tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-92081102637462403222012-02-17T02:54:23.889ZBen J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.comBlogger2601100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-21103686183484690812011-12-06T20:26:00.001Z2011-12-06T20:35:41.535Z

I've noticed that for about the past four or five years Marks & Spencers have been developing their food packaging to the point where their food stores are now absolutely filled with products that you're tempted to buy just so your cupboards looks nice! A visit to an M&S food store is a must if you're looking for insights into how to take a brand identity beyond the logo.

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-67967183303270150202011-11-30T22:33:00.001Z2011-11-30T22:45:09.334Z

Weegee's photographs amazed me from the moment I first found them. When I studied a bit about him, I came across Letizia Battaglia too, whose work I also really admire. I think I'm starting to realise that my favourite photography is black and white portraiture/photojournalism. Helmut Newton . . yep, definitely seeing a trend. It was during a search for Weegee's work that I found this great

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-49038465415795592972011-11-28T20:21:00.001Z2011-11-28T22:29:38.743Z

If you're scratching your head over xmas gifts (hopefully not literally) you might try Redstone Press, for all your totally-random-but-beautiful book needs. http://www.theredstoneshop.com/ Here's a diary I bought from them - it's like when you're a kid and you get something for xmas that you never touch in case you break/damage it. I never wrote inside this! Much too precious.

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-82114697193225327842011-11-28T20:19:00.001Z2011-11-28T20:19:46.114Z

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-42836537207816312872011-11-27T19:25:00.001Z2011-11-27T19:41:58.967Z

In a previous post, I showed how smart objects could be used in Photoshop for photo editing. Here's another good use for them.  The fact that smart objects can be duplicated within the same .psd file means you can repeat them over and over to create patterns. I started the design below in Illustrator by creating a single triangle with bits of lettering inside it. Then I pasted that into

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-57318058001818811222011-11-27T12:59:00.001Z2011-11-28T20:20:14.780Z

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-45001941131788286732011-11-26T21:29:00.001Z2011-11-26T22:03:37.663Z

My absolute favourite portrait photographer, Estevan Oriol, has a book out on Amazon! He's into the LA gangland so there's lots of tattooed guys with battle wounds and women who look as tough as nails. That's going on my Xmas list anyway.

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-76623759888143285102011-10-19T12:42:00.004+01:002011-10-19T12:42:49.121+01:00

Typographers and Renaissance lovers, listen up!  (Unlikely mix, I know). What a find! I must have spent three hours last night on this website. I knew about the Project Gutenberg website before – that offers the plain texts of loads of classic novels (gutenberg.org) – but I'd never come across this one before: http://openlibrary.org/ The Open Library contains an amazing collection of texts,

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-47557091148028508832011-09-21T20:34:00.000+01:002011-09-21T20:34:22.342+01:00

I was inspired by a video I saw a couple of weeks ago about a character illustrator – it's often the case that, despite what we might assume, these top notch concept artists and illustrators use the most basic methods or technology. The video showed how the guy when from paper to pixel with his drawings and it looked so simple. I meant to just spend 30 mins or so on this, like the guy in the

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-42032403741226451082011-09-21T19:57:00.001+01:002011-09-21T19:57:48.422+01:00

I turn my back for two minutes (okay, two months . . or more) and Blogger looks totally different! Still, I really like it, it's much simpler and cleaner. They still haven't fixed the composer though! This is a recent Photoshop portrait I did using a photo which, sadly, isn't mine. Thanks to the stupidly patient Bert Monroy, who took it upon himself to paint an image of Times Square in Photoshop

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-50071841753407091092011-07-16T02:00:00.000+01:002011-07-16T02:00:51.780+01:00

This is a very interesting read if you haven't already. It's just another set of opinions about the world, doubtlessly contributing to the ongoing battle among believers, non-believers and . . misc. It was a big deal during the Renaissance – Ficino was even told to put his translation of Plato on hold in order to translate Hermes Trismegistus's writings for Cosimo de Medici. The book pictured is

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-5467491287577502142011-04-26T19:50:00.000+01:002011-04-26T19:50:20.364+01:00

One function of the book I'm putting together is to use visual means to enlighten the reader where possible. A lot of people find it easier to understand things if they're represented visually - slow people, yes, like myself. I really like to see maps and family trees at the start of books, so I intend to build on that dramatically for my own. I've therefore started putting a timeline together

