1000-word thoughts
This is where my Design columns for MacUser magazine are collected for reference and comment. These are all written as creative explorations of specific ideas; they were originally published in MacUser magazine and are now made available here. Many of these have been inspired by and/or feed back into my design, publishing and production lectures, seminars and workshops at London College of Communication (University of the Arts London), University of the Creative Arts, Nottingham Trent University (Confetti), and Fashion Retail Academy. If you have any questions please leave a comment on the relevant article and I’ll get back to you.
— Keith
Espy Sans Revived
Back in pre-Mac OS X times, in 1992, Apple created a bitmap font called Espy Sans …
ASCII and emoticons
The peculiar art of making faces with type. Lol, ;–) If you’ve never used either of …
Keith Martin presents Fun with Flags: the evolution of the Catalan Estelada
Catalan Estelada flag “Hello. I’m Keith Martin, and welcome to Keith Martin presents: Fun with Flags” …
Dazzle and digital camouflage
Camouflage is the art and design of staying hidden. But there’s more to camouflage than blobs …
Helvetica: still pulling its weights
Helvetica is the world’s most popular typeface. Not everyone likes it, often precisely because of this, …
Paper sizes: learn your ABCs
Paper size is something we don’t give that much thought to, most of the time at …
Focaltone colour secrets
Sometimes, when you need to get something done, the simplest approach is to cut to the …
Big Brother evil eye
The evolution of a graphic identity There’s a well-known saying from early last century that travel …
What a (page) imposition!
Pagination and page imposition is a strange thing when you first try and grok it. As …
Presentations, the art of knocking ’em dead
“Are we sitting comfortably? Is this thing on? Friends, Romans, countrymen! Oi, you in the back!” The …
Zapfino, the typeface with built-in magic
Zapfino is one of the most spectacular typefaces you’ll ever get to use. It’s a calligraphic …
Prints Charming: letterpress meets DTP
I got a new printer the other day. It was unexpectedly heavy – it took two …
What is a magazine?
According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the organisation that gives the official tally of who …
Invisible ink – still lots of fun!
I bet at least some of you experimented a little with invisible ink when you were …
Microsoft logo design history
Back on August 23rd (note: this was written in 2012) Microsoft announced something new. It wasn’t …
Video vs text? Fight!
What’s the future of text? I’m going to be talking about this at a seminar in …
Tattoo design
Would I get a tattoo? I don’t have a specific thing in mind, but the concept …
Digital skeuomorphism
Skeuomorphism is probably not a word you’ve heard much in your life. Not until summer 2011, …
Signage design is a creative challenge
Where are you going? I don’t mean in the metaphysical sense, that’s too deep for right …
Book binding tips, tricks, advice and secrets
I love what’s possible in digital design and production, but the truth is there’s something that …
White space is not a lazy designer’s excuse
There’s a handy saying that I learned many years ago: “when in doubt, leave it out” …
Comic book and showcard fonts
One of the first projects I used to give my Magazine Publishing students involved creating an …
QR codes: enter the matrix!
Quick Response (QR) barcodes are more interesting than you might think, so it’s worth considering them …
Walk, Don’t Walk
The curious life and times of Ampelmännchen. I’m in Berlin as I write this, and I’ve …
Creative Design Briefs
In which Keith explores the answers to a question and finds confirmation in a particular typeface …
Paper Planes: Fly me to the moon…
Paper planes are a fun design exercise – and they’re even heading into space! Recently, purely …
Static graphics vs animated media
There’s more to creating good animations than most designers think, but that shouldn’t stop you from …
Type is the clothes our information wears
Typefaces dress our words and tell the reader what kind of thing to expect. Like clothes, …
Preflighting: boring but important
Know more about preflighting than your software or you’ll get caught out. Grammar purists, look away …
Graffiti creativity
Graffiti is… what? “Graffiti is a creative art form.” “Graffiti is destructive vandalism.” “Graffiti is gang-related.” …
Hanging in the (white) balance
White balance can make or break a shot, so take the time to understand its foibles …
Airline safety card designs
A form of standardised international illustrated instruction? On a recent trip to Turkey I realised something: …
Digital sketch books – can they work?
Can the iPad really replace the designer’s traditional paper sketch book? If you’re a designer, the …
Design a new character for a typeface
Designing the character behind the face. Of all the design discipline specialities, typeface design is probably …
Art Therapy for design block: The CD Cover game
A creative challenge for you… What do you do if you find yourself staring at an …
Freelancing and internships
Negotiating the minefield of how much to charge and judging the morals of working for nothing …
Paper facts and recipes for discerning designers
Get hands-on with paper Graphic design processes are almost always about putting marks on surfaces, and …
With resolution, size does matter
When I teach I constantly have to remind myself that things that seem simple because I …
Cover design challenges in the digital world
Is it possible to design sophisticated magazine covers that communicate and sell in the virtual newsstand …
One-trick specialist or flexible expert?
Don’t be afraid to play around with established production methods. If you know enough about them …
Flipback books: new direction or dead end?
We tend to take things such as book formats for granted, never really thinking about them …
Placeholder text and pangrams
When you need to see how a typeface works you use dummy copy. But there’s more …
Keep managing the projects
Designers aren’t known for their project management skills, but they’re vital if you’re to finish a …
Color perception: more than meets the eye
Color plays a crucial part in how we perceive things, so understanding its emotive effects is …
