We have a considerable amount of full time faculty so students are often working with full-time faculty every semester as opposed to only adjuncts. We also have a great pool of graduate students assisting with and teaching classes. That makes for a lot of smart people, who know the program inside and out, there to help students find their way through. We’re also our own school and we’re in the College of Communication and Information instead of the being a part of the School of Art. I think that this is going to give us more opportunity as we grow to look at design from more than a form making perspective.

JENN: I see Cleveland State’s biggest strength in its diversity. Our design program is housed within the Department of Art, and is small–a concentration of a studio art major. But our classes are rich with differing student experience. I’d say in any given semester, in a class of 20, I have at least two or three students who weren’t born in the United States. If design is a both a reflection and shaper of popular culture, what happens when our cultural backgrounds aren’t homogenized? In any random semester, working on a group project, I might have a student from Azerbaijan, a student who matriculated through the Cleveland Public School system, and a person in their 50s who is switching careers. That diversity opens our eyes wider, and makes our imagining bigger. Read the rest of the entry >

“Bad Typography is Everywhere, Good Typography is invisible.” —Craig Ward

As designers, we live this quote daily. Whether it’s a horribly kerned sign on the train, or a flyer in the local paper completely set in Impact. It makes us cringe, wince, and gasp. All of us “type snobs” have been there:

“Why on earth would you think typesetting your resumé in Brush Script would make it seem more personal?”

“Really, real estate agent? You thought Chalkboard would make your boring paperwork more fun for me to read?!”

We all have our own personal tragedies, but sometimes there comes one so horrible that the masses turn their heads. It’s not that these typefaces are terrible; it’s more that their applications were so out of place that it made us take notice. So take a walk down memory lane with us and read about our favorite typographic controversies of the last few years after the jump.

Read the rest of the entry >

Hi I’m Dawn, one of the Rule29 interns. I was asked to share a bit about myself.

I am an angler — by definition, a professional bass fisherman. As a young child I fished for catfish in the mighty Dupage with my uncle, and in the quarries behind his cabin for blue gill. It wasn’t until a couple years back that I got involved in tournament fishing. I now participate in two tournaments a year — in July for bass, and in October for crappie. I always seem to have greater success with the latter because, honestly, it is quite a bit easier.

My favorite part of the fishing day is in the wee hours of the morning, driving full-blast down the Lake Chippewa Flowage. With deer feeding on the shorelines, woodpeckers chipping away on the trees, dinosaur-size bald eagles soaring above, occasionally swooping in the water just feet away, grabbing whatever they see. Sometimes you can even spot the occasional bear either fishing or strolling through the woods.

By far the best part of the tournament is the catch — hooking the big one. This July I finally got “on the board” in the bass tournament. Learn more about my catch after the jump.

Read the rest of the entry >

Going through the thousands of projects we have had the privilege to work on is a therapeutic experience. And if that sounds unpleasant, it’s not meant to. It’s like going on the big drop on the roller coaster…some projects make you happy, others make you want to vomit. For this next installment we wanted to highlight the projects that were more on the happy side. These projects show branding, promotional, advertising and more. So explore a piece of our 2007, and take the time to think about your work a mere three years ago. How has it changed or gotten better? Okay, that’s enough intro. Please check it all out here.

So what were you doing in 2007?