Minimalist Postcards Of Superheroes
Barcelona-based design studio Forma & Co has created a new set of colorful, minimalist postcards that feature well-known cultural icons like superheroes, Santa Clause and even Jesus Christ.
Illustrating each personality with simple lines, bold shades and signature emblems, the “Re-Vision” project is an “exercise in style and synthesis” according to its creators. See some of our favorite postcards from the series below and head over to the studio’s website for the entire collection.
Re-vision Postcards Club
These striking graphics have also been made into larger promotional posters. In some places, it is possible to send them for a lower fee than for a letter.
KISS © Form & Co
SPIDER-MAN / VENOM © Form & Co
Stamp collectors distinguish between postcards (which require a stamp) and postal cards (which have the postage pre-printed on them). While a postcard is usually printed by a private company, individual or organization, a postal card is issued by the relevant postal authority.
The study and collecting of postcards is termed deltiology. Illustrating each personality with simple lines, bold shades and signature emblems, the “Re-Vision” project is an “exercise in style and synthesis” according to its creators. These striking graphics have also been made into larger promotional posters.
A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
See some of our favorite postcards from the series below and head over to the studio’s website for the entire collection. Our inventions make it possible to explore the secret shape of our subject material, to coax it into saying more.
Content precedes design
Intuitiveness can be broken down into a sort of ladder, or a cake with three layers: legibility at the top, metaphor in the middle, and skills at the bottom. By way of example, the concept of scrolling (which we hardly give any thought to) relies on all of them:
- It has to be legible. Legibility is about having cues or signals that are unambiguous and recognizable.
- Metaphor is the framing concept. In the case of scrolling, either you think of a scroll (the papyrus kind!), where one end rolls up and the other end unrolls to reveal more text, or you think of a window in space that you pan around.
- Skills are the motor skills that you pick up. It’s the physical ability to click your mouse on up/down arrows, or to slide your finger across the scroll wheel.
For better or worse, we live in a world of media invention. Instead of reusing a stable of forms over and over, it’s not much harder for us to create new ones. Let’s buy this theme.
Images from this post are under Copyright of Forma & Co.
I keep wondering lately how long it is until “on-screen legibility in mind” is just “designed for legibility” because most design will be for screens first and print second.
I keep wondering lately how long it is until “on-screen legibility in mind” is just “designed for legibility” because most design will be for screens first and print second.
I agree with supporting type designers. I wish more of them let me serve their fish in my restaurant. This is changing for the better though.
I have found that simplifying terminology and dumbing things down for clients whilst judging their level of awareness works then educating them in the explaining each aspect in the correct terminology afterwards works well and helps it stick.
That’s pretty neat, Andrew! In my experience, though, nothing beats a real device in their hands. If nothing else, every client should have a smart phone in their pocket. Just make sure you’ve spent time with device testing before you go that route! 🙂
Thank you for a fantastic article! You just encapsulated a career’s worth of visual design knowledge in a single page. Love it!