While psychedelic rock-concert posters carried into the 1970s, that decade also saw an evolution in advertising, with more people’s up-close faces declaring their devotion to a product. Cartoons and drawings were left to make-believe animals – the starkly drawn housewives of the ’50s were replaced with perky human beings.

While the 1970s are often derided for their bell bottoms and disco, the graphic design got to be experimental, playing around with different styles. And I will forever defend that intro to “Soul Train.”

Be sure to check out our 50′s, 60′s posts in the Graphic Design Through the Decades Series.

Milton Glaser’s iconic tourism-campaign symbol debuted in 1973.

TV Radio Mirror, July 1972.

1972 advertisement in Ebony magazine.

Examples of fonts from Rolling Stone magazine in the mid-’70s.

A 1977 Craig Stereo ad.

Fruit Stripe gum ad.

Pepsi has changed its logo numerous times since 1898. This is the 1973 version.

From a mid-’70s edition of the book “World of Logotypes.”

Skiing poster by E. Mariani for La Rinascente, 1974.

Czechoslovakian matchbox label from 1970.

“Grease” movie poster from 1978.

Apple’s original logo in 1976.

Pornographic-movie poster from 1972.

Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers’ “Bongos Over Balham” album

From 1974 designed by Barney Bubbles.

“Design for the Real World,” published in 1973.

Montreal ’76 Olympics posters.

Chicago’s “Chicago X” album

Winner of the 1977 Grammy for Best Recording Package Design.

Creepy 1971 ad translates to “Kodak Instamatic: always on the mark.”

Paul Rand’s striped IBM logo replaced the solid design in 1972.

It’s not a ’70s compilation without Farrah Fawcett.

Now, please note that I was a skeptical design student amongst a sea of hardcore developers. Flash, to me, was a tool for making silly little animations in the early 2000’s, and was a poor excuse for a video embedding tool on the web. With the advent of HTML5 and as a web designer, I thought Flash was on its way out. However, having barely touched it myself, I knew little about its full capabilities.

At the conference, I got to see some awesome implementations of Flash, such as Jared Ficklin’s sound visualizations and Erik Natzke’s “ribbon” art. These guys aren’t just developers – they’re true artists using code as their medium. Ficklin’s projections were absolutely amazing and intriguing – yay science!! And Natzke’s ribbon art was stunningly beautiful, much like paintings. These implementations suggested to me that Flash was not dying but instead was simply morphing into having a different purpose. Instead of being used as a tool for the web, it is a medium meant for art – art using code.

Perhaps my favorite (being a designer and all), though a bit off topic, was Scott Hansen’s presentation on his creative process. As a huge Tycho fan as well, it was highly interesting to see Scott pick apart one of his album covers layer-by-layer in Photoshop. I was also enthralled to know that Scott pulls his inspiration from the same sources I do, such as Herman Miller and anything from the 70’s.

Overall, I learned that Flash, though maybe a bit of a dying art in terms of web, is still a very capable tool for creating some really cool stuff. The conference also opened my eyes to the endless possibilities of making art with code, a medium I’d never really thought of before.

Thanks, Inspiredology!!

All photos are credited to the FITC Photo Stream on Flickr

Design Cocktail

These design bundles are really catching on, I love it. Believe me, you want this bundle – it’s a great collection of vector resources. Be sure to grab this one.

Theme Trust

Henry Jones of WDL has released a new theme store, with some nice themes. It seems like everyone is doing this – not sure if the market is being over-saturated or not but – the themes are great.

Citroen

adidas

Co.Design

WPCandy

Our friend Ryan Imel just recently purchased WPCandy, and has really put his own spin on it, but also keeping the some of the features that made WPCandy special. Ryan seems to have a great handle on what he wants to accomplish with WPCandy, a very exciting site to subscribe to.

Naomi Atkinson Products

Track Record

I will keep this post short and sweet! As I mentioned above, we’ve joined up with the nice people at Sticker Mule to give our readers some free custom stickers.
Sticker Mule prints custom stickers in all shapes and sizes. They fix low quality artwork for free, and provide free shipping anywhere in the North America.
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Some of Their Product Line

Die Cut Stickers!

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How to Enter:
Just COMMENT TO WIN! Write whatever you like in a comment in this post! How easy is that?!


Contest Ends Sunday August 29th, 2010.

Where do you look for sources of inspiration?