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-68638205635499954952011-04-19T21:23:00.000+01:002011-04-19T21:23:50.531+01:00

To take Alan Fletcher's advice of 'thinking sideways' one step further, what happens if we think upside down? Whereas Fletcher applied this to design, anybody can apply it to anything. Looking at The Ambassadors recently, I found myself studying the brilliantly detailed globe (see below) that you can see in the background. Being from Holbein's time, it wasn't exactly satellite accurate and as I

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-68957868116747629972011-04-18T21:41:00.000+01:002011-04-18T21:41:36.472+01:00

Some nice editorial design work. A bit limited for a Creative Director's website though! http://www.markporter.com/home.html

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-14650070491078494522011-03-27T21:12:00.000+01:002011-03-27T21:12:49.672+01:00

I found another good stock image website for people looking for full quality images of fine art  - this one is a better website so its probably worthwhile to use this one instead of the previous site I posted about. http://www.bridgemanart.com/Default.aspx

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-74869438530143166742011-03-13T20:33:00.000Z2011-03-13T20:33:22.873Z

www.deke.com/ What a life saver this guy is. You can find loads of Photoshop video series by him on Lynda.com but his website has lots of good free info on it for anyone who uses Photoshop, InDesign or Illustrator.

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-41344958809621000342011-03-13T20:16:00.000Z2011-03-13T20:16:49.685Z

www.nba.com I used to play basketball quite a lot as a kid and ever since then I've been fascinated by the visual side of the NBA - the logos are obviously central to each team's 'look' and you can see, on the website above, how cleverly the designers have 'padded out' each logo to create a uniquely styled website for each team. I think the site is a great example of how many different ways you

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-43060677077503069342011-03-13T19:33:00.000Z2011-03-13T19:33:48.112Z

In my (very) tentative approach to starting my book I've been looking at typefaces I could use for it. I'm also looking for a good site to buy stock images relating to the Italian Renaissance but have only found one or two so far: www.artres.com/www.superstock.com Definitely have a look at the second link - some nice photography in there but there's also a lot of fine art images that you don't

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-43699526565987762812011-02-24T10:51:00.000Z2011-02-24T10:51:29.056Z

I'm on the train right now going down to London so hopefully I'll have lots of cool photos to share when I'm back next week. No plan as such so I'm just going to try and see as much as possible. Gotta see the natural history museum and hopefully I'll get time to see the national gallery and the British museum again. Also, I'm desperate to try out some of the awesome techniques I've been learning

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-30106327441694838102011-02-04T19:34:00.000Z2011-02-04T19:34:36.962Z

Good news Negroli fans - you can see his work super close up on Google's new, and incredible, feature 'Google Art Project'.  . . 'Negroli fans' . . that's an obscure fan base http://www.googleartproject.com/museums/met/parade-burgonet-273001# Also, try this link to see how ridiculously far you can zoom in. http://www.googleartproject.com/museums/frick/st-francis-in-the-desert Don't thank me

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-23581895995343997492011-01-25T23:27:00.000Z2011-01-25T23:27:17.703Z

I refined my 'template' for testing images in Photoshop and actually discovered I'd misinterpreted smart objects slightly. I couldn't find a way of making photos come into Photoshop at a certain size when you're using them as a smart object (usually they come in way too big). So, if you do want to set up a template, I think you'll need to do something like this: 1. Create a canvas in Photoshop

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-89478587027828567152011-01-23T15:21:00.000Z2011-01-23T15:21:21.639Z

The link below is a video on 'smart objects' in Photoshop – skip it to 43:00 mins and you'll find a really useful way of seeing what one of your photographs might look under different colour conditions. http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adobe-evangelists-julieanne-kost/episode-3/ Basically, you can set up a file in Photoshop that acts as a template into which you can 'drop' any photograph you have and

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-70374621926604756422011-01-22T00:53:00.001Z2011-01-22T00:53:42.865Z

I read The Secret History by Donna Tartt when I was at university and, although I don't usually enjoy fiction, I found it interesting to learn about Dionysus – the Greek God of wine and music . . the Pete Doherty of the time. The main character in The Secret History studies the Classics among a select group of students – an exclusive class of individuals who dangerously mix curiosity with their

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-45362920598425171002011-01-21T23:44:00.002Z2011-01-21T23:44:42.459Z

