Our friend Julian Montague was interviewed in Dwell magazine’s blog by another friend, and Block Club contributor, Mark Byrnes. Super cool conversation about Montague’s fake-book art, states poster series, and his beautiful Stray Shopping Cart Project.
Follow these fellas’ work. They’re doing good stuff.
-Ben
Photo courtesy Julian Montague Projects
Email newsletters come in all shapes and sizes. Here at Block Club our newsletter is a monthly recap of some of the highlights found on our blog. It’s a nice way to find out what we’ve been up to if you’ve missed some of the posts along the way. You can sign up here if you aren’t already subscribed.
What makes an email newsletter worth reading? More importantly, what keeps your mouse away from the unsubscribe link (which should be located in the footer of all newsletters)?
I think that the content, and how it’s displayed is priority number one. Make your content easily digestible so that subscribers can read through everything in a short amount of time.
Educating your audience is also very important. They are subscribing to your newsletter because they look to you and your organization as thought leaders. They expect to learn something new and exciting about your industry so share your knowledge as much as possible.
Timing is a key element that factors into whether or not users end up reading your newsletter at all. Depending on what type of business you have and what your newsletter content contains should factor in heavily as to when your newsletter is sent. For most, sending an email newsletter works best when it’s delivered mid-week right after lunchtime. That way your subscribers aren’t catching up from or looking forward to a weekend and should be nice and full after their lunch.
- Steve
This was the second year I got to work on my alma mater’s annual student fashion show, Runway. This year was even more rewarding as Block Club hosted two Buffalo State Communication Design students, Cody and Laura, who came to the office and worked with us to design a poster, the event program and a lookbook showcasing the fashion students’ collections.
They did an awesome job developing a concept for this year’s theme, City Bits / City Bytes, using deconstructed concentric circles in bold colors in contrast to the stark white, statuesque photos Luke Copping shot for us of two dresses from last year’s Cotton Inc. challenge. Great work guys!
Runway is next Saturday, April 27. Ticket information here.
- Julie
Hosting a party is one thing—having enough food and drink, good music, the right combination of guests—but conducting a philosophical conversation throughout all the catching-up, the elbow grabbing, the networking, is something else.
We launched BCM31 with that exact creative challenge. The goal with each issue’s launch is to not only display artwork and cover art from the issue, but to interact with it somehow. Block Club is a magazine that relies on conversation and thought, where you can put it down and think about it days later, bring it up with friends and talk about it some more. We craft each issue to be an experience, starting with the launch party.
When guests arrived, they were instructed to choose a mysterious piece of white paper.
On the backs of most papers was the word “Quantity” with an image of something mass-produced—Velveeta cheese food product, identical suburban-development homes, reality TV star Honey Boo Boo, sliced white bread, Chili’s restaurant, a plastic bag, pop star Christina Aguilera, and processed ground beef. If you received one of these, you were the proud winner of the miniature poster you were holding.
On the backs of 40 papers was the word “Quality” with instructions to see a Block Club employee throughout the night. If you were lucky enough to snag one of these, you won a limited-edition print of one of the four letterpress prints we made in collaboration with the Western New York Book Arts Center, who also supplied a limited-edition print from their Small Press Book Fair, held the same weekend as our party. The prints hung as the artwork for this opening installation, but by night’s end, our walls were bare—another rumination on the relationship between quality and quantity.
This simple instruction begat a night’s worth of interaction, conversation about art, printing, installation, clichés, design, marketing, and the stories told in the issue. And dancing, of course. Lots of dancing.
-Ben
I just returned from the TYPO conference in San Francisco and I am beyond energized.
Over the course of the two-day conference, I had the pleasure of seeing a super impressive lineup of talks by some extraordinary designers, illustrators, typographers and tech founders.
I’m still digesting everything. I learned a lot and I came home with a ton of energy, but the one thing I took from this conference more than anything else is validation. Here are some highlights:
Jessi Arrington opened up the conference with a talk about being honest with yourself and making the most of your strengths. Her story is very inspiring. You can watch her talk at the link above.
When Jeff Veen, a VP at Adobe and founder of Typekit; and Erik Spiekermann, who needs no introduction, offered advice on company processes and culture, they essentially walked the audience through what we already do at Block Club. It was extremely validating.
I really connected with and learned a lot from Peter Bil’ak, a typographer, publisher, graphic and choreographic designer, and editor (among other things) who made the case that working in a variety of disciplines and exploring the unknown makes for better, stronger work. I couldn’t agree more.
I already know that we have an incredible thing going here at Block Club, but to be validated by some of the biggest people in your business is an absolutely wonderful thing.
I’m so looking forward to sharing what I’ve learned with my team.
You can see some of the talks here.
-Brandon
I have not worked with ink in quite some time. I picked it back up over the holidays while working on some beer coasters for a friend. So I decided for Issue 31 of the magazine I was going to switch it up and use that medium for my illustrations.
Sketching and brushes and ink and scanners and photoshop.
Love the process.
-Tim
No big deal or anything, but Block Club is on Cover Junkie today!
Cover Junkie is at the top of our blogroll when researching the industry’s most innovative, inspiring magazine covers. The site regularly features cover art from New York Magazine, Vice, Wired, The Sunday Times Magazine (UK), The New York Times Magazine, Adbusters, Time, and many more from the world’s best magazine brands.
