MPLS Design: Werner Design Werks

Here's an amazing shop that does great design based in simplicity. What's not to love about their work. It is clean, simple and timeless. What really blows me away is their black and white logo work. The personality of each brand is there, tenderly in all of their line work, in the tasteful playfulness of their geometrics and space.


Werner Design Werks

Draplin Design

America Is F*cked.......(Graphically at least) from Jess Gibson on Vimeo.

Check out Draplin's site for amazing work and inspiring found design:

Typography - Don't settle for what is on your computer

Always take a look around for the right font that will help you get your message across with the right accent. This is especially true for non display fonts. There is some really timeless and tasteful variations on the old standbys, that can really put a nice finish to your work. Here are some of the places that I visit to discover just the right typeface for my projects.

Hoeffler & Frere-Jones
Sophisticated and classic.






Veer Type
A great curated selection of a broad range of styles


















House Industries
Display font masters

MPLS Design in Advertising - Mono / David Schwen

The better ad agencies out there hire and grow their designers. One way is by allowing them to move into the art director / creative director path. However, I feel the best ad agencies have a path that also allows designers to purely design, giving them chances to move up to senior designer to design director. A parallel and equally respected path. One of the best agencies for this in Minneapolis is Mono

David Schwen is the Design Director there and he's one heck of a designer who plays a lot with his design:

David Schwen - website
David Schwen - twitter
David Schwen - Threadless
David Schwen - Behance
David Schwen: linkedin

Visual Inspiration: Share Some Candy

Another great inspiration site. This one is featured around individual artists. It is really easy to filter using the categories listed across the top.

Share Some Candy