Search results

Off to good old Bavaria! This year’s Oktoberfest takes place in Munich (Germany) from 20 September to 5 October. The website of the world’s biggest beer festival brings goose pimples to every designer. It more looks like a tourist booking website rather than a website for a great, international festival. They should definitely have a think about that. However, a nice design can be seen on this year’s official poster for 181st "Wiesn". The posters that won #2 and #3 in the contest are a bit disappointing from a designer’s perspective as they don’t really transport the spirit of the Oktoberfest. The winner poster does so though. http://www.oktoberfest.de The next blog post is the final part of my festival design series and it features the UK! #festival #posterdesign #oktoberfest

This year’s IAA Commercial Vehicles in Hanover showed many exciting new vehicles and technologies. Many visitors and journalists from all over the world came to see what’s new in the business. Here are photos of my personal highlights: (Copyright photos: Helene Clara Gamper / HCG corporate designs) In the course of the IAA Commercial Vehicles, I designed issue no. 8/2014 of Austria’s largest commercial vehicle magazine "Blickpunkt LKW+BUS". See it here as print PDF, here as iPhone app or here as iPad app featuring many interactive functionalities. In addition to that, my film partner Ashley Wiggins produced an exclusive short film: Also want an editorial design for print or an app magazine? Or you want a professional video? Simply send me an email , I’m looking forward to hearing from you! #bus #truck #commercialvehicle #iaa

We all know about the trend of big size pictures – you see them in advertisements (online + offline), on websites or in editorial designs. This trend clearly focuses on transporting emotions because a good message alone („buy 3, pay 2“) does not really convince people to buy a product anymore. Emotions sell. This trend has not even reached its peak yet, I believe. Meanwhile, another new trend is getting bigger: The power of simplicity. You see that more and more often in editorial designs for example: A lot of blank space that gives the copy space to „breathe“. As an advertisement that does not look like an advertisement is more promising to companies, print advertisements become simpler too. (Facebook shows how to do it: Promoted posts in between your friends’ posts in your personal newsfeed don’t look like an advertisement at first sight.) A lot of blank space, a short text and a significant product picture or an outstanding graphic – this is all it takes for an advertisement that stands for simplicity at its best. Furthermore, a lot of blank space makes people curious. „What exactly is that? Hm, let’s see, I’ll download this app now.“ This is how simple advertisement works, nice and easy. #advertisement

National Geographic is one of the top magazines worldwide. The issue "50 of the world’s last great places – destinations of a lifetime" features some fantastic editorial design elements that I would like to show you here. Double pages opening categories live from the pictures of course. The category names ("temperate", "arid" etc.) are placed into the picture in a matching colour with light transparency. The category intros I find very interesting too. The first word (or only a part of it!) catches the reader’s attention, the lead copy follows in a black, bold font with only a small line spacing. Transparency is also used for info boxes which makes them look elegant and does not affect the background picture’s dominance. The design team used only sans serif fonts in this magazine. That might have the following reasons: - The focus clearly lies on the pictures which is why the font has to be as simple and clear as possible. Serifs would give the text too much importance. - There is not too much text which is why the human eye does not need any help or support for the reading flow (what is normally achieved by serifs). The line spacing is quite big (apart from the intros), so the readability is improved in this aspect. - It is an American magazine. In the Anglo-American area, serifs are not as widely used as in continental Europe. This magazine truly is a masterpiece of photography and editorial design. You can order it here . #editorialdesign #photography

We all know it: the symbol that marks the end of an article in a magazine. Mostly, this symbol is a rectangle or a circle. But depending on the layout of the magazine, there are also other symbols that can look really good. In this blog post I want to show you some great examples from my own work and work of other graphic designers. Architektur-Magazin (free project). Editorial design: HCG corporate designs Aussenwirtschaft Magazin. Editorial Design: buero8 Blickpunkt LKW+BUS. Editorial Design: HCG corporate designs Downdays. Editorial Design: Floyd E. Schulze FLGNTLT. Editorial Design: HCG corporate designs Modulor. Editorial Design: Moritz Ulrich Novum. Editorial Design: Oliver Klyne Vice. Editorial Design: inkubator.ca Wohnrevue. Editorial Design: Lianel Spengler #editorialdesign #magazine