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-58098664233285183292011-01-21T21:48:00.001Z2011-01-21T21:49:11.695Z

Part of the reason why I want to make a new book is that it's a reason to get to grips with what InDesign can do for large projects. I made a nice and easy start today by brushing up  on footnotes but, more specifically, how you can change the way a footnote looks. The following notes show what I did to get the footnotes pictured at the end, so you'll get a good idea of what can be done – under

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-36398666402266331192011-01-15T18:56:00.002Z2011-02-06T11:47:17.066Z

People should try to break down their preconceptions more often. I've found it rewarding to ignore what people say and find out for myself before making judgements. It didn't work with Big Brother or Facebook though! Maybe the following man will help change your ways, if you (like me) can judge too soon. Giovanni di Lorenzo de Medici was one of the sons of Lorenzo 'Il Magnifico' de Medici. He

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-61752336286754839422011-01-15T18:08:00.001Z2011-01-15T18:12:10.316Z

Thought it was time I changed my banner. A new year, a new beginning. I seem to be tumbling through a web of information that's getting further and further from modern design (the original subject of my blog). The new banner allows me to branch out! What I've been reading (about 15/16th Century Italy) is starting to run away from me. I learn about one thing, and find I need to learn about

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-57218767124742138482010-12-22T23:52:00.000Z2010-12-22T23:52:22.422Z

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-20867364229166931822010-12-05T14:39:00.000Z2010-12-05T14:39:14.069Z

Loving these outlandish tunes

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-5489143317539833682010-12-04T17:11:00.001Z2010-12-04T17:11:35.043Z

Take a look down the right hand column to find a new list of design and art history web links. Try the following first: Shop: Bonjour Mon Coussin Photography: Kasu Design: Outrepart Design: SolarBeat

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-43829124072678973452010-12-04T15:26:00.000Z2010-12-04T15:26:15.857Z

One of my tutors at uni. Some inventive book design and layouts – her work seems to make use of no more than what's essential. The Grafik editions are stunning but I think the way she uses space in the Man&Eve books makes the best of the work featured within. http://www.matildasaxow.com/grafik-magazine-issue-159173

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-89404620010494293542010-12-03T11:14:00.002Z2010-12-03T11:23:35.490Z

Incroyable! http://www.strandbeest.com/index.php

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-26795322059797977002010-12-03T11:03:00.000Z2010-12-03T11:03:59.065Z

I recently found the following articles on American humour site Cracked.com – very funny stuff. Don't pay too much attention to the part on the Last Supper though: the original painting was a mess of smudges and blurs according to Vasari, who saw it only 50 years after its creation. What's shown today is the reproduction of the painting by other artists. http://www.cracked.com/article_18386_7-

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-3333425690942847272010-12-03T10:53:00.000Z2010-12-03T10:53:40.650Z

This site is great, if not for taking part in the discussions, for browsing through the various pages and dipping in and out of some of the more well known works of art throughout history. The design is quite well done too - very handy timeline, loads of immediately accessible pages. http://smarthistory.org/

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-26618461499589400112010-12-02T20:09:00.000Z2010-12-02T20:09:06.345Z

For anyone interested in Renaissance Italy, add this beauty to your bookshelf - The Montefeltro Consiracy. I'd read quite a lot about Renaissance Florence before I came across Federico da Montefeltro - it was actually a portrait by Pedro Berrugete that I saw of him (first image below) that caught my eye (...a pun for later). I'd seen Piero della Francesca's painting (second image below) long ago

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-57207453172609808042010-12-02T19:20:00.001Z2010-12-02T19:22:23.834Z

Among Filippo Negroli's more prestigious customers were the Emperor Charles V and the dukes of Urbino, Francesco Maria I and Guidobaldo II della Rovere. Filippo's brother, Francesco, was highly skilled in damascening - a process of decoratively inlaying metals into the armour; he often did this in gold, favouring acanthus foliage patterns for the most part of his designs below. Interestingly,

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-75061943295969295182010-11-26T18:03:00.026Z2010-11-29T20:44:07.017Z

I came across an excellent website by a design studio in Glasgow and the US, Tangent.  Their website is actually a good demonstration of how grids work (it makes the grid lines visible to the viewer) and some of their portfolio is stunning. I really admire intelligent work like their 'bar on seven' identity. I didn't see any pictures of lanky designers holding up posters either, which is good!

