How one designer created the “look” of Jazz
Blue Note captured the refined sophistication of jazz during the early 60s, giving it its signature look in the process. When asked to visualize what jazz looks like, you might picture bold typography, two tone photography, and minimal graphic design. If you did, you’re recalling the work of a jazz label that single-handedly defined the […]
The Incumbent Coroner
Whodunnit? Well, Paul Austin Ardoin dunnit. Again. That’s right, Paul’s killed again—he’s written another mystery novel, and I’ve designed the cover. For you ultra-professional designers like me, here’s the very formal, exhaustive creative brief: As with the first book, the title and author name must be very prominent. It needs to carry on the general look and […]
A Rich, Rich Friend Like You
This photoshop job was commissioned by a friend for an internal company event. The creative brief was essentially “put these five heads on five of these celebrities, ditch the sixth person.” And it’s a fast five hours of work over four days, compressed into just under four minutes. Designers, fastidious viewers, and anyone on a […]
Portfolio Reel
2018 Portfolio Reel from Ziad Ezzat on Vimeo. Video made in Adobe Premier by this guy right here. Music is Popcorn by Hot Butter (duh). Can you believe it’s almost 50 years old?! [Sassy_Social_Share]
The Reluctant Coroner
My longtime friend and colleague Paul Austin Ardoin recently released his first novel, a murder mystery called The Reluctant Coroner. Never mind all those tired old clichés—you can absolutely judge this book by its fantastic cover: (Psst. Yeah. I designed it.)
Less
He finds himself awakening at dawn, when the sea is brightening but the sun still struggles in its bedclothes, and sits down to lash his protagonist a few more times with his authorial whip. And somehow, a bittersweet longing starts to appear in the novel that was never there before. It changes, grows kinder. Less, […]
Slade House
Sometimes I envy the weeping parents of the definitely dead you see on TV. Grief is an amputation, but hope is incurable hemophilia: you bleed and bleed and bleed. —David Mitchell
Having Gone Largely Unnoticed In The ‘Game Of Thrones’ Series, It’s Now Impossible To Take Your Eyes Off It – Smatterist
The craftsmanship and attention to detail is astounding. Source: Having Gone Largely Unnoticed In The ‘Game Of Thrones’ Series, It’s Now Impossible To Take Your Eyes Off It – Smatterist
Little Fires Everywhere
Sometimes you need to scorch everything to the ground and start over. After the burning the soil is richer, and new things can grow. People are like that, too. They start over. They find a way. —Celeste Ng
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
My goodness, the hoi polloi do get about these days, and they eat and drink in public with very few inhibitions. —Gail Honeyman
Roy Moore for Senate 2017 Official Campaign Soundtrack
In honor of Moore’s senate race, I’ve curated a playlist that’s relevant to his interests.
The Alienist
We revel in men like Beecham, Moore—they are the easy repositories of all that is dark in our very social world. But the things that helped make Beecham what he was? Those, we tolerate. Those, we even enjoy… —Caleb Carr
The Muse
Life was a series of opportunities to survive, and in order to survive you had to lie, constantly—to each other, and to yourself. —Jessie Burton
Ode to Odo
He writes the songs that makes Bajor sing. pic.twitter.com/ovJnDUAGy4 — 💤🚶🏼💩👌 (@ziad4pope) April 7, 2017 First learn stand, then learn shapeshift. Nature rule, Odo-san, not mine. pic.twitter.com/Pdeyf838oQ — 💤🚶🏼💩👌 (@ziad4pope) April 8, 2017 Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to shapeshifting. pic.twitter.com/ofb9pJg7LL — 💤🚶🏼💩👌 (@ziad4pope) April 8, 2017 Shapeshifting is my […]
Days Without End
Just a moment of something that didn’t mean nothing. It gave me heart to see. Things that give you heart are rare enough, better note them in your head when you find them and not forget. —Sebastian Barry
The One-In-A-Million Boy
He said, softly enough that she might not catch it, “I was a rotten father.” Ona nodded, noncommittal. “There are worse things.” “Like what?” He really wanted to know. “Being an adequate mother.” She took a swig from her coffee mug. “Rotten fathers are a dime a dozen, who even notices? Whatever kind you were—and […]
Before the Fall
Life is a series of decisions and reactions. It is the things you do and the things that are done to you. And then it’s over. —Noah Hawley
News of the World
Maybe life is just carrying news. Surviving to carry the news. Maybe we have just one message, and it is delivered to us when we are born and we are never sure what it says; it may have nothing to do with us personally but it must be carried by hand through a life, all […]
The Summer That Melted Everything
Dad was telling every one of them to get out of our house. I’d never seen my father so angry. Years later, I would find myself dog-earing a page in a book about the ocean. On the page a painting of gray, wild waves. I have since torn that page out of the book and […]
A Gentleman in Moscow
Presumably, the bells of the Church of the Ascension had been reclaimed by the Bolsheviks for the manufacture of artillery, thus returning them to the realm from whence they came. Though for all the Count knew, the cannons that had been salvaged from Napoleon’s retreat to make the Ascension’s bells had been forged by the […]