The Lewa Marathon 2011 in Kenya gained photographer Marietta D'Erlanger international recognition. She took this photo and won the Judges' Choice Prize in the course of the Association of Photographers Open Awards 2012. http://www.mariettaderlanger.com/ #kenya #photography

There are many different ways of how to make a normal photo look like a high class photo from a catalogue. Here, I want to show you one of those techniques using a truck example picture: 1st step: Repairing the left headlight select and copy the right headlight paste it in a new layer and mirror it horizontally place the mirrored headlight correctly tip 1: reduce the opacity to place it more easily tip 2: orientate yourself towards the street level when placing it Put a mask on the new headlight (layer) and erase unwanted marks around the headlight. 2nd step: Adding a glow effect Reduce all layers down to one layer for making your work easier. Then make the truck glow: copy and paste the layer 2 x lower layer: Gaussian blur – approx. 80-90% middle layer: select „overlay“ top layer: select „soft light“ You can reduce the opacity of the middle and top layers if wanted. 3rd step: Adding a lens flare effect To give the photo a final touch, you can add a lens flare effect where the two mountains in the background go together. insert a new layer from the menu – overlay – fill with neutral colour for mode „overlay“ then insert the lens flare effect (rendering filter – lens flare) – 105mm between 50% and 70% #photoretouching

When Jess Bachman, Creative Director of Visual.ly contacted me to say how impressed he is by my work, I of course felt very honoured. Visual.ly offers infographic services to some of the world’s biggest brands on an extraordinarily high quality level. So the question of working together with him and Visual.ly, I could only answer with "Yes!". I’m looking forward to many great infographic projects. Speaking of infographics, I want to give you some interesting tips: - A study proved that data shown in round shapes is remembered most. - Bar charts are probably the oldest data visualisation method ever. However, you should use bar charts only when you have to. An infoGRAPHIC should look like a graphic and not like a boring chart, no? - According to a study, data in an infographic having more than six colours is much easier to remember. However, this raises a bit of concern as regards the design and overall look as a higgledy-piggledy infographic can easily look unprofessional and cheap. - Speaking of colours, you should always thoroughly think about how to use colours in an infographic. The colour is the very first thing somebody sees of an infographic. So implement some sort of colour system. It can also make sense to create the infographic in black and white in the beginning and implement the colour scheme in the end. - Lately, I have stumbled upon a few infographics using photographs. Placing an illustration into a photo can be a nice thing when executed smartly. But placing a photo into an infographic? Sorry, that is just scary. The human eye always looks out for things we know that come closest to reality so you automatically focus on the photo. The infographic around the photo becomes less important. Mixing infographics with photos is very delicate! Do you want a great and unique infographic for your business? Simply send me an email ! #infographic

A study conducted by the APA (Association of Publishing Agencies, London) says that client loyalty rises by 32% because of client magazines. Depending on the kind and number of (potential) customers, establishing a client magazine can be a lucrative thing. Why? - rise of customer loyalty - new approach towards potential customers (client magazines are often handed over to friends and family members) - creation of an additional profit through advertisements - ideal presentation of products/services in the hands of clients - longer reader engagement with products/services compared to online advertisements (confirmed by APA!) - transfer of helpful additional knowledge what makes products/services even more valuable for the reader and thus increases the inducement to buy - increase of sympathy for a business On the other side, you have to calculate costs for desktop publishing, printing and distribution. A thorough calculation is necessary here. But a rise in customer loyalty by 32% is definitely worth a closer look! Send an e-mail to office@hcg-corporate-designs.com to request for a client magazine production offer. #magazine