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-33454861064248618532010-10-24T19:29:00.000+01:002010-10-24T19:29:28.179+01:00

Here's a great blog I found recently for anybody interested in renaissance Italian art history. If you scroll down the page you'll find a list of various artists and topics that have been posted about in the past. The list itself is a good overview of what the blog covers. It's an invaluable resource packed full of videos, images, interviews, suggestions for further reading etc. The writer is

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-13745024769392929952010-10-07T23:31:00.000+01:002010-10-07T23:31:23.738+01:00

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-49413113314409503592010-10-03T16:58:00.000+01:002010-10-03T16:58:49.268+01:00

Recently at work, I've produced a flyer and a 'pull-up' display panel for our company stand – which will be/has been set up at three different student fairs that are currently taking place. Unfortunately one of the fairs was arranged very poorly by an external agency and we therefore had very little luck getting students' interest. Designing something as large as the pull-up (about 7ft tall) was

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-70354821591043745912010-09-25T21:10:00.000+01:002010-09-25T21:10:34.177+01:00

Check this website out - very original. I found Devendra Banhart on iTunes as I was on a music-browsing-sprint one day. Bought his album, then heard the line 'there are so many little boys I wanna marry' and got worried I'd found gary glitter's sidekick, but was enlightened by an online interview in which he claims he wrote those lyrics just to screw with people. I didn't get beyond the

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-65378165303535810002010-09-04T21:02:00.000+01:002010-09-04T21:02:57.179+01:00

Another mini post to fill the void while I find the time to write a proper one. I found this site accidentally but it's great - lots of opportunity to remind yourself of your favourite movie moments. I was really happy to find 'Peed on my rug' from The Big Lebowski on there – peed myself laughing the first time I saw that (you need to watch the film to see it in context though!).

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-5913067724027475872010-08-01T19:44:00.000+01:002010-08-01T19:44:32.831+01:00

http://www.cracked.com/ I've followed this website for a couple of years now. The articles they write on there are always really interesting, random and funny – something to read in your spare time.

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-3731741343657287582010-08-01T17:09:00.002+01:002010-08-01T17:09:50.413+01:00

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-76302245262972419002010-08-01T17:07:00.000+01:002010-08-01T17:07:48.885+01:00

I've been trying to get through this book so that I could put up a single post about it but it's 370 pages of detailed information that I think will warrant at least five posts! As I'm almost half way through, I thought I'd mention a few points that Padovan, the writer, has made thus far. Padovan, incidentally, was/is a lecturer at Bath University only a few miles from Bath Arts Uni campus that I

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-30449764613735394982010-08-01T16:54:00.000+01:002010-08-01T16:54:02.414+01:00

An interesting point made by Hans Van Der Laan: 'The space of nature has three aspects that leave us at a loss…. The sheer fact that we refer to natural space using negative terms like 'immeasurable', 'invisible', and 'boundless' indicates that it lacks something for us. We do not feel altogether in our element within it. Architecture, then, is nothing else but that which must be added to natural

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-57605517901684528692010-07-25T17:08:00.001+01:002010-10-03T16:59:48.169+01:00

Well I kept my word, and here it is; I put this together for the company I work for as a back-page advert to a regional care guide publication. It'll run for a year, I think, and I had quite a lot of other work to do at the time so I was quite pleased I got something together. I learned a bit about how difficult it can be to get the design process right when you're not working with other

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-57736400118846433442010-07-18T20:17:00.000+01:002010-07-18T20:17:43.006+01:00

I've yet to put together anything worth blogging about so I thought I'd show you some pretty pictures from a book I got recently. (I'll post my recent advert design from work at some point). Although the original 15th century Milanese armourers were the Missaglia family, the Negroli name surpassed its predecessor in both fame and prosperity, most likely because of the pleasure that Charles V of

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-35923588824373917862010-07-10T14:20:00.001+01:002010-07-10T15:29:50.628+01:00

John Berger, in the book 'Ways of Seeing', gives quite a general description of the presence of a man, and that of a woman. I found it quite a bold argument to be making and wondered if you'd like to tell me how very wrong or right he is. Berger's description of a woman's social presence is that she is always accompanied by an image of herself – in effect, she has two views of her life; a view

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-67690620402830822022010-06-27T22:09:00.000+01:002010-06-27T22:09:50.796+01:00