Well if you’d asked me this a few years ago I probably would’ve given the standard answer of “CSS Galleries” and similar resources on the web, however these days I try to stay well clear of them. The problem with finding inspiration on the web is that it’s very hard not to make whatever you’re doing look exactly like whatever it is you’re being “inspired” by. These days I spend a lot of time looking at print and packaging design in particular, with a few bits of product design thrown in for good measure. I find it much more interesting to try to take a really good idea from outside your own industry and try to adapt it and apply it to the web.

What is your favourite aspect of web design?

I think my favourite part would have to be when you have that great idea for a small change which is really going to make the whole site, and it all just comes together. At the start of this year I was building the new blog for vtravelled, Virgin’s new travel website, and we went through quite a few design iterations that were getting closer and closer to the end product. At one meeting I spontaneously came up with the idea to run a live twitter feed up the left hand side of the blog using some beautiful icons which they had already created for the main site. This was really one of those moments, and I think the scrolling feed and colourful icons are now what makes that site most memorable.

What are your top 5 favourite websites?

This is pretty much impossible for me to answer I’m afraid, I don’t think I could even pick one? Let’s go with Twitter, because Twitter leads me to all other websites!

Who do you look up to in your field?

Oh so many: Cameron Moll, Jason Santa Maria and Mark Boulton for their unprecedented understanding of design that just leaves all of the rest of us rolling around in the gutter wondering which way is up. Ryan Carson and Andy Budd for founding amazing agencies and conferences. Tim Van Damme for his attention to detail, and Adii Pienaar for his raw business acumen.

How has using Twitter helped the popularity of your online brand?

Twitter has pretty much been the cornerstone of everything for me. Without it, I would be nowhere. Every big client I’ve ever had, every opportunity and every break has come through Twitter. If they started charging $100 a month just to use it – I would probably do it. It’s connected me with thousands of new people and I couldn’t live without it now.

What do you think are the main benefits for offering free advice online? (Whether it’s a tutorial, quick snippet of code, advanced tutorial)

I think the main benefit has got to be that it establishes you as someone who knows what they’re talking about. Building up that sort of reputation is hugely beneficial because (if you do it right) then people will think of your name first when they need xxx bit of work done, so it all comes back. Like karma.

What inspires you to create and maintain a blog?

I’m not sure if there’s anything that inspires me as such. I like the idea that by publishing my own mistakes (which is what makes up 80% of my posts), other people can learn from them and not fall into the same holes. It’s also partially for myself, I like being able to look back at where I was and compare it to where I am now and just how much has changed.

What would be your perfect dream project?

It would comprise of several factors: The client would give me free reign, have no revisions, pay immediately (like within an hour of being invoiced), and the project itself would be something significant. I’ve experienced all of these individually, but so far I’ve never had them all together in a single client.

What advice would you give to someone looking to specialize in web design?

From a business point of view I would say focus on branding. There are hundreds (maybe thousands) of really really bad web designers out there who make a very healthy income purely because they’ve made a name for themselves. If you can make a name for yourself and you’re actually a good designer… well then that’s all you need really.

From a design point of view you just have to keep on pushing. Never allow yourself to settle for average, to just repeat the same old tired full width header that you used on your last ten designs. This is probably the hardest thing you’ll ever do, and if you’re a good designer, you’ll never be happy or satisfied with any of your work.

Looking into a crystal ball, what do you think will be the next design trend?

Honestly? Whatever Elliot Jay Stocks does next. That guy has an uncanny knack for doing new and awesome things, but I think he’s also probably one of the most influential designers in the world because no matter what he does: a week after it launches the CSS Galleries are full of sites using whatever his latest style is.

What can we expect from John O’Nolan in the upcoming year?

Loads. I’ve pretty much been feeling my way along since leaving full time employment and in the next year I really want to go places now. I have huge ambitions to do great things and I won’t stop until I get there.

In the immediate future, I’m writing a book, editing another book, working on a startup… and I’ll be making one other big move in the next couple of weeks that I can’t talk about yet, so watch this space!

Want more John?

http://john.onolan.org/
http://twitter.com/johnonolan

HD Live 10

Justin M.Maller

Virb

Kiluka

E Skate Boarding

Carbon Ads

Hide Your Arms

For those of you who are familiar with BaseKit I am sure you are amped to see this giveaway here! For those who are not as familiar with BaseKit they are not your average PSD to HTML service that you have seen around the web.

