Do Androids Dream of Electric Love?

So, did you have a good St Valentine’s Day? We had some tiny colorful cake, it was pretty good but we’re all for conventional, they-may-even-be-sappy holiday celebrations. We get if it’s not your thing, though.

Anyway, our Valentine-related project this year was a poster for Experyment Science Centre. Like last year, they prepared an evening of activities for adults, explaining love phenomena in scientific terms. We decided to create a poster that would form a series with the last one so once again we started with a romantic lady, this time surrounded by particles. Then we followed the client’s suggestion (which was a very good one) to add an android that would refer to the theme of the lecture and so the whole illustration got a sort of retro sci-fi character, which we’re very happy with.

The Science of Attraction

We have a series of covers to show you but first come two thematic posts on the occasion of St. Valentine’s Day. This week’s poster is a design for Experyment Science Center, which, while normally mostly focused on activities for children, for Valentine’s prepared an evening for adults. We looked for a way to combine science and love in a not-overly-serious way that would also be consistent with the other posters for children’s events that we design.

Also, stay tuned for our next Saint Valentine’s Day post next week.

Love Is in the Paper

Our Christmas reindeer make a reappearance this week in time for Valentine’s Day to wish you the best day whether you’re sharing it with someone special, someone random or whether you’re just having a special date with yourself.

Fourteen Books to Love for February 14th

Here at re:design we heart many things – LEGO blocks, huskies, bacon, The Good Wife, Christmas Eve and I could really go on – but books are definitely in our top three. And now that Valentine’s Day is upon us again we profess our love for literature with a series of (literally) heart-centered covers.

Heart is a fun shape to work with and surprisingly versatile. Each cover uses the shape as the center of the composition around which a symbolic illustration and typography are arranged. The books range from pulp romances through venerable classics to postmodernist experiments but all feature some version of the eternal love theme.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, an ambitious and rather pervy, if read literally, take on love.

Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding, a decidedly unambitious take.

The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler (a more physiological interpretation of the theme).

Fatalistic view of love and life in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo.

Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz.

In Search of Lost Time or in love with the past, by Marcel Proust.

Cider House Rules by John Irving.

Ireland by Frank Delaney.

A Good Year by Peter Mayle.

Homer’s Daughter by Robert Graves.

Nana by Emile Zola, a socially critical anti-love story.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Another classic, The Gambler by Dostoyevsky.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, love in Japan.

Title page for Lolita, with the logo for the series.

Series of spines. For typography we chose a combination of Scala and Stag. We picked a limited color palette of reds and grays with some greens and yellows.

The logo of the series, consisting – predictably – of 14 hearts.

And we wish all of you a happy Valentine’s Day (either spent with your beloved person or with your beloved book).

Love©

Loved by those who are in love, dreaded by others, the Valentine’s Day is coming soon. On this occasion we are presenting a lovable identity designed by us some time ago. (Yes, we promised a different post, but it will come up next.)

The mark is a simple logotype (set in geometric, yet friendly Gotham Rounded) accompanied by a custom Copyright/Love symbol.

The city of Chełmno wanted to create an identity centered around St. Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated there quite intensely compared to other cities (though this sounds kinda kinky and that’s not how we meant it). Some may find our solution a little too literal, but it captured the aim of the city’s authorities. We’ve chosen hot pink to stand out a little from all the red hearts crowding the streets on February 14th. The mark can be accompanied by Chełmno’s tagline: The City of Lovers. The symbol allows for building ornaments.