Pilcrow #3
Is it freshly brewed coffee that I smell? Great, go grab your favorite chocolate sweet and let's browse dive into great works of talented designers!
Hey friends, hope you had a great week. As usual, here are some of the amazing works I come across while browsing the Internets.
I also wrote some thoughts about imposter syndrome, comparing ourselves to others, and the mirage of social media, let’s have a conversation on this topic in the comments.
Take your time, relax, and… let’s go!
Silver Press Book Covers
Silver Press is an independent feminist publisher based in London. The book collection uses Apoc from Blaze Type as the main typeface for their cover series. It features short stories, essays, and poems of Chantal Akerman, Leonora Carrington, Nell Dunn, Akwugo Emejulu, Ursula K. Le Guin, Audre Lorde, M. NourbeSe Philip, and Diane di Prima.
1Community Website
1Community is an entertainment production and co-finance company. They use the power of storytelling to drive impact on 8 key topics: immigration, gender equity, racial equity, criminal justice reform, climate & environment, mental health & disability, government accountability & foreign policy, and opportunities.
Their message is highlighted by the powerful combination of GT Pressura and Graphik Regular, reinforced by a solid layout and riveting photographs.
Nomono Brand Identity
Interesting usage of a blur as something else as visual sugar. Created by Heydays, the brand identity and design system of Nomono are used on 3 different digital products, it features a nice pastel color palette with a beautiful dark theme and the one and only Tiempos for headings, with a custom font for the copy.
Solution Chocolat Factory
Chocolate lovers, I got you! For this new range of hot chocolate products, Zoo Studio created a double-meaning concept: “Solution” — the dissolution of chocolate in liquid and the idea of solving.
The packaging design is just genius to me, all information is still readable, the color theme is pretty playful, and each structure has its own little game of finding the right orientation. I don’t know about you, but I want a hot chocolate this afternoon!
Some thoughts
Recently, I had a conversation with several designers about comparing ourselves and how frustrating it can sometimes be, even more during these not-so-bright times. We tend only to see things as they are presented, but the reality is far more complex. Take someone that just began publishing zir work on Dribbble, Behance, Twitter, or just a portfolio. When looking at great designers, there are good chances that this person will look at likes, retweets, saved to the bucket, whatever metric the platform uses.
There are three biases here. First, the novice designer will never see the starting point of all these metrics and the growth curve. Second, the great designer has replaced zir previous works with the latest ones, leading to an amazing portfolio with homogenous work (in terms of quality). Third, the great designer is not very likely to post failures zie encountered: work interviews zie failed, missed project launches, or a digital (or not) product with 0 sales.
In other words, we rarely see failures. And with the interconnected nature of social media, all we tend to say are mirages of successes or icebergs of victories. I don’t think this is something we can or should control but rather something we should remember ourselves: absolutely nobody started with a job at [name of your dream company], 100k followers, and an amazing portfolio website. No one. Of course, some will show more talent for a specific discipline, some are very privileged, and some have both — this is undeniable. But in the end, consistency leads to great work, which leads to rewards.
Saying we should stop comparing ourselves to others may sound a bit too simple, while it’s true, I prefer to say we each have a unique track on which we run, with slopes and all kinds of difficulties, that leads to a unique goal. We tend to be very demanding with ourselves, and while this helps us do fantastic stuff, pushing this too far may hurt more than it fuels our ambition, passion, and craft.
What I’m working on
You may not have seen it in the previous edition of Pilcrow or on Twitter, but I publicly launched Moodboards.gallery, a place where designers reveal their inspirations through interviews. I’m still working on the final design of it, but you can already take a look and subscribe to be the first to know when it’s ready.
I already have 2 interviews scheduled (if you know, you know 👀), and I’m open to suggestions: what designer would you dream of knowing more about? Feel free to send me a DM on Twitter.
That’s all, friends! Have a great Sunday! 🖤