To put it simply they offer a superb intuitive ‘drag and drop’ solution to create a website. So for all you designers out there that are not into the whole coding scene, this is the perfect tool for you!.

How To Win!?

Winning is super simple! Just leave a comment in this post and define yourself as a ‘Designer’, ‘Developer’ or ‘Designer/Developer’.

Be sure to check BaseKit out on Twitter! – @BaseKit

Contest closes Sunday August 22nd at 5pm EST.

abipti

Glasser Italic

bubbleboddy light

D3 Globalism

Corpuscare

CollageAl

MANABU

Gayatri

Bobel

Val

OvalSingle

Cyclo Trial

Aunchanted

Zorque

Synthetic BRK

Steiner Light

Quarantine BRK

Nyamomobile

Diebel

EXCEED Medium

iStockphoto

iStock finally redesigned their site, the site before was fine, but just needed a refresher.

Pancake Payments

Design by Raul

Larissa Meek

Marketing Profesional

Themify.me

Our friend Nick La, launched his new project. With the help of super dev Darcy Clarke, they are offering some really cool WordPress themes and some very nice features.

New Adventures Conference

Treehaus Collaborative Workspace

Had the opportunity to check out this spot yesterday. The workspace look fantastic, a very exciting and energetic company.

We are Synapse

Glenn from down under in Australia, sent me some examples of work. They just recently designed their new portfolio. Their works is very unique and creative, check them out!

This phase can be very frustrating for any creative person. If you don’t recover within a few days, a creative block can destroy your self-confidence. The fear that you will never again be able to produce good work drives you to desperation. You try harder and harder and end up exhausting your mental faculties. This makes the situation worse. Therefore, it is very important to deal with this delicate phase of creative block with a lot of patience and care. Only you can get yourself out of it.

Designers all over the world face this problem and don’t know what to do. There is actually no reason to panic. Let’s look at a few ways by which you can get rid of your creative block.

Stick to the Basics

Don’t try to do too much when you are suffering from creative block. Just stick to basics design principles. If you seek to experiment at this phase, you might have to face failure. This will dishearten you further and won’t help your situation.

Visual balance is an important aspect of design principle. Try to arrange the elements on your page in a way that no section appears heavier than the other. Your design should also maintain unity, so that the various elements used in it don’t seem disparate or out of tune from one another.

Alignment is another basic principle of design. Whether your layout will be easy or difficult to read depends on the way you align type and graphics on a page. Both consistency and contrast is equally significant to your design. Repeating design elements helps your viewers navigate your layout easily. Contrast between big and small elements, black and white text, can make your design both appealing and exciting.

White space is your design’s breathing room. So don’t cram your design with too many graphics or too much text, as it will become difficult for the clients to follow and appreciate it.

But you should never stop working. Producing mediocre designs is better than producing nothing at all. If you spend the entire time pondering over your problem, you’ll never be able to get over it. So, keep yourself busy with work and try to rediscover your potential.

Design on Paper

Try avoiding the computer and instead design on paper. This will be a welcome change for you and will also stimulate your creativity. You can play with the pencil and paper and pour your heart out on it. Try and make rough sketches of your design before working on them professionally. Doodle at will.

Check Out Other Designs

If you are unable to create anything worthwhile, just sit back and appreciate the work of others. Glance through different designs on websites or magazines. You might get motivated (not ‘inspired’) by something that you like and develop your own eye-catching graphics. And who knows, you might break out of your creative block.

Use Colors

Colors trigger the imagination and set the right mood. You can use a lot of colors in your designs and add some spirit to your work. If the work has become dull and tiresome for you, colors will give it new life.

Don’t Compare

Don’t compare your work with that of others. Every single person is unique and has original ideas. No design, however brilliant it might be, will be appreciated by all. This is because different people have different choices and opinions. So just put in your best and don’t judge your work in respect to others. Finding faults with yourself won’t help your cause.

Just Have Fun

The key to most creative block is simply having fun, even though that is possibly the last thing you feel like doing. Just getting away from your work for even a couple of hours can do wonders for your creative juices. Watch a movie, listen to music, read a book, spend time with your dog (if you have one!): The idea is to chill. Relax your mind and body and the rest will take care of itself. Believe me, this is from personal experience!

There is nothing wrong with you if you have a creative block. This problem is more common than you think and everyone finds their own way of getting over it in the end. We hope these tips help you, but you need to help yourself first. Try to be positive and never suffer from self doubt. Just remember, this is simply a passing phase and will be over soon enough.