I love reading the German NEON magazine. The Art Directors Jonas Natterer and Ji-Young Ahn conducted an interesting editorial design relaunch that I want to take a closer look at in this blog post. The new cover page (bottom picture) shows a much more sharp-edged font. The old NEON font (top picture) looks a bit frumpy and bulky. The main topics are now formatted as axial justification (centered). The old NEON showed the main topics as left-aligned, one-lined paragraphs. You’ll come across axial justification (centered text) quite often within the new editorial design. The topics in the table of contents are centered (they used to be left-aligned as you can see on the top picture). In addition to that, red colour is used here and there for smartly steering the reader through the table of contents. The category "Nur eine Frage" (only one question) presents comments of Neon.de users. The old design (top picture) comes with a rigid, straight grid. The new design (bottom picture) reflects the design of modern social media channels like Google+ and Pinterest that does not have rigid grids on purpose. The new editorial design looks like social media channels the readership likes spending time on. The "Deutsche Geschichten" (German stories) have been pressed into a slim shape that is, however, still pleasant to read for the human eye. Also here, you see the Art Directors’ love for axial justification. Another repeating design element is the CTA - Call to Action. Red speech bubbles invite readers to become active in sharing their opinion etc. The headers in the new editorial design (bottom picture) look less plump as they are less spaced out and have upper and lower case letters. And – surprise, surprise – you see centered text again (old design: left-aligned, see top picture). Another newness are bent headers that look funny and edgy and are not too dominant. Opening pages for categories have been completely renewed. The new design (bottom picture) focuses on three big topics instead of listing all topics of the category like in the old design (top picture). A sharp-edged font gives the page the perfect oomph. The page number stands on its own now (bottom picture). Thus, the page makes a more solid, grounded, stronger impression than before. A clear structure instead of too much knick-knack: The redundant hyphen between page number and category has been banned. Headers and lead texts are now more modern and slightly remind of the design on mobile devices such as iPad etc. Old (top picture): left-aligned text, several text hierarchies and serif fonts gave the header and the lead text seriousity and a journalistic news feeling. New (bottom picture): Axial justification, no text hierarchies, clearer and sharper-edged font. All that creates a modern feeling that matches the NEON readership perfectly. A small font without serifs and a glass in 2D rather than 3D give the category "NEON testet die Parteien" (NEON tests political parties) a fresh oomph towards modernity. As a graphic designer dealing with editorial designs on a regular basis, I have to say that that new editorial design of NEON triggers the target group much better than with the old design. The only negative thing that I have to point out however, is the fact that the paper quality is still not very good. The opacity is still bad. Pictures slightly shine through the paper which increases the grey tone of text, furthermore this makes text more difficult to read. Paper with higher density would have looked more inviting and would make reading much more pleasant and enjoyable. But maybe the Art Directors of NEON think of that in the course of the next editorial design relaunch. #editorialdesign #desktoppublishing #magazine

Summer is coming up and the BBQ season is too. So it’s time to make our gardens and balconies more beautiful! A great thing I came across is this outdoor candle: The fantastic thing about it: These "wooden pots" are old pots from Indonesia used for ricing corn on the countryside. This outdoor candle brings a piece of exotic history into your garden. It burns for at least 50 hours and costs roughly 50 euros. You can order it online on depot-online.com by the way. #candle #outdoor

Until a few years ago, 3D effects used to be really hip in graphic design. When Microsoft Windows 8 was launched however, a new design trend emerged: flat design. Flat design does not use any 3D effects like shadows, reliefs etc. Everything looks more flat, simpler and a bit „plain“. I personally like flat design a lot. However, this trend has not matched everybody’s taste. Sometimes I had the feeling that people either love flat design or they absolutely hate it. It polarises. Maybe this is one reason why you come across more and more flat designs with shadow effects now. You can see that a long, sharp shadow was added to the 2D design in order to make it look 3D, but in the end it still remains 2D. Maybe this is a new trend, a flat design 2.0? I’m curious how strong flat designs with shadows will become in the future. #flatdesign #icon