On April 26 the Living section of Huffington Post carried the article, RONALD ALEXANDER, PH.D.: 6 Tools To Ignite Your Creativity And Passion. The article details how many of the greatest singers, dancers, painters, writers, and filmmakers recognize that the most original, and even transformative, ideas actually come from the core of our being, which is accessed through an “open-mind consciousness,” and prescribes six ways you can stimulate and tone your creativity. Theses six steps include, mindfulness meditation, dabbling in the arts, immersing yourself in nature, entering sacred space, seeking out creative stimulation and mindful movement. Couldn’t we all use a creative boost now + again?

Reading the recent posts about logo designs (and wow… Raymond Savignac‘s work is truly outstanding!), I started thinking about some other famous logo designers and their body of work. I have always been interested particularly in the work of Paul Rand, Saul Bass and Milton Glaser.  While researching the creative people behind some famous logos, I found interesting links to share from these three men…plus a book and links on a few others who have made their mark in design history. Enjoy!

Logo for ABC broadcasting, by Paul Rand

Savignac Life magazine ad

Last week I posted a blog entry about logo design in which I noted my favorite logo design to be the “BIC Boy.” In the post I wrote a bit about the history of this iconic logo, noting that the original BIC® Boy was created by well-known French graphic designer, Raymond Savignac. At the conclusion of the post I promised a posting dedicated to this graphic artist. If you are unfamiliar with Savignac’s work, I hope this posting will educate you to a historical figure in the history of graphic design and his contributions to the art form.

I was reading articles about logo trends: Mashable has a great one recently, and I was giving a lot of thought to what a logo for CreativeConsumption would look like? This got me thinking about the good and bad of logo design.

Logo design is undoubtedly one of most challenging aspects of graphic design. It may seem easy at first glance, but successful logos tend to have several characteristics in common. The features great logos share are:

• simplistic
• unique
• relevant
• memorable
• focused

Here’s a brief example of each of these characteristics with well-known brand examples to illustrate the point.

This is a quick reminder to our readers that we are accepting photos in our Cell Phone Photo Contest through Friday,  April 29 at 5 pm EST.  If you missed the original post you can check it out and contribute to the debate – Is a Great Pic Possible with Your iPhone?

To date we have received more than 20 fabulous photos and entries will be posted on Monday, May 2.

The 2011 Cell Phone Photo Challenge – Details

Digital Camera Magazine Photographer of the Year 2011

Digital Camera Magazine, one of the UK’s leading photography publications, is holding their annual photo contest in conjunction with the Royal Photographic Society. Last year was one of the strongest Photographer of the Year competitions to date, with thousands of images entered by photographers from all over the world. See the winning images for all categories and browse all the best of POTY 2010 photo galleries on PhotoRadar.

Photographer of the Year 2010 - Overall Winner, Jon Wright

Have you noticed the trapeze equipment in the lot across from the Kimmel Center?  Have you enjoyed a crepe under the Eiffel tower light show in the Kimmel Center plaza?  Now is the time to plan your schedule of events for PIFA (Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts) – so many great things to do and see!

The event that I’m most looking forward to attending, because I love outdoor street festivals and performances, is on the Avenue of the Arts as it is transformed into a Parisian street fair with French street vendors and performers, a grass park with a children’s area, musical entertainment all day long, and a giant Ferris Wheel.  All culminating with a breathtaking routine by La Compagnie Transe Express performing 100 feet in the air.