Here's a great print I came across recently on the British Museum's website. It's by Giorgio Vasari, a painter from 14/15th century Florence who wrote biographies on the most significant artists of the time. It's a portrait of Lorenzo de Medici, and the same image was originally a painting. Lorenzo was probably the most well known of the Medici family, who were the rulers of Florence (on and off

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-51535026500766494902010-06-20T17:40:00.000+01:002010-06-20T17:40:29.574+01:00

I'm thinking of drawing a map of the UK for the office at work – people in my department could do with one on the wall. I thought I'd see how difficult or time-consuming it might be by doing a simple one of Italy (for myself). It's quite a cool little design task because you can do it a number of ways (dots/squares/lines/typography(??)) and you learn the geography almost by accident. Vatican

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-89086212846694854192010-06-19T18:50:00.002+01:002010-06-19T18:51:48.551+01:00

It's strange that the word ‘I’ carries the most complicated meaning in the English language and yet the most simple spelling. Then again, we put an ‘s’ in the word ‘lisp’ so at least it's a consistently illogical language.

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-7455484159277591452010-06-05T23:32:00.000+01:002010-06-05T23:32:34.823+01:00

I noticed this typeface in the Daily Telegraph the other day – really like the stroke on the ‘r’ and ‘y’ (not easy to end the strokes on serif typefaces), and the ‘t’ has an interesting crossbar to it. I have a feeling this typeface was made especially for the newspaper, as I've been unable to find it online.

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-52317204646921453442010-06-05T23:21:00.000+01:002010-06-05T23:21:58.947+01:00

The last time I played around in Illustrator I learned more about the fact that to draw a good piece of lettering it seems more productive to consider the space around it rather than the object itself. I'm still working on this one; I want to experiment more with stroke weights and what sort of contrast in line is best for readable lettering.

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-55534243699414324672010-06-05T23:07:00.002+01:002010-06-05T23:07:34.925+01:00

Hmm. Thought so…

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-6636692151175098192010-06-05T23:00:00.000+01:002010-06-05T23:00:11.209+01:00

17 May was my last post?! Ouch. Sorry for the long silence. My new job still takes the wind out of me. I'll have to start organizing my time more. Anyway, just want to share some cool music I got recently. Before I do, I better clarify that I  listen to a huge variety of music but might as well not talk about the mainstream predictable stuff on my blog. I bought Fauré's Requiem by The Boston

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-82812792071739861572010-05-17T21:21:00.000+01:002010-05-17T21:21:03.286+01:00

One of my favourite paintings – Max Kurzweil’s Lady in a Yellow Dress. Not the usual pose you might find – it looks like a momentary lapse in a party…. There’s a sense of ’Japonisme’ too if you list the features: tied black hair, pale skin, some floral decorative element. I admire the theoretical simplicity of it – at such an busy time in art,1899, when the Vienna Secession was in full swing, and

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-12915828307123584052010-05-16T01:11:00.000+01:002010-05-16T01:11:53.408+01:00

The discussion on the relationship between Phi and the concept of beauty is an old one – and I doubt we would be brave enough to make any conclusion about it in the near future. It’s a somewhat worrying concept to many people: the idea that a number may be behind all that is considered beautiful; that beauty is not subjective, not a case of each to their own. Because Phi is arguably rooted in all

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-26235135506914201542010-05-14T22:38:00.001+01:002010-05-15T23:00:28.525+01:00

I’ve just seen an advert for Maxitone on TV and it has completely ripped off the graphics they use in ‘Stranger Than Fiction’ – I wrote a post about them before. They’ve even used similar music! Tut tut Compare, shout and jeer, and throw rotten veg at your screen in disgust: YouTube Maxitone Video Stranger Than Fiction Intro

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-72837702951692877902010-05-14T21:54:00.000+01:002010-05-14T21:54:47.373+01:00

That‘s right, Mrs Eaves sans! Did you know about it? I didn’t! It’s going onto my to-buy list though.

