Michael C. Place of Build updates his always inspirational site with new work. Established in 2001, Build has forged an international reputation as a forward-thinking design studio with an exceptional eye for detail. Pictured above, a gatefold album design for the Los Angeles-based musician Flying Lotus. Photography by Timothy Saccenti and sculpture by Commonwealth.

The always inspiring Geoff McFetridge, an artist and designer based in Los Angeles, recently relaunched Champion Don’t Stop. Geoff was once the art director for the Beastie Boys’ Grand Royal Magazine and went on to launch Champion Graphics in Atwater Village where he has developed designs for posters, t-shirts, textiles, motion graphics, advertising and film production. Amongst his recent ventures; a wallpaper company called Pottok Prints and a skateboarding company by the name of The Solitary Arts. Geoff is also a member of The Directors Bureau.

A prolific designer, Geoff’s minimalism and playfulness is reminiscent of the of the work created at Push Pin Studios by Seymour Chwast and Milton Glaser. Clever concepts are communicated quickly through a refined graphic simplicity. Geoff probably puts it best when he explains his process as follows, “Invention must be countered by consistency, complexity with simplicity, decoration with purpose.”

Follow developments with his work though his blogs at Pottok Prints and The Solitary Arts.

Ronald Kurniawan graduated with honors from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Inspired by ideograms, syllables, letterforms, beasts and heroic landscapes, he slowly but surely continues to create a visual language where the wilderness and civilization could merge happily together. With the belief that the sublime and nuclear age could coexist, he paints romantic environments and breaks the quiet scene with juxtaposed imagery taking the shape of icons and letterforms. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles where he paints meticulously and happily accompanied by his pug Ruffles, an avid artist himself.

Last year Grain edit posted this article about a beautifully designed set of stamps from Israel. Google revealed that The Ministry of Type had a better image and bit more information. The series depicts the environmental concerns of air, water and noise pollution. The stamp above represents air pollution and depicts a butterfly visiting flowers. These were designed and created in 1975 by an Israeli artist and sculptor called Eliezer Weishoff.

Seattle-based Houston is the brainchild of Matt Clark. Part artist, part designer – both fashion and graphic, Matt’s work is always original and highly creative. I don’t know all that much about him aside from the fact that he produced the cover for Modest Mouse’s Good News For People Who Love Bad News and that at one point in time, his site sold clothing and other original works of art by himself and many others.

Create/Reject introduces Fifty Designers’ Current Favourite Typefaces. 100% of the cover price goes to UNICEF’s Myanmar (Burma) Cyclone Children’s Appeal in the wake of Cyclone Nargis that hit Myanmar on 2nd May 2008.

Contributors: 2×4, Adam Hayes, Alan Dye (NB: Studio), Alexandre Bettler, Angus Hyland (Pentagram), Antoine+Manuel, Ben Freeman, Ben Parker (MadeThought), Bibliothèque, Cartlidge Levene, Claire Warner (Browns), Domenic Lippa (Pentagram), Daniel Eatock, Daniel Lock (NB: Studio), eBoy, Eike König (HORT), Experimental Jetset, Farrow, Fernando Gutiérrez, Fuel, Hector Pottie (Third Eye Design), Henrik Kubel (A2/SW/HK), Hi-ReS!, Hyperkit, James Goggin (Practise), James Greenfield (BB/Saunders), Jeremy Leslie (John Brown), Jerome Rigaud (Electronest), Jessica Helfand (Winterhouse), Jon Dowling (SEA Design), Jon Forss (Non-Format), Julian Morey (abc-xyz), Lionel Hatch (The Chase), Matt Simpson (Stereo), Michael C. Place (Build), Michael Johnson (Johnson Banks), Mogollon, Nick Bell, Paula Scher (Pentagram), Paulus M. Dreibholz, Pixelgarten, Ralf Metzger (North), Simon Earith (YES), Spin, Stefan Sagmeister, The Designers Republic, Why Not Associates, Wim Crouwel, Zak Kyes, Zamir Antonio (Eat Sleep Work/Play)

Manystuff presents Reflet, an exhibition at Espace GHP in Toulouse, France that will be showing from June 20 to August 2, 2008. Manystuff likes to challenge contemporary designers by delivering a specific topic from them to develop their concepts around. For their first exhibition the theme will be “reflection of a landscape.” Participants include Le Club des Chevreuils, Yoann Dovier, Hey Ho, Jean Jullien, Benoit Lemoine, Damien Poulain, Superscript and Pierre Vanni.