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Material Design Awards

Last week’s Google I/O conference in San Francisco saw the launch of a new initiative by Google Design.

The Material Design Awards encourage and recognize excellence in applying material design in the creation of engaging user experiences, and are highlighted in a collection on the Google Play store. The six winners honored with the award represent best-in-class applications of specific aspects of material design.

Manual designed and produced a set of solid Corian awards, drawing from the material design visual language and color palette.

The winning awards went to New York Times, Tumblr, Pocket, Weather Timeline, Pocket Casts, and B&H Photo Video Pro Audio.

Read more about the awards here.

Letterform Archive talk: Color as Character

Last week we filled a room at Letterform Archive for Tom Crabtree’s salon talk, Color as Character.

Surrounded by a chromatic array of artifacts pulled from the Archive’s collection, Tom traced a path from early sources of inspiration to the identities we create today, with color as the main character throughout. Along the way: a rainbow sweater from childhood, fluorescent screen prints from college, and a kaleidoscopic mix of historical influences, including David Hockney, Eduardo Paolozzi, Piet Zwart, Otl Aicher, and Wim Crouwel.

The evening offered a personal look at Tom’s relationship with color, and the role it continues to play in shaping the way we design at Manual.

Thanks to everyone who came out, and to our friends and neighbors at Letterform Archive for hosting, especially Stephen and Angie.