Some examples are below:

Prints available from www.shoottheglass.bigcartel.com.

Found from here.

It seems obviously targeted at people learning German as the whole book is in dual languages but the way they’ve done it is quite cool. Text will be written on the page in one language, and then there are semi-opaque overlays with the corresponding translation on top, so you can test yourself on it. For a freebie, its really nicely made, and I can’t believe that dual layer process is that cheap to do. It’s definitely something I’ll hang on to.

Ha! I thought with glee, I can post about how its an obvious image manipulation as the type has been mirrored! Woo I have content to post/moan about! So acting casually I rolled it up, got called over and had my specs adjusted, then strolled for the exit. On the way out, one of the assistants looked at me, then looked down at my hands where Gok Wan’s face was probably peeking off the rolled up front cover. I don’t quote know what kind of look she gave me but I think pity might have been involved. And was it worth it just to post this picture?

Probably not. After all it’s just a stock image (hello Istockphoto) that someone else reversed but it got me thinking about the people who had to design these every quarter. At first I couldn’t see how anyone could enjoy making this spectacle of spectacles – I couldn’t envision people jumping for joy at the prospect of designing another Specsavers magazine, something that sits in waiting rooms being ignored by practically everyone except bored design-heads. It’s not the kind of work you’d aspire to be creating and I can imagine boredom creeping in after adding yet another picture of four-eyed models.

But looking deeper you can’t really throw much criticism at it; sure its pretty middle of the road design-wise but apart from a few horrid stock images, its pleasantly designed with some nice attention to detail. At the end of the day, most designers make their living doing things like this, and I think whilst a lot of people might aspire to be one of the famed ’superstar’ designers but after leaving university, this kind of thing is an example of what 95% of real-world design is about.

As for myself, I kind of went through this realisation a few years ago when I started working professionally. At the end of the day it’s about earning a living, and you have to start somewhere. Reading about fantastic creations in design mags then having to spend a tedious amount of time designing tight-budgeted newsletters for overweight clothing stores was a bit disheartening, and you can get jaded about things and just stop caring. And that’s what I admire about the Specsavers magazine, at no point do you really see bits where they stopped caring and just started slapping things together.

Anyway, at least they didn’t put in a terrible 3D rendered iMac clone to show off their website. Oh wai