Remembering Ray Bradbury

Some authors just make you love reading. They sweep you up in their words and when the pages run out, you feel this bittersweet ache because there’s no more. Ray Bradbury was one of those authors for me.

Bradbury, an author most US teens meet in the classroom through Fahrenheit 451, passed away on Tuesday at 91. In tribute, I’d like to share book covers of the stories he wrote that had special significance to my reading life. I’ve tracked down first editions of the novels as well as the covers I knew when I first read his tales. (The Martian Chronicles is an exception. The edition I first borrowed from my high school library had no jacket.)

Please enjoy and remember.

Fahrenheit 451, 1st Edition. Publisher: Ballantine Books. Illustrator: Joe Pernaciaro.

The edition students read in my high school.
Fahrenheit 451. Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine Books. Cover: Donna Diamond

Something Wicked This Way Comes, 1st Edition. Publisher: Simon & Schuster. Cover: Gray Foy

Something Wicked This Way Comes. Publisher: Granada. Movie tie-in cover. Edition I first experienced.

The Martian Chronicles, 1st Edition. Publisher: Doubleday. Cover: Arthur Lidov.

From the Dust Returned, 1st Edition. Publisher: William Morrow / HarperCollins. Cover: Charles Addams.

Ally’s Revue: Conferences and Cards

At the beginning of this month, Behance held its annual 99% Conference (the title refers to the famous Thomas Edison quote as opposed to the Occupy Wall Street slogan). For those who didn’t attend there’s an illustrated guide by Wendy MacNaughton, highlighting the insights from the event.

Some favorites:

See the complete guide here.

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May means it’s time for half the birthdays in my family. It also means the beginning of graduation season for the rest of the world. Blogger and designer Sara of Mr. Handsomeface shows you how to create your own embroidered stationary here. Make some to give to your favorite graduates this summer!

Ally’s Revue: Assemble!

To start, MIT and Harvard are offering free online courses to the public. Each course varies in how much material is available (PDF documents, video lectures, quizzes) and they won’t get you an official degree or certification. But the courses will teach you new subjects and make you a more well-rounded professional.

For other free lectures, check out the “iTunes U” section of your iTunes store.

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The Avengers movie hit theatres this weekend (and was pretty awesome). As you might have seen around the internet, the art boutique Mondo released posters in honor of the film. Here’s one featuring the character Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson) by artist Olly Moss:

And here’s one by Tom Whalen featuring Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner):

See more here.

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And because I love the way typography was used in past decades of comic book cover design, here is Avengers #146:

Look at them, ready to burst out of that panel to fight. And that subhead on the bottom. Old comic book art just makes me happy.

I hope it makes you happy too.

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On a sad note, children’s book author Maurice Sendak passed away today.

Sendak made childhood reading into an experience. Dreams became real when Sendak brought them forth in his writing and illustration. The world lost a dream today and I am sorry to see him go. Rest in peace sir.

But the wild things cried, “Oh please don’t go–

we’ll eat you up–we love you so!”

And Max said, “No!”

The wild things roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth

and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws

but Max stepped into his private boat and waved good-bye

and sailed back over a year

and in and out of weeks

and through a day

and into the night of his very own room

where he found his supper waiting for him

and it was still hot.

“Where the Wild Things Are”–Maurice Sendak

Artistic Integrity, Critiques and Commercial Art: The Mass Effect 3 Ending Controversy

Contains vague spoilers about Mass Effect 3.

Two blog posts ago, I expressed excitement over the release of Mass Effect 3, the concluding video game of Bioware’s massive science fiction trilogy. And it was every bit as amazing as I had hoped it would be. Until the last ten minutes. After I recovered from the shock of the ending, it was gratifying to learn that hundreds of other players were crying foul over the ending to the trilogy. What followed were hundreds of forum posts, reviewers on all sides explaining their take on the ending and several groups turning their desire for an ending into raising money for charities.

Of interest to you readers, who I assume come here for design-related issues, were the questions raised about whether video games are art, whether that art should be preserved if there is a consumer backlash and how to respond to said backlash. Bioware recently announced their solution to this tidal wave of criticism. Was it the right one? I’ll be approaching this with two main credentials: One, I am a graphic designer and my career is focused around balancing artistic integrity with the needs/desires of clients and consumers. Two, I have a background in analyzing literature for both academia’s sake and to better my personal writing.

Mad Men: The Game!

Due to my inability to start watching a scripted drama without having watched it from the beginning, I only started watching Mad Men this summer. Somewhere between salivating over the clothes, pouring over the twists of the 1960′s advertising landscape and yelling at Don Draper through the screen, I’ve become a fan. (And Jon Hamm is a marvelous actor, making Don Draper likable even when he is making very bad life choices.)

And now the Fine Brothers have brought us an NES-style Mad Men choose-your-own adventure game for youtube with three possible endings.

It’s like someone reached into my dreams and made them real.

Ally’s Revue: Ads, Resumes and Space Commanders.

Courtesy of Retronaut, some vintage weight gain ads. Now I don’t believe in shaming any bodies, thin or curvy, but it’s interesting to look at these compared to the different beauty standards we have today.

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For the career seekers, here’s some fun resumes to browse through. Even if you’re well-situated in your job, these are pretty darn neat to look at.

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In Nerdy news, the final installment of the Mass Effect video game trilogy, Mass Effect 3, will be released on March 6. You play as Commander Shepard, a Human soldier out to save the galaxy. The Commander is a tough-as-nails, strong protagonist and YOU get to choose how Shepard looks, acts and what gender s/he is.

I prefer to play as a Female Shepard (because few other video games let you be a tough, capable female soldier with a kick-butt sniper rifle). And while Mass Effect 3 comes with Male Shepard on the front, you can take out the cover insert and flip it around to have Female Shepard on the front.

Sourced from "The Border House" blog.

Kudos to the designers and/or marketing team that implemented this!

Color Theories

I have a theory.