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-82898462532812656342010-05-09T17:28:00.001+01:002010-05-09T17:31:08.371+01:00

I had a peek at my MyFonts albums today and decided to share some of what I've got in them. I think designers are best to just buy, say, 5/6 typefaces from each style (serif/sans/slab) at most, and if they ever want something more jazzy or whatever then they can design it themselves! By the way: MyFonts is really good for the What The Font? tool that it has – you can upload an image of text,

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-67271206376424096842010-05-09T17:00:00.000+01:002010-05-09T17:00:20.539+01:00

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-46540481568196864462010-05-04T21:34:00.000+01:002010-05-04T21:34:23.448+01:00

I’ve been oh-so-busy at work since last Monday so I’ve not had the energy to sit on my backside and add stuff to my blog lately. I saw this fun little chart somewhere though and wanted to add it for anyone interested in typography. Off to crawl back into bed. Zzzzzz

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-85045457224757360342010-04-24T12:11:00.001+01:002010-04-24T12:12:28.752+01:00

I noticed another example of the use of Phi in design – the Ubisoft logo. The circles are diminished in size by 1.618 (Phi). I wonder if they wanted it to relate to their business or just look good…it’s pretty much a golden spiral.

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-8230241567727340232010-04-23T19:00:00.001+01:002010-04-23T19:01:02.945+01:00

are these albums unsung classics? (unsung, get it, bahaha…) Sting brings Celtic/German/Russian folky goodness to the world in his. Okay, Rolf Harris is a bit annoying on Bush’s disc (with the audible, and slightly discomforting, pleasure he gets from a painting he’s doing) but, hey, with lines like ‘swishy swashy, swishy swashy, make these dirty shirties clean’, and some gripping Choral-esque

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-64004009313164189592010-04-23T18:49:00.000+01:002010-04-23T18:49:47.955+01:00

Firstly, I’m getting a little slow at posting (sorry) because I’m getting more success with job-hunting and have actually made a bit of a break through today. If all goes well over the next few weeks then…well, I may be so busy I won’t have the time to post about it. I found some interesting images yesterday during an internet-rummage. They’re on the following webpage – you’ll have to scroll

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-41056197383765857112010-04-22T21:31:00.000+01:002010-04-22T21:31:18.467+01:00

My little brother, before the age-of-teen turned him to the dark side (yes, brother not sister)

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-29755146049785923042010-04-17T17:06:00.001+01:002010-04-17T17:07:04.129+01:00

Another good web design service – competition is healthy! Lime green looks like it’s in fashion – smart condensed type on this one too. Bright colour+grey…works every time. http://www.dotlinedesigns.com/

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-40225336403320542082010-04-14T22:20:00.001+01:002010-04-17T17:07:42.308+01:00

A good website for web design/typography fans – its vibrant, simple and bold. http://www.tjs.co.uk/

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-54522014558311224982010-04-11T22:18:00.000+01:002010-04-11T22:18:56.223+01:00

The link below is definitely worth a visit – some amazing typographic and ornamental work from the mid-1800s. It’s so colourful it could almost be mistaken for modern design…almost. http://www.rarebookroom.org/Control/mdlwrn/index.html

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-47510225911719257932010-04-06T01:17:00.000+01:002010-04-06T01:17:17.692+01:00

In my last post I pointed out how the ratio 1:1.618, manifests itself in segments of a circle – of any angle. Three segments of a circle – of the relative sizes 1:1.618:2.618 – can be placed in such a way that the two smaller segments will sit inside the larger to create a curve with their edges that will touch the straight edge of the largest segment. I thought it would only be 1.618 that could

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-3706191495341526562010-04-05T18:59:00.000+01:002010-04-05T18:59:22.097+01:00

Some quite heavy-on-the-eye geometry made to look pretty here. I got a little confused when I read about the Golden Spiral – it made me think there was one, and only one, Golden Spiral but, in fact, it is the construction which decides if something is a Golden Spiral or not – and not the angle it’s drawn with. Usually a Golden Spiral drawn with a 90˚ angle is said to be the Golden Spiral – the

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-13371847665938820752010-04-01T22:22:00.000+01:002010-04-01T22:22:59.286+01:00

Another quite slick construction here. Expand a line by the ratio 1:1.618 (using the golden rectangle from a square method) and then extend arcs as shown in the first image. You can then produce a golden triangle by joining the corners – the magenta arc makes sure two sides are of equal length, and the blue arc makes sure it’s a 72˚ angle – meaning the third edge will be to the others as 1 is to

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-43349088351251614752010-04-01T20:58:00.000+01:002010-04-01T20:58:23.451+01:00

Just to add to the earlier post, I thought I’d justify the need to spare a thought for the brightness of colours – by converting them to grayscale, for clarity. The combinations of colours in the first two rows below are all created using the same grayscale values – namely those shown in the first 3 grey columns. So the variation in hue can, obviously, change dramatically while the percentage of

