
In fact, the 70-year-old doesn’t plan on retiring at all. Consider the following the rules according to Spiekermann, a primer on design, entrepreneurship, business, culture, and aging gracefully, as told through his stories.
Erik Spiekermann insists he’s retired, that his whirlwind schedule and backlog of projects is all just a hobby. One day he’s in his hometown of Berlin, where he’s currently overseeing his experimental letterpress workshop, galerie p98a.The next he’s off to San Francisco, where Edenspiekermann, the digital branding and product company he founded, has an office.

Digital marketing constantly changes. New trends like behavior-based email workflows, multivariate testing, and influencer marketing are just some of the newest developments. Machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and voice search are also on the rise and will surely impact marketing strategies in the coming years.
Staying current with the latest marketing trends requires paying close attention to the information shared by influencers who have the time and knowledge to uncover new and effective tactics — those who are deep in the trenches day-to-day.

The Design + Diversity conference explores proactive ways to make the design industry more diverse. This is the only conference this focuses on diversity issues in the design field. This event provides a platform for constructive conversation among those who design, innovate, and lead. We welcome the perspective of diversity and inclusion professionals, designers, and any active enthusiast. Read more

The Olympics is a place where dreams come true — including for designers, who create everything from the logos to the tickets, the mascots to medals for every Games.
To finish all of the Olympics collateral in time, the Olympic design committee outsources the different jobs to various local firms. These projects can overlap across mediums, leaving two firms to indirectly throw in together on a project. Case in point: the Rio 2016 logo was made by Brazil’s Tátil Design de Ideias (Behance profile) , while the Olympic font — and yes, there is an exclusive Olympic font — was constructed by Dalton Maag, a British typeface firm that has a satellite office in Brazil. The process offers a unique case study on collaboration, one where two firms from different cultures must work off each other to produce final products that will surely be seen by hundreds of millions of people.
To learn more please visit: How the 2016 Olympic Logo and Font Were Created – LINK

Here is an opportunity to look at the behind-the-scenes graphic design work for the movie Beauty and the Beast; a closer look at their countdown social campaign before the release. I like the choice of the font throughout this whole campaign although not used everywhere. You will notice there is a different design depending on the representation of the movie scene. Props to the work from Sean Hobman who is a freelance art director/designer working with the folks from Watson DG who are pretty known in working with various Hollywood releases.
Published on Behance, this is a project in collaboration between Sean Hobman and the mighty folks from Watson DG. They are both located in different location from London, UK to Los Angeles, California.

Most people are creatures of habit. We love doing the same thing, the same way, day in and day out. Research tells us that we’re hard-wired for predictability, and that we’re not really all that spontaneous anyway. Familiarity is a rewarding feeling that’s chalk full of satisfaction, safety and security.
But what would happen if we broke free from tradition, and tried to live without those pesky habits and patterns?
Let’s dive into the experiment below and discover the results.

When you have a business, a thing that separates you from the competition is the story that your brand is bringing into the game. Here’s where content intervenes. It helps you craft a story that will have to convince your customers that they should buy your product over the competition. But making high-quality content is not easy at all, that’s why you need tools.

A Graphics Interchange Format image, better known as a GIF, consists of picture files compressed to decrease transfer rate. GIFs possess several pictures in one file to create an animated effect. GIFs are prevalent in modern day cyberspace because the images are quick to download and the animations are often entertaining. For marketers, animated GIFs can be incredibly useful for improving engagement online.
We’re not here to settle the GIF pronunciation debate: Does it sound like gift without the “t,” or should it be pronounced like the peanut butter brand Jif? Instead, we want to offer you a rundown of the types of GIFs available, how you can make your own, and the legal considerations involved in GIF sharing.

No one likes dealing with problems. They force us to take a detour away from what we really want to accomplish while we stop and untangle them. But here’s the thing about problems – they’re the genesis for good ideas. They provide the opening for solutions, which in turn give you a leg up on your career. The stronger your fundamentals and core competencies are, the better position you put yourself in when you make your moves, whether it’s a play for new business or showing how your designs provide value far beyond the aesthetic layer.

AIGA Medalist Sean Adams and Norwegian designer and educator Rachel Troye have both had prolific careers in the design and branding industries, running their own successful studios in very different cultures and climates (Adams lives in Los Angeles). In spite of achieving international renown, both have shelved their studios indefinitely to take up the mantle of teaching, Adams at ArtCenter College of Design, and Troye at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, putting personal success to one side in service to the next generation of young creatives.
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As a creative designer, producing sensational and imaginative work is simply part of the job description. Every skilled designer naturally strives to improve their ability and to produce exceptional, unique work.
Yet while talent and creativity are important, the ability to efficiently manage your time and workflow is every bit as important to your bottom line as producing awesome work. Read more

A new award celebrating in-house design excellence.
This award has been created to acknowledge and honour the work done by ever-growing creative teams that work as internal agencies.
We invite internal creative groups working within companies, associations, government and other organizations/institutions from around the world to enter.
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Pantone announced the latest addition of 112 new colors to the Pantone Graphics line. The new palette, which includes trend-spotting research by the Pantone Color Institute coupled with research from a survey of 200 designers across graphics, packaging, print and web design aims to inspire exploration and creativity in response to new design and societal shifts in the age of digital expression.
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The 2015 IIDA Student Design Competition is now open for entries. The competition celebrates original design and rewards individuals and/or teams whose projects demonstrate innovative, functional design solutions that have a positive environmental and human impact, while allowing emerging professionals the opportunity to showcase their work and fresh design ideas to professionals working in the field. Read more