It goes without saying, though I’ll say it, that we are honored to be in such esteemed company. Thank you Jaap Biemans, founder of the site and art director of Volkskrant Magazine, for featuring us today!
And a huge thank you to our friends at the Western New York Book Arts Center, especially Chris Fritton, for their collaborative efforts on this cover. We’re thrilled to share the page with you, and all the wonderful work you’re doing for publishing here in Buffalo and around the world.
A great way to kick off our launch party tonight for Issue 31: Quality/Quantity! Have a great day everyone!
-Ben
Facebook has done it again. They have teased a new look to their design that aims to reduce the clutter and focus more on the stories you care about. Reducing clutter is something we do here at Block Club often. We pride ourselves on being able to dissect anything from a website to a brochure and trim the fat to make it more efficient.
I think the biggest reason Facebook is making this change now is that they know they are losing ground with the younger generation who have taken more of a liking to services like Twitter and Instagram. I can always turn to some of my younger cousins who are in high school or just starting college to see what their take is on some of the apps and platforms we use on a daily basis. They all tell me that Facebook is boring and none of their friends use it anymore.
It will be interesting to see if this updated look helps with this problem. What do you think? Are you jumping the Facebook ship for other platforms?
If you are interested in learning more about the new look and signing up for the waiting list to get it visit this link.
- Steve
Hard at work on the next issue of Block Club, called Quality/Quantity. Tomorrow we head into the studio for an exciting collaboration with one of Buffalo’s most progressive workshops. Stay tuned for updates, but in the meantime, pencil yourself in for the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair on April 6-7, where we’ll have a table for the first time!
-Ben
Alliance Advisory Group is a financial services firm headquartered in Buffalo, NY, with additional offices in Rochester, Syracuse and Jamestown. They are one of the top 100 private companies and one of the largest independently-owned financial services firms in Western New York.
We began working with Alliance Advisory Group back in July on developing a new website. Their previous website was dated and the information wasn’t presented clearly. Working closely with AAG we were able to organize their data, create a structure to that information and give the new site a fresh, clean look.”
The site is set to launch within the next few weeks.
-Timothy
So we’ve been in the midst of developing a website for our friends at Conflict Kitchen down in Pittsburgh, PA. The idea behind Conflict Kitchen is that they only serve food from countries with which the United States is in conflict. The restaurant rotates its menu, decor, look and packaging every six months. They have previously served Cuban, Venezuelan, Afgani and Iranian foods. It’s a pretty interesting way to start a conversation about a subject which many folks may consider to be sensitive. You learn a lot about another culture over food and we want to help keep that conversation going after you’ve left the table.
We were approached by Co-Director of Conflict Kitchen, Jon Rubin, to help redesign their website. The site is currently off getting programmed and this is a little sneak peak. We wanted to keep the site very minimal, allowing for the functionality, colors and patterns to take center stage. We drew inspiration stylistically and functionality from several sites that both Jon and us Block Club folk thought would work well for their site: krystalrae.com | danielhopwood.com | coworkchicago.com
Looking forward to seeing it live, and believe me we’ll let you know too.
-Tim
BCM30 is out and about! The topic of our 30th issue is a big one. It discusses the emotion of comfort; the need to use it joyously and warmly, but also judiciously and responsibly. On the other side of our most comfortable comforts are crutches, awaiting our need for more.
We approach this in a civic sense to understand that we can’t grow as a people, community, city or region without stepping outside of our comforts. That said, we all have relative needs for comfort; some need it to live, and some “need” it to be “happy.” Navigating both ends of this word helps us to prioritize the things we should keep holding onto, and the things we need to let go of.
However you come to the word, find yourself a copy soon (if not at one of our distribution points around town, then online), curl up in that sweet blanket you’ve been hibernating in all season, and find what makes you comfortable. Take account of your crutches, while you’re at it.
This issue’s photo series and covers reflect the origin of our attachment to such things. Surely, you’ll recognize a keepsake from your past (or present).
Stay tuned for more posts in the coming weeks featuring elements from our conversations, stories and design. There’s more comfort coming your way…
Best,
Ben
So the latest issue of our beloved Block Club Magazine is out, issue #30. We based this issues theme around the idea of Comfort. I was lucky enough to work on illustrations for one of the feature stories that focused on density and sprawl of cities and suburbs.
The idea we came up with was for one great big island that represents the big city, surrounded by smaller man made islands that everyone is now traveling from. Our thought was to show how we now isolate ourselves from each other, but still are connected to and yearn for the city lifestyle in some fashion or another. I also created closeup little landscapes of the suburbs, city and travel to top off each spread and to close it out a little sunset scene on the island city.
-Tim
Dieter Rams looks back on his career in this short documentary from publisher Gestalten. Released a while back in conjunction with the publication of Less is More, it’s a nice compliment to the immense Rams collection. Always a nice treat to refresh one’s self on Ram’s Ten Principles for Good Design (which Patrick posted about earlier in the year after a trip to SFMOMA).
Elsewhere, a quick related (though old-ish) read: Dieter Rams, Jonathan Ives and the evolution of Apple design.
- Maggie
Artist Austin Richards and copywriter Des Creedon have collaborated on a fun series of movie posters that reimagine popular films by taking out one letter from the title.
View more of their creations here.
- Steve