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-59932856375332999602010-03-31T18:30:00.001+01:002010-03-31T18:31:34.662+01:00

If you don’t know about BBC iPlayer you should bookmark it! They often have some really good films available for streaming (that what they call it?) or temporary download so check it out each week. They can be a little annoying with it though – I tend to buy foreign films on DVD because I don’t expect to ever see them on TV and, just as I get punched in the wallet by HMV for £20, I find out the

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-75417806772931575252010-03-31T18:12:00.000+01:002010-03-31T18:12:31.281+01:00

Processes like logo design can begin to run away from the designer if they don’t consider one thing at a time – which is why, as the form of the logo is being drafted, the colour may be ignored for the time being. That would mean working in grayscale or even black and white. The following information came from my finding the percentage of black in the grayscale version of some basic colours. For

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-35975581518692366302010-03-31T17:22:00.000+01:002010-03-31T17:22:21.139+01:00

Recently I figured out how to apply a halftone to some type in Illustrator – the proper way, rather than simply making a halftone of the solid letters. You can apply an inner glow and then make that a halftone – then, after using the best settings for the job, you can trace the halftone as a group of shapes and in doing that you make them editable – as the second image below shows. Unfortunately

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-52151281666365514752010-03-31T16:34:00.002+01:002010-03-31T16:34:34.031+01:00

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-71265694062207710142010-03-28T23:21:00.000+01:002010-03-28T23:21:58.576+01:00

I got half way through this book today, which, before now, would sit on my desk staring at me while I got other loose ends tied away. Great book – shame about the spelling of ‘colour’. It’s about more than just the colour illusions we’ve all seen before – understanding them, and reacting with that knowledge, will make for even more measured and reasoned design. I liked his following opinion of

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-61857511884886753302010-03-28T00:05:00.001Z2010-03-28T00:09:32.728Z

I’ve looked at using Phi, the golden section, as a means of selecting colours and so far it seems very worthwhile to explore – there are so many variables to play around with, all the while using the same proportions. You could, for instance, draw a golden rectangle on  top of a colour wheel and take the colours marked by the four corners. A similar test could be made with a the Phi triangle and

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-87813684062942740682010-03-27T23:02:00.000Z2010-03-27T23:02:02.780Z

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-3133618537403665432010-03-27T20:03:00.000Z2010-03-27T20:03:49.448Z

The Scream. A 20˚ golden spiral. Simples…

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-928217177958831412010-03-26T00:38:00.000Z2010-03-26T00:38:50.036Z

This is a great little book for a number of reasons. I like short reads – books I can finish the same day I begin them. The design of this book is excellent – Richard Hollis originally designed it and the version below is a re-design by YES. One very interesting feature of this book is the cover design – the main text begins on the cover and continues on the first recto page. Its readability is

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-69538202744328102592010-03-25T22:42:00.001Z2010-03-25T22:42:36.124Z

I found this site a couple of months ago – looks promising. It’s a good source of information about 500 year old Italian textbooks and has images of quite a lot of surviving pages. They’re mainly interesting to me from a design point of view but I found the below image mind-blowing…. It’s a page of doodling. Centuries-old doodling! Then again, if you look closely, it actually looks like the

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-77651557533850230652010-03-25T22:16:00.000Z2010-03-25T22:16:12.360Z

You MUST check this site out. I saw the book ‘Bibliodyssey’ in Waterstones over a year ago now and have been meaning to get it but, in the last few months, I found the author’s blog – an amazing hodgepodge (always wanted to use that word) of images taken from web archives. There’s an enormous amount on there…lots to read and marvel at. All the images on the right-hand side are links to books or

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-47274728195055440242010-03-24T22:09:00.000Z2010-03-24T22:09:31.581Z

Very cool stuff. Never thought I’d want a cushion so much. http://bonjourmoncoussin.com/en/index.php

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-17295336186047533172010-03-24T22:03:00.000Z2010-03-24T22:03:04.382Z

Had a little play with Photoshop recently and shall share my findings! Please click on the images for a better view. I had to, of course, try making a brush with type as well as other shapes and it actually works really well. There’s not an enormous amount of control available with brushes but to play around with all the jitter settings in the dialog box is lots of fun. A good little trick is to

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-26608372889757873182010-03-22T10:36:00.002Z2010-03-25T10:29:27.057Z

Got a free hour or three? Have a play with this! A new painting program that I can’t leave alone. http://www.escapemotions.com/experiments/flame/#top

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-45600246411928797412010-03-21T21:46:00.000Z2010-03-21T21:46:13.065Z

Looks good!

