designfeedr

As I peek out of my window I see everything is snowy white, exactly the right setting to get me in the mood for the next installment of the “lose the color!” series. We continue the series with the most obvious showcase - graphic design. I browsed high and low on the web to find you the most inspiring pieces of black-and-white design out there, and let me tell you, in a full-color world finding excellent black-and-white pieces is no easy chore!

Anyway enough said, let’s leave the talking to the black-and-white designs below! Enjoy and be inspired!

These pieces by Max Spencer are a good example of how a contemporary illustration style can become very clean and classy with the right constraints. The “Requiem” piece (first image) could have been an extremely commercial illustration if the color use was bright and eccentric. By using black-and-white however Max kept that sparkling clean feeling in the piece.

Josh Vanover is another designer that proves black-and-white is an exceptionally good medium for effective communication, no matter how edgy or contemporary the style might be. His work is also damn good on the eyes I must add.

I can’t tell you much about Aldous Massie since the availible information is rather scarce about him or her (yes I don’t even know that). For the No Answer flyers Aldous Massie combines strong illustrations, well placed typography and a splash of color in an effort to impress the viewer. Notice that the difference in the amount of black used between the top two and bottom two pieces leads to a very different “mood” in the work.

Vgraphics demonstrate some excellent and creative use of black-and-white in the works below. These pieces have a lovely organic look and feel which is a nice break from the hyper realistic computer art/design we see these days.

Esteban’s design and illustration pieces have that classic design vibe. Esteban achieves a ragged yet clean, non-digital look by putting crumpled paper textures, pencil effects and splatters to good use.

Barcelona based designer and illustrator Alex Trochut proves that pure black-and-white can be applied to corporate projects when the situation calls for it. His metallic logo and type designs are interesting in the sense that they feel and look like gold without using a single color.

Sophie Henson is a Londen based print designer with an impressive client list. In the pieces below she showcases some very non-digital looking designs, mostly because she chooses to work with hand drawn elements. The black-and-white in the images unifies the detailed elements and ensures the non-pretentious look Sophie seems to be after.

Joshua m Smith’s work below is really more illustration than actual design. The excellent use of black bases with white detailing should have any designer worth a buck inspired(certainly made check out the man’s full portfolio) so hopefully you’ll forgive my cheating in this case.