Thought I’d take things back old school with this post on the “Generative Design” app… n-Gen by move design - www.movedesign.com.
(You can still download the app from here)

Back in 02′ I was introduced to a make shift design program called n-Gen .
The program took my digital design to a whole new place. I had (maybe still have a little bit) this problem of being too structured with my design layouts. I would always put things right where they needed to go… always lined things up where they needed to be and always made sure my designs were well balanced. Now I know that doesn’t sound like a bad thing to most (especially now a days) but back in 2002 this was a BIG problem for me. The design trend of the time was this dirty, chaotic, randomized type of style that turned me on something crazy. But I just couldn’t let my mind go and embrace that style… enter the n-Gen Design Machine.

From the movedesign.com website (the makers of n-Gen)

The n-Gen Design Machine is a demo application that allows anyone to easily create professional quality designs with the push of a button. It suggests a new design methodology — designing by numbers and algorithms, rather than by hand.

n-Gen allowed me many times to skip over the initial design stage and gave me the starting point style that I was looking for back then… and still long to perfect today.

If you never tried n-Gen then you definitely NEED to.. and for those of you who remember n-Gen…. no they unfortunately haven’t updated anything since.

Links to more infomation:

• An interview with Peter Spreenberg creator of n-Gen. By app-art.org
• Auto-Illustrator - a vector based generative design app (again from back in the day)

For the first “Portfolio of the Moment” I chose an artist that I would most like to be reincarnated as… James Jean - www.jamesjean.com.

His unique style that blends classic techniques, with modern comic illustrations that (in my opinion) makes many older, more “well known” illustrators that I’ve have seen look like HS art teachers. And his sexy, urban style crosses the boundaries that make both art buffs and art directors salivate.

With clients like DC, Target, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Atlantic Records, Playboy, and many other high profile clients, and with awards like the Gold Medal Society of Illustrators LA, Eisner Award Best Cover Artist 2004 & 2005, and the Harvey Award Best Cover Artist 2005, James Jean is more than an adequate roll model for any inspiring artist.

For more about James Jean check out:

• his blog and to order prints.. processrecess.com
• Polite Winter - politewinter.com

iStockphoto.com article by: Red Labor

A great article on some general typography techniques plus a quick cheat-sheet of some basic type definitions by one of my favorite firms, Red Labor. (via iStockphoto.com)

This recent article got me to revisit Red Labor and they seem to have some cool stuff going on in their store: irononresistance.com their ties are so cool I almost want to get a real job just to show them off. Plus here are are few other articles written by the Red Labor guys:

• Faux Real - another iStockphoto article about finding design inspiration off-line
• Analogue - about starting your next analogue design

redlabor.com

$85 a night at the HoJo doesn’t look too bad .. huh?

Hostel