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-67230422018035343372010-03-21T21:20:00.001Z2010-03-21T21:26:39.127Z

I’ve posted about this before but hadn’t quite got the hang of it until recently. The first two images resulted from tutorials I found, and the third image is an idea I have for a website – an embossed piece of text (the brand name?) on a neutral background could look really good with some black and white/light grey body text. There are two versions of debossing I managed to make – the first is

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-45995500229131520622010-03-21T21:09:00.000Z2010-03-21T21:09:55.918Z

I’ve been neglecting my photoshop skillz a little lately, so I checked out a few online tutorials. One I came across was on a handy blog that I follow – http://pkphotoshop.blogspot.com/ This effect is great – not too difficult either, with some clever shortcutting.

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-39086245489391449542010-03-16T09:23:00.000Z2010-03-16T09:23:44.704Z

Spruced up one of my letter designs…may have to swot up on Photoshop and try a shiny 3D version too.

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-47532575274027723752010-03-12T20:06:00.000Z2010-03-12T20:06:06.443Z

Here’s a nifty little way to draw up a set of golden pentagrams – which are, between themselves, proportional by 1:1.618. I’ve not seen this method elsewhere…and there’ll be loads of ways to construct these shapes but I find this one quite enjoyable to work through. Where other methods I’ve found (have a look in the February posts) have begun with the golden rectangle, this one begins with a

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-14469470792480802752010-03-10T21:36:00.000Z2010-03-10T21:36:06.105Z

I’ve been hand-drawing some type recently – and looking closer at my favourite typefaces, Univers and Futura – and I remembered I’ve yet to get comfortable drawing the ‘s’. So I decided not to leave my desk until I managed to get something decent drawn. Here’s the result below. I compared it with the Futura and Univers characters afterwards and thought it struck quite a nice contrast. My letter

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-65484583575952816152010-03-07T19:25:00.000Z2010-03-07T19:26:04.361Z

I recently read that many Renaissance artists, including Dürer and Leonardo, would use grids to aid them in their composition – rectangular wooden frames with wire drawn through them in a grid form. They would place the frame between themselves and their subject on a stand. If there is a technical name for them I’ve forgotten it but I’ll edit this post if I find it. Reading this made me realise

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-57611483146352604352010-03-06T16:35:00.001Z2010-03-07T19:31:40.930Z

I got this book the other day – along with a few other £5 gems on Amazon – and found it a really good buy. I posted Ghyka’s book, The Geometry of Art and Life, before and, although it was a good collection of examples of where the golden section comes into play, I still wanted to actually learn more about Phi. This book was ideal for getting a better understanding of the numbers themselves and

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-45717184827798230362010-03-04T15:52:00.002Z2010-03-07T18:19:28.219Z

I tried using phi to make the yellow circle, instead of the 0.5 that Bill used, and found that the first version (second image) is a little less well-balanced in comparison with the original. The second version, however, (last image) I think is pretty successful. The smaller the circle, the more the text box comes up – which is what you’d want on a poster. The image would still be seen first from

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-12659339975474537112010-03-04T15:08:00.001Z2010-03-04T15:09:59.350Z

I worried that all of my geometrical ‘constructions’ may be misinterpreted so the following examples of geometry used in design may put things into perspective. The point of making those constructions, like the golden circles, pentagrams and so on, is to find methods of drawing proportionally-related shapes without measuring anything (cheating?). Doing that will make it easier to understand how

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-56267720416250230662010-02-28T18:35:00.000Z2010-02-28T18:35:00.370Z

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9208110263746240322.post-19087155444248809642010-02-25T00:10:00.000Z2010-02-25T00:10:36.481Z

I watched Stranger Than Fiction again earlier today and realized I haven’t mentioned it on here yet. If you haven’t seen it, it’s well worth a watch. It’s definitely something that creative people would find interesting if only for the visuals. Will Ferrell gives a great performance as the low-key main character and Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson are also brill. The film is about a man whose

Ben J Hamiltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05428962542285623475noreply@blogger.com5