Douglas MacLaughlin is a photographer whose work focuses on food.
Douglas brings an artist’s eye and a designers perspective when looking through the lens. He draws upon his experience as a graphic designer and illustrator to create vibrant and impactful images.
To learn more please visit: Douglas Maclaughlin Photography – LINK

Creative for a Cause
Fiverr and Ad Age have launched a design competition that challenges designers and copywriters to create an NYC subway ad for C/I, a non-profit that helps underserved communities thrive in the Tech industry. The contest is open to any individual, brand or advertising agency from any country. The winning submission will run in over 300 NYC subway platforms this summer.
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In Design to Grow, a Coca-Cola senior executive shares both the successes and failures of one of the world’s largest companies as it learns to use design to be both agile and big.
In this rare and unprecedented behind-the-scenes look, David Butler and senior Fast Company editor, Linda Tischler, use plain language and easy-to-understand case studies to show how this works at Coca-Cola-and how other companies can use the same approach to grow their business.
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Pantone has announced Marsala, a naturally robust and earthy wine red, as the Color of the Year for 2015.
“While PANTONE 18-3224 Radiant Orchid, the captivating 2014 color of the year, encouraged creativity and innovation, Marsala enriches our mind, body and soul, exuding confidence and stability,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute. “Much like the fortified wine that gives Marsala its name, this tasteful hue embodies the satisfying richness of a fulfilling meal, while its grounding red-brown roots emanate a sophisticated, natural earthiness. This hearty, yet stylish tone is universally appealing and translates easily to fashion, beauty, industrial design, home furnishings and interiors.”

CAMP Festival is a 2-day conference about creativity, art, design and technology happening on September 8-9 in Calgary, Canada. With many top-notch storytellers like Stefan Sagmeister, GMUNK and our beloved James White, this festival on its first edition, looks quite promising and inspiring for your creative flux. Time to explore the Digital Wilderness!
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CreativeLive will host a free, interactive, multi-day class on negotiation and workplace communication for creative of all stripes – designers, photographers, musicians, actors, etc. Beginning June 23, author, design powerhouse, and entrepreneur Ted Leonhardt will share his expertise over three days of live education designed to help creatives negotiate the salaries they deserve.
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Art directors are becoming animators. Print designers are becoming web designers. Illustrators are now photographers who also edit and shoot film. Adobe has launched a new campaign, I Am The New Creative, that highlights the work of these new creatives: profiling one creative each day and using their amazing imagery to “take over” every social media channel that touches Adobe’s creative tools and technologies.
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The Society for Experiential Graphic Design will host a webinar featuring EGD research insights for healthcare campus and facility design. Metrics for Healthcare Environments will cover master planning, nomenclature, information design, and patient/user experience from leading design professionals.
The session will start out with an overview of the current state of the healthcare industry with a focus on how regulatory measurements have shifted to align healthcare design practice with the measurable effectiveness of facility performance and overall patient/user satisfaction. We will then discuss the design methodologies employed when planning comprehensive patient experiences in complex healthcare facilities and campuses. We will then shift to the scale of the user and look at the mechanisms that designers are using to create effective and holistic communication and interactive platforms for administrators, visitors, and users alike.

Signage plays a critical and ubiquitous role in how we orient ourselves within our built environment. Adopting an active and creative role, these supporting graphic markers elicit a deeper exploration of the interiority of a place. These compact icons also double as a strategic branding mechanism, introducing an engaging and memorable component between points A and B.
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Communication Arts magazine has revealed the winners of its 20th annual Interactive competition. Thirty-eight projects were selected by a jury of creative professionals, out of 1,333 entries were submitted to the competition.

Fritz Kahn was a German doctor, educator, popular science writer, and information graphics pioneer whose brilliant work has all but fallen into oblivion. Chased out of Germany by the Nazis, who banned and burned his books, Kahn emigrated to Palestine, then France, and finally the United States to continue his life’s work.
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RC Cars of Boston
RC Cars of Boston just moved into a new retail store conveniently located at 471 Eastern Avenue Malden, MA 02180. I was provided the unique task of developing and designing their identity including logo, stationery, advertising, outdoor signage, etc. All the deliverables included creative direction, copywriting, art direction and design.
They are a local hobby shop offering a full line of RC Cars, Parts and Accessories including: Traxxas, H.P.I, Arrma, LOSI, and Team Associated vehicles, aluminum parts, RPM parts, nitro fuel and all accessories. Stop by and take advantage of the TRAXXAS Power Up programs — and check out our Traxxas test drive facility, where you can test drive a Traxxas vehicle before you buy it.

This past week I finished a photo shoot in Missouri with a great photographer named Topher Cox. Topher grew up in New York City where he learned his photography skills from the world around him. His father was a photographer and his mother was an art director. As a child his life was on sets, where he absorbed the workings of a photo shoot at the same time he was learning to walk and talk.
Topher continued his photo education by assisting some of New York’s top photographers. Again, he learned by watching and doing. Although he is working as a photographer on his own now he still feels that you never stop learning.

The 2013 Social Good Design Awards is calling for submissions of graphic design projects with the power to incite meaningful change in the way we live our lives.
Last year, the Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD) received over 200 submissions from around the world. This year’s So Good design concept came from Entro | G+A.
Judges include Dmitri Siegel, VP, E-commerce & Executive Creative Director, Patagonia, David Berman RGD, author of Do Good Design: How Design Can Change our World.
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Corbis Crave
Corbis CRAVE is a new digital boutique that features expertly curated imagery from industry-leading commercial and editorial photographers.
“Corbis CRAVE provides creative directors and art buyers a search and ideation experience tailored to their unique and specific needs whether they’re accessing the collection on their iPad or through the website,” explained Edie Tobias, senior vice president of commercial products at Corbis.